On Thursday, about 50 Methodist Church heads of divisions signed the solidarity movement for West Papua petition forms at Suva's Centenary Church in support of the call for the freedom of the natives of West Papua.

This petition drive headed by the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy would be handed to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama at the end of April.

"There is a united umbrella body now, the Fiji's Solidarity Movement for West Papua, and the church does not enter into anything lightly. We have been moving to this for a number of years now, this was back in 2013 when our relationship with West Papua started," church secretary for communications Reverend James Bhagwan said.

"It is not just lip service we are doing. We are committed to the West Papua issue and we kindly requested our church leaders to show their support to the issue.

"We took them through a presentation before they signed the petitions. We will hope to send it out to the divisions if possible and in issues like this, we make sure the church moves together and we do everything together."

Source: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=298134

Students urge Komnas HAM to form inquiry team on Paniai

Tabloid JUBI - March 11, 2015

Jayapura, Jubi – The Independent Student Forum (FIM) urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to immediately form an inquiry team to investigate the shooting dead of four high school students in Enarotali, Paniai, Papua on December 8, 2014.

"We thought the Commission has formed a KPP HAM. However, it turned out only the Investigation Team (TPF) is formed and has not worked optimally. Therefore, we urge Komnas HAM to immediately form a KPP HAM." FIM coordiator Melianus Duwitau said to Jubi in Abepura, Papua on Monday (09/03/2015).

He further stated the Commission seems to be afraid of conducting an investigation independently due to pressure from the authorities and security forces.

For example, the police issued a statement that it is difficult to find the witness and Paniai Dandim was replaced before Paniai case was handled until finished. "It is actually their game to cover up who the real perpetrator, "he added.

For that, it is expected that the Commission to immediately set up a KPP HAM as it is serious human rights violation. And if the Commission and the investigative team could not reveal who the culprit, then we declare that the state is killing Papuans.

Meanwhile, member of the FIM Dani Yogi is also stated the same thing. The Commission should immediately establish a KPP HAM and uncover who is responsible of the matter.

"We Papuans are not haunted animals. The state must show its willingness and ability to reveal it,"Yogi stated. (Arnold Belau/Tina)

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/en/?p=4010

Indonesia criticised by UN over Papua torture

Radio New Zealand International - March 10, 2015

The United Nations special rapporteur on torture has criticised the Indonesian government's breakup of demonstrations in West Papua last year, saying it breached international conventions on torture.

In a report tabled in Geneva overnight, the rapporteur, Juan Mendez, says two student demonstrators, Alfares Kapisa and Yali Wenda were arrested and tortured in Jayapura in April during the violent breakup of a protest.

Jakarta did not respond to communication from the office. The report says there is substance to the pair's allegations and the Government of Indonesia has failed to protect Mr Kapisa and Mr Wenda from torture and inhuman treatment.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/268251/indonesia-criticised-by-un-over-papua-torture

Indonesia lobbies MSG members as membership bid looms

Dateline Pacific - March 9, 2015

The West Papuan representative body applying for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group says it always expected Indonesia's government to increase efforts to counter the application.

Jakarta has been busy forging closer ties with independent Melanesian governments and Indonesia's Foreign Minister has just visited Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Retno Marsudi's visits came as MSG countries consider a membership bid by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.

Johnny Blades has more.

The Indonesian Foreign Minister's visit to PNG caused a minor stir when it was revealed that local journalists were barred from asking her questions about West Papua. But comments by PNG's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, urging Indonesia to support the West Papuan application to join the MSG, ensured the topic was not off the discussion agenda. PNG's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato has been at pains to point out that PNG respects Indonesia's sovereign hold of Papua region. But he says any bid by West Papuans to join the MSG should be endorsed by Indonesia.

Rimbink Pato: So it's not for us to force Indonesia on how to run their affairs. If there is an application, we want to ensure that it is representative of the Melanesian that they claim to represent. So we don't want a group that is factionalised fully supported by one group of Melanesians living in the US or somewhere in Europe or Australia and then cause more problems than fix.

In Solomon Islands, the Foreign Minister Milner Tozaka says he raised issues about West Papua with Retno Marsudi, relating to concerns expressed by MSG mandated positions.

Milner Tozaka: There was a collective agreement for us to raise the West Papuan issue bilaterally. But collectively, we have a collective stand on it that we support the self-determination of West Papua but have to look at in the light of the referendum that was signed in 1969.

Retno Marsudi's talks in Fiji with her counterpart Ratu Inoke Kubuabola resulted in a raft of outcomes, including closer co-operation, military training and Indonesia committing 20 million US dollars to a MSG capacity building programme.

The secretary-general of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua says Jakarta's lobbying should not dilute the case for West Papuan membership in the MSG. Octo Mote says Indonesia's approach is about buying out the leaders of independent Melanesian countries

Octo Mote: Being a Melanesian leader myself of West Papua, it's really embarrassing that the Indonesian way of doing the lobbying is bribing leaders that West Papua is facing. So I trust the Melanesian leaders. They know how to make a distinction between bilateral relations and into the human rights situation West Papua is facing.

Octo Mote says he is confident that MSG leaders will listen to the growing groundswell of support for West Papuan membership in the MSG within their countries and the region. MSG leaders are expected to decide on the application at their annual summit in Honiara in the middle of the year.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/20169948/indonesia-lobbies-msg-members-as-membership-bid-looms

Solomon Island support for West Papua

Radio New Zealand International - March 9, 2015

The Solomon Islands Foreign Minister says the Melanesian Spearhead Group as a collective supports the right of West Papuans to self-determination.

Milner Tozaka says he related this during his recent talks with Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in Honiara.

Ms Marsudi's recent visits to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji came as members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group consider a membership bid by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.

Mr Tozaka says the MSG agreed that member countries would raise West Papua issues bilaterally.

"We have a collective stand on it that we support the self-determination of West Papua. But we have to look at it in light of the referendum that was signed (by West Papuans to join Indonesia) in 1969."

Milner Tozaka says the United Liberation Movement's bid will have to be considered under the terms of the MSG membership criteria.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/268126/solomon-island-support-for-west-papua

Aceh

Aceh stays strong on shariah law despite criticism

Jakarta Globe - March 9, 2015

Katharina Lestari & Abby Seiff, Banda Aceh – On a recent Friday, three stragglers sat sipping the dregs of their coffee as the city of Banda Aceh closed up around them. The gates of the cafe, like those of shops up and down the street, had been drawn and the streets were clearing of cars. Soon, shariah policewomen would begin making their way around town, scolding any Muslim men they encountered shirking the weekly religious obligation.

The coffee drinkers, for their part, were not concerned. "It's fine, we have time, we're heading to the mosque soon," said Mirza Rizqan, with a laugh.

"We'd go anyway," chimed in his friend Sarjev. "For Acehnese men, if we don't go to the mosque, we feel very ashamed."

"It has nothing to do with [shariah police] pressure," Rizqan explained. "Acehnese people go to the mosque... People coming from other provinces don't understand Acehnese culture."

In Aceh, where 98 percent of the population is Muslim, Islam pervades most aspects of daily life. But as religion is increasingly standardized into law and regulation, policies meant to lend stability have instead produced new fissures in this post-conflict province.

"Why do we implement shariah law?" asked Alhudri, provincial chief of the Public Order Agency and the shariah police, not pausing for an answer. "To put life in order."

A message from god

Aceh's three-decade struggle for an independent nation came to an abrupt close 10 years ago in August, when leaders of the Free Aceh Movement – Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM – signed an agreement ending the conflict and paving the way for an autonomous region integrated into greater Indonesia.

Though negotiations were in fact years in the works, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Helsinki in August 2005 came less than eight months after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and both have since been inexorably linked.

"A message from God" is how many Acehnese describe the natural disaster. Inside the Tsunami Museum, a long walkway suspended over a man-made pond is called the Bridge of Peace because: "after the tsunami happened, Aceh finally got peace," as a tour guide put it.

Over the past decade, God, autonomy and Islamic law have become woven together so tightly that they form an official narrative.

"The economy, before the MoU, it was very, very bleak. And then politics, social [issues] – we had a big problem during the period of conflict," said Syahrizal Abbas, the head of Aceh's Islamic Shariah Agency.

"After the MoU, Aceh had the conflict problem and the tsunami problem. We wanted to have a strong character for good capacity building for Acehnese people... And now [we focus on] how to make a stable society for Acehnese people."

The answer, concluded the government, was a "soft-step" rolling out of shariah law.

Alcohol, gambling and adultery were outlawed and made punishable by the highly criticized use of caning. A religious police agency was established to dole out warnings and pass transgressors on to the relevant authorities. Shariah courts began to hear cases while policy-makers prepared increasingly thorough regulations.

The true success, however, has been in garnering public opinion.

"In Aceh, there are no people carrying banners in the streets to protest the implementation of shariah law. In fact, if we don't do anything, people will fight against us. If we keep silent, people will do something," pointed out the shariah police chief Alhudri. "We have the support of Acehnese society," echoed Abbas.

History revisited

Policing morality has indeed proved a major hit in Aceh. On the streets of the capital city Banda Aceh, shop-owners and students, men and women, young and old, tend to offer unmitigated support for shariah law. Criticisms involve hypocrisy and uneven application, but the law itself is lauded.

"It's good for shariah police to have roadblocks to control people. Acehnese people mostly wear Muslim dress but newcomers don't, so it's good to have," said Lale, a vendor selling souvenirs at the sprawling and empty Pasar Aceh market.

Covered from head to toe in spite of the searing heat, Lale admitted the government could stand to toughen up. "They're not so strict. They should be stricter. There should be more roadblocks and people who are stopped must be warned."

At a university cafe, numerous students concurred. Dressed in dark jeans, their hair slicked back with gel, boys chain-smoked while explaining the pros and cons of shariah. A trio of girls wearing long skirts and shirts emblazoned with designer logos smiled through braces as they offered unanimous support.

"It's better actually because Aceh is different than other provinces, so we should be covering our bodies," said Fia, 18, a blue headscarf draped neatly across her shoulders. "In the future maybe the laws will loosen up, but now there's many violators so we need it."

Her classmate, Mukti, said the main issue was the tendency of the police to persecute the "small" people.

"I agree with shariah law... but the implementation of shariah law here isn't correct. It's just like it's for the local people – but the government officials, the police, they don't follow it," he said.

Condemnation is rare, in part, because criticizing such a law can appear like criticizing the religion from which is stems. More crucially, however, is the collective whitewashing of historical memory that has occurred in the past decade.

"Local people tend to forget their history," said Haki, the only student to admit to opposing the law. "Aceh is based on Islamic teaching, but there were no regulations like now."

Known as the Terrace of Mecca, Aceh has long been celebrated for its role in channeling Islam into Southeast Asia. One of the first Islamic states in the region and a center of Islamic study, the sultanate of Atjeh Darussalam flourished from the 16th century on.

Its sultans and sultanahs (four women ruled in succession in the 1600s) protected and grew a prosperous and prominent nation feared by traders and colonists. When the Dutch at last made moves to annex the sultanate in the 1870s, they encountered unprecedented resistance. The Aceh War raged for a full 35 years, until the nation finally fell in 1904.

During the latter half of the 20th century, as the province struggled for independence from Indonesia, Aceh remained devout and proudly Muslim, but expressed little interest in top-down imposition of Islamic law. Even GAM, the principal freedom-fighting group and the source of much of Aceh's current government, was vocally uninterested in an "Islamic state."

"We encourage people to be good Muslims, but we don't think it's something for the state to decide," GAM spokesman Amni Ahmad Marzuki told the Christian Science Monitor in 2002. "We feel Jakarta is using shariah to distract people from the real issues here."

Moral arbiters

While Aceh might not have needed imposed Islamic regulations as a free state, shariah has proved a boon for a struggling autonomous state. For one, it has changed the conversation. Instead of discussing politics or corruption, infrastructure or economy, people speak about how their neighbors are dressed.

"The spirit was different than the ideal, which is to make people's lives more prosperous. In practice, however, what people chase after is about dress, and such symbols.... The implementation of shariah law doesn't change the economic situation, public service and public facilities," said a women's activist, who asked not to be named because of security concerns.

She pointed out that as a student in the 1980s and 1990s, she wore short skirts, played tennis in shorts and rarely wore a headscarf.

"The regulation changed [the situation] and then it was welcomed by society. If we ask Acehnese people, the answer would be yes, they support the implementation of shariah law."

When shariah was first implemented, no police existed. Instead, neighbors would band together to catch and punish those who they believed were behaving immorally. That unusual level of empowerment likely played no small role in popularizing shariah.

"In the beginning, it was society that conducted sweeps. There were cases in which the society cut some people's pants and hair. In traditional markets, for example, those not wearing headscarves were hit by stinky eggs," the activist recalled.

Today, the police remain heavily reliant on those local arbiters of moral behavior. Marzuki M. Ali, the chairman of the provincial shariah police, said the majority of cases come from civilian referrals.

"Mostly, the cases that we process are from reports filed by ordinary people. So the process is long. People arrest violators and bring them to us," he said.

The few people interviewed who said they disliked shariah law shared an extreme aversion to the element of public censure.

"When I'm with my girlfriend, we don't have bad thoughts but people look at us and think badly about us. It's uncomfortable," said Haki. "We don't feel comfortable [under shariah law], we feel limited."

Twenty-three-year-old Rahman, a receptionist in Banda Aceh, said societal pressure had grown so severe he was looking to move. "If I go to the park with a female friend, just sit and talk, people are [stopping us and] like: what are you doing?"

At its worst, such vigilantism has spilled into extreme violence. Last May, a woman was gang-raped by eight of her neighbors, including a 13-year-old boy, after they caught her alone with a married man.

The group, most of whom were subsequently arrested, beat up and restrained the man before raping and assaulting the woman. Only after the attack, which concluded with the pair being doused with sewage, did they hand them over to the religious police for punishment under the shariah system.

The man was given six lashes, while the woman – pregnant at the time of sentencing – is set to be caned after giving birth.

The gender gap

It is no secret that women have fared especially poorly under shariah law. Police data from 2014 shows that women have been written up at a rate more than twice that of men. Of 1,817 cases processed by the religious police, 1,236 of them involved female violators.

Indonesia's National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has repeatedly highlighted "discriminatory" aspects of Aceh's shariah law, though it has been to little effect and the situation appears to be worsening.

In a statement issued in November 2014, the group noted the growing number of Acehnese policies "that are discriminatory in the name of religion and morality." International and local rights groups have long argued that constraints on clothing, headdresses and the appropriate way to ride a motorbike are inherently discriminatory, but it is the less visible oppressions that are taking their toll.

In Aceh's universities, women swell the classrooms. They ride bikes, freely make their way around the cities, run shops and head businesses. This is hardly the cloistered and aggressive situation seen in restrictive shariah countries. And yet, conditions are increasingly corrosive.

Komnas Perempuan, for instance, last year "recorded 365 discriminatory policies, an increase of more than three-fold since these results were officially submitted to the national authorities in 2009, which at that time stood at 154 policies."

In a place where women once ruled a sultanate and launched resistance movements, they have been reduced to victims in need of protection.

"It serves as prevention. We must admit that rapes and other crimes are happening now. These are the impacts. So our main purpose is to protect them [women]," explained Badruzzaman Ismail, the head of the Aada Aceh Council and one of the original writers of the law.

That attitude is widespread among the general population. "Women are the weakest product," explained Eban Ibnu Khairan, a gem-trader and part-time imam, when asked about the reasoning behind restrictive rules aimed at women.

Come election time, that feeling has been borne out. In 2010, an Acehnese district council chairman made headlines after calling for the replacement of a female sub-district head on the grounds that under shariah, "a woman is prohibited from becoming a leader." Today, just 10 out of 69 members of parliament are women.

Outside the public eye, the strict laws have led to a concerning amount of violence against women, particularly domestic violence, according to campaigners.

The last large-scale study, which took place in 2013 and was carried out by the 231 Monitoring Network coalition of NGOs, found that nearly three- fourths of violence against women cases were domestic.

"If we see the situation of women, there are regulations controlling their bodies and morality. Women are still subjects," Roslina Rasyid, director of the Banda Aceh legal aid organization LBH APIK, told ucanews.com.

"I can't predict whether the situation of women in Aceh will be worse or better in the future. There's an unstable wave – ups and downs."

A controversial future

For all of the current issues, however, the real test will come later this year, when Aceh is set to impose its wide-ranging Islamic Criminal Code.

The legislation, called Qanun Jinayat, is expected to go into effect in September – one year after its passage by the Aceh legislative council.

Much attention has been focused on the fact that Qanun Jinayat is the first by-law to stipulate shariah punishment for non-Muslims. Though officials said they had zero interest in pursuing non-Muslims not wearing headscarves, for instance, under the law they would be legally obliged to do so.

Tens of thousands of non-Muslim Acehnese as well as visitors will face the same proscripts on daily moral life as their Muslim neighbors. Violators, regardless of their faith, can be expected to face prosecution within a shariah court and the shariah punishment of caning.

The law has also come under fire for its criminalization of homosexuality, which can be punished with caning and steep fines.

Abbas of the shariah agency insisted that the ban was not overly harsh, noting that: "a man and a man are allowed to stay in one house. There is no rule banning them from having meals together, to work together, to live together... even sleeping in one bed is okay."

But unsurprisingly, the qanun, which bans sodomy and lesbian sex, is drawing fierce criticism. Human rights organizations have criticized the provision, which has sent gay men and women in this already discriminatory society even further underground.

Scarcely focused on, however, is a crucial element in the by-law giving the shariah courts oversight for several felony offenses. "Qanun Hukum Jinayat has alternative punishments. It depends on the judges. The alternative punishments are jail, a fine and caning," said Abbas. "[The law] has articles for rape.... For a rape case, the punishment is about 100 lashes."

That punishment (a minimum of 125 and maximum of 175) puts it on par with the punishment for homosexual relations (up to 100 lashes) or sex outside of marriage (up to 100 lashes). And by moving rape from a criminal court to a shariah court, the law risks silencing rape victims.

"The Islamic oath provision allows rape suspects who declare their innocence up to five times to be eligible for automatic dismissal of charges should the court determine an absence of incriminating 'other evidence,'" noted New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a statement released in October.

If the victim fails to produce four witnesses, she, in turn, could be charged with making false allegations and be punished with 80 lashes.

In its annual report released last week, Amnesty International highlighted the provision, saying: "there were concerns that the definition and evidentiary procedures related to the offense of rape and sexual abuse in the by-law did not meet international human rights standards."

"Qanun Jinayat would make a rape victim tight-lipped about the rape," warned Aceh activist Samsider, in an opinion piece published in the Jakarta Globe.

Inside Banda Aceh's shariah police station, officers milled about joking with each other as they made their way around the dilapidated building. In the courtyard, worn green trucks flanked a small mosque.

"I used to dress like you," a shariah policewoman said, offering a warm smile before launching into a rapid conversation peppered with flawless English terms.

"When I was in college, I dressed just like the girls living in Jakarta... When I took the bus to school, we would be stopped at roadblocks and I'd be asked why I didn't wear a headscarf."

These days, the officer – who asked not to be named because she's not permitted to speak to the media – goes around in a long olive tunic and pants. A matching headscarf drapes modestly across her chest. She mans checkpoints in this outfit, stopping teenage couples and bareheaded women, looking out for men avoiding Friday prayers.

Over the years, her faith has deepened and her understanding of Islam has broadened. The clothes, she pointed out, "don't stop you from being yourself".

"When we stop people, we just advise them how to dress properly... by wearing proper dress, there's a hope they can be more confident of Islam in their heart." Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/aceh-stays-strong-on-shariah-law-as-rights-groups-criticize/

Human rights & justice

Women's rights chief: Never forget May '98

Jakarta Globe - March 15, 2015

Ari Susanto, Yogyakarta/Solo – The national commission for women's protection has called on the government to acknowledge as a national tragedy the mass rape of ethnic Chinese women during the May 1998 riots that preceded the downfall of the late strongman Suharto.

"The victims and families just need the government's affirmation that rape and violence against women on a massive scale occurred 17 years ago, and that most of the victims never got justice," Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, the chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, told the Jakarta Globe in Yogyakarta over the weekend.

"Let the people today know and recognize it. Never conceal or forget, as we need to learn from the past."

Yuniyanti said she supported Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama's plan to build a memorial in the Pondok Rangon cemetery, as well as a move by Mayor F.X. Hadi Rudyatmo of Solo, Central Java, to conserve Purwoloyo cemetery.

Both sites are the final resting places of victims of the outbreak of violence that tore mainly through Jakarta, Solo and Medan, North Sumatra, in early and mid-May 1998 and that targeted primarily Indonesia's ethnic Chinese community.

The rights commissioner said she was worried that this dark chapter in the country's part would eventually be glossed over as part of the price that had to be paid to force Suharto from power, and not as a series of serious human rights violations that warranted its own investigation.

A fact-finding team set up by the government later recorded at least 85 instances of sexual violence targeting ethnic Chinese women during the episode, although independent observers have put the true figure at closer to 500.

The mobs responsible also looted and torched ethnic-Chinese-owned businesses and homes. Thousands of Chinese-Indonesians fled the country in the wake of the violence, and while many returned, it was to a life that was markedly subdued than before.

Sumartono Hadinoto, a prominent Solo resident and community organizer whose businesses were targeted in the rioting, said that he and other families preferred to forget the tragedy, but acknowledged the need to recognize what happened.

"I and most of the other victims wish we could erase our memory of the tragedy. Remembering the rape and violence will mire the families in misery and despair, and won't give them back their previous lives," he said.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/rights-chief-never-forget-may-98/

Dutch state ordered to compensate 'children of Sulawesi'

Jakarta Globe - March 12, 2015

Bastiaan Scherpen, Jakarta – The Dutch state has to compensate not only widows, but also the children of men murdered during a bloody crackdown on Indonesians resisting colonial rule in South Sulawesi in the years 1946-49, a court in the Netherlands ruled on Wednesday.

Widows and children of men who were summarily executed in that period have a right to compensatory damages, as the soldiers carrying out the killings were operating on behalf of the Dutch state, the court in The Hague ruled.

A previous ruling, which led to a settlement that included the payment of 20,000 euros ($21,150) to select widows by the Dutch state and the issuance of a formal apology, did not apply to the children of executed men. The latest ruling mentions that just like in the case of the widows, the statute of limitations does not apply in the case of the sons and daughters of those put to death.

The ruling, announced in a statement in Dutch posted on the official website of the Dutch judiciary, did not state how many people would be compensated, nor was an amount mentioned. Both would have to be established after further investigation, the court said.

'Westerling method'

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

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

Estimates vary widely, but historians have put the death toll as a direct result of the actions by Westerling's unit in South Sulawesi at around 1,500, with regular military units being responsible for many other killings in the region.

The Indonesian government at the time put the number of victims in Sulawesi at 40,000.

Official apology

In 2013, the Dutch ambassador to Indonesia at the time, Tjeerd de Zwaan, issued a formal apology for the killings.

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

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

In Rawagede in December 1947, hundreds of boys and men were killed by Dutch troops who were trying to locate an Indonesian fighter presumed to be hiding in the village. Relatives of Rawagede victims received compensation in 2011.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/dutch-state-ordered-compensate-children-sulawesi/

Police hunt UIN student for screening 'Senyap'

Jakarta Post - March 12, 2015

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The Sleman Police are hunting a student in Yogyakarta alleged to be behind the Wednesday's screening of Joshua Oppenheimer's Senyap (The Look of Silence) documentary at the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN).

The student, Ahmad Haedar, who is also chairman of the school's Rhetor student press institute, was reportedly told by the university and the police not to screen the film and he also received a threat from the so- called Yogyakarta Muslim Forum.

"We will reveal the reason later, after we finish our work," head of Sleman police's detective and crime unit Adj. Comr. Danang Bagus Anggoro told The Jakarta Post while leading his men to arrest Haedar at the UIN campus on Wednesday.

Yet, after the screening, the police failed to arrest Haedar, as his friends rescued him. The students rejected the police's request to question the screening's organizing committee at the Sleman Police's headquarters.

"The police wanted me to give a statement so as to prevent the Yogyakarta Muslim Forum from committing violence," Haedar said before disappearing from the screening venue.

A day before, a broadcast text from a group claiming to be Yogyakarta Muslim Forum was spread in social media, calling Muslim organizations to protest the planned screening of the documentary they deemed as communist propaganda and aimed at misconstruing Indonesian history.

On Wednesday, the group also met UIN Sunan Kalijaga rector Akhmad Minhaji, demanding that he ban the screening using the same reasons as issued by the Film Censorship Institute (LSF).

The same morning, dean of UIN's school of preaching and communication, Sriharini, issued a statement banning the screening of the film at the university's Student Center building.

Haedar, however, insisted on continuing with the planned screening of the documentary that showed how survivors of the 1965 communist purge learned about the killings and the perpetrators, arguing that it was part of citizens' constitutional rights and academic freedom.

He reportedly also tore up the dean's letter that said the screening was banned.

Unable to ban the screening, rector Akhmad Minhaji came to the venue and told hundreds of students that the university would allow them to have a discussion on the film but not a screening of it.

"I am not banning the film. There is a government regulation, the LSF's ban. I don't want to be a rector that breaks the government's regulation," Minhaji said.

Separately, Muhammad Fuad of the Yogyakarta Muslim Forum said that he and hundreds of others did come to UIN to block the screening but they left after being assured by the rector and the police the film would not be screened.

The Yogyakarta Muslim Forum has also dispersed screenings of Senyap in Yogyakarta since December 2014, including ones at Gadjah Mada University, the Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI) Yogyakarta and other community centers.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/12/police-hunt-uin-student-screening-senyap.html

Muslim hard-liners fail to halt 'Senyap' screening in Yogya

Jakarta Globe - March 11, 2015

Ari Susanto, Yogyakarta – Islamic radical groups in Yogyakarta attempted to storm a screening of Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary film "Senyap" ("The Look of Silence") at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN) on Wednesday.

The film, which tells the story of Indonesia's 1965-66 anti-communist purge from the perspective of a family member of one of the victims of the state-sponsored killings, has caused concern in some corners that the film promotes communism – which it does not.

A mob of about a hundred of people calling themselves the Yogyakarta Islamic People's Forum (FUI) and the Indonesian Anti-Communist Forum (FAKI) appeared in front of the campus after warning of their plans by SMS the previous day. However, the protesters were unable to enter the campus; security guards shut the gate at 9 a.m., an hour before the screening was to begin.

The film screening and discussion went on successfully, with students who were prepared to fight the mob blocking the campus gate to prevent a breach.

The mob outside insisted the rector disband the event, saying they believe the film aims to revive communism in Indonesia – which it does not – and revise history as they understand it – which in fact the film does, and admirably so, critics say.

Despite the screening's support from Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the radical group argued, incorrectly, that "Senyap" was forbidden from public screening by the Film Censorship Board (LSF).

"We reject any film with communist propaganda," FAKI coordinator Burhanuddin said. "It must be terminated."

The university's rector, Ahmad Minhaji attempted shuttle diplomacy between the mobs of protesters and students, and endeavored to persuade the organizers to resume the discussion without screening the film. They did not – and pressed "play" instead.

Minhaji then met with protesters outside, whom he told that those inside were young students who only wanted to learn about and discuss history – and that the mob should not overreact with such fury.

The event's coordinator, Ahmad Haidar, said "Senyap" screenings would continue despite threats of vigilante raids by hard-line groups. "We are ready for the risk," Haidar said. "We will not concede as it is our right to fight for our academic freedom," he added.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/islamic-hard-liners-fail-halt-senyap-screening-yogya/

A sign of change as Indonesian soldiers watch 'The Look of Silence'

Jakarta Globe - March 8, 2015

Jakarta – Legislators, historians and human rights activists have hailed a local military commander's move to have his soldiers in Semarang, Central Java, watch "The Look of Silence" by award-winning American director Joshua Oppenheimer – a documentary on the state's purge of suspected communist sympathizers that left up to 500,000 people dead.

Maman Imanulhaq, a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said the willingness of Semarang military commander to require his men to watch the movie marked "good progress" toward creating professional soldiers with a healthy respect for human rights.

"I'm sure that some of them will not agree with the movie, but by watching it we can see that they want to try to understand," he said. "Hopefully, if they don't agree then they can make another movie challenging it, not use violence or ban it."

He expressed hope that the fact that military officers had embraced rather than shunned the documentary was an indication that there might be a willingness by the authorities to look into the widespread abuses committed by the military and state-sponsored militias during the purge that ran from 1965 to 1966.

The official narrative is that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) sparked the whole incident by attempting a coup to take down then-president Sukarno. That story, though, has long been debunked by independent historians and rights activists as a cover for the military, led by Gen. Suharto, to stage its own ouster of Sukarno.

The military's killing spree resulted in the deaths or disappearances of up to half a million people suspected of being members of the PKI – at the time the biggest communist party in the world after those in China and the USSR – or communist sympathizers.

Tunggal Pawestri, a right activist, welcomed the screening of "Senyap," which looks back at the tragedy through the eyes of a relative of one of the victims, saying that could serve as a "gateway to discussion and reconciliation efforts" between the military and those it killed.

Oppenheimer, the documentary's Oscar-nominated director, said he felt odd seeing photos of hundreds of soldiers in full uniform as if they wanted to go to war sit in front of a screen that was showing his film.

He said in a statement that the scene was surreal for him, but at the same time provided a ray of hope. He said he hoped that the well-recorded military involvement in canceling and banning the movie would not happen again.

Instead, he said, in the future the military should be actively involved in discussions and help answer questions during community events.

On the reconciliation process in Indonesia, he said that a solitary event of soldiers watching the documentary was not all that significant, considering the central government's policy on human rights.

After half a century of impunity, Oppenheimer said he would not rush to conclude that reconciliation, a revelation of the truth, justice and rehabilitation for victims would take place just because of one screening attended by soldiers.

Bonnie Triyana, a historian, also doubted if making soldiers view the documentary would change the government's approach to the massacre. "This is good news. However, it's too early to say whether it will affect the state's policy on the 1965 killings," he said.

Hundreds of soldiers in Semarang, attended the screening of "Look of Silence" on Feb. 26 in the headquarters of the district military command and ordered by the commander, Lt. Col. Taufik Zega.

"The screening was aimed at clarifying the intention of the documentary production, in order to avoid misunderstandings," Central Java's Diponegoro Military Command said on its website, although it stopped short of explaining what misunderstandings.

"The screening was part of efforts to examine facts about what actually happened in 1965, because many people have conflicting opinions in regards to what happened," it added.

By watching the movie, soldiers were expected to be able to explain to the public the content of the movie and its connections with the Indonesian Military (TNI), when confronted about the issue, the site said.

"The Look of Silence," which first screened last year, is a follow-up to Oppenheimer's Oscar-nominated documentary "The Act of Killing," released two years earlier.

While "The Act of Killing" explores the anti-communist pogrom by getting the perpetrators to re-enact their crimes, "Look of Silence" looks at the massacre through the eyes of its victims.

In 1965, Ramli was murdered as a teenager for his alleged support of the PKI. The film crew follows his brother, Adi Rukun, born 1968, as he meets and confronts Ramli's murderers and their families.

When "The Act of Killing" was released in 2012, it was screened in secret in Indonesia, for fear of government retaliation. "The Look of Silence," though, premiered with a public viewing in Jakarta on Nov. 10 – National Heroes Day – last year.

Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has reaffirmed its support for the screening of the film throughout Indonesia, stating that it was a part of human rights education and national reconciliation.

Nevertheless, the movie has been met with rejection from some groups, such as the hard-line Islamic People's Forum (FUI), whose members stormed the campus of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in December while a student organization was screening the film.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/a-sign-of-change-as-soldiers-watch-film/

Iwd 2015

IWD action calls for end to violence against migrant workers

Tribune News - March 8, 2015

Jakarta – International Women's Day (IWD) was commemorated by various different elements of society who held a demonstration in the vicinity of the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Sunday March 8.

During the action, the different elements that made up the International Women's Day United Struggle Committee (KPP IWD) demanded equality and welfare for women, particularly migrant workers.

The hundreds of KPP IWD supporters came from a several different mass organisations including the National Labour Movement Centre (SGBN), the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), Free Women (Perempuan Mahardika), the Jakarta Transportation Front (Frontjak) and the Indonesian Migrant Workers Trade Union (SBMI).

In speeches the KPP IWD called on the government to end acts of discrimination and violence against women workers. Joining the action was a migrant worker named Nuraini who was paralyzed after being tortured by her employer in Kuwait.

After holding the action at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, the protesters moved off to the nearby State Palace at around 11.30am.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Demonstrasi Warnai Peringatan Hari Perempuan Internasional".]

Source: http://www.tribunnews.com/nasional/2015/03/08/demonstrasi-warnai-peringatan-hari-perempuan-internasional

Women workers in Jakarta call for equal pay, reject free market

Okezone.com - March 8, 2015

Jakarta – Commemorating International Women's Day (IWD), scores of workers from the International Women's Day United Struggle Committee (KPPIWD) held a protest action at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Sunday March 8.

The women's workers were demanding rights and welfare for women workers. They also affirmed their firm opposition to the agenda of liberalisation or free market that is being packaged under the agenda of the ASIAN Economic Community (AEC).

"The AEC agenda will hurt Indonesia greatly, particularly workers", said one of the workers Qori in a speech.

The protesters, who had gathered in front of Hotel Indonesia, plan to continue conveying their demands at the State Palace. After this, they will head off to the action at the Constitutional Court, which is located not far from the Palace.

In addition to this, the workers also called on the administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to abolish contract labour systems and outsourcing and to given equal wages to women workers. (raw)

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Harapan Buruh Wanita pada International Women's Day".]

Source: http://news.okezone.com/read/2015/03/08/337/1115343/harapan-buruh-wanita-pada-international-women-s-day

Yogya students call on government to end discrimination against women

Tribune Yogya - March 8, 2015

Hamim Thohari, Yogya – In commemorating International Women's Day (IWD), students from the Student Alliance for Women held a peaceful action at the Jl. Malioboro shopping district in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on Sunday March 8.

The protesters said that in the midst of the era of reformasi [the reform movement that began in 1998] and openness, the fate of women has not automatically improved. Action coordinator Marsinah Dede said that the oppression of women of late has in fact increased.

"Discrimination, sexual violence, commodification of women's bodies and sexual control in legislation along with government policies are increasingly attacking women", said Dede during a break in the action.

Furthermore she said, there are several regulations that discriminate against women, including among others the marriage law which has not been revised since 1974, the anti-pornography law and the healthcare law, along with 282 regional bylaws that discriminate against women in various forms.

The protesters also questioned legal and government bias in cases of sexual violence. The continuing increase in cases of sexual violence against women, which have tended to become more sadistic, according to Dede, shows the government's helplessness in overcoming the issue.

The peaceful action, which began at the Abu Bakar Ali parking area north of Malioboro and ended at the zero kilometre point in front of the central post office, also stopped at the Yogyakarta Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) building where the protesters gave speeches. (tribunjogja.com)

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Mahasiswa Minta Pemerintah Hapus Dikriminasi Perempuan".]

Source: http://jogja.tribunnews.com/2015/03/08/mahasiswa-minta-pemerintah-hapus-dikriminasi-perempuan

Activists in Yogya say women still treated as second-class citizens

Tribune Yogya - March 8, 2015

Khaerur Reza, Yogya – Because of the great many government policies that fail to side with women, women are still treated second-class citizens and only identified by the kitchen, the bed and washing.

This view was conveyed by an activist from the Commission for the Defense of Women (KPP) during a break in an action commemorating International Women's Day (IWD) at the zero kilometre point in front of the central post office in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on Sunday March 8.

The activist said that although affirmative action policies have been implemented such as a 30 percent quota for women legislative candidates, these regulations have not however produced many policies that side with women.

"The fight for decent wages for women, children's rights, the right to leave and others are never fought for by the elite", she said.

Because of this therefore, in commemorating IWD the KPP is making eight demands. Namely, the provision of decent wages for women workers, menstruation and maternity leave for women workers and access to decent education for women.

The group also rejects virginity tests, opposes all forms of violence against women, is calling for the abolition of discrimination against transgender people, freedom of sexual orientation and equality for women in economic and political affairs.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "KPP Serukan Delapan Tuntutan Terkait Diskriminasi Perempuan".]

Source: http://jogja.tribunnews.com/2015/03/08/kpp-serukan-delapan-tuntutan-terkait-diskriminasi-perempuan

Political parties & elections

Golkar to purge members of opposition camp

Jakarta Post - March 14, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – A major change is expected to transpire at the House of Representatives as the Golkar Party, the second-largest faction in the legislative body, is expected to replace at least 50 percent of its faction members with politicians deemed supportive of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration.

The plan was designed shortly after Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly's decision to officially recognize the leadership of the pro- government Agung Laksono, which has drawn fierce opposition from Aburizal Bakrie's camp and others in the opposition Red-and-White Coalition.

"In our current plan, only 50 percent of faction members and other leading positions would remain," Golkar deputy chairman Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, a member of Agung's camp, said on Friday. Golkar currently has 91 of its politicians serving as lawmakers.

Agus said that Agung's leadership had decided who would stay and who would go based on the faction members' competence. "We will keep the brightest minds in the current House composition," Agus said.

Agus also denied speculation that Agung's camp was trying to remove all of Aburizal's supporters from the House.

Agung also said that he preferred the term "reshuffle", rather than "termination". "I think a minor reshuffle is normal, but we don't fire people. We have to respect our members," he said.

It is almost certain, however, that some politicians will be expelled from the House. The Golkar politicians include current faction leader Ade Komarudin and party treasurer of the Aburizal camp Bambang Soesatyo, who is also known as a staunch supporter of Aburizal.

On Friday, Ade and Bambang spoke in a press conference with the presence of other faction leaders from political parties in the coalition.

Members of the camp expressed their plan to summons Yasonna over his decision to recognize the leadership of Agung as well as the leadership of Muhammad Romahurmuziy of the United Development Party (PPP).

"We believe Yasonna's actions were against the law," Ade said at the House compound in Senayan, Central Jakarta.

Ade also said that the President could support their action against Yasonna. "Our move serves as a warning to the minister, who disrespects the law. This warning will be approved by the President," said Ade.

Bambang, meanwhile, said he believed Yasonna made the decisions without Jokowi's approval. "According to the information that we received, the President was not aware of Yasonna's actions," he said. "I smelled something fishy from his decisions."

Agung countered that both Ade and Bambang no longer represented Golkar. "Based on our plan, both of them are no longer faction leaders. So their statements are purely personal and we have voiced our stance that we reject the coalition's plan to summons Yasonna," he said.

Agung said that Ade appeared to have not been aware of his decision to dismiss him. He also said that both Ade and Bambang would also be punished for their decision to take action against Yasonna.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Agung's camp, Leo Nababan, said that in the event that Ade and Bambang remained in the House, House speaker Setya Novanto, who is a known loyalist of Aburizal, would likely be sacrificed.

"We will see whether Pak Novanto carries out his duty [to remove Ade and Bambang]," he said on Friday. "If he does that, then he is safe. If not, then we will replace him. It's easy."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/14/golkar-purge-members-opposition-camp.html

Indonesia's grand old party may lose stronghold

Jakarta Globe - March 14, 2015

Yustinus Paat, Jakarta – With no apparent resolution in sight, the prolonged rifts plaguing two major political parties could cause them to miss this year's regional elections, activists warned on Friday.

The United Development Party (PPP) and the Golkar Party have been split with rivaling claims over their chairmanships.

Golkar, the second-biggest party in the House of Representatives, is now divided into two camps, those supporting the chairmanship of former minister Agung Laksono and those loyal to the incumbent chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, another former minister.

Meanwhile the PPP's chairmanship is contested between former minister Djan Faridz and the party's former secretary Muhammad Romahurmuziy.

Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Abdullah Dahlan said the ongoing rifts have had a huge impact on the two parties' future. "Particularly with the upcoming regional elections," he said. "It has implications on the parties at a local level."

Gubernatorial, district head and mayoral candidates need the written consent of their respective parties' national leadership board before they can register their bids to the local elections committee. But with camps inside Golkar and the PPP yet to be legally recognized by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, candidates from both parties might have to sit out this regional elections until their disputes are resolved.

"It all comes down to the ability for political elites [at the parties' national level] to compromise," another ICW researcher Donal Fariz said.

But this is unlikely to happen with political elites seemingly reluctant to abandon their leadership aspirations. Golkar may be the party to most suffer from its recent spat. The party has huge backing at the regional level and many incumbent governors, district heads and mayors are Golkar members.

The Ministry of Home Affairs previously said that there are 204 governors, district heads and mayors across the country whose terms end this year. The ministry scheduled elections in these areas to be held simultaneously.

According to the General Elections Commission (KPU), candidates must register their bids by July with the elections will be held in December.

Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly said on Friday that the upcoming election is one of the reasons his office was quick to recognize Romahurmuziy's claim to the PPP chairmanship. But the State Administrative Court overturned this decision based on a challenge lodged by Djan's camp.

Yasonna is also planning to recognize Agung's claim over Golkar's chairmanship, a move that could draw a similar suit by Aburizal's supporters.

"I think it is better for [Golkar] to stop fighting because there will be problems later during the regional elections," the minister said. "Just create a truce [temporarily] and then settle [the dispute] later in 2016 to determine who the real chairman is."

Aburizal's Golkar had earlier asked the KPU to accept consent letters signed by himself, saying as the incumbent, his leadership was still technically recognized by the government until his definitive successor was named.

Meanwhile Romahurmuziy's PPP said the KPU should accept consent letters signed by him, saying that despite the court ruling his chairmanship is still technically recognized by the government. However KPU chairman Hadar Nafis Gumay said these are one-sided arguments.

"These are their own claims. We will ask the Justice Ministry to decide which camps are officially recognized. Not just for Golkar and PPP, but all 12 political parties," he said on Tuesday.

The splits, particularly inside Golkar, spelled good news for the Democratic Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) both with equally large strongholds on the regional level.

Democratic Party politician Nur Hidayat said on Wednesday that in light of the ongoing disputes, his party has boosted its target. "We aim big this election," he said. "If possible we can win in all provinces, districts and cities."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/indonesias-grand-old-party-may-lose-stronghold/

Limit set for campaign funds in local elections

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – In a bid to curb extravagant political campaigns, the General Elections Commission (KPU) is set to put a cap on campaign spending for candidates and political parties contesting regional elections.

The election body has finished drafting a new regulation with a formula to mandate budget ceilings, which will differ for each region, as mandated by the 2015 Regional Elections (Pilkada) Law.

"The goal is to reduce costs. Our democracy has long been perceived as being too costly. Hopefully with these budget ceilings, we will no longer see extravagant campaigns," KPU legal bureau head Nur Syarifah told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Syarifah said that the regional election organizers (KPUD) would be responsible for coming up with numbers while the KPU would only provide the formula.

KPU commissioner Ida Budhiati said figures for the budget ceiling would come from dividing the number of eligible voters in one region with the number of regencies or municipalities in it. The figure will then be multiplied by the average cost for holding a full-day meeting per person in the region.

With the new regulation, the KPU will also limit donations from individuals and organizations. Private donors will be limited to donating no more than Rp 50 million (US$3,790) while organizations or institutions can only contribute up to Rp 500 million.

Syarifah said that the cap would not cause a problem as some funding would be derived from local government budgets (APBD).

The local governments are expected to pay for public debates to be aired on local television or radio stations, election paraphernalia and print media commercials.

"For commercials on television, we will provide 10 spots, each will last 30 seconds, per day, while commercials on the radio can last up to 60 seconds," KPU commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said on Thursday.

Mass-media campaigns will be permitted to start two weeks leading up to the cooling-off period.

As for other types of outdoor campaigning, such as vote canvassing by candidates, they will be funded entirely by candidates themselves, although they could receive financial aid from individuals, organizations and political parties.

Commenting on the budget ceiling, Hanura Party politician Miryam S. Haryani said that her party had no reservations regarding the new rule.

"We see no problems. It is actually great as it could push candidates to rely more on direct vote canvassing so that voters can really learn about who they are voting for and not be blind voters," she told the Post on Thursday.

However, Miryam said that putting a cap on campaign spending was not enough.

"What about corruption involving regional budgets? We have to be careful with the potential of budgets being abused by an incumbent for campaign purposes," she said.

Miryam said that all stages of regional elections, from campaigning to logistics production, should be funded by the state budget (APBN) to curb wasteful spending and graft. The KPU said that funds from the state budget could not be used to fund election campaigns.

Syarifah of the KPU said that funding from the APBN could only be used by the central KPU in its work in monitoring and drafting regulations for regional elections, while the KPUDs could only get money from the regional budget.

Representative from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Sudiyatmiko Aribowo also said that his party could support the new provision on campaign funds.

"What's important about the campaign fund rule is that we need to have clear regulations for all stakeholders. This is to avoid election disputes, which could manifest from different interpretations of the rule," he said on Thursday.

"The goal is to reduce costs. Our democracy has long been perceived as being too costly."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/13/limit-set-campaign-funds-local-elections.html

Parties allowed to contest candidates

Jakarta Post - March 12, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – With rifts having developed within political parties following last year's presidential election, a new law on regional elections has introduced a mechanism that allows parties to contest the General Elections Commission's (KPU) announcement of candidates in concurrent regional elections set for December.

As parties like Golkar and the United Development Party (PPP) are still riven with internal conflicts, contestation of candidate nominations is expected.

"The potential for conflicts is huge. If the parties do not mend their rifts, they will dispute the candidates to be nominated," Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Golkar is still split between the camp of the pro-government Agung Laksono and the camp of incumbent chairman Aburizal Bakrie, while the PPP is divided between senior politician Djan Faridz, the successor appointed by former leader Suryadharma Ali, and Muhammad "Romi" Romahurmuziy, the leader of a splinter group that defied Suryadharma's leadership after the presidential election.

KPU commissioner Ida Budhiati said that disputes were to be expected since elections were always about power struggles. "There will always be a potential for disputes because what we do here is managing elections, which entail internal battles," she told the Post.

However, Ida said that the new mechanism was specifically introduced to bring justice to proceedings. "Before this, disputes regarding nominations of regional candidates were not regulated. Participants felt a sense of injustice," she said.

The KPU will announce the names of candidates – proposed by the regional branches of political parties with the approval of the heads of their central executive boards – on August 24.

Any disagreement with the decisions can be lodged with the Elections Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) from August 24 to 26.

Bawaslu will then make decisions on Sept. 9. If any party remains dissatisfied, it can appeal to the High Administrative Court (PT TUN) from Sept. 10 to 12.

The PT TUN is scheduled to deliver its verdicts on Oct. 6, after which any remaining unhappy party members can file cassation petitions to the Supreme Court as a final attempt from Oct. 7 to 13.

It is not until Nov. 13 that the Supreme Court will deliver its verdicts. Therefore, the KPU will have only 25 days to prepare if the voting is held on December 9, as planned by the commission. "We have to know how many candidates there are before we can prepare," Ida said.

To minimize the potential for disputes, Titi said that the KPU should issue detailed guidelines to election organizers at the local level so that there was no confusion with regard to double leadership of political parties.

"We cannot afford multiple interpretations on the KPU's regulations because the potential for disputes is everywhere," she said.

Ida added that the KPU would increase the transparency of the process of naming of candidates to limit the potential for disputes. "The process of our work can be corrected by candidates and Bawaslu, as long as they provide evidence that can be held accountable," she said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/12/parties-allowed-contest-candidates.html

$75 million political party handouts plan raises questions

Jakarta Globe - March 10, 2015

Jakarta – Activists on Tuesday criticized Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo's proposal to give $75.8 million to each political party, saying that it would have the opposite effect to that intended and aggravate rampant corruption practices inside the political system.

"This is a long term plan. Hopefully we can implement this by 2019 if we're in sound financial condition," Tjahjo said at his office on Monday.

The minister said the funding also comes with greater demand for transparency from the parties as well as tougher requirements for parties to gain seats in the House of Representatives. "If we find any misappropriation then we can disband that party," he said.

By law, parties that have seats in the House are eligible for annual state funding administered according to the size of the party's presence. But parties currently only receive a maximum of Rp 2.6 billion ($19,700) a year each, according to data provided by the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra).

Officials from various parties have previously claimed state funding covers less than 2 percent of expenses. Tjahjo said this forces many politicians to look for other sources of income – legitimate and otherwise – particularly as parties are unable to receive funds from foreign sources or set up a commercial arm.

"So regional leaders will not be told to look for cash. Council members will have to stop manipulating budgets or rigging tenders for [state projects]," the minister said. "We will strengthen the law. We will also demand for greater transparency and tighter supervision."

But with hundreds of politicians now serving lengthy jail terms for embezzlement or receiving bribes and kickbacks, Indonesia Corruption Watch coordinator Ade Irawan said parties must first show they are willing to be more transparent on their finances.

Parties "are not even transparent about how they spend money which originates from state coffers," he said.

Fariz Fachryan of Gajah Mada University's Anti-Corruption Studies Center echoed the sentiment.

"How can we entrust so much money to political parties that have been reluctant to be transparent?" he told Harian Terbit newspaper.

Uchok Sky Khadafi, director of Center for Budget Analysis said the same argument was also made when parties first became eligible for state funding under the 2008 Law on Political Parties.

"Where is the guarantee that politicians will not commit acts of corruption if the state provide [parties greater] financial assistance?" he said.

Fitra secretary Apung Widadi noted virtually all parties have refused to make their financial reports public, and on the rare occasion that they do, the reports are incomplete and not professionally prepared.

"A party's treasurer is not someone who understands standard bookkeeping practices," he said.

Enforcement is also lax when it comes to parties' finances, with no administrative or criminal sanctions ever imposed on party elites despite many expenses and donations going unreported, Apung said.

"So instead of hindering corruption, the Rp 1 trillion funding will only increase corruption," Apung said.

Uchok of CBA said even with the current system where parties receive only several billions of rupiah in state funding, the government and law enforcement have a tough time ensuring the funds are spent for their intended purpose and not going into the pockets of a few elite.

"Parties today don't belong to the people; they belong to a few individuals," he said.

Djayadi Hanan, executive director of think tank group Saiful Mujani Research Center said Tjahjo's intention is good but the system will not work under current conditions.

The scheme is intended to enable underfunded legislative candidates or parties to compete on a more even playing field.

"But before such funding can be provided, the rules and regulations regarding parties and their finances must be strengthened first," he said.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla expressed his surprise on Monday at the minister's comments, saying Tjahjo's remarks are only a proposal at this stage.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/75m-political-party-handouts-plan-raises-questions/

Zulkifli faces first test to maintain PAN unity

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2015

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Newly elected National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hasan is being challenged to keep his party united, which he pledged to do prior to his victory over Hatta Rajasa in a tight election earlier this month, as he rearranges PAN's leadership board.

Zulkifli has reiterated that he, in an effort to protect PAN from crisis following his election, will involve Hatta and his loyalists in building the party over the next five years. However, concerns loom after the former forestry minister expressed an inclination to place his own men in the party's strategic posts.

Zulkifli's main supporters, former party chief Soetrisno Bachir and cofounder Amien Rais, have been appointed as advisory council chief and honorary council chief, respectively.

Both Soetrisno and Amien were members of Zulkifli's campaign team during the party's chairmanship race and national congress in Bali.

Zulkifli recently revealed that he had spared places for Hatta's loyalists on PAN's central board, an offer that the rival faction has turned down.

"It is more important for us that he [Zulkifli] guarantee that our people who currently hold leading posts at the party's regional branches are not disturbed," Sulistyowati, a deputy secretary-general during Hatta's 2010- 2015 ruling period said on Monday.

Sulistyowati further explained that her faction had received reports of threats over "arbitrary dismissal" against PAN's local leaders who were affiliated with Hatta, particularly those from the country's eastern regions.

Only a day after Zulkifli officially took over the party's chairmanship from Hatta on March 1, two of Hatta's campaign leaders, Drajad Wibowo and Tjatur Sapto Edy, announced their resignations from their respective positions as deputy chairman and leader of PAN's faction at the House of Representatives.

Tjatur said on Monday that he had officially tendered his resignation from his position at the House.

A supporter of Zulkifli, Mulfachri Harahap, who is currently a deputy chairman of House Commission III overseeing law, human rights and security affairs, is being touted to take over Tjatur's position as leader of the party's House faction.

Amien's son, Hanafi Rais, currently a deputy chairman of House Commission I overseeing intelligence, defense and foreign affairs, is also among the contenders for the party's secretary-general post.

The relationship between Amien and Zulkifli goes beyond that of colleagues as Zulkifli's daughter, Futri Zulya Safitri, is married to one of Amien's sons, Ahmad Mumtaz Rais.

Zulkifli, however, has denied sidelining Hatta's camp, ensuring that "there will be no chairmanship shift at the House or anywhere else". "No one will be stripped of his/her position. Everything will run as normal and in unity under my direction," assured Zulkifli.

The speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is expected to announce the formation of PAN's central board this week.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/10/zulkifli-faces-first-test-maintain-pan-unity.html

Police vs KPK

Police won't back down in prosecution of Novel, Denny

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – The National Police will continue its probe into Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan and former law and human rights deputy minister Denny Indrayana despite President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's order to halt the prosecution of all individuals involved in the country's graft eradication campaign.

The National Police's detective division chief, Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, said that there had been no formal decision to halt the probe into the two individuals.

"We will continue pursuing the case against Novel, we will continue all investigations. He [Novel] abused his power, which led to someone's death," he told The Jakarta Post in an interview at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta on Thursday.

The police moved against some KPK commissioners and its investigators soon after the antigraft body named Police Education Institute (Lemdikpol) director Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a graft suspect days after he was nominated as the next police chief.

Police decided earlier to reopen the case involving Novel, who was implicated in an assault case in 2004. He was accused of having shot a suspect when he served as the Bengkulu Police's detective chief.

In 2012, then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the police to drop the case against Novel, who was targeted by members of the force following the antigraft body's decision to name then head of the National Police Traffic Coprs (Korlantas) Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo a graft suspect.

Aside from Novel, the police also recently pursued a case against Denny, who was suspected to have been involved in a graft case centering on the implementation of a payment gateway, an online passport-application service launched on July 14 last year when he served as deputy minister.

The program was suddenly halted in October last year after the ministry said that it had yet to authorize the start of the project. Denny has yet to be named a suspect in the case.

Suspended KPK commissioners Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto were also named suspects in separate cases earlier this year.

Budi acknowledged that some had accused him of disobeying Jokowi, but he maintained that there was enough evidence to pursue the cases. "Yes, President Jokowi had asked me to make sure not to trump up charges against any individual, not to make up cases. We have not been making up any cases, so there's no problem," he said.

Earlier this week, National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haito said that the cases against Abraham and Bambang would not be halted completely, but only suspended for at least a month until tensions eased between the police force and the KPK.

Budi said that if any of the KPK commissioners or investigators objected to their suspect status they could file a pretrial motion with the district court as Budi Gunawan had demonstrated.

Later on Thursday, Denny turned up at the National Police headquarters for questioning. Denny, however, bailed from the questioning session after learning that none of his lawyers were allowed to accompany him during the session.

"This is a clear violation of National Police chief decree No. 8/2009. Article 27 of the decree stipulates that police investigators can't question a witness without the presence of a lawyer unless the witness allows it," one of Denny's lawyers, Heru Widodo said.

Speaking to reporters before leaving the police headquarters, Denny maintained that the payment gateway was a legitimate effort to improve public services.

He said that a report published by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in December last year showed that the Rp 32.4 billion (US$2.6 million) collected from the program was deposited back to the state and the program had not caused any state losses.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/13/police-won-t-back-down-prosecution-novel-denny.html

Three-star wars as generals battle it out over KPK

Jakarta Globe - March 12, 2015

Farouk Arnaz & Ezra Sihite, Jakarta – The top two officials in the Indonesian police force continue to contradict each other over their stance on ongoing investigations into antigraft officials, suggesting a power struggle being mounted by Budi Gunawan, a one-time graft suspect whose bid to be police chief was thwarted last month.

The office of Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, the National Police's chief of detectives and a self-proclaimed loyalist of Budi Gunawan's, is pressing ahead with investigations into suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) officials Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, including by summoning witnesses for questioning this week.

However, Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, the National Police deputy chief and nominee for police chief, insists that the police have agreed to scale down their probes into KPK officials, which they launched following the KPK's announcement in mid-January that it had named Budi Gunawan a suspect for bribery and money laundering.

"The bottom line is there are resolutions to the legal processes being conducted by the KPK and the National Police through several moves," Badrodin said on Thursday, referring to an apparent agreement by the two law enforcement institutions to stop investigating each others' members.

Badrodin said the KPK had done its part by handing over the investigation into Budi Gunawan to the Attorney General's Office. (Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo has since hinted his office will not pursue any charges against the police general, who was initially named a suspect in connection with irregular transactions amounting to millions of dollars flowing through his personal bank accounts from 2003 to 2006.)

In turn, the police have promised to drop almost all of the 26 investigations into KPK officials, some dredged up from more than a decade ago and widely seen as retaliation by the police force for the KPK's naming of Budi Gunawan as a suspect. Only the cases against Abraham and Bambang will still go on, Badrodin said.

"While waiting for the [tensions between the KPK and police] to cool down, the legal process against [Abraham and Bambang] has been postponed, not stopped," he said, adding the postponement would last "one or two months."

"The cases involving these two will continue because they have already been legally charged."

Abraham has been charged with allegedly helping a prominent graft convict receive a reduced sentence last year in exchange for political backing from the convict's party to support Abraham's alleged bid to become vice president last year.

In a separate case, the South Sulawesi Police have charged Abraham with document forgery after he allegedly falsified a document to help a woman, Feriyani Lim, apply for a passport in 2007.

Bambang is accused of compelling witnesses to commit perjury in a regional poll dispute he handled as a lawyer in 2010.

Despite Badrodin's assurances that the police's attacks on the KPK would end, Budi Waseso's office has persisted in questioning witnesses and issuing a summons for Bambang. (Bambang refused to come in for questioning on Wednesday.)

"We're still completing the file. There might be other witnesses, other evidence," Budi Waseso said on Thursday. His investigators also questioned Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto as a witness in Abraham's case on Thursday.

Andi said the investigators agreed to come to his office at the State Palace complex instead of him having to go to the National Police headquarters. Andi was a member of President Joko Widodo's campaign team and said to be a key adviser in the selection of a vice presidential candidate.

Badrodin said separately that Budi Waseso was well aware of the arrangement to ease up on the KPK, but did not offer an explanation for why he was not honoring the postponement. "Chief of detectives Budi Waseso was present when the deal [with the KPK] was made," he said.

While Badrodin is the acting police chief, hence Budi Waseso's superior, the two men are of the same rank – commissioner general – a fact that some analysts say explains why Badrodin has struggled to keep his subordinate in check.

Budi Waseso was one of Budi Gunawan's closest lieutenants and was named the chief of detectives – the most important post in the force after that of the police chief – days after the KPK charged Budi Gunawan.

The chief of detectives has ramped up his assault on the KPK by going after some of its leading supporters, including Denny Indrayana, the former deputy minister of justice. The police earlier this month conjured up a case no one had ever heard of before by alleging corruption in the procurement of an online payment system for passport applications set up by the Justice Ministry to help prevent graft.

Investigators from Budi Waseso's office questioned Denny about the matter on Thursday, but he denied any wrongdoing or that the system had resulted in losses to the state. He denounced the investigation as "trumped up" because of his strong support for the KPK.

Police claim they have also received criminal complaints against former anti-money-laundering chief Yunus Husein, whose office unearthed the suspicious transactions in Budi Gunawan's accounts, as well as Tempo magazine, which has been outspoken in its support of the KPK.

The magazine was the first publication to report the suspicious transactions linked to Budi Gunawan and several other police generals, in a controversy that came to be known as the "fat accounts" scandal.

The police have also threatened to sue the National Commission on Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, for declaring that it had found an indication of rights abuses in the police's arrest of suspended KPK deputy Bambang in January. Police accuse Komnas HAM of violating the law by disclosing the results of its probe.

Badrodin said he did not know about the lawsuit against Komnas HAM, much less authorized such a move.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/three-star-wars-as-generals-battle-it-out-over-KPK/

Shady organization targets 'Tempo'

Jakarta Post - March 12, 2015

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The NGO behind the filing of a police report against Tempo weekly for its coverage of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan's bank accounts has been exposed as a pay-for-hire band of bullies, and many suspect the group is likely being used by others to intimidate and exert pressure on the magazine.

In addition to the report against Tempo, the Indonesian General Society Movement (GMBI) also filed reports against suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioners Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, as well as former Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) chairman Yunus Husein, for allegedly divulging Budi's bank account information that was used in the Tempo report.

The GMBI is no stranger to controversy, as it regularly uses violence as a tactic, when, for example, the group is hired to "defend" the rights of squatters, or the rights of those seeking to secure properties in legal disputes.

Members don military fatigues and seek to intimidate whomever is its political foe of the moment. When the South Jakarta District Court held a session on Budi Gunawan's pretrial motion last month, hundreds of individuals in uniforms similar to those worn by the GMBI staged a rally outside the court building in support of Budi.

But when GMBI leaders came to National Police headquarters to file the report against Tempo, Abraham, Bambang, and Yunus, they wore normal attire. "What we did was part of our function as a social control [organization]," GMBI chairman Mohamad Fauzan Rachman told The Jakarta Post recently, after being asked why the organization chose to file the reports. "PPATK analysis is a state secret. Those who have it violate the law," the 47-year-old man said.

Despite calling Tempo a "tool of the West," Fauzan said the GMBI never actually targeted the magazine. "We only attached a copy of the magazine in our report to the police as evidence," he said.

Although the reports were filed with the assistance of Budi Gunawan's lawyers, Fauzan claimed the GMBI had no relationship with the police general. Fauzan also denied the that the police report was filed on orders from Budi. "The GMBI has a good relationship with the police," he said

Fauzan acknowledged, however, that GMBI members were often involved in violent clashes. "Well, you know, sometimes people lose control when emotions are high."

Fauzan insisted that the GMBI had not specifically targeted Tempo. "We filed reports on alleged graft involving state-owned firms with the KPK, but those were not covered by the media," he said.

Established in 2002 and headquartered in West Java's provincial capital of Bandung, the GMBI claims to have 256,000 members and dozens of branches spread out across West Java and Banten.

However, data from the Home Ministry revealed that the GMBI was only registered in the West Java towns of Bekasi and Ciamis.

According to Fauzan, the organization raises funds from performances of pencak silat (traditional martial arts), by providing security services in property disputes, and through "debt-collection". But many allege the GMBI's chief function is to act as protestors-for-hire for powerful interest groups.

Fauzan denied the accusation. "We are independent because our branches are autonomous," he said. "I am not a good person but I always try to do good things. We help the poor."

One of Budi Gunawan's lawyers, Eggi Sudjana, acknowledged that he had known GMBI for quite some time. "But I have networks with many civil organizations," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/12/shady-organization-targets-tempo.html

MA slammed for foiling Sarpin ruling case review

Jakarta Post - March 11, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Judicial Commission (KY) says the Supreme Court (MA) was wrong for denouncing a plan from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to file a case review against a controversial pretrial ruling.

Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said Monday that Supreme Court Chief Justice Hatta Ali told KPK commissioners such a request lacked a legal basis and would likely be ignored. The message was apparently delivered in a closed- door meeting held Friday,

KY commissioner Taufiqurrohman Sahuri said that by making such a statement Hatta went too far, damaging due process in a case that has redefined law enforcement in the country, many say for the worse.

"I am not sure if such a statement has been made, but if it has happened, then it is a ruling without a hearing. A judge cannot make such a statement," Taufiqurrohman told reporters at KPK headquarters on Tuesday.

KPK leaders withdrew their case-review petition following Hatta's statement. They are currently exploring other legal means of challenging the pretrial hearing decision that ordered the antigraft body to cease its investigation into former National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan for corruption.

In an unprecedented move, the South Jakarta District Court approved Budi's pretrial proposal to challenge his graft-suspect status. Judge Sarpin Rizaldi ordered the KPK to lift the graft-suspect status, which consequently forced the KPK to transfer the investigation to the graft- ridden Attorney General's Office (AGO), which intends to hand the case over to the National Police.

Sarpin made the ruling in spite of the fact that the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) grants no authority for a judge to rule on the legality of a suspect's status.

Legal experts have said the ruling is a threat to the country's judicial system and that the court was obliged to take firm and decisive action to fix the ruling.

Taufiqurrohman encouraged the KPK to file its case-review proposal and urged the court to accept it, saying a Supreme Court justice should not intervene in the process.

"The proposal must be accepted. Then, the Supreme Court can hold a trial hearing to determine whether the petition will be rejected or accepted," Taufiqurrohman added.

During the meeting with Hatta and other Supreme Court justices, KPK leaders tried to convince the court to approve its future case-review proposal. However, the court apparently viewed Sarpin's ruling as in line with existing law.

Contacted separately, Suhadi denied he had made a statement that the court would reject a case-review petition on the Budi pretrial ruling, saying there had been no discussion of such a plan.

"As for the case-review plan, I am not in any capacity to claim that it will be either accepted or rejected, but the KUHAP says those who can file them must be convicts or their [convicts'] heirs," Suhadi said.

Meanwhile, in addition to the KY's investigation into the alleged breach of ethics in Sarpin's ruling, Taufiqurrohman said the KY was currently investigating the South Jakarta District Court's decision to appoint Sarpin as the sole judge for the pretrial hearing.

Originally assigned judge Iman Gultom, Budi and lawyers withdrew their case, citing the need for a revision. By the time the petition had been reregistered, the court had replaced Iman with Sarpin as presiding judge.

"We will dig deeper into the decision to change the judge [after the first registration]," Taufiqurrohman said, adding that the KY had summoned South Jakarta District chairman Haswandi to question him about the replacement.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/11/ma-slammed-foiling-sarpin-ruling-case-review.html

Broad support for House nod on top cop

Jakarta Post - March 11, 2015

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The government, the House of Representatives and the National Police defended on Tuesday the House's authority to assess presidential nominees for National Police chief.

Following the recent controversy over the nomination of National Police Education Division (Lemdikpol) head Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, four plaintiffs – constitutional law expert Feri Amsari, anticorruption activists Ade Irawan and Hifdzil Alim and former law and human rights deputy minister Denny Indrayana – have petitioned the Constitutional Court to eliminate the House's power to approve police candidates.

The four are challenging several articles in the 2002 Police Law, including Article 11 stipulating that a police chief is appointed and dismissed by the president, pending approval by the House.

The plaintiffs have argued that such provisions limit the president's prerogative and, therefore, violate the Constitution.

Representing the government, Agus Hariadi, a law expert at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, said in a court hearing on Tuesday the House's role in the nomination procedure helped to maintain the checks-and-balances mechanism between the legislative and executive branches of government.

Agus argued that the mechanism prevented the president from misusing his or her powers, adding that the idea to give the House this power dated to 2000, when the National Police was separated from the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Sarifuddin Sudding, a People's Conscience (Hanura) Party lawmaker who represented the House in the petitions, concurred with Agus. "Public monitoring through [the House] is needed to prevent misuse of power," he insisted. A member of the National Police's legal division, Brig. Gen. Sigit Tri Hardjanto, argued that giving the House such a role prevented the police force being influenced.

"Considering the police's strategic roles, the checks-and-balance system is essential to ensure the force's independence from political interests," he said. The representatives from the three institutions urged the bench to reject the plaintiffs' demands.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's decision to nominate Budi was criticized by antigraft activists, many of whom believe Jokowi bowed to pressure from political parties in the ruling coalition, particularly the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), given that Budi is a former adjutant to PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri when she was president.

Jokowi annulled Budi's nomination in favor of current police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti. The House is expected to review Badrodin's nomination late this month. Presiding justice Arief Hidayat adjourned the hearing until April 1 to hear arguments, including from two experts presented by the plaintiffs.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/11/broad-support-house-nod-top-cop.html

Budi Gunawan's case slips further out of reach of the KPK

Jakarta Globe - March 11, 2015

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) says it will not seek a case review against a South Jakarta District Court pretrial ruling to have one of its highest-profile investigations to date annulled.

The court last month quashed on a technicality the decision made in January by the commission, known as the KPK, to charge Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, a nominee for police chief.

Legal experts and former KPK officials have urged the antigraft commission to seek a case review, similar to an appeal, to have the ruling thrown out, but KPK interim deputy chairman Johan Budi said on Wednesday that there was no point. "We met with the Supreme Court's chief justice, Hatta Ali, the other day, and he firmly stated that he could not intervene in the [district court] judge's independence" in a pretrial motion, Johan said as quoted by Detik.

He added that Hatta had made clear he would not accept the KPK's attempt to have the decision reviewed. "They will reject it. So why try?" he said.

The KPK had charged Budi with bribery and money-laundering, in connection with irregular transactions amounting to millions of dollars flowing through his personal bank accounts from 2003 to 2006.

But the judge hearing the pretrial motion filed by the police general, Sarpin Rizaldi, ruled last month that the KPK had no jurisdiction over Budi, whom he described as "not being a law enforcer" at the time of the alleged money laundering.

Legal analysts, though, point out that the court's decision to revoke Budi's suspect status was not a legally recognized move under the Criminal Code Procedures, or KUHAP.

Under the code, a pretrial motion is only authorized to hear technical aspects of an investigation, such as the processes leading to arrest and seizure of assets, and not weigh on the substance of the criminal charge itself, which can only be determined after the indictment of the suspect.

Precedent or not?

Analysts have also pointed to a recent verdict issued by the Purwokerto District Court in Central Java as a precedent for seeking a case review. In that case, a criminal suspect had filed a pretrial motion in a bid to have his suspect status revoked.

However, the judge denied his motion on the grounds that a pretrial hearing was not the right venue to seek to have one's suspect status withdrawn.

But Johan said the KPK had already handed Budi's case to the Attorney General's Office and could not take it back.

Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo has already indicated his office will not pursue the case against Budi. The development has sparked anger from antigraft activists and officials and supporters of the KPK, which has a 100 percent conviction rate against every individual it has ever named a suspect throughout its 12-year history.

The Judicial Commission, the government's watchdog for the judiciary, which has denounced Sarpin's ruling, says Hatta's refusal to hear a case review at the Supreme Court is also wrong.

"A judge must not say that; the court must accept all cases," said commissioner Taufiqurrahman Syahuri.

"Only after the case is heard can [Hatta] say whether the review will be accepted or not. If [Hatta] indeed said no [to the KPK], this constitutes an ethical violation. However, I'm not sure that is what [Hatta] said."

'No target'

Speaking separately on Wednesday, interim KPK chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki said the antigraft commission would no longer prioritize the investigation into the embezzlement of bailout funds, known as BLBI, from the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

The KPK in 2013 questioned Rini Soemarno over the so-called release-and- discharge documents obtained by debtor banks, absolving them of all debts to the government – despite the face that most of them absconded with billions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Rini was at the time a deputy chairwoman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and a member of the Committee for the Stabilization of the Financial Sector (KSSK). Today she serves as the minister for state-owned enterprises.

The release-and-discharge papers were issued by the IBRA based on a 2002 presidential instruction signed by then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is closely tied to both Rini and to the current president, Joko Widodo.

The KPK, under now-suspended chairman Abraham Samad, had indicated last year that it planned to ramp up its investigation of the case, including that it might call in Megawati for questioning.

Ruki, who chaired the KPK during Megawati's presidency and was appointed interim chairman of the KPK by Joko last month, to replace Abraham, said the KPK had "no target" of completing the BLBI investigation.

He added that his focus for now was to conclude 40 ongoing investigations at the KPK as well as forge better relationships with the National Police and the AGO, which have been severely strained since Budi was charged.

'Trojan horse'

Ruki, a retired police general, is seen by many as a "Trojan horse" appointed by Joko to the KPK to further undermine it. "The KPK is not only weakened now, but being destroyed from the inside," said Julius Ibrani of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBHI). "The KPK has been occupied structurally by political interests."

Since the KPK charged Budi on Jan. 13, the police have dug up a series of cold cases, some a decade old, against KPK leaders and investigators.

Police are pursuing 26 separate cases and have thus far charged two of the KPK's four commissioners on three separate criminal cases, forcing them to be suspended from active duty.

In a separate case, the South Sulawesi Police have charged Abraham with document forgery after he allegedly falsified a document to help a woman, Feriyani Lim, apply for a passport in 2007.

Suspended deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto is accused of compelling witnesses to commit perjury in a poll dispute that he handled as a lawyer in 2010.

But since the KPK handed over Budi's case to the AGO, the police have eased up a little, with the deputy police chief, Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, saying his office would end its investigations against all the KPK officials except Abraham and Bambang – in an apparent affirmation that the initial charges were trumped up.

"There will be no more [KPK officials] summoned [by the police]. If there are, I will reject them," Ruki told Tempo.

Still holding sway

Still, police have expanded their investigation to those who have come out in support of the KPK, including former deputy justice minister Denny Indrayana, whom police called in for questioning last week in yet another case seemingly dredged up out of nowhere – this one relating to an online payment system for passport applications set up by the ministry to help prevent graft.

Denny called the police's investigation an effort to "criminalize an unprecedented technological innovation that works to prevent the practice of extortion." "[The investigation] also criminalizes the KPK and its supporters," he added.

Police claim they have also received criminal complaints against former anti-money-laundering chief Yunus Husein, whose office unearthed the suspicious transactions in Budi's accounts, as well as Tempo magazine, which has been outspoken in its support of the KPK.

The magazine was the first publication to report the suspicious transactions linked to Budi and several other police generals, in a controversy that came to be known as the "fat accounts" scandal.

The police have also threatened to suit the National Commission on Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, for declaring that it had found an indication of rights abuses in the police's arrest of suspended KPK deputy Bambang in January. Police accuse Komnas HAM of violating the law by disclosing the results of its probe.

Although Joko eventually withdrew Budi's nomination for police chief, the general continues to hold sway over the force.

In January, he saw one of his closest lieutenants, Budi Waseso, named the chief of detectives – the most important post in the force after that of the police chief – and last week saw another eight loyalists from the training academy that he oversees promoted to strategic positions.

Among them is Sr. Comr. Viktor Edi Simanjuntak, who the Indonesian Ombudsman has recommended to be sanctioned for his unauthorized involvement in Bambang's arrest. Viktor now leads the police's special and economic crimes directorate, which is handling Bambang's case.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/budis-case-slips-further-out-of-reach-of-the-KPK/

Jokowi, Kalla deemed 'negligent' in police vs. KPK saga

Jakarta Globe - March 10, 2015

Novianti Setuningsih, Jakarta – Former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Jimly Ashiddiqie slammed Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Tuesday for remarks earlier this week suggesting that the National Police's attempts to investigate and prosecute anti-graft officials were not unjustified abuses of their law enforcement powers.

The National Police launched a wave of investigations and criminal charges against several senior leaders and detectives of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) after the anti-graft body named a now-erstwhile nominee for police chief as a graft and money laundering suspect.

Kalla said on Monday that people misunderstand "criminalization" ("kriminalisasi" in Indonesian popular legal parlance), an analytically vague term used, at least according to the current prevailing interpretation, to mean the unjustified and unlawful use of police powers to investigate individuals and charge them with offenses of dubious validity.

The vice president said the police's probes into several cold cases involving four leaders of the KPK, as well as their investigative subpoena of National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) last month, were not "criminalization."

"Criminalization happens when an innocent person is reported to police," Kalla said in his office in Jakarta. "However, if someone has data, facts and reports [them to police], and the latter is questioned, then it is called an investigation."

"When there is an element of legal violation, there is a legal process," he added, conclusorily.

Jimly said Kalla's statement evinced "negligence" on the part of the president and vice president, referring to their inaction during the prolonged period of reprisals and counter-reprisals between the two law enforcement authorities.

The more recent moves against Komnas HAM, meanwhile, are believed to be retaliation for the public announcement of results from the investigation into the arrest of KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto in January – shortly after KPK named former National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a suspect. Komnas HAM found the police abused their authority in Bambang's arrest.

The KPK deputy is accused of suborning witnesses to perjure themselves during his time as an attorney in a 2010 local election dispute. During his arrest, Bambang was reportedly handcuffed and guarded by heavily armed officers before being spirited away for questioning downtown.

Jimly said the president and vice president's "negligence" has caused the police force to feel "euphoric" and encouraged continued persecution of KPK and Komnas HAM officials.

"You cannot let the police continue with their euphoria. This is unhealthy for democracy, especially now that [the police] are affecting the work of Komnas HAM," said Jimly, who sits on independent team President Joko Widodo convened in January to advise him on de-escalating the spat between KPK and the police.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jokowi-kalla-deemed-negligent-police-vs-KPK-saga/

Lawyer reports Komnas HAM members to police

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The National Police on Monday continued its crackdown on dissident voices by filing libel lawsuits with the Jakarta Police against members of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) for announcing that police investigators had abused their power during the arrest of suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner Bambang Widjojanto.

National Police lawyer Fredrich Yunadi said Monday that the move was the price paid for the commission's refusal to retract its public claim that Bambang's arrest constituted a human rights violation or to issue a public apology.

Fredrich has accused Komnas HAM commissioners, including Nur Kholis and Natalius Pigai, of violating Article 27 of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law on libel by announcing the results of the commission's investigation into Bambang's arrest.

The police claim the result should have been kept confidential. Violations of Article 27 of the ITE law carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison.

"Such an act has besmirched the names of the police investigators working on Bambang's case in the media; that is why we have taken the legal move," Fredrich said on Monday.

The lawyer also argued that Article 87 of the Law No. 39/1999 on Komnas HAM required commissioners to maintain the confidentiality of an investigation by not revealing results to the public.

On Jan. 31, Komnas HAM commissioner Nur Kholis said a team sanctioned by the rights body, which included eight Komnas HAM commissioners, had found violations in Bambang's arrest.

Bambang was arrested by National Police just days after the KPK declared former National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a bribery suspect for financial misdeeds after finding that in his capacity as the head of the Career Development Bureau at the National Police from 2004 to 2006, he amassed Rp 95 billion (US$7.3 million), allegedly from bribes and gratuities, and many from officers in pursuit of higher positions in the force.

"We have compiled reports and we suspect that violations took place during Bambang Widjojanto's arrest," Nur Kholis said when announcing the result of the Komnas HAM investigation.

Nur Kholis, who also heads the investigation team, said one of the most blatant violations was the decision to handcuff Bambang in front of his children.

Earlier, Bambang's team of lawyers said the arrest was wracked with procedural violations, including the lack of an arrest warrant. Soon after concluding its investigation, Komnas HAM delivered the findings to the National Police and to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

Separately, Natalius of Komnas HAM said the commission had conducted its investigation into Bambang's arrest in accordance with the Komnas HAM Law. Natalius also questioned the police's decision to file a libel lawsuit as the commission did not cite any officers by name.

"As far as I know we did not mention any names. One thing for sure is our job is protected by Law No. 39/1999 on Komnas HAM. We did not violate a single article in the law when conducting the investigation into the arrest," Natalius said on Monday.

Natalius said Komnas HAM had spoken to acting National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti about how to resolve the dispute to avoid further clashes between the police and Komnas HAM that could imperil cases currently being jointly investigated.

"There is a lot of work that needs to be done between the police and Komnas HAM and we want to keep the good relationship we have established," Natalius said.

The police's latest move on Komnas HAM came just days after they proceeded with a criminal report filed against Tempo Magazine and its publication of an investigative article on Budi's suspiciously large bank accounts.

Police have also launched a graft investigation against former deputy minister of law and human rights Denny Indrayana, who lambasted police during the standoff between the National Police and the KPK last month.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/10/lawyer-reports-komnas-ham-members-police.html

The President should sack Gen. Budi: Maarif

Jakarta Post - March 9, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The chairman of the independent team tasked to resolve tensions between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Ahmad Syafii Maarif, urged President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to fire detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, whom Maarif described as the most responsible person behind the criminalization of those who are critical of the police.

The highly respected Maarif blamed Jokowi for failing to stop the police from threatening police critics such as the media, antigraft activists and state agencies that stood behind the KPK during the standoff.

"There are many ways of solving this huge problem, but as of now the only solution to stopping the apparent criminalization of dissident voices is for the President to order the acting National Police chief [Badroddin Haiti] to fire Budi [Waseso] who is the main source of the problem," Maarif told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"The President has turned this country into a leaderless land. Why does the President keep silent if the police are directly under his control? This criminalization must be stopped and the President must act now," said the former chairman of the Muhammadiyah.

Despite strong warnings from the President, Budi continued spreading his threats against people or institutions that he regarded as "enemies" of the police, including Tempo magazine and former deputy minister of law and human rights Denny Indrayana. The police have named suspended KPK chairman Abraham Samad and his suspended deputy, Bambang Widjojanto, suspects of relatively small crimes.

On Saturday, the police also demanded that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) make an apology and retract its public claim that the arrest of suspended KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto constituted a human rights violation.

The move against Komnas HAM took place just days after the police launched an investigation into Tempo magazine for publishing an investigative report on Budi's suspicious "fat" bank accounts, accusing him of violating both the 1998 Banking Law and the 2010 Money Laundering Law. Budi failed to become National Police chief after the KPK named him a graft suspect.

The police's aggressive moves continue despite earlier orders by Jokowi to stop the criminalization of the KPK and its supporters.

On Sunday, Jokowi said he had indeed heard the public demands urging him to stop the criminalization. However, all he did was instruct the police to abide by his orders.

Gadjah Mada University Corruption Studies Center director Zainal Arifin Mochtar said it was not enough for Jokowi to just make a public statement.

"The President just states his orders without following up on them with concrete actions to check on whether the order has been followed up by his subordinates or not," said Zainal.

Angered by Jokowi's inaction, dozens of antigraft activists and experts launched a ceremony in Jakarta on Sunday in which they gave a "mandate" to the independent team to stop the criminalization of the KPK and its supporters.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/09/the-president-should-sack-gen-budi-maarif.html

Health & education

Narcotics Agency: Drugs kill 33 Indonesians daily, not 40-50

Jakarta Globe - March 10, 2015

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Amid accusations that Indonesia has used faulty data to justify its executions of drug convicts on death row, the National Narcotics Agency, or BNN, suggested a modest decline in narcotics use in the country on Tuesday when it presented the latest relevant figures.

Bachtiar Tambunan, the deputy chief for community empowerment at BNN, said an estimated four million Indonesians were users of narcotics. This is a correction – albeit not drastic – to the figure that President Joko Widodo often cited to support his claims of Indonesia being in a state of emergency due to the supposedly high prevalence of drug abuse in the country.

Joko, in defense of his rejection of clemency appeals by drug convicts on death row, has said that 4.5 million out of 250 million Indonesians were drug users and that between 40 and 50 people died every day in the country because of drug abuse.

Bachtiar on Tuesday said Joko's figures were based on data from a few years back. Last year, though, BNN conducted another joint study with the University of Indonesia (UI)'s Health Research Center, and the result showed a new estimate of 4 million drug-using Indonesians as well as a death rate estimated at 33 succumbing per day because of drug use.

BNN divides Indonesian drug users into three categories: those who have "ever tried" using drugs, totaling approximately 1.6 million people; "regular" users who number 1.4 million; and drug addicts who add up to 943,000 people. Men still dominate the statistics, representing 74.5 percent of the total number, while women account for just 25.5 percent.

The mortality rate is based on a combined number of deaths due to overdose, polydrug use – when two or more drugs are used at the same time or on the same occasion – and deaths because of relapse after a long hiatus, Bachtiar explained.

The BNN deputy chief added that marijuana, crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy pills remained the most popular products among Indonesian narcotics users. These users are estimated to consume a total of 14 million ecstasy pills per year, and use marijuana or crystal meth a total of 158 million and 219 million times per year, respectively.

"That is why we call this [drug situation] a state of emergency. During the past couple of months alone, BNN has seized more than one metric ton of crystal meth," Bachtiar claimed. He added that children as young as 10 years old had been identified as drug users.

"The age of drug users ranges from ten to 59 years old," Bachtiar said, citing several findings over the past few years on drug use by elementary school students in several regions, including Jakarta, Bekasi, Medan and Jambi. Economic loss from narcotics problems in Indonesia is estimated to have reached Rp 63 trillion ($4.8 billion) last year, he added.

Bachtiar further said Indonesia's problems with narcotics use continued to grow because of a number of factors, including law enforcement officers' inability to distinguish drug users from traffickers, resulting in many who fall into the first category being sent to prison instead of rehab.

"And that worsens the situation. Because when sent to penitentiaries, drug users will learn how to traffic drugs from drug dealers, including foreigners, who have vast experience in inter-city and international trafficking," Bachtiar asserted.

"Narcotics business generates quite a large sum of money so they can easily lure law enforcement officers [to help the business].... Imprisoned drug dealers are often still involved in the drug trade [outside jail]," he added.

Bachtiar also said the development of rehab centers for drug addicts had been largely abandoned, adding that the government only began paying attention to this matter two years ago. Indonesia this year is targeting to send 100,000 drug users to rehab.

"The president actually wants 400,000 people to be sent to rehab, but we don't have enough rehab facilities yet. So rehabilitating 400,000 users will be our target for next year."

Furthermore, Bachtiar threw his weight behind the death penalty for drug traffickers, saying he believed it could have a deterrent effect but only "if carried out consistently."

Joko in December last year said that he had received clemency appeals from 64 inmates on death row in Indonesia, including drug and murder convicts, and that he would reject all of them.

This led to the executions of six inmates in January, including five foreigners, ending Indonesia's unofficial moratorium on executions of death-row inmates.

The second round of executions of ten inmates – also mostly foreigners – was originally scheduled for last month but has been delayed following requests for review filed by some of the convicts.

Amid escalating diplomatic tension with several countries, including with Brazil and Australia, due to the executions or planned executions of their citizens, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi repeatedly defended the Indonesian president's war against drug crimes through capital punishment.

"There may be an impression as if we were happy [with the executions]," Retno said during a meeting with local media representatives in her office in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"I must emphasize that we're not happy doing this. We don't enjoy doing this. But this is the stance that the government is forced to take in order to enforce the law," she added.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/bnn-says-33-die-of-drugs-daily-not-40-50/

Gender & sexual orientation

Rights activists lash out at MUI's anti-LGBT fatwa

Jakarta Globe - March 15, 2015

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – "It's not easy to be a lesbian in Indonesia," says 27-year-old Maria, not her real name. "Although the country and your community won't despise you, there are always those who will hunt you down for just being who you are."

Maria, who says she began finding herself attracted to other girls during middle school, says she remains fearful about coming out because of the climate of homophobia that persists in conservative Indonesian culture.

"It's funny that in a democratic country like Indonesia there are still people who keep a limited mind-set toward same-sex relationships," she says. "Although everybody has their own opinion, I think it's quite unwise to hate someone just because he or she likes being with someone who happens to be of the same gender."

But hate is not just the only threat that people like Maria face in Indonesia. The country's LGBT community has long faced discrimination, and even physical violence.

New to that list, though, is the threat of death sanctioned by the Indonesian Council of Ulema, or MUI, the country's highest Islamic clerical body.

On March 4, the MUI issued a fatwa, or edict, proposing punishments ranging from caning to the death penalty for individuals accused of homosexual acts. It also claims that homosexuality is a serious disease, but that like most other illnesses, it can be cured.

"It doesn't matter that they love each other," Hasanuddin A.F., the head of the MUI's fatwa commission, said earlier this month when announcing the anti-LGBT edict. "The law still prohibits it. In Islamic law, it's a sexual act that must be heavily punished. It would be bad if the government allows same-sex marriage."

The Indonesian government does not recognize same-sex marriage, but at the same time it does not criminalize homosexual acts. However, two local administrations have issued their own bylaws that treat such acts as crimes. In 2004, municipal authorities in Palembang, South Sumatra, issued a regulation clumping all LGBT-related activity under "prostitution" – an umbrella term that also includes sodomy, sexual abuse and pornography. Under the regulation, anyone charged with committing any of these "prostitution" activities faces the prospect of up to six months' imprisonment and Rp 5 million ($380) in fines.

Meanwhile, in staunchly Islamic Aceh province, the only region in the country allowed to implement a version of shariah, local authorities adopted a shariah-based criminal code last year that stipulates punishment of up to 100 lashes of the cane and 100 months in prison for those convicted of same-sex acts, even if consensual.

The province's criminal code also makes sodomy and the uniquely Islamic offense of zina, or sexual relations out of wedlock, punishable with up to 100 lashes.

While such bylaws have often been greeted as extremist sideshows, the MUI carries more clout with both conservative and moderate Indonesian Muslims, even if its edicts are not legally binding.

Radical groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, have been known to justify their frequent violent attacks on the Ahmadiyah community by citing an MUI fatwa branding the sect heretical.

By inveighing against the LGBT community with its latest fatwa, the council is helping to propagate hatred of an already beleaguered community, says LGBT activist Hartoyo.

"Issuing such a fatwa is as same as promoting hatred and motivating people to carry out violence against others," he said. "If the MUI dislikes homosexuals, it should express its disapproval through other means, in educated and peaceful ways. It shouldn't shroud its message with hate and violence."

Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras, calls the MUI's statement regrettable and says the council has long tried to exceed its actual authority.

"Homosexuality isn't a crime, nor it is a deviant thing. It is merely one's preference and it's private," he said. "Besides, it isn't the duty of MUI to determine national law. The MUI is supposed to educate Indonesia's Muslims. Proposing severe punishment [such as death] shows the MUI's less- than-mature mind-set. It isn't official," he emphasized of the fatwa.

"As a Muslim, I appreciate the MUI's efforts in issuing the fatwa," Hartoyo said. "But, again, as a Muslim, I stand against the fatwa because I have the right to express myself and my preferences as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others."

Human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said groups like the MUI should get past the fact that homosexuality exists in Indonesia, and embrace people for their differences.

"No one should ever have their rights be violated. We're all equal. Human rights don't differ among people, whatever their sexual orientation," he said. "The government mustn't play favorites in protecting its citizens. Be they heterosexual, gay, lesbian or transgender, they must all be protected. We're all equal in the eyes of the law."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/rights-activists-lash-muis-anti-lgbt-fatwa/

Land & agrarian conflicts

Murder of Jambi man renews call for land rights, security

Jakarta Globe - March 8, 2015

Kennial Caroline Laia, Malinau, North Kalimantan – The recent death of a farmer in Sumatra's Jambi province has highlighted the need to address land conflicts often interwoven with rampant deforestation in Indonesia.

Indra Pelani, 22, a member of the local Sugarcane Farmers Union (STT), died late last month after being beaten by security officers hired by Wirakarya Sakti, a subsidiary of paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), as he attempted to pass through a checkpoint near an acacia plantation run by the company, police have said. Indra's alleged assailants surrendered themselves to Jambi Police last week.

The incident has prompted international environmental group Greenpeace to suspend cooperation with APP, according to Agence France-Presse.

The green group had once been one of the strongest critics of APP, accusing it of destroying vast swaths of carbon-rich forests that are home to endangered species such as Sumatran orangutans and tigers. But following APP's announcement two years ago that it would stop using any logs from Indonesia's natural forests, Greenpeace had been supporting the company's efforts.

However, Bustar Maitar, the head of Greenpeace's Indonesia forest campaign, told AFP last week that the group was temporarily withdrawing support for the company's initiatives on forest conservation after Indra's death.

APP said in a statement that it had ordered Wirakarya Sakti to suspend all personnel allegedly involved in the incident.

"We condemn violence and we support Greenpeace's decision to focus its efforts on this issue," it said, adding that efforts would be made "to ensure that justice is done."

STT had been involved in a long-running conflict with Wirakarya over the ownership of 2,000 hectares of land in Jambi prior to last month's incident.

In 2010 and 2012, two other farmers were killed Jambi and Riau under similar circumstances – also amid conflicts with APP suppliers.

"APP must take immediate action to ensure that this is fully and fairly investigated by the authorities with full and unconditional cooperation from the company," Bustar was quoted as saying by Mongabay.com last week.

"APP must also launch a full investigation of security procedures and its contractors to ensure such incidents never happen again," he added.

Food and water crises

Separately, Jambi's Social Services Office has reported that 11 members of indigenous tribes in Batang Hari and Sarolangun districts had died over the past month due to starvation, amid food and clean water crises plaguing the region.

The coordinator of the Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI), Sukmareni, said the crises had been triggered by an increasing rate of land conversions for plantation use in the area.

Indigenous people, who depend on resources provided by the forests, have been increasingly losing their source of food due to rapid growth of monocultural plantations in the areas.

Zenzi Suhadi of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) says the series of deaths due to land conflicts and deforestation should serve as a wake-up call for the government to urgently address the matter.

"This is urgent. We don't want any other people to fall victim. The government must quickly take action in response to this," he said, adding that the government had been turning a blind eye toward land conflicts for decades.

"People must understand their rights. Indra's and other victims' deaths should be a signal for us to help them demand the government uphold their rights."

'Participatory mapping'

An indigenous community in North Kalimantan, however, has not had to wait for the government to protect its forests from exploitation. In 2012, the residents of Punan Adiu village in Malinau district found a way to protect their forests through what is called "participatory mapping."

The mapping allows them to draw strict lines around their customary forests, which in turn allows them to register the forests with the local administration for protection.

"The forest is our home. No one should ever take it from us," says Markus Ilun, the community head of Punan Adiu village.

Punan Adiu, home to 121 people, is surrounded by a swath of 17,400 hectares of virgin tropical forest.

The village is a two-hour drive from the capital of Malinau, but the remoteness of the location has not discouraged corporations from visiting the area to explore for more land to plant oil palms, Markus told the Jakarta Globe in his home village recently.

"In 2013, the subdistrict chief along with three corporate representatives came to our village to lure us to give over our land to be planted with palm trees. Those corporate representatives were introduced as businessmen who had been investing in oil palm plantations in Riau and Jambi districts [in Sumatra]," Markus said.

"We were told that we would get a large amount of money should we give them the land. But we don't want the money. We don't want other people to manage our forests. So we stood against the offer, although other villages near us have agreed to sell their lands to those corporations," he added.

The experience left Markus and his people worried; they feared they might lose their home soon.

That concern motivated Markus, who once visited plantations in Jambi, to consult a local NGO, Punan Watchdog and Empowerment of Malinau (LP3M), to help map their area along with the forests.

"I've visited places like Jambi – And what I've seen worries me. The forest is our home, a place where we turn to when we run out of food. Turning it into monoculture plantations would leave us, as well as our future generations, with nothing," he said. "That's why we initiated a plan to map our village and its surrounding areas, including the forests."

Customary forests

In 2013, the Constitutional Court partially granted a judicial review filed by the Alliance of the Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (AMAN), who sought a revision to the 1999 Forestry Law.

AMAN holds the law responsible for the rapid degradation of indigenous forests in many areas in Indonesia.

The revised law stipulates that customary forests no longer belong to the state – that the state has its own forests and should not disturb indigenous forests.

LP3M chairman Boro Suban Nikolaus said the Constitutional Court's verdict, coupled with a local bylaw that regulates participatory mapping, allowed Punan Adiu villagers to protect their forests.

"To claim theirs as customary forests, a village must first conduct participatory mapping to identify their borders with other villages, along with their forests. That was what the Punan people did," he said. "We started the mapping in 2012 soon after the bylaw was issued. Coupled with the court ruling, our legal basis became even more complete."

The mapping took three years and included forest explorations, demarcations and negotiations.

Punan Adiu and LP3M collaborated with the Indonesian Paddy Community (IPC), Community Mapping Network (JKPP) and AMAN in carrying out the activities. The final map was completed in January this year.

"The next step is to bring this map to the district head of Malinau. Should he agree, he will immediately issue a regional decree, with which Punan Adiu will obtain a legal umbrella to protect its forests," Boro said.

"Through our communications, the local government has shown a positive response. We really hope that the process will run smoothly; it will likely take six months," he added.

The bylaw also regulates the establishment of the Malinau Indigenous Affairs Supervisory Agency (BPUMA), among other things. The agency will be tasked with verifying the authenticity of participatory mapping, and ensuring protection of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Malinau.

"We have drawn the map. We hope that the district head will approve of this," Markus said. "But the most important thing is, we know we are safe. Our forest is safe."

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), 71 percent of Indonesian villagers rely on forest resources.

"It is really important for indigenous people to understand their rights and the law," said IPC chairman Akhmad Asyami. "We hope [Punan Adiu's] map will inspire other villages in Kalimantan and the rest of Indonesia, because we know many people depend on the forest."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/murder-of-jambi-man-renews-call-for-land-rights-security/

Housing & property

Government to build 1 million low-cost homes

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2015

Jakarta – The Public Works and Housing Ministry and state-owned housing developer PT Perumnas will team up to start working on a program to build 1 million homes over the next five years.

Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said the government would start work this year to reduce the backlog in the implementation of the housing program, Antara news agency reported on Thursday.

Basuki said the government had already earmarked Rp 13 trillion (US$986.4 million) from the state budget and Rp 500 million from the Social Security Executive Body (BPJS) for the program to build the housing units.

In a bid to accelerate implementation of the program, Perumnas will receive Rp 1 trillion to build houses for low-income people.

Basuki said the government would improve Perumnas by expanding its role, which would include managing the houses constructed and land previously controlled by the ministry.

Perumnas President Director Himawan Arief Sugoto said his company planned to build 33,500 units of low-cost housing and operate low-cost apartments in 2015.

Himawan said in 2014, Perumnas overshot the targets set in its working plan and corporate budget, posting an income of Rp 1.3 trillion and profits of Rp 135 billion by building 14,250 housing units.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/13/national-scene-govt-build-1-million-low-cost-homes.html

Parliament & legislation

Opposition grouping shrinks as Golkar exits

Jakarta Post - March 11, 2015

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The opposition Red-and-White Coalition appears to have lost the Golkar Party, the second-largest faction at the House of Representatives, as Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly officially recognized the leadership of the pro-government Agung Laksono on Tuesday.

Aburizal Bakrie's camp, however, refuses to surrender and has vowed to bring the case to the Jakarta State Administrative High Court (PTUN) in a desperate attempt to maintain Aburizal's position, although he only has a slim chance of winning his case as the government's decision to recognize Agung was based on the decision of a recent Golkar Party tribunal that recognized Agung as the party's chairman in a split decision.

Agung himself was scheduled to meet with leaders of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's Great Indonesia Coalition, including the NasDem Party's Surya Paloh and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri on Tuesday. He strongly indicated that Golkar would join the ruling coalition.

"We hereby declare our exit from the Red-and-White Coalition. We don't want to be attached to any coalitions. We want to create a positive political climate in the country through our partnership with the Jokowi-Kalla administration," Agung told the press at Golkar's headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta, on Tuesday.

One of Agung's immediate instructions in his capacity as the new Golkar chairman was to order Golkar's faction at the Jakarta City Council to retract its decision to exercise its right of inquiry to investigate Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama.

The recognition of Agung's leadership is also expected to change the formation of leading positions in Golkar's faction at the House, a move that might see the removal of Setya Novanto, who is a known loyalist of Aburizal Bakrie, from his position as house speaker. Setya declined to comment on the matter.

While Agung declined to discuss why Golkar was not officially joining the Great Indonesia Coalition led by the PDI-P, it is suspected that the veteran politician is waiting for Jokowi to make political concessions to convince Golkar elites to join the ruling coalition.

Jokowi himself is experiencing a growing rift with Megawati, the leader of the ruling coalition. The PDI-P nominated Jokowi in the presidential election, but the former president has not been able to hide her disappointment with Jokowi in public, including with regard to the appointment of the new National Police chief.

The President has reportedly wooed political back up from Prabowo Subianto, the founder of the Gerindra Party, in the case of a withdrawal of support from the PDI-P.

Besides Golkar, another member of the Red-and-White Coalition, the National Mandate Party (PAN), also has been experiencing infighting following the election of Zulkifli Hasan as its chairman until 2020.

Zulkifli has indicated that under his leadership, the party will be more flexible, with the possibility of a political-course change in the next few months.

With the exit of Golkar and PAN from the Red-and-White Coalition, its only remaining members are Gerindra and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Although Yasonna, a PDI-P politician, has recognized Agung as Golkar's official chairman, Aburizal has refused to bow to the decision, insisting that his camp will file a lawsuit to challenge the decision.

"The Agung camp has temporarily won. But we will challenge it," Aburizal told a press conference in response to Yasonna's decision. "We will also file a lawsuit against the law and human rights minister as he used the problematic ruling to justify the decision" the business tycoon added.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/11/opposition-grouping-shrinks-golkar-exits.html

Jakarta & urban life

Jakarta city council starts formal probe against Basuki

Jakarta Globe - March 11, 2015

Lenny Tristia Tambun & Carlos Paath Jakarta – The Jakarta City Council launched a formal investigation against Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama on Wednesday, in a move that could result in his impeachment.

Muhammad Sangaji, chairman of the council's investigation committee, said his team would conduct a marathon hearing session, which he said would conclude sometime next week. "I am giving 10 days tops and we should have the results," he said of his team's investigation.

Basuki has drawn the ire of councilors for refusing to submit the Rp 90 trillion ($6.8 billion) version of the budget to the Home Ministry, submitting instead the Rp 78 trillion version his administration proposed.

In response, Basuki accused councilors of surreptitiously adding wasteful spending to the capital's budget without his approval.

In a floor vote, the council unanimously voted to launch an inquiry, which could lead to Basuki's impeachment, on the grounds that his move to submit the lower budget was unlawful and in contempt of the council's authority.

But amid strong signs of public support for the governor, some parties indicated that they would withdraw their support for the inquiry.

On Tuesday, the National Mandate Party (PAN) became the third to renege on their "yea" vote, joining the United Development Party (PPP) and Sangaji's own National Democratic Party (Nasdem). The National Awakening Party (PKB) may also be mulling a similar move.

But Sangaji said despite the three parties' withdrawal, the inquiry process would continue as the council had earlier decided. "Just wait, we'll summon Ahok himself," the councilor said, referring to the governor by his popular nickname.

The council on Wednesday summoned several contractors hired by the capital to implement an online budgeting system, which the governor said would put an end to manipulation by city officials and council members, which have encroached on the capital's coffers for years.

"All sides linked to the [budgeting] process will be summoned. So everything will be clear and no one will accuse each other [of wrongdoing]. In 10 days we will reach our conclusion. Afterwards we will stage a plenary [for a floor vote]," Sangaji said.

Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo meanwhile signaled that Basuki had acted according to the rules and regulations by submitting the city's original version. "We will only process one version," Tjahjo said on Wednesday.

When asked whether that version was the one originally proposed by the city, the minister's response was: "Of course!"

The ministry, Tjahjo said, will ratify the city's version soon. "We have finished evaluating the city's entire budget. We will sign and send it [back to the city government] immediately," he said.

The minister also indicated that the city's final budget might even be less than the proposed Rp 78 trillion.

Tjahjo explained that the ministry wanted the city administration to lower the amounts earmarked for officials' salaries and bonuses, saying that its Rp 19 trillion proposal was too high.

"It is even bigger than the money spent on flood mitigation in the capital, which is Rp 5.3 trillion," he said. "Other non-essential expenses, such as overseas trips, visits, advertisements and meetings, are OK in principle but must be reduced also," the minister added.

The ministry will return its evaluation to the city administration and the council – a potential source for more disputes.

"If there's a deadlock, the ministry will have no choice but to reenact the 2014 budget," he said, adding that the Home Ministry's decision would not be affected by the ongoing inquiry. "We will not let [the budget] be held hostage," he said.

"If [the council] wants to proceed with its inquiry, go ahead. The same with the KPK and police," Tjahjo said, referring to separate investigations launched by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Jakarta Police into irregularities in last year's budget, which Basuki said was marred by similar manipulations.

The police already questioned dozens of witnesses in connection with suspicious earmarks in the city's budget for last year to procure uninterruptable power supply devices for schools that did not request them, and at costs that appear to be highly inflated.

Last year, the city spent nearly Rp 330 billion on the UPS devices for 55 schools in the capital, in a program that Basuki says his administration had never proposed. The schools say they neither needed, nor asked for the devices, which at a price tag of Rp 6 billion each is highly inflated compared with retail listings of no more than Rp 20 million.

The companies listed as tender winners for the procurement were also deemed suspicious. The addresses that are listed turned out to be empty warehouses and small shops.

"We want to know more about who these tender winners are," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said. "We want to look at their profiles, including their previous [procurement] activities to see if they truly deserve to be [tender] winners."

The police, he continued, have also questioned school officials to determine whether there were any criminal acts in how the project budget was compiled, particularly with schools saying they never needed UPS devices in the first place.

"We will examine [the procurement] from the budgeting process all the way to the final delivery. So anyone involved in this chain should better be ready to face [police] questioning," Martinus said. He added that as of Wednesday, the Jakarta Police had summoned 21 people.

The latest to be summoned were Lasro Marbun, former Jakarta Education Agency chief, Ibnu Hajar chief of the agency's West Jakarta chapter, Rani Nurani the project's manager for West Jakarta and Saryono, the principal of 112 State High School, one of the schools receiving the UPS devices.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta/jakarta-city-council-starts-formal-probe-basuki/

Transjakarta grounds 60 buses after blaze

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2015

Dewanti A. Wardhani, Jakarta – Following a recent incident in which a Transjakarta bus caught fire, city-owned bus operator PT Transjakarta has decided to ground a total of 60 buses, half of which are manufactured by Chinese Zhong Tong and another half by Yutong, also China-based.

A Zhong Tong Corridor 9 Transjakarta bus caught fire last weekend near Pancoran in South Jakarta while traveling from Pluit in North Jakarta to Pinang Ranti in East Jakarta. The fire claimed no lives.

Transjakarta president director Steve Kosasih said that the firm had decided to ground the Zhong Tong and Yutong buses for the safety of passengers. Last year, a Corridor 1 Yutong bus caught fire in Sisingamangaraja in South Jakarta while traveling from Kota Tua in West Jakarta to Blok M in South Jakarta.

"Thirty Zhong Tong and 30 Yutong buses have been grounded until the bus manufacturers can guarantee the safety of their buses," Kosasih told reporters at City Hall in Central Jakarta on Monday.

Kosasih went on that although Corridor 9 would be disrupted, his company was not willing to take risks and that the manufacturers must guarantee the safety of their buses. Kosasih also apologized to passengers for any inconvenience caused.

"We apologize for the inconvenience [...] however, we are not willing to take risks and see another accident occur," he insisted.

Kosasih went on to say that night buses, locally known as amari, would substitute the Zhong Tong and Yutong buses. Currently, Transjakarta operates 55 single buses at night-time.

"We will use at least 30 amari buses as substitutes for the grounded buses in Corridor 9 [...] we will operate the Zhong Tong and Yutong buses once the manufacturers give us a written guarantee that their buses are safe for operation," he said.

Previously, Transjakarta head of general affairs and human resources Sri Kuncoro revealed that there were currently a total of 823 units of buses. However, only about 400 units are deemed fit for operation while the rest are parked unattended in a bus pool.

Furthermore, he said that of the 406 operational buses, up to 120 buses would experience technical problems each day, whether major or minor. "Which means that only 280 buses are operational each day," he said.

Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has said that the city is planning to procure a total of 51 articulated buses. Roughly 20 buses are set to arrive in June and will ply Corridor 1.

On Friday, a panel of judges at the Corruption Court in South Jakarta sentenced Drajat Adhyaksa, former secretary at the Transportation Agency, to five years in prison after the court found him guilty of corruption related to the procurement of Transjakarta buses from a China-based manufacturer.

On the same day and in the same case, the court sentenced Setyo Tuhu, the head of the bus procurement division, to four years in prison.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/10/transjakarta-grounds-60-buses-after-blaze.html

ICW calls out 'dubious' education agency budget

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2015

Indra Budiari, Jakarta – The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says it has found at least 454 irregularities in the 2014 budget for the Jakarta Education Agency, estimating that markups were responsible for Rp 1.2 trillion (US$92 million) in state losses.

Last year, the Jakarta administration allocated Rp 5.06 trillion for 1,482 activities at the Education Agency. Of the Rp 5.06 trillion, the ICW highlighted Rp 2.06 trillion appearing suspicious.

Meanwhile, the agency managed to realize just Rp 2.32 trillion of total allocation, and almost Rp 1.2 trillion was irregularly spent.

ICW budget monitoring program manager Firdaus Ilyas said Monday that the allocation for the now-infamous un-interruptible power supply (UPS) packages for state schools, which cost the city about Rp 5.9 billion each, was one of the irregularities identified.

Based on ICW data, the allocation was divided into parts: Rp 1.9 billion for each UPS unit; Rp 3.1 billion for each UPS electrical installation; and Rp 970 million for an iron shelf for each UPS.

"The 39 companies that won the UPS tender were also suspicious," Firdaus said at the ICW office in Kalibata, South Jakarta.

According to Firdaus, the majority of the tender winners also won procurement projects in other agencies. The 39 companies won a total of 197 projects between 2012 to 2014 worth some Rp 875 billion. Firdaus said the UPS procurement tender also seemed hastily arranged, as it was started on Nov. 7, 2014 and ended on Dec. 1, 2014.

Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has brought to light irregularities in the 2015 draft city budget, which he alleged contained Rp 12.1 trillion in dana siluman, or "sneaky budget".

He has also highlighted the problem of dana siluman, which he said had been an enduring blight on good governance. On Feb. 27, Ahok filed a report with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), submitting documents he said was proof of irregularities related to city budgets from 2012 to 2014.

The ICW also found that last year the agency allocated Rp 5.9 billion for scanners and 3D printers, Rp 3.8 billion on a tool for study evaluation and Rp 5.9 billion on iMultimedia Education Connect System.

"The iMultimedia Education Connect System budget allocation covered, among other items, Rp 3.5 billion for i-Connect Physics 6: i-Connect Compatible Physics Interactive Content. We have traced it to the schools and there is no explanation about what it was," Firdaus said.

Last year in February, Ahok replaced Education Agency head Taufik Yudi Mulyanto with Lasro Marbun, who is now the head of the City Inspectorate.

Last June, Ahok said Lasro had found Rp 2.4 trillion in dubious budget allocations at the agency. After the revelation of the UPS procurement last month, Lasro admitted he'd been outsmarted, as the UPS procurement had been carried out at the Education Agency in each municipality; in last year's case, in West Jakarta and in Central Jakarta.

At Monday's press conference, a researcher from the Indonesia Budget Center, Roy Salam, commented on the council's decision to send its own version of the draft budget to the Home Ministry. Councilors did so after accusing Ahok of sending an illegal version of the bill.

Roy said the move constituted an abuse of authority because councilors could only discuss and pass a city budget proposed by the city administration.

"The councilors have been in the comfort zone for too long. We finally have a governor who wants to stop this kind of practice," Roy said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/10/icw-calls-out-dubious-education-agency-budget.html

Armed forces & defense

Navy officer arrested over drugs, counterfeit money

Jakarta Globe - March 13, 2015

Carlos Roy Fajarta Barus, Jakarta – The Indonesian Navy's military police, or Pomal, arrested a naval officer last week after he was found with crystal methamphetamine and pages of counterfeit bills.

Acting on an investigation that began on Feb. 27, Pomal officers arrested Maj. Zaid Joko Utomo at his house in Sunter, North Jakarta, on March 4. He was found with crystal methamphetamine and 69,000 pages of $100 bills.

"We have taken a major in the naval service into custody over alleged drug abuse. We also found suspicious dollars," said Gen. Moeldoko, chief of Indonesia's Armed Forces, on Friday.

The alleged counterfeiting operation involved civilians from Bali, who have been identified as I Made Gede Markadiwan and Ketut Srianing. Pomal confiscated two boxes worth of evidence and a banknote-counting machine at I Made and Ketut's house.

"Ketut admitted he owned the dollars during questioning," said Col. S. Irawan, special operation task force commander.

The Navy plans to hand over I Made and Ketut to the National Police's detective's unit (Bareskrim) along with the evidence it has collected. Zaid, on the other hand, will be held by Pomal for further processing.

If found guilty in a trail by court-martial, Zaid could face a dishonorable dismissal from the Navy.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/navy-officer-nabbed-over-drug-abuse-and-money-counterfeiting/

Fiji military to learn from Indonesia's army

Radio New Zealand International - March 13, 2015

A former senior Fiji military figure, Jone Baledrokadroka, says there is much that the Royal Fiji Military Forces can learn from Indonesia's army. The comment comes as the two countries have agreed to forge closer military co-operation.

The Foreign Ministers from both countries recently agreed to have greater cooperation in relation to United Nations peacekeeping forces of both countries.

As part of this, Fiji peacekeepers are to undergo training at a centre in Indonesia. Mr Baledrokadroka says Indonesia's military has extensive peacekeeping experience and that training with them is a natural progression.

"Indonesia has got quite a large military and Fiji is looking at trying to use these Indonesian military facilities, especially in peacekeeping. And other training of course, to do with... in nation-building and rural development, those sort of areas."

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/268562/fiji-military-to-learn-from-indonesia's-army

Indonesia faces proxy war: Army chief

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2015

Suherdjoko, Jakarta – Indonesia is facing a proxy war in which a third party is being used to attack Indonesia in any way, Army chief of staff Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said on Tuesday.

"A clear example of a proxy war is the seceding of East Timor [now Timor Leste] from Indonesia. Why were there efforts to secede East Timor from Indonesia?" he asked students at Diponegoro University in Semarang.

"It turned out that there was the Great Sunrise [oil field] in Timor Gap. A book on this issue was written by an Australian who was an adviser to [then separatist movement leader] Xanana Gusmao."

Gatot also pointed out the huge demonstration against 19 companies in 2013 that led to mass layoffs and rallies against 20 oil palm plantations managed by Indonesians.

"In the end, many of the oil palm plantations were shut down and sold to foreigners. However there was not a single demonstration against foreign- owned oil palm plantations," he said.

The four-starred general also said proxy war had targeted young people, saying there were 21 cases of university campuses being vandalized by their own students in the past three years.

He added that the rampant circulation of drugs among the youth was connected to the proxy war with an aim to weaken Indonesian youths.

Gatot said to mitigate proxy war in Indonesia, all parties, especially the youth, had to be able to use logic, have a conscience and think. He also called on the students to work on themselves to further develop Indonesia. (nvn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/10/indonesia-faces-proxy-war-army-chief.html

Criminal justice & prison system

Cabinet members urge President Joko Widodo to show mercy to Bali nine

Sydney Morning Herald - March 14, 2015

Tom Allard – Prominent figures in the Indonesian government, including senior cabinet members, have been urging President Joko Widodo to reconsider the executions of the Bali nine duo, Fairfax Media has learned.

But Mr Joko has failed to be swayed, although an apparent delay of several weeks – and possibly months – in the executions will be used to redouble efforts to save the lives of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

"There has been a direct approach to him [from a senior cabinet member] saying Chan and Sukumaran should not be executed but Jokowi rejected it," one source said.

Fairfax Media has been asked not to name the interlocutor because it may jeopardise efforts to save the lives of the Australians and others on death row.

Among those advocating a change of course are figures personally opposed to the death penalty, but also influential government members who publicly support capital punishment, insiders say.

Jakarta governor Basuki Purnama – a close ally of Mr Joko – has already gone public with his objections to the killings, as has Prananda Surya Paloh, whose father is media mogul Surya Paloh, another key backer of the president.

But concerns are far more widespread among the elite, and the high ranks of government.

While the message about the rehabilitation of Sukumaran and Chan has resonated, the bigger concern is the damage being done to Indonesia's international reputation as the execution saga unfolds.

"Cracks are showing," said another source. "They know that after these executions, there are many more to come."

Mr Joko announced in December he would reject all 64 applications for clemency for drug offenders facing the death penalty. Six of those have already been killed, including five foreigners. The next lot of 10 includes nine foreigners.

Further down the track, among those to be executed are two Britons, another Dutch man and six Malaysians. The killing of the Malaysians is highly problematic for the Indonesian government. There are more than 200 Indonesians facing the death penalty in Malaysia, according to the Indonesian NGO Migrant Care.

Mr Joko has steadfastly maintained he wants to go ahead with the executions, which are popular in Indonesia, and publicly insisted he is unfazed by the international pressure.

As well as Australia's strong diplomacy, the governments of Brazil, Holland, France, the Philippines and Nigeria have all lodged protests or withdrawn their ambassadors.

However, sources maintain Joko – a former mayor with no experience with foreign affairs – has been shocked by the strength of the condemnation. "Jokowi just wants it to cool down," said another insider.

Cabinet secretary Andi Widjajanto, a key confidante of the Indonesian president, took the unusual step on Thursday of rebuking co-ordinating minister for security Tedjo Edhy Purdjiatno for his remarks that Indonesia would unleash a wave of 10,000 asylum seekers on to Australia if it continued to agitate against the executions.

Mr Andi said the policy would not be introduced and that Indonesia was keen to cooperate with other countries on combating drug crime.

The government has decided to postpone the killings until legal appeals are heard and won't proceed with the deaths by firing squad of any of the 10 felons slated for execution until they are all completed.

But the office of attorney general sowed more confusion when spokesman Tony Spontana insisted on Thursday that the Supreme Court had written to say it would reject all three judicial reviews from death row inmates before they had even been considered.

An official at the Supreme Court said it wasn't true. All cases would be decided individually, he said.

He said that one of the judicial reviews – from Indonesian Zainal Abidin – was not being processed on administrative grounds as the documents presented to the court were photocopies and there was no formal record the review had been filed.

Zainal's lawyer Ade Yuliawan said the comments from Mr Spontana were "astonishing", adding that his remarks had come completely out of the blue and deeply distressed the family.

Chan and Sukumaran have a final appeal to be heard on Thursday. Indonesia's judicial commission is also investigating claims that the judges in their case asked for bribes in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Indonesian human rights groups are preparing a Constitutional Court challenge related to death penalty cases that could also affect the duo.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/cabinet-members-urge-indonesias-president-joko-widodo-to-show-mercy-to-bali-nine-duo-20150313-143ls0.html

'Abbott, Say Sorry' – Bags of coins delivered at Oz Embassy

Agence France Presse - March 10, 2015

Jakarta – Indonesian demonstrators on Tuesday delivered bags of coins to the Australian embassy, saying they were handing back tsunami aid money after Canberra sought to use the issue to pressure Jakarta into halting the execution of two Australians.

Shouting "Shut Abbott's mouth" and "Abbott, say sorry," they trampled on a poster bearing a picture of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott with tape plastered over his mouth, as they handed over the coins.

Abbott last month said Jakarta should remember the $1 billion of assistance sent from Australia in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed around 220,000 people.

His remarks were aimed at persuading Jakarta to halt the impending execution of the Australian ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin smuggling gang, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who are expected to be put to death soon. But the bid backfired and caused great offense in Indonesia, where groups of protesters started a campaign to collect coins to pay back the Australian aid.

At the latest protest in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in recent weeks, a group of about 30 students handed over seven plastic bags of coins and bills to embassy personnel, totaling about seven million rupiah ($535).

"What Abbott did was a low-class act," campaign coordinator Andi Sinulingga told AFP. "He could have been more civilized and polite. We never asked for help but Australia offered to do so. If we knew they were not sincere, we would have rejected it," Andi added.

Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, were sentenced to death for trying to traffic drugs out of Indonesia in 2006. They are expected to be executed soon following the recent rejection of their appeals for presidential clemency.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/abbott-say-sorry-bags-coins-delivered-oz-embassy/

Indonesian minister threatens to release 'human tsunami' of asylum

Sydney Morning Herald - March 10, 2015

Jewel Topsfield – Indonesia could release 10,000 asylum seekers to Australia if Canberra continues to antagonise the republic over the execution of the Bali nine duo, an Indonesian minister has warned.

This would create a "human tsunami", according to the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno.

The former Navy chief, who is a controversial political figure in Indonesia, said Australia was trying to pressure Indonesia into cancelling the executions by raising the issue of its $1 billion in Boxing Day tsunami aid and discouraging visitors to Bali.

He reminded Australia that Jakarta had been working hard to prevent asylum seekers attempting to travel to Australia in boats.

"If Canberra keeps doing things that displease Indonesia, Jakarta will surely let the illegal immigrants go to Australia," Mr Tedjo said on Metro TV. "There are more than 10,000 [asylum seekers] in Indonesia today. If they are let go to Australia, it will be like a human tsunami."

Mr Tedjo has previously supported isolating the 10,500 refugees and asylum seekers on a remote island in Indonesia.

The chief security minister said it was "no big deal" if Australia stopped trading with Indonesia in the wake of the execution of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

"We have calculated, in fact, Australia enjoys the surplus on the Indonesia-Australia trade," Mr Tedjo said. "Australia will in fact receive pressure domestically if it stops its livestock exports to Indonesia since Indonesia is Australia's main market."

Mr Tedjo, who was delivering a speech on nationhood at the School of Law at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said Australia needed to respect the Indonesian judicial system.

He said a prisoner swap, which was proposed by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in a last-ditch attempt to save the lives of Chan and Sukumaran, was "unethical". "We respect other countries' legal systems, Australia must learn about ethics here in University of Gadjah Mada," Mr Tedjo said.

Mr Tedjo recommended the appointment of graft suspect Budi Gunawan as national police chief and outraged many in January when he lashed out at supporters of the popular and widely trusted Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

In December, Mr Tedjo also provoked anger when he suggested unresolved human rights cases were things of the past.

Views are divided on capital punishment within government ranks.

MP Prananda Surya Paloh, who is a member of the same party in the ruling coalition as Mr Tedjo, said the government should have seen the positive side of the Bali nine pair in jail, according to news website Okezone.com.

"With regard to the execution of Bali nine duo Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, I, Prananda Surya Paloh, would like to say that today is a very sad day with regard to humanity," he wrote on his website.

Mr Prananda, whose father is media mogul Surya Paloh, the chairman of Nasdem Party, tweeted that replacing the death penalty with another form of punishment was not a sign of weakness.

Meanwhile, Indonesian demonstrators took five bags of coins to the Australian embassy to 'repay' Australian aid after the 2004 tsunami and warned they would bring their government down if the Bali nine executions were cancelled.

The coins were not accepted by the embassy. Fairfax Media understands the police have been given the names of several charities to which the coins could be donated.

The noisy but small protest was part of the #coinforAustralia campaign that was launched after Tony Abbott asked Indonesia to reciprocate for the $1billion in aid money. The Prime Minister's comments caused widespread offence across Indonesia.

About 20 protesters, some of whom were from a Muslim students' organisation called PII, called on Tony Abbott "aka the big mouth" to apologise to the Indonesian people.

[With Karuni Rompies.]

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/bali-nine-executions-indonesian-minister-threatens-to-release-human-tsunami-of-asylum-seekers-20150310-140dhn.html

Jokowi 'overcompensating' with firm stance on death penalty

Jakarta Post - March 9, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – Political analysts have said that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo may be overcompensating for his indecisiveness in the standoff between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) by maintaining his firm stance on the execution of death-row drug convicts in facing pressure from the international community.

Political analyst Nico Harjanto of Jakarta-based pollster Populi Center said on Saturday that the month-long standoff between the KPK and the police had exposed Jokowi's acute indecisiveness to the public and now he was determined to improve his battered standing.

"President Jokowi is trying to show that he is also a force to be reckoned with. He's trying to make up for his vacillation in the selection of the next police chief," he said.

The standoff between the KPK and the police force started late last year after the antigraft body declared then-police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a graft suspect.

Although Jokowi issued numerous statements calling on both law enforcement agencies to ease the tension, it was not until late last month that Jokowi finally announced that he was replacing Budi with the National Police's deputy chief, Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti.

At the same time, he also suspended two KPK commissioners, Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, who had been named suspects by the National Police for petty crimes only days after the KPK named Budi a suspect.

While he was weighing his options in the KPK-police standoff, Jokowi has been adamant about executing drug convicts, saying that it was part of the country's "war on drugs".

The President has declined to grant clemency to 64 death-row convicts and has instructed that they be executed as soon as possible despite protests from the international community.

Although neither Jokowi nor the Attorney General's Office (AGO) have confirmed a date for the next batch of executions, nine death-row drug convicts have been transferred to the Nusakambangan prison island south of Cilacap, Central Java, where all but one of this year's executions took place.

Nico said, however, that it was unfair to put all the blame on Jokowi as he was only finishing what his predecessor failed to finish.

"The previous government postponed dealing with the petitions for clemency from all these death-row drug convicts. None of it was processed. This was because he [Former president Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono] had a 'zero enemies' policy and did not want to anger other countries," he said. During Yudhoyono's 10-year tenure, 24 people were executed.

Meanwhile, an international relations analyst from Bina Nusantara University, Tirta Mursitama, said the onus was now on the Foreign Ministry to find a way to convince the international community to respect Jokowi's decision.

"The Foreign Ministry has to find a way to deal with the situation. It can't just wait for the President to deal with the tension," he said.

Dinna Wisnu of Paramadina University also said the Foreign Ministry must find a way to negotiate with countries that had citizens on death row here, away from the media spotlight.

However, Dinna cautioned that if Indonesia wanted to become a major international player, it should reconsider its stance on the death penalty. "Internationally, the trend has been against capital punishment. At least 80 percent of countries worldwide don't have it anymore," she said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/09/jokowi-overcompensating-with-firm-stance-death-penalty.html

Bali Nine: Megawati tells Joko Widodo not to grant clemency

Sydney Morning Herald - March 9, 2015

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri has reportedly told the current president not to grant clemency to those on death row, blaming drugs for the spread of HIV in Indonesia.

Ms Megawati is the mentor of President Joko Widodo and the leader of his party, the Indonesian Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Critics have long claimed that Mr Joko is a "puppet president". Ms Megawati is believed to be behind some of his key decisions, including naming graft suspect Budi Gunawan as police chief.

At a speech on International Women's Day, Ms Megawati said drug use in Indonesia had entered a critical state and was the trigger for the spread of HIV.

"I therefore told Jokowi that those who sold drugs and who have been sentenced to death should not got their clemency pleas granted," she was quoted saying on Indonesian news website Kompas.

She said capital punishment for narcotics offences should be seen from the perspective of the victims, with drugs robbing many young Indonesians of their futures.

On December 9, Mr Joko told an audience at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University that he would reject all clemency petitions for drug felons.

"The clemency requests are not on my table yet. But I guarantee that there will be no clemency for convicts who committed narcotics-related crimes," he said.

The executions have been delayed pending the outcomes of several legal cases being pursued by the 10 felons facing imminent death.

Lawyers for Bali nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are this week appealing against the rejection of the Australians' clemency pleas on the basis the president did not consider their cases on an individual basis or consider their rehabilitation.

The Administrative Court ruled earlier this month it did not have jurisdiction over presidential decisions. However an appeal to this finding will be heard on Thursday.

The families of Chan and Sukumaran are due to visit the men on the penal island of Nusakambangan on Monday morning for the first time since they were transferred from Bali.

Meanwhile, four naval warships that were in Bali waters for the transfer of the Bali nine duo, are now heading to Nusakambangan to secure the area ahead of the executions.

"We've been here for a week to provide a feeling of security for the people of Bali from any threat because the drug death convicts were jailed in Bali," Letkol Laut Daru Cahyo Sumirat, the commander of the Diponegoro-365 warship was quoted saying on news website Detik. "This is for the sake of the nation's integrity in the eyes of the world. We will show that Indonesia is serious in upholding the law."

The Australian government has complained about an excessive show of military force during the transfer of Chan and Sukumaran to Nusakambangan.

"It seemed that our citizens were singled out for treatment designed to maximise publicity that was certainly at odds with the treatment of other citizens of other countries in the same position," Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/bali-nine-megawati-tells-joko-widodo-not-to-grant-clemency-20150309-13yw5a.html

Widodo says abolishing death penalty possible, but not for a 'long

Sydney Morning Herald - March 8, 2015

Tom Allard, Cilacap – Indonesia's president Joko Widodo says he is open to abolishing the death penalty, but not for a "long time" and only if the Indonesian people want it.

Mr Joko made the remarks in an interview with Al Jazeera but otherwise defended his plans to kill drug traffickers, including Australian men Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The organisers of the Bali nine smuggling syndicate have been awaiting execution on Nuskambangan since Wednesday, and will get see their families for the first time on Monday in what will be an emotional reunion.

This week, their legal appeal, along with several other death row inmates, will be heard after the spokesman for the country's attorney general flagged a delay in the executions, saying they may not happen this month.

Mr Joko's remarks about a future ban on the death penalty are surprising and are still being digested by supporters for the Australians.

"The Constitution and existing laws still allow [the death penalty] but in the future if it is necessary to change it and [if] the people really want it, why not?" Mr Joko said in the interview, broadcast in full on Saturday.

"I think we want to listen to what people want first. It's still a long time to go through and I do not want to talk about the issue now."

Indonesian diplomats reportedly told a United Nations seminar in Geneva last week that a moratorium was possible in the future. However, its foreign minister Retno Marudi later denied this had happened.

Polls show strong support for the death penalty in Indonesia, with approval running at 70 per cent or higher.

However, Indonesia halted executions for more than four years during the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, helping it save some 200 of its own citizens on death row overseas during that period.

In rejecting the clemency appeals of the Bali nine drug offenders and others on death row, Mr Joko said he considered the amount of drugs that had been distributed.

"When I rejected clemency I took into consideration how many drugs they smuggled, how many pills they distributed.... The court has sentenced them and we cannot discriminate between countries."

The Bali nine smuggling ring was bringing 8.3 kilos of heroin to Australia, not Indonesia.

Another condemned man slated to be executed alongside the Australian pair, Ghanaian Martin Anderson (alias Belo), was caught with just 50 grams of heroin in 2003.

Mr Joko said the country was facing a drugs "emergency". He said there were 4.5 million people in drug rehabilitation programs and "at least 1.5 million people who cannot be cured".

"This is the picture of Indonesia's future, our next generation. We want to send a strong message to drug smugglers that Indonesia is firm and serious in tackling the drug problem and one of the consequences is execution," he said.

"Most importantly, our diplomats can explain to other countries the urgency of our drug problem in Indonesia. Explain to them about the conditions here, that drugs are entering villages, ruining our young ones, are being sold at campuses. Even universities have drug problems. This is an emergency."

Of those to be killed alongside Chan and Sukumaran, nine are foreigners. The mass executions have sparked diplomatic protests from Australia, France, Nigeria and the Philippines.

On Friday, Indonesia's attorney-general announced a delay in the executions as legal appeals were heard and preparations finalised at Nusakambangan, the penal island where the executions are to take place.

At least five the 10 condemned have legal appeals in the works. Chan and Sukumaran's appeal to the state administrative court will be heard in Jakarta on Thursday.

It will be their second attempt to challenge the rejection of their clemency petition by Mr Joko. The first challenge failed after the same court determined it had no jurisdiction over presidential decrees.

Indonesia's judicial commission is also investigating allegations that the judges who sentenced them to death asked for bribes in exchange for a more lenient sentence.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/joko-widodo-says-abolishing-death-penalty-possible-but-not-for-a-long-time-20150308-13y6ve.html

Death penalty doesn't violate human rights: Religious affairs minister

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2015

Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakin Saifuddin has said that capital punishment does not violate human rights.

"Indonesia adopts a human rights policy that can be restricted by law and is aimed at protecting and respecting the rights of others," Lukman said in Kendari, southeast Sulawesi, on Saturday.

In Indonesia, he said, the death penalty was handed down to drug and graft convicts on account of the destructive effects of the crimes committed. "By sentencing drugs convicts to death [Indonesia] protects the human rights of others," the minister said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Indonesia is scheduled to execute eleven death-row convicts despite global outcry, following the execution of an Indonesian and five foreign nationals on Jan. 18 for their involvement in drug trafficking.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/08/death-penalty-doesnt-violate-human-rights-religious-affairs-minister.html

Analysis & opinion

Widodo, the death sentence and Indonesia's political vacuum

Max Lane - March 13, 2015

I do not know what the prospects are that President Widodo will stop the current implementation of the death sentence for people convicted of drug related crimes. There is nothing in any of Widodo's statements that indicates a change of mind on this issue.

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera he reaffirmed his decision stating that it was necessary also to "remember the victims". It was not clear whether this was being presented as a means to lessen the criminal activity as a disincentive or simply as punishment. On the other hand, the Indonesian government has now several times announced a delay in the process to await the outcome of legal processes. A positive outcome in one of the legal appeals is probably the best hope of commutation of sentences, although Indonesia is in an unpredictable state and perhaps anything can happen.

Within Indonesia itself there have been people both fighting the executions practically, such as the groups of lawyers, including well known legal figure, Todung Mulya Lubis, who have been assisting in various legal cases as well as speaking out. Human rights and civil liberties organisations have also spoken out. There have been public fora where academics from several different universities have spoken out against the death sentence. These include, among others, academics from the Jakarta State University, University of Indonesia and the Islamic oriented Paramadina University. The English language news media, especially the Jakarta Globe, has strongly editorialised against the death sentences. The Jakarta Globe's editorial was entitled: "Okay, Mr. Tough Guy. We Get It. Now Stop." Former foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda has also spoken out against the death sentences.

In an article on March 8 in the Jakarta Globe, the reporter was able to find street vox pop's both in favour of the death penalty for drug crime convictees as well as those who thought the punishment was too harsh.

Despite these voices, it is probably true to say that they have been unable to make a major impact on the national political discourse. Widodo has announced, or hinted, that there may be an eventual moratorium on the death sentence. This was mentioned at a recent UN commission hearing in Geneva. Such a hint probably reflects a combination of the considerable international criticism Widodo has received, as well as from the dissident domestic voices in society, and perhaps also in his cabinet. Even so, the dominant theme in the mainstream political conversation has not been around the rights and wrongs of the death sentence, but rather around the importance of resisting attacks on sovereignty on this issue, that is of resisting criticism and pressure from outside of Indonesia.

There is a major mismatch between the ideological life of Indonesia society at large and that of the formal political arena, of parties and the parliament. There has been no serious opposition to the death penalty from any party in parliament and, as far as I know, from any parliamentarian. The criticisms have been from outside the "elit politik" as they are called. While things have slowly moved on in many areas from the 33 years of the Suharto era, which ended when the dictator was forced to resign in 1998, this has been least the case in relation to the formal political institutions which are in the hands of the "elit politik", almost all of whom were formed during the Suharto era or see themselves as continuous in one way or another with that era, including Widodo.

The values of the political elite are essentially those consolidated during that era, which began with the state organised mass killings of 1965-66 (hailed as progress by the western countries, including the Australian elite) and which was followed by a twenty year long process of systematic re-education of Indonesian society through both the political parties and the school system, creating a society in Suharto's image. It was not surprising that by the late 1990s', almost the whole of society outside this elite saw it as being a product of K.K.N. – Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism. The death sentence was carried out and defended by Suharto both in the form of the mass killings of 1965-66 (with estimates of up to 1 million people killed) as well as a part of the formal court system. In the 1980s Suharto also ordered extra-judicial killings of petty criminals as what he later described as "shock therapy" for society. Thousands were shot dead and left in the street.

The protest movement that forced Suharto's resignation was focused on the K.K.N. issues and the general repression he used to defend a regime of corruption, collusion and nepotism. The movement grew so quickly and pushed out Suharto so quickly, that its agenda did not have time to extend to other questions. The elite was forced to allow the establishment of a Corruption Eradication Commission, that was even given the power to investigate and arrest, without reference to the police or attorney- general. The National Human Rights Commission that they were also forced to establish did not, however, have any such equivalent powers.

So today the mainstream, formalised political establishment – whose main representatives are the current parties and their politicians – reflect those Suharto era values, both on KKN issues as well as state violence and human rights. As regards the latter, state violence is still a major feature of the political regime in west Papua. Of course, if there is no differences among the political establishment on an issue like the death sentence and therefore there is no public debate with any national profile, then it means there is no big discussion at the grass-roots either. Dissident voices will be mainly fighting inertia.

This situation will change, although the timing is hard to predict. The change that is coming is when organised social forces outside the elit politik, most likely from within the labor movement and university campuses, begin to challenge the monopoly on the articulation of social values by the political establishment, still so marked by the bankrupt values of the brutal and kleptocratic Suharto era. This is why the elite still ban any material on the violent birth of the Suharto era from reaching a mass audience in the country, such as their ban on the films THE ACT OF KILLING and its sequel, LOOK OF SILENCE. Perhaps, the dissident voices on the death sentence, and the campus students defying authority and thugs to screen these films, can be seen as the earliest signals that these changes will come. It won't be an easy transition.

Source: http://maxlaneonline.com/2015/03/13/article-widodo-the-death-sentence-and-indonesias-political-vacuum-by-max-lane/