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Indonesia News Digest 22 – June 9-15, 2015

West Papua

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West Papua

Asia Pacific Greens adopt West Papua resolution

Radio New Zealand International - June 15, 2015

The 3rd Congress of the Asia Pacific Greens Federation has adopted a resolution on the West Papuan self-determination struggle.

The congress was held at the weekend in Silverstream, near New Zealand's capital, and featured delegates from a range of countries including Iraq, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

The resolution, proposed by Greens delegates from PNG, Solomon Islands, New Zealand and Indonesia recognises and supports the human rights and self determination of the people of West Papua as Melanesians and supports their bid for membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group

The Federation requests that the Indonesian government has dialogue with West Papuan leaders. It also supports West Papuans' Pacific identity as Melanesians who should have a voice in Pacific leadership groups.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276297/asia-pacific-greens-adopt-west-papua-resolution

More signals from Jakarta about opening up Papua

Radio New Zealand International - June 15, 2015

There are further signs from Indonesia's government that it is willing to open up access to the Papua region.

The Minister for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, who is Indonesia's first Papuan minister, says by reporting on Papua, journalists can help address the region's main problems, such as violence.

Yohana Yembise says violence, including domestic and sexual violence, is Papua's number one problem, and that men still hold the economic power in the region.

According to Ms Yembise, President Joko Widodo has made developing Papua one of his top priorities, and that his claim last month about lifting media restrictions is a sign things are changing.

While subsequent comments by senior government figures contradicted the president's claim about relaxed restrictions, the Director General of Information in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs insists the process has changed.

Esti Andayani says the 'Clearing House' made up of representatives from the major government departments, including the military and police, with the power to reject visa applications, has been abolished.

She says the hope is that if journalists can go to West Papua they will be able to tell more balanced stories about what happens there.Ms Andayani says that up until now, what is reported in the media are just small parts of the story.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276314/more-signals-from-jakarta-about-opening-up-papua

Indonesia hopeful West Papua bid rejected

Australian Associated Press - June 12, 2015

Indonesia is quietly hopeful a change of government in Vanuatu will contribute to the defeat of province West Papua's bid to join a special club of Melanesian states.

However, the southeast Asian giant is not getting too far ahead of itself.

Vanuatu's Prime Minister Joe Natuman lost a no-confidence motion in parliament on Thursday and has been replaced by Sato Kilman, the man he sacked as foreign minister last week.

The musical chairs is expected to potentially sway deliberations of the Melanesian Spearhead Group's leaders summit in the Solomon Islands starting on June 18. The leaders will discuss whether to admit West Papua to the group with observer status.

Indonesian foreign ministry information director general Esti Andayani said her country is carefully watching how things play out. "Even though we know he (Mr Kilman) is more in favour of us, something could always change," she told AAP.

Traditionally Vanuatu has been sympathetic to the plight of the Indonesian territory's decades-long struggle for independence, along with Solomon Islands and the Kanak movement in New Caledonia.

Fiji and Papua New Guinea back Indonesia's position. Mr Kilman is likely to change Vanuatu's policy on the issue. In the past Mr Kilman has also flagged the need to increase trade with Indonesia and open a Jakarta embassy.

[The reporter travelled to Indonesia as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs journalists visits program 2015.]

Source: http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/06/12/08/36/indonesia-hopeful-papua-bid-rejected#zAmfqwmdJrYy7Peg.99

Drunken soldier injures Papuan civilian

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2015

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The military in Papua arrested a drunk soldier for injuring a civilian in Central Memberamo Thursday. The victim is still undergoing medical treatment at the Marthen Indey Hospital on Friday.

Spokesman for the Papua Military Command Lt. Col. Teguh Puji Raharjo said Friday the military command was responsible for the incident and also the victim's medical treatment, and would make an apology to the people in Central Memberamo for the incident.

The incident occurred on Thursday when 2nd Sgt. Benedictus Umarop stationed in Kobigma opened fire on a concrete wall with a SS1-V2 rifle while he was drunk. Bullets ricocheting off the wall hit Jimmi Winata in the back, a 22-year-old resident of Kelila Village in Kobagma.

Director of Marthen Indey Hospital Didik Catur Prasetyo said the victim was in good condition after the bullets were taken out during surgery on Friday morning.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/12/drunken-soldier-injures-papuan-civilian.html

Jakarta hopeful Vanuatu change will end Papuan MSG bid

Radio New Zealand International - June 12, 2015

Indonesia says it's quietly hopeful the change of government in Vanuatu will signal the defeat of West Papua's bid to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Sato Kilman is known to have a softer stance regarding Vanuatu's long-held support for West Papua, and as foreign minister recently indicated his country could open an embassy in Jakarta.

The change could potentially sway deliberations at the MSG leaders' summit in Honiara next week, where a decision will be made on whether to grant West Papua access to the subregional group.

The director of Indonesia's foreign ministry, Esti Andayani, says her country is carefully watching how things will play out and whether Vanuatu's policy regarding West Papua will change.

Until now, Vanuatu had voiced support for West Papua's bid alongside New Caledonia's FLNKS, while Papua New Guinea and Fiji appear to be leaning against it. Solomon Islands is yet to indicate a position.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276130/jakarta-hopeful-vanuatu-change-will-end-papuan-msg-bid

Dutch journalist reports undercover from West Papua

UNPO - June 10, 2015

In defiance of a 1963 law forbidding foreign journalists entry to West Papua, Dutch journalist Rohan Radheya has over the past years travelled into the region several times, and is one of very few foreign journalists able to do so.

Well aware of the risks of being caught Radheya embarked on a new journey to West Papua last month and while he was there, on 10 May 2015, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced that the controversial ban on foreign journalists' entry to West Papua would be lifted. Radheya shared his experiences and opinions about the lifting of the ban with UNPO.

In May 2015, Rohan Radheya travelled to West Papua as an undercover journalist with the aim of meeting with several political prisoners and visiting the headquarters of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka or Free Papua Movement (OPM).

According to Simon Sapioper, acting President of the National Government of the Republic of West Papua (NGRWP), journalists like Radheya are facing multiple risks travelling to West Papua as undercover journalists on a tourist visa, including imprisonment if they are caught.

Foreign journalists have been banned from entering West Papua since 1963, the year in which Indonesia occupied the region. On 10 May 2015, during his three-day visit to West Papua, however, President Joko Widodo announced a lifting of this ban, stressing that foreign journalists would be able to enter the region from that day onwards. Radheya just happened to be in the region during Jokowi's announcement.

Despite this seemingly positive step, Radheya remained wary telling UNPO that no one in West Papua believes in Jokowi's promises to allow press freedom in the region. He further highlighted that a long list of criteria which foreign journalists wishing to enter West Papua have to fulfill was published directly after the ban was lifted. These demands include the prohibition of negative and critical news about the Indonesian government. Besides, foreign journalists would still be subjected to a 'screening' and those who report biased or imbalanced news would be penalized.

According to Radheya, one could even argue that the Indonesian government is making it more difficult to report from West Papua: "First they banned foreign journalists and now they even want to control our reporting," he told UNPO. Moreover, he believes that the current media accreditation offered by the Indonesian government will only make it harder for foreign journalists to operate inside West Papua, as it will enable the authorities to easily monitor the movement of foreign journalists in the region.

During his most recent visit to West Papua, Radheya had the opportunity to interview political prisoners, among them Filep Karma, who currently is imprisoned in the Abepura prison. Karma, who has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and who is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, told Radheya that he remembers the first time he was beaten in prison. Moreover, like many others, he was not granted a free and fair trial.

Following his stay in West Papua, Radheya headed to neighboring Papua New Guinea, where he is currently preparing a documentary about the lives of the thousands of West Papuan refugees living in the Lowara refugee camp. Most of the West Papuans living in the camps fled the political persecution in their home country in the 1970s and 80s.

Source: http://unpo.org/article/18289

Vanuatu to maintain Papua rights drive, says Moli

Radio New Zealand International - June 9, 2015

Vanuatu's new foreign minister says the government will continue to fight for the rights of West Papuans in international fora.

Kalfau Moli was appointed last week after the prime minister Joe Natuman sacked Sato Kilman from the foreign minister's role. Mr Kilman had been accused of misrepresenting Vanuatu's long-running support for West Papuan rights in his dealings with Indonesia.

With a Melanesian Spearhead Group decision on a West Papuan membership bid looming, Mr Moli says Vanuatu's support remains strong.

"Vanuatu's position as a sovereign state is that we want to address the human rights issue and then consider the supposed political independence. However having said that, it is very important that a clear forum be put in place before we can look at the issues. but I am very much for a human rights drive."

Mr Moli suggests Vanuatu's good relationship with Indonesia can be instrumental in leveraging positive change in Papua.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/275747/vanuatu-to-maintain-papua-rights-drive,-says-moli

Aceh

Aceh's curfew for women and the urgency of gender equality law

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2015

Khoiriyah Helanita, Jakarta – Deliberations on the bill on gender equality and justice have been stalled for quite some time and may not be endorsed by the House of Representatives anytime soon due to the strong opposition from many institutions, mostly religious ones.

The concept of gender equality itself always sparks controversy, not only in Indonesia but also in the rest of the world.

For ages, cultural and religious perspectives have suppressed the rights of women and justified it with the argument that women "are supposed to be" under men, an edict used to explain many aspects of life, such as disproportions between men and women in education and occupation, under representation of women in politics, impartiality toward women as victims and other discriminatory and oppressive situations against women.

These conditions led to the establishment of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979, which Indonesia ratified under Law No. 7/1984. Indonesia's ratification of CEDAW has not significantly cut the number of cases of violations of women's rights in the country, considering incompatibility between the narrative of women's freedom from discrimination and the deep-rooted culture of patriarchy and the paradigm of women's roles, which limits women to specific affairs: "sumur, dapur, kasur" (well, kitchen, bed).

Women's rights are protected by the 1945 Constitution, but the antidiscrimination law is toothless.

The bill on gender equity and justice offers a solution to the issue of women's rights protection in Indonesia, especially in remote regions, where women's rights are restricted.

While the gender equality bill is being debated, the Banda Aceh government issued yet another gender-oriented regulation, which justifies a curfew for women in the Aceh capital city. The policy was issued to protect women from sexual harassment and violence, which is rampant there.

The controversial policy reminds us of other discriminatory regulations in place in Aceh, such as the bylaw on women's dress in West Aceh, the prohibition on women straddling motorbikes in Lhoksumawe and many more.

In 2013, the National Commission for Women Protection already found 342 policies that discriminate against women on the pretext of religion and morality.

The discrimination excluded violence and abuse against women which occurred in the enforcement of the policies, such as law enforcers who forcibly cut off women's hair for not donning a head scarf and ripping apart women's pants for not wearing skirts.

The female mayor of Banda Aceh said the curfew was intended to decrease sexual harassment against women there. An investigation conducted by the Kita dan Buah Hati Foundation in 2015 placed Aceh on top in terms of sexual harassment cases in 2014, with the most incidents recorded in Banda Aceh.

The curfew is more like a quick fix than a remedy. Apparently the mayor failed to analyze the root cause of the high rate of sexual harassment against women.

Understanding the root cause is important to come up with the right measures to address the problem. Is the harassment rampant because of the evening activities of women or are there other reasons that trigger the incidence such as minimum presence of security officers and patrol in Banda Aceh, especially at night? Or maybe the punishment handed down to perpetrators of sexual harassment fail to provide a sufficient deterrence effect.

The main concern is that in the sexual harassment case women are the victims. The curfew bylaw however blames the victims instead of protecting them. Therefore, instead of limiting the victims' activities, providing maximum protection to them is more pressing so that they can continue their daily routine and actualize themselves without having to feel insecure.

That there is a curfew for women in Banda Aceh and that there are other discriminatory policies in Aceh and other regions in Indonesia, should prompt a national campaign for immediate endorsement of the bill on gender equality and justice, so that the state can uphold and protect women's rights as stipulated in the 1945 Constitution and CEDAW.

It is important for the nation to eliminate the perspective that "women are objects and a source of problems, so their rights have to be limited". The bill, if passed, will provide guidelines to the policymakers to avoid making gender-biased policies or regulations and to take affirmative action that is required to ensure the protection of women's rights.

[The writer is a lawyer who works in Jakarta.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/13/aceh-s-curfew-women-and-urgency-gender-equality-law.html

Mayor defends curfew policy for women

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2015

Banda Aceh – Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal has defended her recent decision to impose a partial curfew for local women, saying that the policy would directly benefit female employees in Aceh's capital city.

On June 4, Illiza issued a formal instruction ordering local venues, including restaurants, sport centers, Internet cafes and tourist attractions, to not serve women after 11 p.m. unless accompanied by their husbands or other male family members. The instruction also bans women from working in such venues after 11 p.m.

"We have studied the matter thoroughly and this is in line with the labor laws," Illiza said, as quoted by the Associated Press on Tuesday. "Our aim is to protect women employees, especially those working at entertainment spots."

Aceh is the country's only province that implements Islamic law. The central government granted the province the right to implement its version of sharia in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a long-standing separatist war.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/10/islands-focus-mayor-defends-curfew-policy-women.html

Aceh orders curfew on women

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2015

Banda Aceh – The capital of Aceh province has imposed a partial curfew for women that it says will reduce sexual violence but which critics say is discriminatory, the Associated Press has reported.

Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal ordered venues including restaurants, sport centers, Internet cafes and tourist attractions not to serve women after 11 p.m. unless accompanied by their husbands or other male family members.

The directive, dated June 4, also prohibits women from working in such establishments after 11 p.m.

Aceh hews to fundamentalism more than other areas in the Muslim-majority nation, and Indonesia's secular central government granted it the right to implement a version of sharia in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a separatist war.

A religious police and court system have been established and the new restrictions on women are a further strengthening of sharia in the province.

Last year, Aceh lawmakers passed a law that punishes gay sex by public caning and subjects non-Muslims to strict interpretation of sharia. People convicted of gambling, adultery and drinking alcohol already face caning, as do women wearing tight jeans and men who skip Friday prayers.

Ninik Rahayu from the Indonesian Institute for Empowerment of Women and Children said Tuesday that the directive was discriminatory and contrary to Indonesia's constitution. She said the policy showed the inability of the local government to provide adequate protection for residents.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/10/national-scene-aceh-orders-curfew-women.html

Kalla questions curfew in Banda Aceh

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2015

Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla is asking the Banda Aceh municipal administration to review the imposition of a curfew on women in the city.

"Of course Aceh has the authority to deal with its domestic affairs under the Special Autonomy Law, but what is the urgency to impose the curfew?" he asked on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of an Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) meeting in Tegal, Central Java, on Monday.

"We cannot just assume that women encounter trouble at night. This assumption should be taken into consideration. Acehnese society has to be smart in managing itself and it should be wise in managing this," he said as quoted by kompas.com.

The curfew, which was issued by Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin, took effect on June 6 and is aimed at minimizing violence against women by limiting the activities of women employed in textile, recreation and entertainment centers to 11:00 p.m.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/09/national-scene-kalla-questions-curfew-banda-aceh.html

Military ties

Military exercise goes on amid 'bribery' claim

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Kupang – Against the background of recent claims that Australian authorities paid an Indonesian ship's crew to transport dozens of migrants back to Indonesia, the Indonesian Navy and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have continued their joint military exercise held in sea border areas between the two countries.

Australia has been in the media spotlight after the crew of an Indonesian ship admitted that they had received thousands of dollars from personnel aboard an RAN ship to transport 65 migrants from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar back to Indonesia following the crew's failed attempt to take them to Australia.

Kupang naval base commander Marine Brig. Gen. Denny Kurnia, however, said the allegation did not affect military cooperation between the two countries. "This joint military exercise has nothing to do with the recent expulsion of 65 migrants [by the RAN]. This is a regular exercise," he told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

The exercise, named Exercise Cassowary 2015, held from June 8 to June 16, has involved two Indonesian warships, KRI Hiu-634 and KRI Tombak-692, and two Australian warships, HMAS Wollongong and HMAS Glenelg.

A follow-up exercise will also be held between June 18 and June 28 in Darwin under the name of Corpat Ausindo 2015.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/islands-focus-military-exercise-goes-amid-bribery-claim.html

Indonesia, Australia conduct joint naval exercise

Antara News - June 10, 2015

Surabaya, East Java – The Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) are conducting a joint exercise named "Cassoary Exercise" (Cassuex) 2015.

Commander of the Maritime Combat Unit of the Eastern Fleet Command Commodore I.N.G. Ariawan opened the joint exercise at the Naval Base VII Command Station in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Monday, Spokesman for the Eastern Fleet Command Lt. Col. Maman Sulaeman said in a press statement released on Wednesday.

"The joint exercise is aimed at improving the professionalism of TNI AL soldiers and establishing cooperation between the two sovereign countries on the basis of mutual respect," he added.

The Indonesian delegation to the joint exercise was represented by Indonesian warships KRI Tombak-629 (KRI TOK-629) commanded by Lt. Col. Dikry Rizzany Nurdiansyah and KRI Hiu-634 commanded by Maj. Rafael Dwinatu. "The two warships are part of a speed ship unit of the Eastern Fleet Command," he stated.

The RAN sent HMAS Glenelg commanded by CMDR Stephen David Waring and HMAS Wolongong commanded by LCDR Matthew Richardson, which anchored at Naval Base VIIs pier in Kupang on Sunday, June 7, Sulaeman pointed out.

Emphasizing the importance of the joint exercise, Commander of the Maritime Combat Unit of the Eastern Fleet Command Commodore I.N.G. Ariawan noted that there must be good coordination in the field to obtain optimum results. (Reported by Edy M. Yakub/Edited by INE/KR-BSR/A014)

Source: http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/99163/indonesia-australia-conduct-joint-naval-exercise

Political parties & elections

Aburizal orders takeover of Golkar headquarters

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – As the reconciliation process between the two camps vying for leadership of the Golkar Party drags on, the camp led by Aburizal Bakrie has announced a plan to take over the party headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta.

The plan is part of a series of recommendations made in a national leaders' meeting in Jakarta over the weekend, which was held to mark a return to the leadership established in the 2009 Riau national congress.

A recent court order from the North Jakarta District Court mandated the return of leadership to the Riau committee, in which Aburizal was party chairman, as a temporary arrangement pending the final verdict from the Supreme Court, which will rule on the party chairmanship. "The meeting has recommended taking over the party headquarters," said Samsuddin Mandja, while announcing the meeting's results on Saturday.

The takeover may mean another cue for confrontation with the rival camp led by Agung Laksono that has been occupying the headquarters since early this year.

Prior to the meeting, Aburizal sent a letter to the National Police, requesting it ban Agung's camp from operating, on Friday.

"This is what we call ironic. It is they [Aburizal's camp] who do not respect the initiative of [Vice President Jusuf Kalla] for islah [reconciliation]," Agung faction head Ace Hasan Syazily said on Saturday.

Golkar is on the brink of missing out on participation in 269 local elections in December as the two camps continue to engage in a legal battles to win formal leadership recognition.

Agung, whose leadership was recognized by the Law and Human Rights Ministry, has been pressed to concede following several court verdicts in favor of Aburizal.

The Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) has revoked the ministerial decree recognizing Agung's leadership and the ministry and Agung are currently appealing the case with the Supreme Court.

At the request of Aburizal's camp, the North Jakarta court issued a provisional court order awarding the party leadership to Aburizal until the Supreme Court issued a legal and binding decision on Agung's appeal against the PTUN verdict.

Vice President Kalla, a former Golkar chairman, mediated between the two factions last month, resulting in the formation of a joint committee to select and manage candidatures for the elections.

The settlement, however, has yet to rescue Golkar from elimination as the General Elections Commission (KPU) still requires every political party to have one central executive board committee to endorse candidates for the upcoming local election.

As the deadline for candidate registration nears, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly has suggested that the camps set up a temporary central executive board to sign off documents for the elections.

The Agung camp is still adamant about compromise and still insists that it is the authorized Golkar committee.

As the Supreme Court has yet to give a verdict on the ministerial decree, Ace said Aburizal has no right to claim leadership.

He also believed that the police would not accept the request made by Aburizal. "I am sure the National Police chief understands laws and regulations," he said.

Kalla has also suggested that both factions temporarily abandon the headquarters to avoid more conflicts, but Aburizal said that the suggestion did not make any sense. "It's not logical and not rational," he said during the Saturday meeting.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/aburizal-orders-takeover-golkar-headquarters.html

Environment & natural disasters

Forest moratorium fails to meet target

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – After being heavily criticized for failing to improve on the moratorium on new concession permits for primary forests and peat lands, the government is set to remedy the weaknesses of the current moratorium, which was extended by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo last month.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry acknowledged that the current moratorium still had many flaws that prevented it from slowing the ongoing deforestation in the country,

"Because it is just an extension, [we] could not insert new articles. If we included new articles, then the name [of the moratorium] would change, it would not be an extension," Ruandha Agung Sugardiman, the ministry's director general of forestry planning and environmental governance, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Ruandha added that the ministry did not have much time to produce a new draft of the current moratorium as it would involve talking to ministries.

The current moratorium, like the previous two moratoriums enacted during the administration of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, takes the form of a presidential instruction (Inpres), which means it is only binding on the current administration.

The ministry is mulling a change to the legal basis of the moratorium to a government regulation (PP) after it concludes revising the moratorium map for the ninth time in November this year, according to Ruandha.

The moratorium map underwent its eighth revision recently by including an additional 926,030 hectares, bringing the total area covered by the current moratorium to 65.02 million hectares.

"One of the reasons why the covered area is growing in size is because there were some uncovered areas where the permits already expired and after we analyzed them we found they were primary forest," Ruandha said.

The covered area could also decrease in size after the ministry crosschecks the map with data from regional governments, during which they will find out whether covered areas should be removed. Although the ministry has revised the map eight times, it has only increased the size of covered area twice.

Based on the previous moratorium map, at least 48.5 million hectares of forest – over three times the area of Java – remains under threat.

This includes 16.5 million hectares of primary forest and peat land that are excluded from the moratorium map or located inside the moratorium area, but which are already covered by existing undeveloped concessions and therefore not protected by the moratorium rules.

The remaining 32 million hectares are under threat because, despite consisting of areas considered as natural forest, they have been subject to commercial use, for example through selective logging, and are now classified as "secondary forest" and so not covered by the current moratorium.

Conservationists have long argued that the moratorium should also cover secondary forest.

"Secondary forest should have been included in the moratorium. The analogy is like forcing sick people to work, with secondary forest being 'sick'. In the moratorium, ailing areas are forced to produce," Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) forest campaigner Zenzi Suhadi told the Post on Friday.

Ruandha said the ministry was well aware of the fact that one of the reasons why deforestation was still ongoing in the country was because companies simply shifted their operation from primary forest and peat land to secondary forest.

"We are studying [the feasibility of including secondary forest in the moratorium]. If secondary forest is also covered in the moratorium, it means that there will be no more production area while at the same time there is a demand for us to increase production," he said.

"The priority of the moratorium should be to return to the primary functions of forest. We do that by revoking permits [of firms] that cause environmental destruction," he said.

Furthermore, the government should have prioritized giving forest permits to local people, as Jokowi's campaign pledge, known as the Nawacita program, promised 12.7 million hectares of forest for local people, currently, the moratorium mainly benefitted private companies, said Zenzi.

Sugarcane plantations for instance are exempt from the moratorium.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/13/forest-moratorium-fails-meet-target.html

Health & education

Students get high scores by cheating

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – An integrity index on the results of this year's junior high school national exam has shown that 50 percent of junior high schools nationwide had poor integrity despite achieving high scores.

The index, which was calculated by the Education and Culture Ministry, also showed that a majority of schools with high scores but low integrity were Islamic junior high schools, at 65 percent, followed by state junior high schools at 55 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, only 12 percent of junior high schools achieved both a high exam score and a high integrity score.

In May, more than 4.1 million students from 52,163 junior high schools took the national exam. This year was also the first time several schools gave a computer-based test (CBT). However, only 42 junior high schools gave the CBT, compared to the 514 senior high schools that offered the CBT last month.

SMPN 1 state junior high school in Magelang, Central Java, got the highest integrity index score this year as the ministry gave it 97 out of 100.

Education and Culture Minister Anies Baswedan applauded the school's achievement, saying it proved that students could achieve high scores on exams without cheating.

"The country needs children with high integrity and strong character," he said, adding that such a high score on the integrity index should not be seen as an anomaly but as a goal for other schools to achieve.

He noted that young students were easily influenced by their surroundings and that teachers and principals also played a major role in being honest role models who were intolerant of foul play.

"Principals have an extremely important role to play. Don't just look at the administrative side; leadership is one of the basis of nurturing integrity," Anies said.

According to the survey, 70 schools nationwide received an integrity score of 95 and over, which the ministry calls the "integrity zone". The top 10 schools are located in Central Java, Yogyakarta and Jakarta.

However, the head of the ministry's Educational Evaluation Center (Puspendik), Nizam, said that about 80 percent of junior high schools nationwide received integrity index scores of under 80.

He also added that this was the first time the ministry had ranked the integrity of junior high schools, unlike senior high schools, which had been scored annually after the national exam since 2010.

"The ministry will use the integrity index and the school reports to evaluate the future national exams," Nizam said while declining to disclose the method used to measure each school's integrity.

He added that the index had been handed to each individual school and to local education agencies so that they could do their own evaluations to decrease the rate of cheating and encourage students to learn on their own.

"We also hope that schools will work on decreasing cheating rates once they realize that the ministry knows when a school has a high rate," Nizam said.

Unlike previous years, only one major problem surfaced during this year's junior high school exam, namely the news that an answer key for the Indonesian-language test had circulated among students via text message in Medan, North Sumatra. However, Nizam insisted that the answer key was bogus as the ministry did not produce any until the exams were over.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/students-get-high-scores-cheating.html

Children exposed to tobacco advertising at school

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Jakarta – More than 30 tobacco brands put advertisements and promote their products in school areas, a survey by NGOs shows.

The survey, which was done in 360 schools in five major cities including Jakarta, Bandung in West Java and Makassar in South Sulawesi, found that tobacco advertisements were found in shops around 85 percent of all the schools observed.

Meanwhile, other means of advertisement, such as billboards, were found near the one out of three schools surveyed.

"We even found in Bandung that a videotron tobacco advertisement was placed right in front of a junior high school," survey team member and researcher from Communication Department of University of Indonesia Hendriyani said during the release of the survey report on Monday.

The survey was jointly conducted from January to March by Lentera Anak Indonesia (LAI), the Children Media Development Foundation (YPMA) and Smoke Free Agents (SFA).

The researcher warned that tobacco advertisements around schools impacted children's tendency to smoke. "An estimated 70 percent of children start smoking after seeing advertisements and continue to smoke because of the advertisements as well," she said.

Psychologist Liza Marielly Djaprie voiced the same concern. "The advertisement is a subliminal advertising where the individual is exposed to the brands without being conscious that he or she is being exposed. [...] But the children don't have a mature enough thinking capacity. They're still unstable. Add to it the false perception that smoking is cool," she said.

Based on Global Youth Tobacco Survey data from 2009, 20.3 percent children of school age in Indonesia smoke, a steep increase from 12.6 percent in 2006. (fsu/hhr/dmr)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/children-exposed-tobacco-advertising-school.html

Refugees & asylum seekers

Australia has hit 'new low' amid claims of payment to people smugglers

The Guardian (Australia) - June 13, 2015

Australia would have stooped to a "new low" if reports its navy paid people-smugglers bound for Australia thousands of dollars to turn back their boat are true, an Indonesian government official said on Saturday.

A boat captain and two crew members arrested this week on suspicion of human trafficking told Indonesian police that Australian authorities had paid each of them $US5,000 ($A6450) to turn back their vessel with 65 migrants on board.

"Under Australian's push-back policy we have been consistently saying they are on a slippery slope," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir said.

"Should this situation be confirmed and it turns out to be true, it would be a new low for the way the government of Australia handles the situation on irregular migration."

Nasir said it would be the first time such an incident occurred involving Australian authorities.

Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi raised the issue with Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson, on the sidelines of a foreign policy conference in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

"He promised to bring my question to Canberra," Marsudi told reporters. "We are really concerned, if it is confirmed." Indonesia plans to ask Australia for clarification, he said.

Australian authorities could be accused of people smuggling over the issue, an international law expert says. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, did not deny the claims when questioned about it on Friday.

Professor of international law at the Australian National University, Don Rothwell, says if proven the activity could be tantamount to people smuggling under current regional protocols.

"People smuggling is defined with the protocol and to that end the provision of monies to people who are engaged in people-smuggling activities to take persons from a place on the high seas to another place, such as Indonesia, is clearly a people smuggling-type activity," he told the ABC.

He said the claims also raised questions because Australia was a party to the 2000 protocol to disrupt people smuggling.

Rothwell said a lot would depend on how Australia's regional partners responded to the allegations. The Indonesian government appeared to be taking them seriously, he said. "We'll no doubt hear from Indonesia in the future about this."

Abbott did not deny the allegations in a radio interview but he did say officials were being "incredibly creative" in following Australia's policy to turn back the boats.

"What we do is stop the boats by hook or by crook," Abbott said. "We have stopped the trade and we will do what we have to do to ensure that it stays stopped."

He repeatedly declined to confirm whether Australia was investigating the claims.

The finance minister Mathias Cormann said the allegation was not an accurate reflection of what was happening.

"The prime minister has essentially stuck to his very long-standing practice of not to provide a running commentary on operational matters," he told Sky News on Saturday.

"He didn't confirm or deny, he didn't make comment one way or the other. He certainly didn't indicate that payments have been made."

Labor has called on Abbott to emphatically deny Customs paid people smugglers to turn back asylum seeker boats.

The opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said Abbott's refusal to deny the practice had left the door wide open to the idea the government was handing wads of taxpayer's cash to smugglers.

"Really it leaves one with the only possible assumption that that may well have been exactly what happened," he told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.

[Reuters and Australian Associated Press contributed to this report.]

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/13/pressure-on-abbott-over-claims-people-smugglers-were-paid-to-turn-back-boats

Tony Abbott refuses to rule out paying people smugglers to turn back boats

The Guardian (Australia) - June 12, 2015

Daniel Hurst, Political correspondent – Tony Abbott has refused to rule out Australian officials paying people smugglers to turn back asylum-seeker vessels, saying the government was determined to "stop the boats by hook or by crook".

In comments likely to alarm the Indonesian government, the Australian prime minister said his government would do "whatever we need to do" to stop such boats and that border protection officials had been "incredibly creative" in coming up with strategies.

Human rights lawyers immediately expressed shock at the "astonishing" comments, saying they showed the government was prepared to do whatever it takes with "no moral compass and no moral limit".

The Greens, too, argued such payments would be akin to government participation in people trafficking, while Labor said they would be an incentive for smugglers to encounter Australian naval vessels.

Indonesia confirmed on Thursday that it was investigating allegations that an Australian official paid the captain and crew of an intercepted boat carrying about 65 asylum seekers about US$30,000 ($39,000) to turn back to Indonesia in late May.

Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry spokesman, Arrmanatha Nasir, told the Guardian the development, if proven, would be "very concerning".

In an interview on Friday, Abbott refused to confirm or deny the allegations, and also avoided committing the Australian government to launching its own investigation.

"What we are doing is saving life at sea. We are defending our national sovereignty, we are protecting our country from the evil trade of people smuggling, and by hook or by crook we will do what is necessary to keep our country safe and to keep this evil trade stopped," he told 3AW, while declining to comment on operational details.

When given the opportunity to express a general opinion on whether it would be acceptable to pay people smugglers, Abbott said he would not talk about hypotheticals and "the important thing is that we stop the boats".

Pressed on whether the government would do "whatever it takes", Abbott replied: "Consistent with being a humane and decent country, absolutely."

The prominent refugee lawyer Julian Burnside said: "If he has been making payments to people he regards as the scum of the earth then he is a hypocrite."

Another refugee lawyer, David Manne, said the government "must confirm, deny or investigate whether it funded what it describes as the 'evil trade of people smuggling' to turn back asylum seekers".

Manne said "whatever it takes" was an unacceptable position for a country that had signed up to the refugees convention to take.

"For our government at the highest levels to suggest that when it comes to asylum seekers at sea there is no moral compass and no moral limit is not only astonishing and appalling but completely unacceptable," he said.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the public had "a right to know if the Abbott government has participated in people trafficking or not".

"The prime minister has all but admitted that the government is prepared to do anything out on the high seas, even it seems if that means breaking the law or participating in people trafficking," she said.

"Payments to individuals to turn a boat around and take asylum seekers to Indonesia may be highly illegal. The trafficking of people against their will is a serious crime. The Australian government must give a full and accurate account of what has occurred."

Labor's immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, said most Australians would be amazed if the government was creating "a situation where there is an encouragement for people smugglers to encounter Australian navy vessels so they can get an Australian taxpayer-funded cheque".

Marles said this could represent a "pull factor" for asylum seeker boats. "We need to hear some clarity from this government today about whether that is a practice they are engaging in," he said.

At a subsequent media conference in Melbourne, Abbott again refused to rule out the practice occurring and defended his unwillingness to answer direct questions.

"I'm perfectly aware of the import of your question, and what we have done, very firmly for all sorts of good reasons, since September 2013, is not comment on operational matters because every time we comment on operational matters we give information to our enemies," he said.

"We are not in the business of giving information to people smugglers because if we talk about our tactics, they'll change their tactics."

The claims about the payments were aired in reports by Radio New Zealand and Fairfax Media this week.

The Indonesian police chief on Rote, Hidayat, was quoted by Fairfax as saying the cash "was in $100 bank notes" and wrapped in six black plastic bags. The migrants have reportedly supported the claims, but the Guardian has been unable to verify the allegations independently.

The Australian immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said on Thursday the claims had not been substantiated, but Abbott appeared to go out of his way to avoid making any denial. The prime minister also repeatedly emphasised the government considered the most important goal to be to stop the boats.

The full exchange on radio 3AW

Interviewer Neil Mitchell: "These allegations that Australia paid people smugglers to turn back the boats – did it happen or not?"

Tony Abbott: "Well, Neil, we don't comment on operational matters but we are determined to ensure that illegal boats don't get to Australia and we will do whatever is reasonably necessary to protect our country from people smuggling and from the effect of this evil and damaging trade that cost lives."

Mitchell: "But surely we wouldn't pay people smugglers, they're criminals?"

Abbott: Well, what we do is we stop the boats by hook or by crook, because that's what we've got to do and that's what we've successfully done and I just don't want to go into the details of how it's done because, like a lot of things that law enforcement agencies have to do, it's necessary, it's difficult, and at times I suppose it's dangerous work but we do it and we've stopped the boats, Neil."

Mitchell: "Let me put it another way: theoretically, hypothetically, would you find it acceptable to pay people smugglers?"

Abbott: "Look, Neil, I'm just not going to get into hypotheticals. The important thing is that we stop the boats."

Mitchell: "But, prime minister, not if we're paying criminals. I mean, these people have been described as evil, as scum of the earth, and if we're paying them, bribing them, to turn back the boats, I mean that's almost a crime."

Abbott: "Well Neil, the important thing is to stop the boats, that's the important thing, and I think the Australian people are extremely pleased that that's what happened. Of course, by stopping the boats we've stopped the deaths. By stopping the boats we've certainly improved our relationship with Indonesia. So stopping the boats is all good, it is all good..."

Mitchell: "I don't know about the relationship with Indonesia. They're saying today they're shocked by the allegations we paid people smugglers. Are we at least investigating whether it happened?"

Abbott: "Neil, I want to say to you and your listeners that I am proud of the work that our border protection agencies have done. I really am proud of the work that they've done and they've been incredibly creative in coming up with a whole range of strategies to break this evil trade, which as you know flourished under the former government and led to the deaths of well over 1,000 people, so look..."

Mitchell: "Will we investigate whether it happened?"

Abbott: "As I said, by hook or by crook we are going to stop the trade, we have stopped the trade, and we will do what we have to do to ensure that it stays stopped."

Mitchell: "Will the Australian government investigate whether it happened?"

Abbott: "The short answer is the Australian government will do whatever we need to do to keep this evil trade stopped."

Mitchell: "Including paying people smugglers?"

Abbott: "We will do whatever we need to do to keep this trade stopped because that's what the public expects. Frankly, that is the right and decent and compassionate and humane thing to do and I don't make excuses and I don't offer apologies for stopping the boats because frankly it is absolutely imperative, for reasons of our national policy, and it's absolutely imperative for reasons of saving lives at sea."

Mitchell: "The Indonesian government is investigating whether it happened. Will the Australian government investigate whether it happened?" Abbott: "Well, we have very good relations with the Indonesian government and we've got very good cooperation with the Indonesian government when it comes to stopping people smuggling because, amongst other things, we haven't offered the gratuitous insult to Indonesia that our predecessors did by, amongst other things, stopping the live cattle trade in panic at a television program."

Mitchell: "Prime Minister, will the Australian government investigate whether it happened?"

Abbott: "Um, Neil, what we are doing is saving life at sea. We are defending our national sovereignty, we are protecting our country from the evil trade of people smuggling and by hook or by crook we will do what is necessary to keep our country safe and to keep this evil trade stopped."

Mitchell: "With respect, Prime Minister, that's not an answer. Will the Australian government..."

Abbott: "It's a very good answer, Neil; it's a very good answer because with equal respect to you, Neil, there are all sorts of things that our security agencies do that they need to do to protect our country and many of those things just should never be discussed in public. Operational matters, when it comes to national security, are never discussed in public and that's the way it should be. What I am charged with is the protection of our country and I'm pleased to say that when it comes to border protection this government, unlike its predecessor, has a really outstanding record."

Mitchell: "OK, so whatever it takes?"

Abbott: "Consistent with being a humane and decent country, absolutely."

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/12/tony-abbott-refuses-to-rule-out-paying-people-smugglers-to-turn-back-boats

Australia sidesteps charge that officials paid migrant boat

Associated Press - June 12, 2015

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – Australia's prime minister on Friday sidestepped charges that officials from his country paid the crew of a boat carrying 65 migrants to return to Indonesian waters, but said Australia had to be creative to stop the flow of boats carrying asylum seekers to its shores.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's comments come one day after Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said it was "very concerned" by the allegations that Australia had paid off the crew of the boat, which had several children and a pregnant woman on board, to return to Indonesia.

Police in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province said the boat's captain and five crew members detained on remote Rote Island said they were each paid $5,000 after being intercepted by an Australian navy ship on May 20. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said the Indonesian government was concerned that if such payments were happening, they could encourage human trafficking.

Australia has a policy of turning back and refusing to resettle any migrant who arrives on its shores by boat. Migrants escaping poverty or oppression use Indonesia as a transit point for the perilous journey in often barely seaworthy vessels to Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott did not deny the allegation when questioned on Radio 3AW on Friday. He said Australia's border protection officials have been "incredibly creative" in coming up with strategies to stop people smuggling.

"By hook or by crook we are gonna stop the trade," Abbott said. "We have stopped the trade and we will do what we have to do to ensure that it stays stopped."

The allegation comes as Southeast Asia, meanwhile, is embroiled in a broader migrant crisis as Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in predominantly Buddhist Burma and Bangladeshis looking for a better life abroad have landed in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Police said the boat was carrying 65 migrants, mainly from Sri Lanka and a fewer number from Bangladesh, and was attempting to reach New Zealand.

According to the account given to police by the detained crew, their vessel was boarded off Christmas Island in Australian waters by a navy officer who spoke Indonesian and negotiated their return to Indonesian territory.

Australian authorities provided two different boats along with enough fuel and food to return to Indonesian waters, the crew said, according to police. Christmas Island is 1,090 kilometers (675 miles) southwest of Rote Island in central Indonesia.

Hidayat, a local police chief on Rote, said the migrants came ashore on May 31 after locals reported the boats stranded in nearby waters. They were taken to an immigration detention center in the provincial capital Kupang on Tuesday.

"I saw the money and even counted it together with the crew during interrogation," said Hidayat, who uses one name. "But I don't want to speculate before the investigation is complete."

Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the department doesn't comment on current operational matters. "At the appropriate time, we'll make comments about turn-backs where we've done it, where it's been safe to do so," he told radio station 2GB.

Arrmanatha, the Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman, said children including three of a very young age and a pregnant woman were among the migrants.

Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/australia-sidesteps-charge-that-officials-paid-migrant-boat.html

Bishop denies claims people smugglers paid to take back asylum seekers

ABC Radio Australia - June 10, 2015

George Roberts, Indonesia – Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has denied claims by Indonesian police that Australian Customs officials paid thousands of dollars to people smugglers to take asylum seekers back to Indonesia.

A boat carrying 65 asylum seekers crashed onto a reef near the remote Rote Island, off West Papua, last week and those on board said Australian authorities had turned them back.

Rote Island's police chief said the captain of the boat, a man called Yohanis from North Sulawesi, told police an Australian Customs official paid each crew member $5,000 to bring asylum seekers back to Indonesia.

A Sri Lankan asylum seeker called Kajuran told ABC News a similar story, but the claim was difficult to understand or verify. "They picked up money. [An] Australian man, Customs, he gave money," Kajuran told the ABC in broken Bahasa Indonesia. "They made a deal."

Deputy senior police commissioner Hidayat said the Customs officer was called Agus and spoke fluent Bahasa Indonesia.

Hidayat said the boat crew, who are still under arrest, asked police to help send the money to their wives and police agreed. He said it was their money because it was not received from people smugglers.

Indonesian laws that cover people smuggling prohibit helping people leave or enter the country without permission and benefiting from doing so. The boat crew will still be charged with attempting to take people out of Indonesian territory.

When asked whether Australian authorities ever paid people to return asylum seekers, Ms Bishop replied: "No."

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-06-10/julie-bishop-denies-claims-australian-customs-officers-paid-people-smugglers-to-take-back-asylum-see/1457570

Graft & corruption

In police nominees for KPK posts, a distinct lack of antigraft cred

Jakarta Globe - June 15, 2015

Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – The Indonesian police have finally named the three generals they intend to nominate as commissioners of the national antigraft body, none of whom actually has any extensive experience in combatting corruption.

The individuals are Yotje Mende, the Papua Police chief; Syahrul Mamma, the head of the National Police's legal division; and Benny Mamoto, the former director of the police's National Narcotics Agency (BNN), now retired. All are two-star generals.

"Their track records are clear, because to be an inspector general isn't easy," Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan, a spokesman for the National Police, said in Jakarta on Monday.

"Yotje became a provincial police chief because he's one of the best senior officers. Same with Syahrul. Benny is still active at the BNN as a speaker, and he continues to engage with many different organizations."

Yotje and Syahrul have long histories as criminal investigators, while Benny, who retired in 2013, spent much of his career on the anti-narcotics beat. None of the three men have any significant formal experience in the police's antigraft department.

Anton said they should be given a chance to prove themselves if selected to join the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and played down concerns that it was the police force as an institution that was nominating them, and not the individuals themselves.

"There have indeed been instances of [police officers] nominating themselves before," he said, referring to Bibit Samad Riyanto, who served as a KPK commissioner from 2007 to 2011, and Taufiequrachman Ruki, the KPK's inaugural chairman, who was brought back on board earlier this year as interim leader.

"But there's no rule that says an institution [like the police force] can't nominate its own members for the KPK," Anton said. "It's up to the selection committee to decide [on the candidates' eligibility]."

The police, widely perceived as the most corrupt institution in Indonesia, and the KPK have been at loggerheads since the latter was established in 2003. But tensions between the two law-enforcement agencies have plumbed new depths since January, when President Joko Widodo nominated Budi Gunawan, a general long suspected of amassing illegal funds in his personal bank accounts, as chief of the National Police.

The KPK charged Budi with bribery and money-laundering within days of his nomination, prompting the police to launch a series of retaliatory investigations against KPK officials based on trumped-up charges dating back up to a decade.

Those targeted so far in the dubious cases are Abraham Samad, the KPK chairman, and Bambang Widjojanto, a deputy chairman, both of whom have since been suspended; and Novel Baswedan, a veteran investigator whom the police previously tried to bring up on baseless charges, to no avail.

The ongoing systematic weakening of the KPK by the police force is not without precedent; in 2009 police instigated a probe against Bibit and fellow KPK deputy chairman Chandra M. Hamzah for alleged abuse of power in their naming of a prominent businessman as a corruption suspect. A lengthy legal battle ensued, climaxing with the Constitutional Court playing back wiretapped phone recordings that revealed the entire case was fraudulent and an attempt by crooked police and prosecutors to undermine the KPK.

Anton brushed off speculation that the police wanted their own people inside the KPK to control it, saying that the individuals being nominated were professionals.

"Once they're inside, hopefully they'll show high commitment," he said. "After all, it's said that the KPK's best investigator is Novel Baswedan, and where do you think he comes from?"

Anton did not say why, if the police considered Novel, a former police officer, such an asset, they were repeatedly trying to bring him down on dubious criminal charges.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/police-nominees-KPK-posts-distinct-lack-antigraft-cred/

KPK slammed for giving up on Hambalang

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has lambasted the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which is now led by former police general Taufiequrachman Ruki, for transferring the Hambalang sports complex graft probe to the Attorney General's Office (AGO).

ICW researcher Emerson Yuntho said that the transfer was a departure from the antigraft body's commitments while still under the leadership of suspended chairman Abraham Samad.

Ruki's leadership gained notoriety in March after he decided to transfer the KPK's probe into Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, now the deputy National Police chief, to the AGO, which later gave the case to the police, just weeks after he was appointed KPK acting chairman replacing Abraham.

Recently, the National Police announced that it had dropped the investigation into Budi due to the "lack of supporting evidence".

Emerson questioned Ruki's recent decision to transfer the Hambalang case to the AGO as the case potentially could implicate Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) treasurer Olly Dondokambey, who has been in the KPK's investigation cross hairs under the leadership of Abraham, who last year said that it was just a matter of time before the KPK would charge Olly in the case after investigators had collected enough evidence on his involvement.

"There is a tendency that under Ruki's leadership big cases are taken out of the KPK in the name of a probe transfer for the sake of better coordination with other law enforcement institutions. This is a setback for the KPK. Hambalang, as we know, is linked to a political party. We deplore the decision," Emerson said on Sunday.

Despite the fact that the Hambalang probe was transferred to the AGO in February, the KPK only announced the transfer Friday.

KPK investigations into the graft-ridden construction of the Rp 2.5 trillion Hambalang sports complex have seen former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum and former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng imprisoned for receiving illicit funds from the Hambalang project, some of which were also allegedly enjoyed by Olly in his capacity as House of Representatives lawmaker.

In addition, Olly was accused of accepting two wooden dining table sets from state-owned construction enterprise PT Adhi Karya, which he had allegedly helped win the Hambalang project. The furniture was confiscated by the KPK during a search of his house in September 2013.

Acting KPK deputy chairman Johan Budi defended the transfer saying that the antigraft body did not transfer the whole probe to the AGO, but only a particular part of the investigation.

"We have investigated the construction of the Hambalang project and its budgeting process [at the House] and the part we transferred to the AGO is related to procurement projects on Hambalang building facilities," Johan said over the weekend.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/KPK-slammed-giving-hambalang.html

Police to propose generals to be KPK commissioners

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – The National Police announced their plan on Friday to nominate three generals as candidates to fill positions on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"We will soon nominate two active officers and one retiree [as candidates]," National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta. Badrodin, however did not give details about the three candidates.

This is the first time the police had declared an intention to join the selection process for the KPK leadership positions. Until recently, the National Police only seconded low- and middle ranking officers to join the KPK's team of investigators.

Relations between the National Police and the KPK have been tense for months following the antigraft body's decision to name then police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a graft suspect.

Although his suspect status was eventually annulled by a court, the now suspended KPK commissioners, Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, alongside top KPK investigator Novel Baswedan, were slapped with criminal charges by a close acquaintance of Gunawan, detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso.

Gunawan was eventually inaugurated as deputy police chief in April.

Badrodin dismissed allegations that the National Police were trying to infiltrate the antigraft body and maintained that having one of their personnel as one of the KPK's commissioners could potentially strengthen the KPK since the officer would have a full understanding of the corruption laws.

Furthermore, it could also mend ties between the two institutions, he said. "This would make our objective of eradicating corruption much more achievable," Badrodin said.

On Tuesday, Yenti Garnasih, a member of the KPK commissioner selection team, announced that police and military personnel who registered must be prepared to resign from their current positions in their respective institutions if they were selected. "Of course, they must be ready to resign [from their positions]. Those are the rules," she said.

By Thursday, the all-female selection team had received more than 60 applicants, most of whom came from law or civil servant backgrounds.

The registration period, which ends on June 24, would be followed by a month-long screening process, during which the team will allow the public to assess the candidates.

During the same period, the team plans to involve the KPK, the National Police and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), among other institutions, to conduct background checks on each candidate.

Badrodin said that he had already given suggestions on the criteria for a KPK commissioner and that the force was "ready to conduct background checks on those nominated". The committee will also invite former members of past selection teams to help run the background checks.

Separately, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Agus Sunaryanto said the National Police had every right to nominate candidates as long as they did not pressure the selection committee into picking them.

"This means that the committee must be objective. However, I think that the committee is well aware of that, having learned from what happened in the past," he said.

However, Agus suggested that it would be best to select commissioners from outside of the police force and the Attorney General's Office (AGO). Agus also warned that the committee faced a daunting task of selecting the right people for the job given the extremely weak position of the KPK.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/13/police-propose-generals-be-KPK-commissioners.html

Activists call for 'keen observation' of police's role in KPK selection

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2015

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – Antigraft activists say they understand the purpose of the police's involvement in the selection process of new leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, but warn the selection panel to stay alert to vested interests that may harm the process.

The selection committee – consisting of nine women with different areas of expertise – met with police on Tuesday to request background checks on KPK commissioner applicants. So far, the committee has received 20 applications.

The committee and the police have agreed that no applicants with pending charges from existing criminal investigations should be selected to serve on the KPK following the suspensions earlier this year of two current commissioners – chairman Abraham Samad and one of his deputies, Bambang Widjojanto – after they were named criminal suspects in separate cases by the police.

The charges, stemming from minor cases dating back up to a decade, are widely seen as trumped up and part of the police's retaliation against the KPK for its naming of police general Budi Gunawan as a bribery suspect in January, days after he was nominated for police chief.

Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Lola Easter says it is understandable for the selection committee to ask the police's help to do background checks on the KPK applicants, but warns there can be a conflict of interest.

"It's not quite right to involve the police in the selection process for KPK commissioners, given the current situation between both institutions. The selection committee must limit the police role to searching only the candidates' track records," Lola told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday.

"The selection committee must keenly observe every bit of information and suggestion coming from anywhere to prevent external interests that can harm corruption eradication in the future," she added.

Setara Institute chairman Hendardi, meanwhile, said the public should not worry about the police's participation in the selection process, adding it was merely part of the process the committee must carry out.

He also said it was more important to scrutinize the next stage of the process, which was the vetting of short-listed candidates by the House of Representatives.

"A [police check] is a common procedure. No significant implications will come of it," Hendardi said on Wednesday. "The applicants' bids don't depend entirely on the selection committee. Their task is only to approve a list of applicants. Another thing that we must watch out for is [the vetting process at] the House."

Hendardi said the possibility of political interference was much greater in the House, with legislators having a long history of involvement in major corruption cases. He added it was here that President Joko Widodo must show his commitment to eradicating corruption in Indonesia.

"The most important thing is the president's integrity. He can't be weak or easily influenced by people in safeguarding the antigraft agency. He must be at the front line to protect the KPK," Hendardi said.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/antigraft-activists-call-keen-observation-polices-role-KPK-selection-process/

Police give Sri Mulyani, Kalla the all clear in TPPI graft case

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani and Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta – The National Police announced on Tuesday that neither Vice President Jusuf Kalla nor former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati were directly involved in an alleged graft case that has potentially caused the state to lose Rp 2 trillion (US$150 million).

The National Police's director for special economic crimes, Brig. Gen. Victor E. Simanjuntak, said there was not enough evidence to show that Sri Mulyani ordered the now-defunct BPMigas, the predecessor of the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas), to appoint PT Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indoatama (TPPI) as the buyer and seller of the state's condensate in 2009.

Victor said that during her questioning on Monday at the Finance Ministry's headquarters, Sri Mulyani told investigators that she had only signed a letter of approval on a payment method between TPPI and BPMigas before a contract was finalized because she had received a letter from the agency indicating that it had already appointed TPPI.

"Since a firm had already been appointed, she felt that the Finance Ministry had the responsibility to establish a payment method since it involved the state's treasury," Victor told reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Between 2009 and 2010, TPPI collaborated with BPMigas to market condensate in Indonesia. However, the firm never paid profits from the sales to the government. Despite suspicions of foul play, BPMigas continued to extend its contract with the firm.

BPMigas chief Amien Sunaryadi previously defended the action, saying it was following orders from the Finance Ministry.

TPPI began selling the condensate despite the contract not being finalized until April 2010, after which BPMigas continued supplying condensate to the firm.

In its investigation, the police have found that TPPI should have paid Rp 2 trillion to the state, but instead the firm allegedly laundered the money.

Victor said that although Sri Mulyani could not be prosecuted, there were others in the ministry who could have had involvement in the scandal. "Of course, there must have been a state official [in the Finance Ministry] who controlled the flow of funds. We will soon find out after we conduct further investigations," he said.

On Monday, Sri Mulyani also revealed that the government was aware that in 2009 TPPI had difficulties paying for the condensate, but it allowed the company to buy the product from BPMigas after a deal was struck during a meeting presided over by Kalla. Sri Mulyani claimed she was not present at the meeting.

Sri Mulyani also said that the government moved to save TPPI because the government held a majority of its shares.

On Tuesday, Victor also dismissed allegations that Kalla was involved in the scandal, saying that investigators would not summon the Vice President.

"I believe that the Vice President is probably not involved. Yes, he may have approved of certain policies or decisions, but TPPI did not fulfill their side of the bargain," he said.

Separately, Kalla told reporters on Tuesday that TPPI had been tasked with selling the condensate because it was widely known that the refiner was in financial trouble.

"That's why we gave it a job. If it wasn't in bad shape then it didn't need help, did it? So if it's in bad shape we need to give it something to do. The one in the wrong isn't the person who gave them the task, but the party that did not pay up," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/10/police-give-sri-mulyani-kalla-all-clear-tppi-graft-case.html

Freedom of religion & worship

MUI half-hearted in defending Ahmadiyah, Shia

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) was sticking to its stance that Ahmadiyah and Shia believers were deviant from mainstream Islam but nonetheless prosecuting them for following their religious practices was unjustified, its deputy chairman said on Sunday.

MUI deputy chairman Ma'ruf Amin made the remarks just days after a group of people, some of whom wore Islam Defenders Front (FPI) uniforms, blocked an Ahmadiyah congregation from performing Friday prayers at their own An Nur Mosque in Tebet, South Jakarta, on Friday.

Pluralism campaigners fear that Friday's attack could inspire other acts of harassment during the upcoming holy month of Ramadhan, which is slated to last from June 18 until July 16.

"MUI is firm that attacks are not permitted. Yes [Ahmadiyah and Shia, may perform religious services], but they should also comply with an earlier agreement they signed with the government that says they cannot spread their beliefs," said Ma'ruf.

Ma'ruf referred to the joint ministerial decree (SKB) and MUI's religious edict (fatwa) that declared Ahmadiyah to be a deviant sect. He added that the Shiites were also deviant but the religious body had yet to reach a national consensus declaring Shia as heretic.

The majority of Indonesian Muslims are Sunnis, and the Ahmadiyah and Shia form only very small minorities.

The MUI has gained notoriety for issuing a fatwa stating that only government-recognized Islamic organizations, such as itself, should be able to describe any people or groups kafir, or infidels, a move that was feared could encourage religious conflict against minority groups, including the Ahmadiyah and Shia, in the future.

Masdar Farid Mas'udi of Indonesia's largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama central board (PBNU) lambasted the MUI's latest fatwa saying that no individual or institution had the right to declare whether someone was a heretic or not.

"NU believes that plurality among religious believers or plurality inside a religion is a blessing that is justified by the Koran. In terms of religious diversity we should keep in mind the principle that your religion is for you and my religion is for me, that applies as well to diversity within a religion: my deeds are for me and your deeds are for you," Masdar said.

"If you believe that what other people believe is not right then simply do not follow them. The government should increase efforts to protect minority groups in the country," Masdar added.

Meanwhile, Abdul Mukti of the secretary of the country's second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah said that every Muslim had the right to be taught Islamic teachings but that did not mean that one had the right to claim whether someone was an infidel or not.

"Article 29 of our Constitution grants religious freedom for all citizens to practice what they believe and the government should be there to protect them if their rights are violated," Abdul added.

On Sunday at the location of Friday's attack, dozens of people in Muslim attire and some residents of the neighborhood unit and community unit RT 02/RW 08 Bukit Duri Tanjakan in Tebet, South Jakarta, gathered around a Muslim ustad (preacher) who made a speech condemning other residents, who were thought to be Ahmadiyah members, near the Ahmadis' mosque.

Children and youngsters, who comprised the majority of the audience, parroted the preacher, asking for the Ahmadis to stop practicing their faith and to return to mainstream Islam otherwise the group would forcibly evict the Ahmadiyah residents, who have been in the area since 1970s. (prm)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/mui-half-hearted-defending-ahmadiyah-shia.html

FPI say they will drive Ahmadiyah out of Tebet

Jakarta Globe - June 14, 2015

Jakarta – A hard-line Islamic group infamous for its violent brand of intolerance says it will continue efforts to expel Ahmadiyah Muslims practicing in Tebet, South Jakarta.

Chief of the Islamic Defenders Front's (FPI) Jakarta branch, Habib Salim Alatas, vowed to round up Ahmadiyah residents in the area and surround a house used as the community's headquarters, according to Tribunnews.com

"We will arrive at 9 a.m. and stage a protest to drive them out," Habib said on Sunday.

On Sunday, the FPI official led a small band of members and a handful of residents in prayer some distance away from the unassuming house, which has been used as a place of worship for the much-maligned group since the 1970s. "Those who are not Ahmadiyah, come together and let us pray," an FPI member shouted through a bullhorn.

A more hostile environment greeted Ahmadiyah worshipers on Friday morning, when about 25 residents of the Bukit Duri subdistrict – some wearing FPI shirts – blocked the entrance of the property, effectively barring worshipers from entering and conducting Friday prayers.

Undeterred, the group – consisting of 11 men and two women – peacefully rolled out their prayer mats on the street. The move garnered further criticism, however, as it violated an Islamic edict that calls for at least 40 men – and no women – to perform Friday prayers.

"You can see for yourself: there are only 13 people. And there are women! What kind of Islam allows that?" said Esry, 46, a resident. To prevent further escalation, police disbursed the crowd and urged worshipers to leave the premises.

The Ahmaidiyah, a branch of Islam that took root in British India in the 19th century, has long been the brunt of violence and protests across Indonesia, with the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) calling for an outright ban of the sect.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/fpi-say-will-drive-ahmadiyah-tebet/

Jokowi touts tolerance as Ahmadis come under threat

Jakarta Globe - June 14, 2015

Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – President Joko Widodo has echoed Vice President Jusuf Kalla's claim that Indonesia's brand of Islam is a peaceful one, on the same weekend that hard-liners in Jakarta threatened to drive out a community of beleaguered Ahmadiyah Muslims.

Joko, speaking at Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta on Sunday before an estimated 40,000 members of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's biggest Islamic organization, said Indonesian values had given the country's brand of Islam a tolerant character.

"Ours is an Islam that is polite, full of courtesy and tolerance," he said.

He added that Indonesia's should be grateful for what he called "Islam Nusantara," or "Archipelagic Islam," noting that many other countries with Muslim-majority populations tended to be riven by conflict. He cited Yemen, Syria and Iran as examples.

Joko's comments echo similar remarks by Vice President Kalla earlier this month, when he declared Indonesia the most religiously harmonious country in the world. Kalla based his claim entirely on the fact that Indonesia officially celebrates the major holidays of the six religions sanctioned by the state.

"Tell me which country is more democratic than Indonesia," he told the Asian Conference of Religions for Peace, on June 3 in Bandung – "Even the United States, the largest democracy, doesn't have [an Islamic holiday as a national holiday]."

Joko's claim of a tolerant Islam flies in the face of repeated attempts by the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, to drive out an Ahmadiyah congregation from the Tebet area of South Jakarta.

The FPI, a rent-a-mob that cites Islamic pretexts to justify its acts of criminal violence and vandalism, apparently took umbrage at the sight of a group of Ahmadis preparing to hold Friday noon prayers in the front yard of their house in Tebet.

After failing to persuade the Ahmadis to join the rest of the neighborhood's men for prayers at a nearby mosque, the mob threatened to turf out the group, accusing it of heresy. Police were later called to the scene to avert a clash, but the FPI members threatened to return on Sunday.

They were duly back as promised, and harangued the Ahmadis. The police, who said they would post officers outside the house, were nowhere to be seen.

Pantiarso, the neighborhood unit chief, said he wasn't disturbed by the Ahmadis, who have been living and worshiping in the area since the 1970s. Of greater concern to him, he said, was the FPI and its threats of violence.

He said he was well aware of the group's reputation for attacking and torching homes, and feared that residents in the area who were not Ahmadi could be targeted in an attack.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta/jokowi-touts-tolerance-ahmadis-come-threat/

Ahmadiyah blocked from Friday prayers

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2015

Jakarta – Dozens of people blocked a group of Ahmadis from performing their Friday prayers at their own An Nur Mosque in Bukit Duri Tanjakan, Tebet, South Jakarta, on Friday.

Stared at by their tormentors, the Ahmadis were forced to fulfill their religious obligations on the street in front of the mosque.

Aryudi Prastowo, one of the congregation members, said that around 25 people came to the mosque at 10 a.m. to confront the worshippers. Around five of them wore Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) uniforms while the rest were an ustad (preacher) named Syakir and his followers.

"Syakir is a local ustad here and he has been our strongest opponent. He and his fellows stood in front of the mosque gate to prevent us from entering. We had to pray outside the mosque," Aryudi told The Jakarta Post.

Only after making sure that the Ahmadis would not use the mosque, did the protesters leave to themselves go pray in another nearby mosque.

At around 1 p.m. they reportedly returned to threaten the Ahmadis, telling them that they would not hesitate to use violence if the Ahmadis remained defiant of their orders. The Ahmadis tried to argue, but to no avail.

"They ended up kicking our mosque gate until it fell down. One of them burned the right wrist of our fellow Fajar Kurniawan with a cigarette. We have reported this case to the Jakarta Police," Aryudi explained.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which has issued an edict declaring the Ahmadis as heretics, has repeatedly urged the goverment to ban Ahmadiyah because it differs from the teachings of the mainstream Sunni Islam.

Shia Muslims have also faced the same treatment as the Ahmadi. Many regencies, cities and provinces have banned the two Islamic groups. Thousands of Ahmadis and Shias were forced to leave their homes in several places, including in Madura.

Meanwhile, Tebet Police chief Comr. I Ketut Sudarma said that he was at the location from the very beginning when the incident took place. He said he tried to mediate between the two parties.

"The presence of Ahmadiyah had been rejected some years ago in the area. Moreover, An Nur is not a mosque. It is a house and that's why it can't be used for Friday prayers. Residents in the neighborhood had frequently demanded the Ahmadis pray together with them in the community mosque, but the Ahmadis refused," the police officer said.

Tebet subdistrict head Mardi Youce was also present and he said he tried to calm down both parties."I can't side with one party. Two months ago the [Sunni] Muslims and Ahmadiyah representatives signed a pact. The latter agreed not to do Friday prayers at that place anymore," he said.

Aryudi admitted the meeting occurred, but said, "We only want to pray according to what we believe."

He went on to say that Ahmadiyah had been in the area since the 1970s. Aryudi added that most of the residents accepted their presence and activities. He pointed his finger at the preacher Syakir, blaming him for the Ahmadi's troubles.

"He always said that we can't pray here, but when we asked why, he kept on insisting that we can't pray here and stated that our prayers disturbed his praying activities," Aryudi said. (rbk)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/13/ahmadiyah-blocked-friday-prayers.html

Scholars and activists slam MUI 'kafir' edict

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2015

Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, stating that only government-recognized Islamic organizations, such as itself, should be able to call any people or groups kafir, or infidels.

The MUI is claiming the move is meant to prevent religious hate speech, but some scholars and activists are expressing fear that the MUI just wants to expand its power in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Zacky Khairul Umam, a research fellow at the Institute of Islamic Studies at Freie University, Germany, said the edict was positive, but he reminded all Islamic organizations to refrain from labeling anyone as infidels.

"It is better for Islamic organizations to just focus on the well-being of the Islamic society [rather than on labeling]," Zacky said.

Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the deputy chairman of the human rights group Setara Institute, said that the edict could become grounds for the council to gain momentum to attain a more powerful position in the future.

"The edict is good for minimizing provocative actions. However, the edict will make the MUI the sole organization to issue Islamic rulings. Single interpretations by an organization will, of course, bring out consequences. With the MUI getting stronger and stronger, the government will think twice when responding to an MUI policy," Bonar explained.

The fatwa, which was issued by the council's Edict Commission during its fifth meeting in Tegal, Central Java, is meant to prevent individuals from easily calling others kafir, a word that is usually considered highly offensive by the people or groups so labeled.

"The edict was issued because there are tendencies in our society to underestimate the word kafir and to easily call a person or a group of people kafir," Antara news agency quoted Muhammad Zaitun, one of the lead formulators of the edict, as saying on Wednesday.

"The labeling of a kafir is a religious law that individuals or illegitimate organizations cannot do," Zaitun said, adding that Islamic society should refrain from easily labeling others and should take moderate stances instead.

The council itself has issued several controversial edicts, many of which are not followed by the public. Its edict declaring that smoking cigarettes in public and for any woman to smoke is haram, against Islamic law, has been widely ignored. An announcement on the prohibition of pluralism has also largely gone unnoticed.

The labeling of people or groups as kafir has become an issue recently. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) reported in April that religious intolerance has been on the rise in Indonesia in recent years. The commission said that most religious intolerance and religious-based violence has been driven by religious hate speech, such as the labeling of people as infidels.

"We found banners that could be considered as provocation to hate other groups, such as the Syiah group," Komnas HAM said in a statement in April, referring to the Shia community that was targeted by several groups of people in different places in Indonesia because of their distinctive religious traits.

The Setara Institute also had similar views regarding what drives religious intolerance and violence in Indonesia. According to the institute's report, which was released on Monday, religious intolerance and violence are, among other things, driven by hate speech.

"The government has to stay vigilant in case Ramadhan is used by intolerant groups to preach against others," the institute's chairman, Hendardi, told reporters on Monday.

Basnang Said, a senior leader of Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, however, said he appreciated the council's move because it could prevent people from labeling others as infidels.

"It is a positive move. Many groups have become the victims of labeling. In fact, in Islam if you call somebody an infidel when he is not, the label returns to you," Basnang told The Jakarta Post on Thursday over the telephone. (saf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/12/scholars-and-activists-slam-mui-kafir-edict.html

Islam & religious affairs

Government to shut nightclubs, spas, massage parlors, bars during Ramadhan

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Dewanti A. Wardhani and Indah Setiawati, Jakarta – The Jakarta administration is gearing up for Ramadhan, which will begin on June 18, by implementing restrictions on business hours for entertainment venues.

Tourism and Culture Agency head Purba Hutapea said the agency had issued a letter to all entertainment businesses in the city. In the letter, he said, selected entertainment venues were forbidden from operating during Ramadhan.

"Several entertainment venues are forbidden from operating, such as nightclubs, discotheques, spas, massage parlors and bars. Billiard halls located within such areas also may not operate," Purba said on Sunday.

Other kinds of entertainment venues, he went on, are allowed to operate with limited business hours. Karaoke and entertainment venues with live music are allowed to operate only from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Further, stand-alone billiard halls may operate from 10 a.m. until midnight.

"This policy takes effect one day before Ramadhan, during Idul Fitri and one day after Idul Fitri," Purba said.

He said that the agency would cooperate with the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), the Jakarta Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) to supervise the entertainment venues.

"We will close any entertainment venues that violate the regulations," Purba said. He also told mass organizations not to conduct raids as such actions fell within the duties of Satpol PP and the police.

Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat also urged restaurants to install curtains on their windows during Ramadhan in order to respect those who are fasting. Meanwhile, Jakarta residents have also prepared for the holy month of Ramadhan by practicing ancestral traditions.

On Sunday, pilgrims flocked to cemeteries throughout the city to visit their families' graves ahead of Ramadhan. Several cemeteries, including Karet Bivak public cemetery in Central Jakarta, were packed with visitors, causing traffic in surrounding areas.

Dewi Irma, 31, said she and her family visited her grandfather's tomb at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery Kalibata in South Jakarta over the weekend.

"This is our family's annual tradition to welcome Ramadhan," she said on Sunday, adding that the tradition came from her mother's family. This year's visit, she said, was carried out on Saturday to coincide with the birthday of her late grandfather.

Traditions ahead of Ramadhan vary. Yogi Ikhwan, a civil servant at the city's Sanitation Agency, said his family did not have certain rituals such as visiting families' and relatives' graves before the fasting month. Instead, he was expecting to participate in a tradition called munggahan (big feast) at his office.

"Every unit in my office holds munggahan or a big feast together. Most of them held it last week. But my unit will hold it on Monday. It's probably a Sundanese tradition," he said on Sunday.

He said civil servants in his agency had their own way of carrying out the tradition with some of them chipping in to buy food, bringing homemade food to the office or eating out together in restaurants. (prm)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/jakarta-administration-and-residents-prepare-ramadhan.html

Agriculture & food security

Enough to eat: Indonesia's food security drive gains renewed urgency

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2015

Andreyka Natalegawa, Jakarta – Indonesia needs to beef up its fight against hunger and malnutrition as the government struggles to ensure the availability and affordability of food, after a United Nations report showed that millions of Indonesians live in hunger.

In a regional overview of food insecurity in Asia and the Pacific released on May 27, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization noted that almost 20 million Indonesians, or around 8 percent of the nation's population, suffer from chronic hunger.

The UN defines food security as existing "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life."

"The government has done well, considering where we started, but helping those last few millions out of hunger will be quite difficult," Mark Smulders, the FAO's country representative in Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.

The FAO's statements come at a time of heightened interest in national food security. In February, officials from the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD) and the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) announced the Indonesian government's aim to become food-secure by increasing rice yields by 200 kilograms per hectare every year from the current 5,150 kilograms per hectare at present. Indonesia is estimated to produce 73.4 million metric tons of rice this year, an increase from 70.61 million tons in 2014, according to the Agriculture Ministry in January.

While there has been a substantial rise in the availability food products like rice, Indonesia has made slow progress in reducing undernutrition, with the prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years of age at 37.2 percent in 2013. Within Southeast Asia, Indonesia's stunting rate is high, compared to 17 percent in Malaysia and 16 percent in Thailand.

Stunting in children is primarily caused by prolonged inadequacy of food intake, repeated episodes of infections or repeated episodes of acute undernutrition. While rice is rich in carbohydrates, it lacks key nutrients that can be found in fruits, vegetables and meat.

"Food security is not only about having enough food, but also having right kinds of food," Anthea Webb, the UN World Food Program's representative in Indonesia, told the Globe. "Government programs should look at the nutritional impact of their programs. Rice alone is not enough," Webb said.

Indonesia has successfully achieved the UN Millennium Development Goals' hunger target (MDG-1c) of halving the proportion of undernourished people from 17 percent in 1990. However, it has failed to meet the target set by the World Food Summit (WFS) of halving the absolute number of undernourished people from 16.6 million in 1990 by 2015. Part of the difficulty in achieving that goal is the rapid growth in Indonesia's population.

Public and private sector initiatives

At present, the government has in place a series of measures meant to eradicate hunger nationwide.

Legislation adopted in 2012 institutionalized the right to food and defined the state's obligations to ensure the availability and affordability of sufficient, safe and nutritionally balanced food for all people at all times.

Raskin, a poverty alleviation and social protection program managed by the Indonesian Bureau of Logistics (Bulog), has long provided subsidized rice to low-income households identified as being Raskin Beneficiary Households (RTS-PM) by the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction. These households are entitled to receive as much as 15 kilograms of Raskin rice per month, at a price of Rp 1,600 (10 cents) per kilogram. A kilogram of rice in retail markets, by comparison, cost around Rp 9,000 to Rp 10,000.

"What is good about Raskin is the card system that helps identify the most needy," Smulders said of the program's efficiency in designating RTS-PMs within vulnerable populations. "The card system is a good safety net because it can target and channel investment, including inputs like fertilizer and subsidies, to the poorest of the poor."

However, despite the measured successes of programs like Raskin, Bulog has recently come under fire for failing to reach targets for domestic rice buying. Bulog chief Lenny Sugihat was removed from office on Monday after just five months in the role, the deputy state-owned enterprises minister said.

The FAO further noted that the issue of food insecurity demands cooperation from all government ministries, particularly those that deal in labor practices.

"Labor practices are deeply tied to the issue of food security. Our main objective is to educate, and we cannot do that if children are taken out of school to he put into the workforce," Smulders said.

In a statement issued last month, the FAO and the UN's International Labor Organization signed a partnership agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration establishing a code of conduct on decent work for food security and sustainable rural development.

"The objective of the program is to promote food security and sustainable poverty reduction of rural communities, through increased labor productivity, enhanced employment opportunities, and expanding entrepreneurial opportunities," said Marwan Jafar, the minister.

The FAO's bid to establishing proper labor practices comes at a time of concentrated efforts in providing aid to Indonesia's rural and urban workers. Last Thursday, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Hanif Dhakiri announced a roadmap toward eradicating child labor. Hanif's plan includes a series of policy adjustments, including the creation and review of social safety nets.

The slow progress of government initiatives means that a renewed effort must be made in strengthening the implementation of food security policies, say private sector observers.

"The government must work with and support small farmers, with the aim of increasing overall commodity output," says Herry Kristanto, head of corporate affairs at Monsanto Indonesia, the local unit of the US agricultural giant.

According to Herry, the government must empower farmers to make more efficient use of farmland by giving them access to technologies that would increase overall crop yield.

"By using new technologies like hybrid seeds and fertilizers, farmers could increase their output without having to increase the overall area of farmland," he told the Globe on Monday.

Herry also highlighted a lack of development on key infrastructure as a factor for Indonesia's food insecurity. Many roads across Indonesia are inadequate, and transportation of goods between islands can be expensive because of the difficulty of access to ports.

"Transporting food and grain across Indonesia can be very difficult and expensive, which harms the overall productivity of the agricultural sector," he added.

Debora Tjandrakusuma, the legal and corporate affairs director at Nestle Indonesia, one of the nation's largest food manufacturers and a unit of the Swiss corporation, says that private companies and the government can work together to develop programs that make nutritious food available to all Indonesians.

"Long-term national strategies and public-private partnerships are required to ensure food security in Indonesia, a country with 250 million population to feed," Debora told the Globe.

"A long-term national strategy on education, family planning, land usage, the agricultural sector, nature and forest conservation and its disciplined implementation will help to achieve food security in the country."

Challenges ahead

The government's moves toward increasing equitable food production and ending food insecurity are complicated by a series of formidable challenges, some officials say.

Food production makes use of various inputs, making food prices sensitive to changes in volatile global commodity markets.

The FAO has emphasized the need to diversify Indonesia's production of crops, a preventative measure against factors of instability that could harm local production markets. Indonesia's main crops include rice, corn and cassava, but little focus on other types of produce including protein- rich foods such as soybean – of which almost all is imported from the United States.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's population boom could hinder efforts to fight food insecurity, particularly in terms of the sustainable allocation of land for farm use. As the population increases, people are moving into cities, and as cities grow, farmland is being developed for residential use.

Herry of Monsanto says that more than 1,000 hectares of agricultural land are transformed for urban needs each year. "In Java, farmland has been converted to suit the needs of the growing cities," he said.

Conversely, Indonesia must work toward controlling the amount of forests converted for farm use.

"The world cannot afford for Indonesia to transform further forest land into agricultural land," said the FAO's Smulders, emphasizing the importance of Indonesia's rainforests in maintaining the region's ecological balance.

Climate change also will play a role in determining the future of Indonesia's food security, said the WFP, as changes in rainfall affect Indonesia's efforts to increase food production.

Conflicting interests could become a growing challenge to Indonesia's search for food security, even in terms of government programs.

The 2012 Food Law contains numerous provisions calling for the realization of "food sovereignty, self-sufficiency and security."

The FAO's regional report targeted government self-sufficiency programs for "[entailing] significant trade restrictions and therefore a trade-off with economic efficiency," creating further obstacles in establishing food security. Indonesia has made self-sufficiency a prime objective through increasing rice production.

Speaking on the possibility of conflicting interests between self- sufficiency and food security initiatives, Smulders said the government "must balance their different policy objects in order to reap the most benefits."

Regional cooperation

As a member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and hence the Asean Economic Community that goes into full force at the end of this year, Indonesia must now grapple with the issue of food security in the regional context.

Although Southeast Asia as a whole has made significant strides in hunger eradication by reaching the MDG-1c target of halving the proportion of the hungry, the region has yet to grapple with key issues of undernutrition.

While Smulders believes that Indonesia and other nations in the region have the capability to free themselves from hunger, he added "the bigger challenge is to achieve good nutrition."

According to the FAO report, Southeast Asia suffers from higher rates of wasting among children than both Eastern Asia and Oceania.

Wasting, the result of short-term inadequacy of food intake, has significant efforts on human growth and development. The continuance of wasting and other similar conditions has led to a host of medial issues in Southeast Asia, including the increased prevalence of anemia among pregnant women and children.

In a bid toward enhancing regional cooperation in the fight against food insecurity, Asean will host its 14th Food Conference in the Philippines later this month. The conference aims to strengthen the capabilities of Asean in promoting a higher quality of life for the people of the region through the achievement of food security and safety.

Asean has also spearheaded the creation of the Asean Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework and the Asean Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve, initiatives meant to foster food security in the region.

"Nations in Southeast Asia all share similar dietary needs and requirements," said WFP representative Webb. "Cooperation between the Asean states in ending food insecurity is inevitable and necessary."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/enough-eat-indonesias-food-security-drives-gains-renewed-urgency/

Governance & administration

Indonesian president Widodo shores up power with top posts for army men

Bloomberg - June 11, 2015

Chris Brummitt and Rieka Rahadiana – Indonesia President Joko Widodo declined to pick an air force officer as his next military chief, a further sign he's concentrating power in the army as his public popularity fades.

Mr Widodo nominated army General Gatot Nurmantyo to head the military, risking scrutiny when his choice is considered by the opposition-led parliament. He separately named former Jakarta army chief Sutiyoso, who goes by one name, to lead the state intelligence agency.

The appointments reflect Mr Widodo's focus on building support within an army that has frequently quarrelled with the police force, and are a show of authority after a series of policy backflips. The head of the military, or TNI, has traditionally rotated between the various services, with the air force due a turn after current chief Moeldoko from the army retires on August 1.

"It shows he's willing to ignore a core reason for the rotation system, which is to phase out the army-centric culture in TNI and to help reform," said Natalie Sambhi, an Indonesian defence analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The move "flies in the face of building up the navy and air force for maritime policies".

Mr Widodo has called for a 'maritime axis' policy for Indonesia including investment in ports, a coast guard and increased defence spending. A furniture businessman who beat former commando Prabowo Subianto to win the presidency last year, he picked Luhut Panjaitan, previously a four-star general in the army's special forces, as his chief of staff in December.

Honeymoon over

Since then his honeymoon with international investors has ended, after a fight between the police and anti-graft agency over his pick for police chief that hurt his reform credentials, executions of foreign citizens and with the economy at its weakest in at least five years. The disputes make it difficult for the former Jakarta governor to gain traction on policies to revive Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Mr Widodo promised an end to "transactional" politics, yet holds a minority in parliament and has faced pressure from his own party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle or PDI-P, for a cabinet reshuffle this year.

Mr Sutiyoso was also a governor of Jakarta, after heading the army in the capital under former dictator Suharto in 1996-1997. In July 1996, the army and police forces stormed the Jakarta headquarters of the Megawati Soekarnoputri-led PDI-P, leading to riots.

Renewed nationalism

In March former commando Nurmantyo went on a speaking tour of local universities where he struck nationalist themes and spoke of a "proxy" war against Indonesia by unnamed forces, which wasn't the first time he's made such statements, Mr Sambhi said.

"At a time when there appears to be a renewed sense of nationalism in Indonesia, statements made by a panglima [noble rank] that victimise Indonesia risk fanning nationalist flames," Mr Sambhi said in a blog post, referring to the Indonesian word for a military commander.

Mr Widodo told reporters on Wednesday that his nomination for military chief was based on "the current geopolitical circumstances", according to the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

"There are no questions about Nurmantyo's ability to be TNI commander but the decision to ignore the tradition of rotating the service heads is generally being seen as a backward step," said Keith Loveard, head of political risk at Jakarta- based security company Concord Consulting. "We've seen many areas where the army is creeping back into daily life and it appears that Widodo is happy to see this continue."

No law

There's no law requiring the position of military chief to be rotated between the services, and it's the president's prerogative to choose, said Zulkifli Hasan, speaker of parliament's upper house.

General Nurmantyo "is the perfect candidate for military chief," said Mr Hasan. "He is very professional and has many achievements."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesian-president-joko-widodo-shores-up-power-with-top-posts-for-army-men-20150611-ghlna6.html

Joko surprises with picks for new military, intelligence chiefs

Jakarta Globe - June 10, 2015

Jakarta – A senior legislator has demanded an explanation from President Joko Widodo for nominating the Army chief of staff, Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, as Indonesia's new military commander, breaking with a longstanding tradition that should have seen the Air Force chief get the top job.

"This is a new trend, so of course the House of Representatives wants the president to explain this move," Fahri Hamzah, a House deputy speaker, said late on Tuesday, after Joko notified the House about his pick.

The president surprised many by going with Gatot. Under the rotation system adopted by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in 1999, the role of TNI commander is supposed to be farmed out between the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The current commander, Gen. Moeldoko, who retires on Aug. 1, is from the Army, and under the rotation system it was Air Marshal Agus Supriatna of the Air Force who was due to take over.

Even before Joko's decision, however, analysts had expected Joko to pick the Navy's Admiral Ade Supandi, to bolster the government's wider policy of developing Indonesia as a global maritime power. But few expected it would be the Army's Gatot getting the nod.

Muradi, the chairman of the Politics and Security Study Center at Bandung's Padjadjaran University, said the move could be seen as Joko's way to minimize friction between the different branches of the TNI, with more funding being channeled to the Navy and Air Force to support Joko's vision of building Indonesia's maritime and air supremacy.

"The important question is how Gatot can position himself as a leader of all three branches and not a member of just one branch," he said.

Muradi also said the president should explain why he was abandoning the rotation system first put in place by the late president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid. The system, though never actually formalized, allowed the heads of the Navy and Air Force to break the Army's monopoly on the post of TNI commander, and Muradi warned that breaking from this tradition could stoke simmering rivalries within the armed forces.

Chief security minister Tedjo Edhy Purdjianto, a retired Navy chief of staff, backed Joko's decision to nominate Gatot, saying Army chief was the most experienced of the current chiefs of staff. "I'm sure that there won't be any controversy or friction inside the TNI," he said as quoted by Kompas.com.

Speaking in Solo, Central Java, where he is preparing for his son's wedding on Thursday, Joko told reporters on Wednesday that his nomination of Gatot was based on "the current geopolitical circumstances," but did not elaborate.

New intelligence chief nominee

The nomination was revealed late on Tuesday in a letter from Joko to the House leadership, in which he requested a confirmation hearing for Gatot.

The same letter also sought a confirmation hearing for retired Army general and former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso as the nominee to head the State Intelligence Agency (BIN). Sutiyoso, the chairman of the Indonesian Unity and Justice Party (PKPI), is slated to replace outgoing BIN chief Marciano Norman, also a retired Army general.

State Secretary Minister Pratikno said the decision to nominate Sutiyoso had nothing to do with the fact that the PKPI was one of the parties that backed Joko's presidential campaign. "The president's appointment is based on integrity," he said.

But Haris Azhar, chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), argued that Sutiyoso had neither the integrity nor experience needed to be the intelligence chief.

The rights activist noted that Sutiyoso once led a bloody crackdown on civilian protesters outside the headquarters of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) on July 27, 1996, when he oversaw the Jakarta Military Command.

That same building was earlier this month reopened as the headquarters of the PDI's reincarnation, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – of which Joko is a member.

"We feel Sutiyoso's appointment is political and merely an act of returning a favor," Haris said.

He said Sutiyoso did not have the requisite experience to cope with increasingly complex security challenges such as terrorism and cybercrimes, nor the integrity needed to ensure that the BIN would not be used as a tool by the government to silence critics and the opposition.

"Joko must find another candidate to compete with Sutiyoso for the BIN chief post," Haris said.

Joko told reporters on Wednesday that Sutiyoso's appointment "was made after going through a number of considerations as well as a look at his records. He has a lot of experience in the fields of intelligence and the military."

House Speaker Setya Novanto said he would bring the president's letter before a plenary session next week to decide on whether to grant the requests for confirmation hearings for Gatot and Sutiyoso, or whether to ask the president to nominate more candidates.

Sutiyoso himself confirmed on Wednesday that he was ready for the House's fit-and-proper test and that, if confirmed, he would first conduct a review of the intelligence agency. "I would like to know exactly what BIN is like at the moment," he said, "and see what the people are like."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/joko-surprises-picks-new-military-intelligence-chiefs/

Two problematic appointments by Jokowi

Jakarta Globe Editorial - June 10, 2015

President Joko Widodo's appointment of retired Army general Sutiyoso as State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief is against the principle of political neutrality and could even jeopardize our system of checks and balances.

The retired three-star general is the chairman of a political party supporting Joko. This gives us reason to believe that Joko is merely paying off a debt to the former Jakarta governor – who so far has not gotten anything in return for his political support – and not necessarily because he is the best man for the job.

Handing this kind of job to a person with strong political interests such as party chairman Sutiyoso is dangerous. While we should give the man a chance to prove that our suspicions are unfounded, there remains the possibility that he can abuse his power as the intelligence chief to spy on political rivals and exploit their weaknesses.

Joko should have just appointed a career spook without any political interests. Such a person would likely serve the president and the country better.

The appointment of Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo as the next Indonesian Military (TNI) chief is also problematic.

After former presidents Abdurrahman Wahid and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were trying hard to make the country's military less Army-dependant by also appointing chiefs from the Navy and Air Force on a rotating basis, we now seem to be back to the situation where the Army is dominating our defense apparatus. In that sense we're back to what we experienced during the New Order era, which can only be classified as a militarist nightmare for the people.

Of course, Joko has not violated any laws by appointing these two men. After all, it is the president's prerogative to nominate candidates to lead these institutions. The House of Representatives is also likely to agree with the nominations, as so far we have not heard any objection from lawmakers.

We surely hope that both Sutiyoso and Gatot can prove us wrong. But until then, we have to remain cautious.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/editorial-two-problematic-appointments-jokowi/

Parliament & legislation

House factions reject constituency funds plan

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2015

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – More lawmakers have stepped up to oppose a plan by the House of Representatives to channel up to Rp 11.2 trillion (US$861 million) of state funding for development projects in their respective constituencies, calling the plan unconstitutional and prone to abuse.

While several lawmakers, who are mostly from the political factions within the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition, have publicly expressed their objection to the plan, a few have gone as far as to call for an amendment to the 2014 Law on legislative institutions, known as the MD3 Law.

"The MD3 Law is the legal base used to justify the constituency funds. It would be useless to oppose the plan without revising the existing law as the regulation can be used to revive the plan anytime in the future," leader of the NasDem faction, Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"NasDem will thus propose dropping all stipulations that accommodate the constituency funds from the MD3 Law. We will officially present our stance on the matter when the House asks for the final decision of each faction," the member of the House Commission I, which oversees defense, foreign affairs and informatics, added, expecting that more factions would be convinced to follow suit.

The House has been in the spotlight in the last few weeks following the revelation of a proposal to set aside so-called aspiration funds worth approximately Rp 20 billion for each of the 560 lawmakers annually, which is meant to help them develop their electoral districts.

Lucius Karus from Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) for example slammed the plan, describing it as simply a gateway for lawmakers to evade their responsibilities to their constituents. "It will burden the state because lawmakers will put their responsibility onto the state," he said in a statement, adding that lawmakers' poor performance had further convinced the public that the constituency funds plan was a waste of money.

Besides focusing on their responsibilities to deliberate laws and regulations, draft the national budget in collaboration with the government and monitor the government's work, Article 72 of the MD3 Law also expects lawmakers to reach out to their constituents for input and their aspirations to better develop their environments.

In order to enable lawmakers to realize the aspirations of their respective constituents, Article 75 of the law grants the power for each lawmaker to independently design the budget allocation needed for programs to be delivered to their constituents.

The article states that the House secretary-general's office will be in charge of managing the funds if lawmakers' plans are passed after discussion with the government.

In order to draw up the mechanism for distributing the money, a recently established working committee of the House's legislation body (Baleg) is deliberating a regulation that is expected to regulate how lawmakers use the funds.

The regulation is also expected to set up a rigid monitoring process that will oblige lawmakers to regularly provide reports on the use of the money.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Henry Yosodiningrat has also opposed the proposal, arguing that the huge sums would be prone to embezzlement due to a lack of proper management.

The secretary of the PDI-P faction, Bambang Wuryanto, insisted the party would oppose the proposal, calling on all PDI-P lawmakers to comply with the party's stance.

A working committee on the plan, which is headed by National Awakening Party (PAN) lawmaker Totok Daryanto confirmed that his team, which comprises representatives from each of the 10 political factions at the House, would accommodate all concerns about the proposed funding.

"We will work on each stipulation to avoid potential embezzlement, for example, as well as other concerns," Totok said recently.

The committee is expected to finish deliberating the plan by June 24 so that the House can endorse it immediately ahead of a recess that will start on July 11, when lawmakers can return to their constituencies.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/15/house-factions-reject-constituency-funds-plan.html

Activists dismiss lawmakers' arguments for pork barrel scheme

Jakarta Globe - June 12, 2015

Yustinus Paat, Markus Sihaloho & Hotman Siregar, Jakarta – Activists and experts continue to criticize attempts by the House of Representatives to introduce a pork barrel scheme, saying that it is counterproductive, prone to graft and unconstitutional.

Lawmakers are pushing the government to include a Rp 11.2 trillion ($840 million) Electoral Region Development Fund (UP2DP) in next year's state budget.

The proposed fund, which is similar to the House's "aspiration funds" which in the past faced wide public rejection, will be distributed among all 560 representatives and used for any development project of their choosing in their respective electoral regions. The House on Friday formed a team to work the scheme's details.

"There is no special supervision [on the funds' use] because this UP2DP fund will be included in the state budget, which is already audited by the Supreme Audit Agency [BPK]," said the team's chairman, Totok Daryanto.

"The programs are proposed by the people. The House is simply channeling the people's aspirations," the National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker continued. "We are not taking over the executives' jobs. [The legislature] and the government both have the same job: to develop the country."

Roy Salam, a researcher at watchdog the Indonesia Budget Center, criticized the plan, saying that by putting funds directly in the hands of lawmakers, the legislature will move into an executive role.

"This is against the Constitution, which limits the role of the House in state affairs," he said on Friday. "Aside from that, aspiration funds can be spent on projects that are not necessarily needed by their constituents but may be politically and financially beneficial [for the lawmakers]. This allows rooms for embezzlement and waste."

Lawmakers have argued that such funding is important for lawmakers who often receive suggestions from their constituents on the type of projects their respective electoral regions need.

Allowing some state funds to be controlled by all 560 lawmakers "guarantees that people's aspirations will be heard," Golkar Party lawmaker Ahmadi Noor Supi said on Tuesday.

Roy dismissed this argument, saying that by law, the legislature already has a say in how the government should spend money.

"The House only needs to maximize its three functions: legislation, budgeting and supervision, to address the problems faced by their constituents at their respective regions," the researcher said.

Regional autonomy expert Djohermansyah, a former senior government official, said the proposed aspiration funds will only aggravate inequalities and not the other way around, as lawmakers have argued.

Under the scheme, he explained, the already well-developed city of Jakarta, represented by 18 lawmakers at the House, will obtain between Rp 270 billion and Rp 360 billion in additional funds while the entire province of West Papua, represented by just three lawmakers, will get between Rp 45 billion to Rp 60 billion despite having a high rate of poverty, low access to health care and very little infrastructure.

Lucius Karus, a senior researcher at watchdog called Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), said that there was no guarantee that the projects the lawmakers proposed would not overlap with those of the central and regional governments. The aspiration funds "will be nothing more than a waste of taxpayers' money," he said.

Lucius said he was also worried about the lack of clear guidelines and regulations on what type of projects the funding can be used for and who gets to oversee and audit the projects.

"The House has been monitoring how the government spends money in the field. But if the House also plays a part in infrastructure development, who would monitor them?" he said. The lack of supervision means corrupt representatives may award the projects to cronies and relatives, the activist continued.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) also has its doubts about the planned scheme.

"The House must explain transparently and in detail the purpose of the aspiration funds," said KPK interim deputy chairman Indriyanto Seno Adji. "We don't want this aspiration fund to create another opportunity for corruption."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/activists-dismiss-lawmakers-arguments-pork-barrel-scheme/

House attempts to revive controversial 'aspiration funds'

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2015

Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – After failing to obtain state funding for the down payment on their private cars, members of the House of Representatives (DPR) are pushing the government to include Rp 11.2 trillion ($820 million) in "aspiration funds" for lawmakers in next year's state budget.

Ahmadi Noor Supit, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the proposed fund will be distributed among all 560 representatives and used for any development project of their choosing in their respective electoral regions.

The exact amount of funds each lawmaker will receive ranges between Rp 15 billion and Rp 20 billion and depends on the population size of respective electoral regions. "We propose that the funds be inserted in the 2016 state budget," the Golkar Party lawmaker said.

Similar proposals received widespread criticism from activists and experts who were skeptical as to how the money would be spent ever since it was first proposed in 2010. In particular, they have questioned the lack of clear regulations on what type of projects the funding can be used for and who gets to oversee and audit the projects.

Activists are worried that the proposed fundings could be misused and used to finance political campaigns. They are also concerned about the absolute control each representative has over the projects, leaving open the possibility that corrupt representatives may award the projects to cronies and relatives.

The government and the DPR in 2010 scrapped the plan due to massive public outcry. Several attempts to revive the proposal over the years also failed. But Supit dismissed these worries saying that this time, the proposed funds would have tighter monitoring mechanisms.

"Representatives will only have the right to propose programs to be financed by the funds. The relevant regional governments will be responsible for executing the programs," he said. "The funds will be included in the respective regional budgets. Not one rupiah will be controlled by the representatives."

Supit said that such funding is important for lawmakers who often receive suggestions from their constituents on the type of projects their respective electoral regions need. "This way, there is a guarantee that people's aspirations will be heard," he continued.

House Speaker Setya Novanto said the legislature was discussing how the proposed funds would be distributed and monitored. "This is still a proposal," he said.

Minister for National Development Planning, Andrinof Chaniago, was among those criticizing the proposal, saying that development projects should be left to the executive branch. "Let's all look at the rules and regulations. Does the House have any authority on this?" Andrinof said, as quoted by news portal CNN Indonesia.

The proposal came less than two months after the House failed to pass a regulation that would entitle legislators and other state officials to Rp 211 million each for a down payment on a personal vehicle.

President Joko Widodo in April canceled the regulation just days after it had been signed in response to mounting public outrage over what was widely seen as wasteful use of public funds. The president said that he had not read the regulation carefully, adding he would never had signed off on it had he known what it entailed.

The brouhaha stemmed from a letter dated Jan. 5 from House Speaker Setya to the Cabinet Secretariat, requesting a revision to the allowance for down payments for vehicles for 753 state officials.

Their predecessors received Rp 116.5 million each, under a 2010 presidential regulation signed by the then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Setya's letter sought an increase to Rp 250 million. After an evaluation by Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto and later Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, the final amount approved was Rp 210.89 million per official – or a total of Rp 158.8 billion from the state budget – to afford these public officials the down payment figure.

Many of the high officials so entitled were already provided with cars as part of their office function.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta/house-attempts-revive-controversial-aspiration-funds/

Jakarta & urban life

Fewer passengers mark Transjakarta's declining service

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2015

Indra Budiari, Jakarta – A recent study released by the Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ), reveals that the total number of passengers taking Transjakarta buses between January and April this year declined compared to the same period last year, a number that according to the council reflected the decreasing quality of service.

DTKJ Head Ellen S. Tangkudung said Monday that there were 34.1 million Transjakarta passengers between January and April this year, down 8.5 percent from 37.3 million between January and April in 2014.

"At the same time, we also received various complaints from passengers about Transjakarta service," Ellen told reporters during a press conference at DTKJ office in Central Jakarta.

From the lack of enforcement to keep Transjakarta lanes clear of other traffic, to the lack of a defined schedule for the arrival of buses and to the lack of help from officers for disabled people, passengers said Transjakarta shows no signs of quality improvement.

Bagus Supriyanto, an activist with the Association of Visually Impaired People (Pertuni), said he felt that officers who were stationed either onboard Transjakarta buses or in bus shelters were not as responsive to disabled people as they used to be.

"A few years ago the officers would help me to enter the bus and find a seat as soon as they noticed that I was blind, but it doesn't happen a lot now. Most of them are just talking with each other," Bagus told The Jakarta Post.

He added that some speaker systems that were installed in the buses to give audible information on the bus location were broken. "Therefore, I have to ask other passengers about our location," he said.

Another passenger, Olivia, took a picture of a Transjakarta bus driver who was using his smartphone when he was driving the bus. "It made for an unpleasant trip as he hit the brakes over and over," she said Monday as quoted by kompas.com. According to Olivia, the passengers reprimanded him, but their complaints fell on deaf ears as the driver kept using the smartphone.

Having taken over the operation of Transjakarta buses on Jan. 1 from an operational unit at the City Transportation Agency, PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) was expected to improve services and fulfill the minimum standards set for land transportation. However, DTKJ considers there to be a lot of sectors that needed to be improved by the bus operator.

During Monday's conference, Ellen said Transjakarta must apply a number of improvements in service, such as by adjusting the total number of buses deployed with the number of passengers waiting in bus shelters to avoid passenger congestion.

Furthermore, she said that other ideas, such as adding more passing lanes by several busy bus shelters for time efficiency, integrating the buses with other public transportation in Greater Jakarta and creating a more disabled-friendly environment, should also be taken into consideration.

"If they do not increase the quality, we are afraid that there would be many people switching from taking Transjakarta buses to private transportation," she said.

Separately, Steve Kosasih, president director of the Transjakarta operator, said the company had taken over the management less than a year ago and added that a lot of things would be improved in the near future.

"In this first half of the year we still focused on revamping our system and coordinated over related regulations with the Jakarta Administration," he said.

Kosasih said he believed that in the year's second half, the company would be able to add 500 to 1,000 buses to expand its service. He added that Transjakarta had also begun talks with state-owned railway company PT KAI to integrate Transjakarta shelters with train stations.

"We are certain that things will be much better in the second half of the year," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/09/fewer-passengers-mark-transjakarta-s-declining-service.html

Armed forces & defense

Jokowi raises police and soldiers' salaries

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2015

Ina Parlina and Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo signed two government regulations that would increase the monthly salaries of National Police officers and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel by 6 percent. The decision was made public on Thursday.

The two regulations raise monthly salaries of the lowest-ranking police officers and enlisted TNI soldiers to Rp 1.56 million (US$116.9) per month from Rp 1.47 million last year, and the generals and commodores from Rp 5.32 million to Rp 5.64 million per month.

The regulations state that "the new provisions take affect starting January this year," although Jokowi signed off on the decision on June 4.

Under the new regulations, middle-ranking officers, for example, TNI mayors and police commissioners, receive Rp 2.85 million, up from Rp 2.69 million, while colonels and senior commissioners can receive up to Rp 4.99 million, an increase from last year's Rp 4.7 million.

Jokowi also signed other regulations that increased pension funds for retired police and military personnel, as well as the allowances for their widowers or widows and children.

However, Jokowi has yet to decide on the police's proposal for a remuneration increase.

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said the force had officially proposed a remuneration hike for police personnel, a move many believed was inspired by Jokowi's plan to increase the military remuneration by 56 to 60 percent starting in May. Badrodin has complained that two-thirds of this year's budget will be used to pay salaries.

Meanwhile, although the National Police's budget did not increase as much as Badrodin hoped, he said on Friday that the police force's main priority right now was to optimize the funds for investigations.

He said that next year's planned budget allocation for the force would increase from Rp 57 trillion to Rp 62 trillion.

"So far our budget has never been enough for the investigations we conduct every year. The current budget only funds around 36 percent of all the investigations we are conducting," he told reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Badrodin's predecessor, Gen. Sutarman, once acknowledged that the limited budget drove many police investigators to conduct unlawful acts such as extortion in order to be able to investigate the large number of cases received every year.

Badrodin himself said that he would propose another increase next year so that all investigations could be fully covered by their annual budget.

"Of course it is unlikely that 100 percent of all the investigations will be immediately covered but at least there will be an increase in 2016," he said.

Jokowi made the announcement on his plan to increase the TNI remuneration during an April ceremony when he was awarded the military berets.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/13/jokowi-raises-police-and-soldiers-salaries.html

TNI chief nomination seen as reform setback

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Human rights watchdogs have called on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to continue pursuing military reform in spite of his move to break from the tradition of rotating the leadership of the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Jokowi has proposed Army chief of staff Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo to succeed Gen. Moeldoko, who is slated to retire in August. By doing so, he has broken with the tradition of allowing the Army, Navy and Air Force to take turns in assuming the leadership of the TNI.

"The rotation system is stipulated in Article 13 paragraph 4 of the Law on the TNI and is aimed at blocking the domination of the Army, which had utter domination during the New Order era. The Army was consistently used by former president Soeharto to back up his power," Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) executive director Poengky Indarti told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Moeldoko of the Army, succeeded the Navy's Adm. Agus Suhartono in 2013. The baton should have been passed to Air Force chief of staff Air Chief Marshall Agus Supriatna if Jokowi had opted to continue with the tradition of rotation.

Critics have warned that the appointment of Gatot could be a setback to attempts at reforming the military, which have been ongoing since the end of the New Order in 1998, as it could allow the Army to become a dominant force once again.

"The Indonesian military is already synonymous with the Army because the mindset of [past] leaders was that threats came by land, which was the reason they strengthened the Army," Poengky said.

Besides the nomination of another Army chief, there are other indications that the Army is already bolstering its position, such as its sizable personnel, its increased budget and the involvement of several Army generals in politics.

Poengky said she was concerned that some of the military reform agenda, including the elimination of the territorial commands [Koter] at the local level and the revision to the Military Tribunal Law, would be put at risk. "The existence of the Koter must be reformed so that the TNI can only play the role of defending the country," she said.

The Koter system was frequently abused by the New Order regime to spy on and influence the population at a local level, and it has been argued that the Koter should be ditched to prevent military personnel or retired officers using its network to garner grassroots political support.

Also on the agenda for military reform is the amendment of the Military Tribunal Law, which would allow military personnel suspected of criminal acts to be brought before a civilian court, rather than a military tribunal, as the latter usually hands out administrative penalties rather than deterrent sentences.

To ensure that the TNI reforms continue, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called on the House of Representatives to involve the public in assessing the track record of Gatot.

Komnas HAM said the public had to make sure that Gatot had no record of human rights violations, let alone in serious cases, and was committed to promoting human rights particularly within the military institution.

"The new TNI chief must be committed to continuing the ongoing efforts to reform the institution. He must also be committed to solving cases of gross human rights abuse in the past," Komnas HAM chairman Nur Kholis said.

The House of Representatives Commission I overseeing foreign affairs and defense, is expected to hold a confirmation hearing on Gatot in the next few weeks, during which the House normally involves Komnas HAM.

Nur Kholis, however, said that his office had yet to receive a letter from Commission I asking for Komnas HAM's assessment of Gatot. "We will conduct the process as soon as we are invited," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/11/tni-chief-nomination-seen-reform-setback.html

TNI launches counterterrorism squad

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2015

Jakarta – Indonesia's Armed Forces, or TNI, has launched a new counterterrorism squad, with the head of Indonesia's military saying it is ready to fight terrorism "at any second."

TNI commander Gen. Moeldoko inaugurated the special unit, named the TNI Joint Special Operations Command, or Koopsusgab, on Tuesday. Moeldoko said Koopsusgab was prepared to fight any act of terrorism that threatened Indonesian sovereignty and would protect civilians.

"They are ready to fight terrorism at any second," he told news portal Kompas.com on Tuesday. "We will face any source of terrorism, whether Al- Qaeda or the Islamic State now, that threatens the country.

"If Bali is threatened, for example, we will directly move there. We will focus on areas prone to acts of terrorism."

Koopsusgab will be stationed in Sentul, West Java, and will comprise of 81 trained counterterrorism personnel from the Army, the Navy's special forces (Denjaka) and the Air Force's Bravo 90 special forces unit.

Indonesia's counterterrorism has until now been handled by the National Police's elite Densus 88 unit, which has had considerable success in combatting terrorism in Indonesia.

In March, the National Police announced an agreement had been signed with the TNI to help train young military officers in terrorism prevention and boost ties between the two organizations.

It is not yet clear how Koopsusgab and Densus 88 will work together to fight terrorism.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/armed-forces-start-counterterrorism-squad/

Tourism & hospitality

Jokowi signs off on visa fee exemptions

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2015

Ina Parlina and Nadya Natahadibrata, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has finally signed a new Presidential Regulation that would make a policy to waive visa fees for 30 countries official, despite an immigration law stipulating that visa exemptions could only be made on a reciprocal basis.

The Cabinet Secretary website www.setkab.go.id broke the news on Friday saying that Jokowi had signed the 2015 Presidential Regulation No. 69 on Visa Exemption on June 9.

"The visa-free policy is granted to foreign nationals of certain countries and governments of special administrative regions with regard to the principle of reciprocity and principle of benefit," according a quote from the website that came from Article 2 of the new regulation.

The 2011 Immigration Law stipulates that visa exemptions can only be made on a reciprocal basis and on principle of benefit, a provision that appeared to have put a stumbling block in the way of Jokowi's visa policy as the planned exemption was initially set to be imposed in April.

Contacted separately, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya did not give details about whether the new regulation would resolve the legal problems posed by the 2011 Law, and only said the visa-free policy would come into effect in July, bringing the total number of countries enjoying the visa-free policy to 45.

Arief only said that his ministry would soon promote the new presidential regulation to citizens from the 30 countries so that they could visit Indonesia without having to pay the US$35 visa-on-arrival fee.

"Singapore is home to around 1.7 million expatriates. We are planning to promote this regulation to places with large expatriate communities like Singapore, in addition to formally announcing this regulation to the 30 country representatives," Arief said on Friday.

Under the new regulation, as quoted from the Cabinet Secretariat website, permits will be given for a 30-day stay in Indonesia, which cannot be extended or converted into any other type of visa.

It also stipulates that only immigration units located at five airports and four ports are allowed to issue visa exemptions. The units are located at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam and Juanda International Airport in Surabaya – The seaports are Sri Bintan Pura International Port and Tanjung Uban International Port in Riau Islands as well as Sekupang International Port and Batam Center International Port in Batam.

The government, Arief said, hoped to attract between 500,000 and 1 million additional tourists this year as a result of the new policy.

"We expect to attract 1 million following the implementation of the policy, or at least 500,000 additional tourists, since the plan was delayed for months," Arief added, saying that an additional 1 million new foreign tourists will give an additional foreign exchange income of around $1 billion.

The government announced the policy – which was initially set for only four countries Indonesia considered its prime tourist market: China, Japan, South Korea and Russia – in mid-March in an effort to boost the country's foreign exchange income from the tourist industry, as Jokowi broadened the size of his economic package to support the ailing rupiah.

The government has previously said it would keep pushing the 30 countries subject to the free-visa policy to also adopt the same policy for Indonesia, at the same time playing down potential violations of the Immigration Law with the introduction of the free-visa policy.

Despite Friday's announcement on the Cabinet Secretariat website, a number of senior government officials, including Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno and the Immigration Directorate General, remained tight-lipped.

Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto said that Arief would officially explain the policy on Saturday in Bali.

Other than the four prime tourist markets, Canada, Mexico and the US are among the 30 countries.

Also included on the list are European countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in addition to South Africa and Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Visas without fees will also be provided to tourists from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macau Special Administrative Region, Chile, Morocco, Peru, Vietnam, Ecuador, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

New Zealand is also on the list, but not its close neighbor Australia, whose relationship with Indonesia has recently deteriorated following the executions of two Australian drug convicts.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/13/jokowi-signs-visa-fee-exemptions.html

Mining & energy

Kalimantan villagers lodge land claim against BHP Billiton coal project

Jakarta Globe - June 14, 2015

Jenny Denton, Murung Raya, Central Kalimantan – Villagers in remote Central Kalimantan have lodged a claim for legal title to 1,000 hectares of land within BHP Billiton's vast IndoMet coal project area under a new land rights scheme in the province.

The residents of Maruwei, one of the closest villages to IndoMet's "first stage" Haju mine, have mapped the boundaries of the 1,000-hectare area in question using GPS and computerized mapping systems, and submitted detailed documentation of the claim to the Central Kalimantan government on Friday.

With the Haju mine due to start operating in August, Maruwei's headman described the process of preparing the claim as a "race" to preserve this section of the community's customary land, which is used for cultivating rice, rubber and crops.

"When BHP comes, it will be a restricted area," headman Suwanto tells the Jakarta Globe, through an interpreter. "So we have to race against BHP to claim this land under the Dayak Misik scheme."

Dayak Misik, introduced by the Central Kalimantan government in 2014, is a program that aims to recognize the customary land rights of the province's indigenous Dayak inhabitants by delivering title for 10 hectares of land to every village for communal use and five hectares to each household.

The success of the program will depend on the national government agreeing to excise the customary land from forestry estates and certify communities' ownership.

While the national government has so far proven more interested in supporting companies it has issued concessions to than local communities, commentators believe the Dayak Misik scheme, together with an inventory of customary land rights that the Central Kalimantan government has been compiling with NGOs and Dayak communities, will strengthen the communities' position in relation to their land rights.

"The mapping exercise has created a stronger political pressure on the national government to recognize customary lands and customary rights to land," says Nanang Indra Kurniawan, a lecturer at the School of Politics and Government at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, who is researching the Central Kalimantan government's customary land rights programs. "This pressure has been increasing following the Constitutional Court decision on customary forests in 2013."

The village of Maruwei, which is within 15 kilometers of two existing coal mines, has already experienced significant land loss and environmental impacts from mining, and around half its 700 inhabitants oppose the new IndoMet mine.

But Suwanto, while wary of further pollution and loss of land, is open to the jobs and benefits the project can bring. "We welcome mining as long as they respect our way of life, our livelihood, our customary land. When they don't, we'll fight to the end," he says.

There is still widespread discontent in Maruwei over events nearly a decade ago that saw villagers accept token payments from BHP for another area of customary forest the company acquired for the mine.

Residents say they were threatened with arrest if they did not agree to compensation of Rp 100 (1 US cent at the exchange rate back then) per square meter for the area, which they had used for generations but which was technically state land.

Nanang says that confrontations such as this are increasingly common in Indonesia.

"The growing demand for land for oil palm plantations and mining in Indonesia has led to land acquisition and the violation of indigenous and local peoples' rights," he says.

"There are a growing number of cases in which state [officials] have been used by companies to persuade people to leave their lands, or to remove them by force. We have also seen how some companies have even directly contracted [the] Indonesian police for securing their operation areas."

According to the Jakarta-based Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), over the last decade 85 people have been killed, 110 have been shot, 633 have been injured and 1,395 jailed around Indonesia as a result of land conflicts, in which poor people were frequently "criminalized."

The KPA recorded a more than 100 percent increase in 2014, from 105 to 215 incidents, in conflicts relating to infrastructure development under the Masterplan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development (MP3EI).

The MP3EI, which is aimed at transforming Indonesia into an "advanced economy" by 2025, designated Kalimantan a mining and energy corridor, one of six economic corridors in the republic, and promoted the construction of a railway to transport coal from the IndoMet area in Central Kalimantan.

The IndoMet project, a joint venture between Australian miner BHP Billiton and Indonesia's Adaro Energy, covers 350,000 hectares of coal-mining concessions across Central and East Kalimantan, which are estimated to contain more than 1.25 billion metric tons of thermal and coking coal.

The project is expected to open up a new frontier in coal mining inside the internationally agreed Heart of Borneo conservation zone if the construction of the railway goes ahead.

Last month, activists delivered a petition containing 9,000 signatures to BHP Billiton headquarters in both Melbourne and London, calling on the company to withdraw from the project.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/kalimantan-villagers-lodge-land-claim-bhp-billiton-coal-project/

Resentment lingers in village 'tricked' out of its land

Jakarta Globe - June 14, 2015

Jenny Denton, Murung Raya, Central Kalimantan – Residents of the village of Maruwei in Central Kalimantan claim they were tricked and intimidated in relation to BHP Billiton's acquisition of an area of their land for the first stage of the IndoMet coal project a decade ago.

According to Maruwei village secretary Timor Banafi, villagers started clearing small trees and shrubs from an area of their customary forest which was to be compulsorily acquired for the mine because they believed they would be entitled to compensation for it if there was evidence the land was being cultivated.

Then at a meeting in 2005 a BHP Billiton community relations officer gave them the impression the company would pay more for land that was also cleared of trees.

Although the company representative did not explicitly mention payment and in fact told villagers he was not advising them to cut down trees on the land, which would be illegal, he said BHP would be "more appreciative" of land that was logged, which would "make things easier" for the company, Banafi told the Jakarta Globe last year.

After the meeting, more than 70 Maruwei families spent months cutting trees and clearing vegetation from a total area of 1,600 hectares, according to Banafi, and while BHP was aware of the land-clearing going on, the company did nothing for several months, after which it reported the activity to government authorities.

When village leaders were finally called to a meeting with government and company representatives to discuss payment, they were informed that the land they had cleared was technically state forest and that BHP would make only "goodwill payments" of Rp 1 million ($103 at the exchange rate back then) per hectare for it.

There are differing accounts of the sequence of events that led to most villagers whose land was acquired signing the compensation agreement, but several people said they only accepted the deal because police came to the village and threatened them with arrest.

"The company asked us to cut the trees and clear the land and said they would buy it with a good price," Eren Frid, the former head of the Maruwei village assembly, told the Globe. "But in fact when it was cut and cleared the price was only Rp 100 per square meter.

"Many people didn't want to sell the land at that price but the government came with police and told us we had to sell it to the company because if not we would be arrested," he added. Eren passed away recently.

"We were afraid not to sell the land because the police came," Maruwei residents Regina and Arayati said, "and many people said 'It's state land and you have to sell it.'"

Some villagers claimed several people who expressed opposition to the compensation price were picked up by police and held in jail for a short time for illegal logging.

There were also allegations that several leaders received payments of Rp 30 million each from BHP after the majority of villagers whose customary land was acquired by the company had signed the agreement.

BHP Billiton has said its activities in relation to land acquisitions in the area were "at all times undertaken in accordance with legal and ethical business practices" and that decisions were made "transparently and based on consensus decision making by landowners."

Compensation payments were guided by government-based guidelines, the company said in a statement, "in a manner consistent with BHP Billiton's commitment to ethics and integrity."

The company did not address specific allegations put to it about payments made to leaders and the actions of its community relations officer.

The loss of forests for hunting and land for cultivation due to the operations of mining companies in the area has had significant impacts on people's livelihoods in Maruwei, where many live in relative poverty.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/resentment-lingers-village-tricked-land/

Ministry to go ahead with nuke power plants

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2015

Jakarta – The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry revealed on Friday that its plans to build 5,000-megawatt (MW) nuclear power plants in the country were still on.

The ministry's director for energy sources at the directorate general of new renewable energy and energy conservation, Maritje Hutapea, said the ministry had finalized a guidance book, dubbed the white book, for the development of 5,000-MW nuke power plants in the future.

"However, we're still waiting for the go-ahead from the President," she said. A number of investors had expressed their interest in investing in the project, including from Russia, she added.

Kalimantan and Bangka are among the target locations for the development of the power plants.

The government has previously stated that it may develop nuclear power plants as an alternative energy source to fulfill surging electricity demand from the country's 250 million people.

The plan, however, has faced endless battles from numerous environmental groups given the dangers associated with nuclear power. (koi/ika)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/12/ministry-go-ahead-with-nuke-power-plants.html

Observers urge caution on planned Freeport permit scheme

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2015

Erwida Maulia & Rangga Prakoso, Jakarta – As the government continues its negotiations with Freeport Indonesia, the local unit of US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan, and there are reports that the company will likely have its operating permit in Papua extended for another 20 years, observers are urging caution.

An official with Indonesia's Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Wednesday, after a two-hour meeting between Freeport Indonesia executives and ministry officials in Jakarta, that the miner agreed to work under a Special Mining Business Permit (IUPK), to replace its current "contract of work," which is due to expire in 2021.

The IUPK will give the Indonesian government leverage over Freeport, unlike in the case with the contract of work, which means the two sides are on an equal footing, ministry spokesman Dadan Kusdiana said.

The old contract has long sparked nationalist sentiment, and resistance against Freeport's Papua operations, among Indonesians who say the country did not receive a large enough piece of the pie.

"The 'contract of work' is based on equality between the state and the investor, but the special mining permit puts [the state in a] stronger [position] because the state can revoke the permit any time," Dadan told a press conference.

With Freeport agreeing to work under an IUPK, the government is willing to extend its operating permit, although a final word on this is pending approval from President Joko Widodo, he added.

People's aspirations

University of Indonesia (UI) law professor Hikmahanto Juwana is among those who were quick to urge caution in the ongoing negotiations. He said that despite the government's claims of IUPK advantages, there were several issues that needed to be watched closely.

"Is this change of [contract] not a form of legal manipulation by Freeport to secure an early extension [on its operating permit]?" Hikmahanto asked, in a written statement.

He said based on prevailing regulations, the miner should only be able to request an extension to its working permit in 2019, two years prior to the expiry date of its current contract.

"But President Jokowi's term in office will end by [that time]. In that situation, the president cannot make strategic decisions," Hikmahanto said, referring to Joko with his popular nickname.

He added Joko and other government officials involved in the process might be facing charges if they sign deals they are not legally authorized to make.

Pointing out the far-reaching consequences, Hikmahanto said that if Freeport secured the IUPK this year, it would be able to continue its operations in Papua through 2035, and then get another 20-year extension until 2055.

He said that would be against the aspirations of the majority of the Indonesian people, who wanted the government to take over mining operations from foreign companies once their contracts expired.

State as majority shareholder

Marwan Batubara, the executive director of the Indonesian Resources Studies (Iress) think-tank, similarly warned both Freeport and the government of the possibility of legal violations as part of the mining giant's attempt to have its permit extended before the due date in 2019.

The head of the energy think-tank said he understood Freeport's need to ensure the economic feasibility of its planned investments in Indonesia – which included $15 billion for underground mining activities and $2.3 billion for the construction of a smelter in Gresik, East Java.

"If it has a contract lasting only for another six years, it won't be economically feasible for them," Marwan said. "They do need certainty."

He warned, though, that regulations remained regulations and that these must be obeyed, suggesting that the president revise them by issuing a government regulation in lieu of law to accommodate Freeport's needs without breaching any law.

Marwan also argued that in exchange for "loosening" the regulations, any new contracts must guarantee reasonable advantages for the people of Indonesia. One way to do this, he said, was by requiring Freeport to divest its shares to the Indonesian government and making the latter the majority shareholder.

Currently, the Indonesian government holds only a 9.36-percent stake in the miner, with Freeport-McMoran controlling the rest.

Under a 2014 government regulation on mining, Freeport Indonesia is required to divest 30 percent of its shares to Indonesian entities, with the government being the priority, by 2019. Freeport earlier this year announced it would divest 10 percent of its shares before October.

Legal revisions are also needed if the government plans to grant Freeport an IUPK, with current regulations stating the special permit is only meant for companies exploiting a maximum of 25,000 hectares of mines, Marwan said.

"Freeport, though, currently controls at least 125,000 hectares of mines in Papua," he said. "The divestment should therefore include a clause where the government takes over 100,000 hectares, or at least 75,000 hectares of the mining areas to boost profits [for Indonesia]."

'Sufficient leverage'

Several lawmakers welcomed the planned new framework, saying they were confident it would give the government sufficient leverage over Freeport.

"We think the state's sovereignty will be more apparent with the [IUPK], compared with contracts of work," said Satya W. Yudha of the Golkar Party.

"We appreciate the developments in the negotiations between the government and Freeport, with Freeport recently willing to change its contract before the expiry date," Satya said. "That means Freeport is still committed to investing in Indonesia"

Another lawmaker, Kurtubi of the National Democratic (Nasdem) Party, said he also considered the IUPK option progress, although he admitted there were still some flaws, citing production cost calculations as an example.

"How much a mining business spends under an IUPK or contract of work [is unclear], the state doesn't have that information. It doesn't know – there is no control [over actual spending]," said Kurtubi, who was an independent energy observer before he was elected to the House of Representatives last year. "There may be unusual costs which can reduce state revenues," he added.

Ministry spokesman Dadan on Wednesday said it was still unclear when the IUPK would be granted and when it would take effect. But he added that the ministry and Freeport were aiming to finish all contract amendments before the end of July, based on a previously agreed memorandum of understanding between the two parties.

"The ministry has been looking for a solution so that Freeport's operations can continue without violating any regulations," Dadan said.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/observers-urge-caution-planned-freeport-permit-scheme/

Freeport to get early extension

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2015

Raras Cahyafitri, Jakarta – Copper-mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia has, in principle, agreed to change the company's contract of work (CoW) into a special mining license (IUPK) as required by the government, a deal that will enable it to renew its concession rights earlier than expected, a senior official at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has said.

"This is an important milestone that will give a way out to accelerate decisions regarding Freeport Indonesia's operational continuity," the ministry's spokesman Dadan Kusdiana said in a press briefing after the ministry's meeting with the company's executives.

Freeport Indonesia's future operations have long been an issue partly because the company is seeking certainty for its massive investment in underground mining as well as in developing a copper smelter.

Freeport Indonesia's current CoW will expire in 2021 and under current regulations any request for an extension can only be made two years prior to expiry.

However, with the immediate change from CoW to IUPK, the contract term will no longer be valid as Freeport Indonesia will operate under a new licensing regime. This will also mean that the government will be in a stronger position and have more authority in the country's mining industry.

Under the CoW system, a company is able to challenge the government at the arbitration stage should a disagreement arise. However, by changing the contract, Freeport will be subject to new taxes and royalties, as well as the need to divest part of its foreign ownership to Indonesian investors.

There are still no exact details on the timeline of changing the contract into a license but Dadan said it would be concluded before the CoW expiry.

With an IUPK, Freeport Indonesia will be able to operate for a longer time in Indonesia. Under the 2009 Mining Law, an IUPK has a maximum term of 20 years and can be extended twice for subsequent terms of 10 years each.

Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin said the deal would provide certainty for the company, a subsidiary of US conglomerate Freeport-McMoRan Inc., and which has operated in Indonesia since 1967, to exercise its investments.

"This deal will be advantageous for our business and the state also.This is a reassurance for us to remove doubts about investing US$2.3 billion in smelter development," Maroef said.

Under the government's downstream policy, based on the 2009 Mining Law, mining firms must process their ores in domestic smelter facilities.

The smelter development should have been completed by 2014, when the government initially banned the export of unprocessed minerals.

As no smelters have been completed, the government has partly implemented the ban and extended the smelter development deadline to 2017. However, no significant progress has been made, particularly by Freeport.

Analysts, however, have warned that changing a CoW into an IUPK may only be done after the contract expires. Legal expert Hikmahanto Juwana said the government should be careful in handling the issue.

"We have to obey the rules and the government should not bow down to this kind of extortion [by Freeport Indonesia]. Freeport is seeking an extension, which can only be made in 2019 when the Jokowi presidency will be due to end its term," Hikmahanto said.

The CoW-IUPK change may be implemented if the Mining Law is amended, according to energy and mining law expert Bisman Bhaktiar.

"The change from CoW to IUPK must be carried out under clear regulations. At this moment, the revision of the Mining Law is in the legislative program and the issue can be handled there. However, whatever the ministry negotiates could be a mess if [the House of Representatives] challenges it," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/11/freeport-get-early-extension.html

Economy & investment

New incentives to spur growth

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2015

Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta – Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has tinkered with fiscal policy as he relaxed the requirements for corporate tax allowances and eased luxury taxes on certain items to pump fresh blood into the sluggish economy that is expanding at a six-year low.

Effective next week, the tax breaks will be for companies with large investments, significant contributions to exports, amplified job creation or high local content, according to Bambang.

The Finance Ministry will receive recommendations from related ministries, such as the Industry Ministry, before releasing a new regulation in the coming days, he said.

"This is part of our structural reform as we want to shift from consumption-driven to investment-led growth," Bambang said.

"You have seen the success story of China. How could the country record double-digit growth rates in the past few years? Because investments play a huge role in the economy."

Bambang expressed hopes that there would be more companies utilizing the government's tax allowance facility, with Finance Ministry data showing that there were currently 143 companies already enjoying the facility.

Meanwhile, companies reinvesting their earnings in Indonesia would also be eligible for various fiscal incentives, including loss compensation from the government, to prevent cyclical earnings repatriation that has put pressure on the rupiah.

The economy has relied heavily on household consumption, which accounts for 55 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Investments are 30 percent of GDP, with the rest coming from net exports and government spending.

In the first quarter this year, economic growth fell to 4.7 percent, the lowest in six years, posing a challenge for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who promised to his constituents that he would spur growth to 7 percent in three years. Economists have also warned that further slowdown might be in the cards.

Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), an indicator of production and output forecasts among industries, has fallen to a record low of 46.4 in March, with the index already held below the neutral level of 50 in all five months this year.

Meanwhile, the Business Tendency Index (ITB), an indicator of optimism in the economy, fell to 96.3 percent in the first quarter, compared to 104 in the fourth quarter last year, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

As a short-term measure to spur growth, Bambang said that he would scrap the luxury goods tax, as a bid to encourage more Indonesians to spend their money domestically.

The government will slash or exempt the luxury tax slapped on branded items, such as those produced by Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes, to encourage wealthy Indonesians to shop at home instead of overseas.

"Indonesian women have been buying LV [Louis Vuitton] bags in Singapore because they are cheaper there due to the imposition of the luxury goods tax in Indonesia," Bambang said. "Now they don't have to go overseas to buy such branded goods."

Bambang also said that a low tax on luxury items would also draw foreign tourists to Indonesia.

Beginning next week, luxury goods taxes would only apply for super expensive items such as yachts and private jets, as well as for high-end apartments and houses.

Meanwhile, electronic goods such as cameras, music players, televisions and air conditioners would no longer be classified as luxury goods and thus would be exempted from the taxes that previously ranged from 10 percent to 40 percent.

To shield the country from an influx of imported branded goods, the policy would be accompanied by an increase of income tax for imported goods (PPh 22) to 10 percent from the existing 7.5 percent, according to Bambang.

Sigit Priadi Pramudito, the Finance Ministry's director general for taxes, estimated that the country could lose around Rp 900 billion (US$67.6 million) of annual tax revenues because of the implementation of this policy.

But the long-run impact would be relatively minimal, as the loss would be compensated by higher consumption, thus eventually contributing to higher tax revenues, Sigit argued.

The policy would also prevent the smuggling of luxury goods from overseas, thus contributing to a better tax reporting system domestically, he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/12/new-incentives-spur-growth.html

Economists cast doubt on government's growth forecast

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2015

Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta – Economists from Goldman Sachs to JPMorgan Chase have revised down their growth outlooks for Indonesia as foreign investors' confidence in President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo begins to wane.

This week, Goldman Sachs downgraded its 2015 outlook for Indonesia from 5.3 percent to 4.9 percent, which would be the first time since the last global financial crisis that the country's annual economic expansion would fall below 5 percent.

Previously, Credit Suisse trimmed its growth outlook for Indonesia from 5.1 percent to 4.8 percent, while Nomura Holdings revised it from 5.2 percent to 4.8 percent.

"This protracted slowdown was driven, in our view, by a lack of reform progress that is dimming investment prospects, and more recently, was exacerbated by headwinds from low commodity prices and tight policies," analysts from Nomura Holdings wrote in a research note.

Among the most bearish economists on Indonesian growth were those from JPMorgan Chase, who slashed the country's economic expansion forecast this year from 5.3 percent to 4.4 percent.

JPMorgan Chase economist Sin Beng Ong argued that there would be a dilemma for Indonesian policymakers as the economy, already suffering from the slowdown, would face a combination of trade shock and a potential tightening in external financing conditions.

"The broader political economic question then is if the government is unwilling to accept slower growth and also concurrently implement tough reforms, whether there would be a greater push for short-term policy easing," he commented.

"Though Indonesia is not yet in a crisis, the unfolding global headwinds of potentially higher global interest rates and weakening commodity prices require a similar political single-mindedness."

Investors have pinned high expectations on Jokowi fulfilling his campaign promises of spurring growth to 7 percent, with the President arguing that such a target was achievable as he pledged to cut bureaucratic red tape and build massive growth-generating infrastructure projects.

Jokowi's election to office last year was greeted with a 22 percent surge in the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) throughout 2014.

However, recent developments in the domestic economy were not encouraging, as growth fell to a six-year low level of 4.7 percent in the first quarter as sluggish government spending and moderating investments served as a drag on growth.

Various indicators show that second quarter growth might stay subdued, with any drastic pick-up looking unlikely. Cement sales, an indicator of construction projects and economic growth, posted another decline in May as they dropped 7.9 percent year-on-year during the month, latest association data show.

The persistent slowdown has reduced investors' confidence in Jokowi, with the Indonesian benchmark stock index already becoming the region's worst performer as it fell by 5.6 percent year-to-date to close at 4,933.5 on Wednesday.

"From our conversations with a fairly wide range of businesspeople operating in Indonesia, our sense is that the mood is currently extremely gloomy, and the polar opposite of the optimism that prevailed six months ago following Jokowi's election," analysts from Macquarie Group wrote in a research note. "The economy is slowing more rapidly than is understood," they noted.

In a hearing this week, the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing economy lambasted the government and Bank Indonesia (BI) for coming up with unrealistic macroeconomic assumptions that lawmakers argued were not seen as credible among investors.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the economy could still grow in the range of between 5.4 percent and 5.8 percent next year, accelerating from an estimated 5.7 percent this year as assumed in the revised 2015 state budget.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/11/economists-cast-doubt-govt-s-growth-forecast.html

Central Bank: Hotels, tickets, salaries must be paid in rupiah

Reuters - June 9, 2015

Gayatri Suroyo, Jakarta – Indonesia's central bank confirmed on Tuesday that a rule taking effect on July 1 means that hotel rooms, airline tickets, property leases and most salaries must be paid in rupiah, as part of a campaign to help prop up the weakening currency.

The rule banning use of US dollars for many domestic transactions was announced in April. On Tuesday, Bank Indonesia provided more details on the regulation aimed at controlling onshore demand for dollars, thus easing pressure on the currency.

"This is about our sovereignty," said Lambok Siahaan, special staff to the central bank's board of governors. "Excessive forex demand has an effect on our exchange rate and inflation."

Earlier on Tuesday, the rupiah briefly fell as low as 13,384 against the dollar, the weakest level since August 1998. BI said the timing of the Tuesday briefing had nothing to do with recent falls in the rupiah, which has lost nearly 7 percent this year and is emerging Asia's worst-performing currency.

Under the new rule, the central bank said, international firms will be allowed to continue paying expatriates in dollars if they were hired from abroad.

International trade and firms investing in power plants, roads and other strategic infrastructure projects will also be exempted. The central bank said it may also offer exemptions on a case-by-case basis for businesses in industries key to economic growth. Indonesian companies must pay all of their workers in rupiah.

BI estimates around 10 percent of domestic transactions, with a total value of about $6 billion a month, are conducted in dollars.

Many businesses say they will effectively be hostage to gyrations in the volatile rupiah after the rule takes effect, and inflationary pressures could emerge as companies try to build in buffers to counter the loss of dollar certainty.

Some firms say they will still negotiate and price in dollars, then settle in the local currency.

BI said pressure from the rupiah's depreciation affects the inflation rate more than the buffers firms may make when exchanging dollar to rupiah.

Under the new regulation, hotels and restaurants will be allowed to post quotations in dollars for online promotions to attract tourists but everything must be paid for in rupiah.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/central-bank-hotels-tickets-salaries-must-paid-rupiah/

Indonesian nationalists challenge plans to scrap fuel subsidies

Reuters - June 9, 2015

Randy Fabi, Palembang, Indonesia – Indonesia's second-largest Muslim group plans to file a lawsuit challenging a decision by President Joko Widodo to scrap $20 billion worth of government fuel subsidies in his most radical reform since taking office last October.

The action by Muhammadiyah, a nationalist movement with about 30 million members, is the next step in what it calls a "constitutional jihad" that has successfully dealt legal blows to private participation in the oil, gas and water sectors.

The group's "jihad" may seem outlandish and doomed to fail in a country where few question the free-market economy, yet its citizen activism has already overturned two laws.

The situation underscores the balance Widodo needs to strike in trying to attract much-needed foreign investment, while satisfying an electorate demanding more populist policies.

"There are so many economic policies in Indonesia going in the wrong direction," Syafruddin Anhar, head of the group's economic committee, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Palembang, in South Sumatra.

"Some policies are too friendly to foreign investors, giving them a chance to take everything in Indonesia." He gave the examples of the mining and energy industries, but did not identify specific companies.

Muhammadiyah plans to file a lawsuit in the next few months in the Constitutional Court, which is empowered to carry out constitutional reviews of legislation, challenging Widodo's decision to abandon costly gasoline subsidies for rates based on the global market price.

Widodo took the unprecedented step on subsidies at the beginning of this year, aiming to free up funds for infrastructure and farm projects.

Government officials defended their policies, but warned that the prospect of a lawsuit could alarm investors. "It may scare investors. It may create uncertainty," the vice president's economic adviser, Wijayanto Samirin, said on the sidelines of the conference.

Last week, Muhammadiyah officials met the president and vice president to discuss the group's concerns.

Muhammadiyah, which runs thousands of schools, hospitals, and small businesses, has identified more than 100 laws it believes violate a constitutional tenet for the state to control natural resources for the benefit of all Indonesians.

In two previous campaigns, the group has shown it can force changes in government policy. In 2012, Muhammadiyah succeeded in crimping the government's ability to sign contracts with private companies in the energy industry.

This year, in a case brought by Muhammadiyah, the constitutional court axed a rule allowing water permits to the private sector. That decision plunged into uncertainty businesses from textiles to beverage bottling.

Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/indonesian-nationalists-challenge-plans-to-scrap-fuel-subsidies.html

Foreign funds fly to safe haven

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2015

Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta – The sell-off in the Indonesian financial market deepened on Monday as foreign investors began to move their funds to developed countries amid signs the Federal Reserve would increase its interest rates much earlier than expected.

The Indonesian benchmark bonds, due to mature in 2024, fell Monday, pushing the yield by 17 basis points to 8.7 percent, the highest level in more than a year.

The local currency and stock markets also fell, with the rupiah's non- deliverable forwards – an offshore rate that is indicative of a currency's future value – depreciating to 13,500 per US dollar while the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) hit 5,014.9, its lowest level this year.

"It is more challenging to entice investors into emerging market assets when government bond returns in the developed world have become a lot more attractive over the past few months," Eugene Leow, a fixed-income analyst with DBS Bank in Singapore, said on Monday.

"For Indonesia, external funding vulnerability remains," he wrote in an email interview. "This is reflected in the sensitivity of Indonesian government bond yields and the rupiah to shifts in US treasury yields."

Expectations of tighter monetary policy in the US and Europe have pushed up their premium-rated bonds yields, making them cheaper and thus encouraging outflows from risky assets in the Asian region, economists have noted. Bonds move in the opposite direction of prices, with those with higher yields rated cheaper among investors.

In June, the yield for benchmark 10-year US Treasuries and German Bunds have risen more than 20 basis points to hit 2.39 percent and 0.85 percent, respectively, both the highest level this year. The two bonds' yields were both stable on Monday.

Higher bond yield in Europe was a "success story" that indicated the region had overcome the threat of deflation and economic downturn, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said as quoted by Bloomberg.

In contrast to a brighter outlook in the developed nations, the Asian region has to grapple with the threat of the Chinese economic slowdown. China, the largest trading partner of Indonesia, recently announced that its exports in May fell 2.5 percent while imports tumbled 17.6 percent, signaling a bleak economic outlook in the world's second-largest economy.

"There has been prevailing pessimism in the region due to the slowdown in China, which might spill over to the Indonesian economy," Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro warned Monday in a meeting with lawmakers from House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing the economy.

In the equity market, foreign investors posted a net sell of Rp 286.5 billion (US$21.4 million) in the JCI on Monday, pushing the benchmark index to close 1.7 percent lower at 5,014.9, marking its eighth day of decline over the past nine days.

The 1.7 percent decline registered by JCI on Monday was the worst performer compared to 12 stock markets in the World Benchmark Indices compiled by the Indonesian Stock Exchange. The second-worst performer, India's S&P Sensex, fell by 0.85 percent.

The sell-off in the stocks and bonds market exerted pressures on the rupiah, which weakened by 0.5 percent to 13,360 per dollar on Monday, according to the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR), or to 13,385, according data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bank Indonesia (BI) spokesperson Tirta Segara said Monday that the central bank would intervene, but such an action would only be intended to "smooth" the rupiah's movement in its rational value against the US dollar, not to peg it at a certain level.

"If there are parties [selling their dollars] as they bet the rupiah rate would hit 13,500 when its market value is still 13,400, then we would certainly intervene," he said.

"But, our intervention would not go against the market because if other regional currencies from Malaysia to South Korea are weakening, then ours could not be the one strengthening alone," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/09/foreign-funds-fly-safe-haven.html

Analysis & opinion

The end of KPK as we know it

Jakarta Globe Editorial - June 15, 2015

The Corruption Eradication Commission is on the verge of becoming merely a place where proxy wars between the National Police, Attorney General's Office and Indonesian Military take place.

Each institution is nominating their own candidates to become commissioners of the antigraft body, or KPK.

The police are ready to offer three of their generals, while the Indonesian Military (TNI) has presented one candidate of the same rank. The AGO is set to announce its own candidate soon.

These three institutions may very well end up dominating the KPK's five- person leadership with, for example, two police generals, two prosecutors and one TNI general. And even if each gets one representative as commissioner, they will still make up the majority of the anti-corruption agency.

As an extension of their respective institution's interests, these candidates – should they be selected – will only work to protect their own. Which means that the KPK may no longer investigate any members of the police, AGO or TNI for corruption.

We can be sure that other institutions, such as the courts and political parties, will nominate candidates purely to prevent the antigraft body from investigating them in the future, leaving the KPK impotent and Indonesia a loser in the battle against corruption.

The KPK's raison d'etre is to fill the void of corruption busters because the police and AGO are unable to do this job. Now that the KPK has been paralyzed and the public is made to believe that both the police and AGO can handle big graft cases, Indonesia may no longer have any reason to have an antigraft agency.

We, however, will not resign ourselves to that possibility. The police, AGO and TNI are far too corrupt, and we believe the fight against graft is far too important for the nation for it to be controlled by them.

We urge the KPK selection committee to remain independent and choose the right candidates with both hearts and conscience.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/editorial-end-KPK-know/

End the house's feeding at the trough

Jakarta Globe Editorial - June 12, 2015

Under Indonesia's Constitution, the division of labor between the executive and legislative branches of governments when it comes to spending public funds is clear-cut: the administration allocates the money for various needs, and the House of Representatives monitors the flow and use of the funds.

The House, of course, has long tried to overreach itself on this regard by calling for funding to be channeled directly to each electoral district by way of individual legislators.

The last time it tried to pull this pork-barrel stunt, it was shot down – and rightly so – by the public and by the administration of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

With a new president in place, though, the House is acting up again, this time demanding Rp 11.2 trillion ($840 million) in funds from the 2016 state budget – spending for which there will be no accountancy whatsoever.

Let's call this what it really is: daylight robbery. The government already lavishes hundreds of trillions of rupiah on development, social welfare and economic empowerment programs all across the nation, and if the money isn't getting through that's largely because of the bureaucracy and the skimming at all levels.

Why does the House, whose track record on sound financial stewardship is woeful at best, think it can do any better – especially given that its members will not be answerable for the money to be spent?

The Indonesian public should not allow its elected representatives to pull off such a brazen and blatant scam. If they do get away with it, it will herald yet another low point in Indonesia's continuing descent into the quicksand of corruption out of which we worked so hard to pull ourselves this past decade. This shameful proclivity on the House's part must be trod down.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/editorial-end-houses-feeding-trough/

Protective curfew?

Jakarta Post Editorial - June 12, 2015

Women in Banda Aceh are now banned from being outside their homes after 11 p.m., with exceptions for those in humanitarian work, such as nurses and medical practitioners, and if they are accompanied by male relatives.

The aim of the bylaw, says its first female mayor, Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal, is not to discriminate against women, but to protect them against the possibility of sexual harassment and assault.

Officials including Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa have nodded approval, although the National Commission for Violence against Women has disagreed.

Commission chairperson Azriana, an activist from Aceh herself, said that what is more urgent in the former war zone is to fight domestic violence – as the home has often proved to be the source of more danger than the streets, regardless of the historic peace agreement in 2005.

Mayor Illiza's intentions seem to be in the right place, as any woman who has walked down dark streets would agree, but here lie the gaps in the logic that is too often used in "protecting" women: streets should not be dark. The workplace should ensure safety for employees and visitors. Aceh's bylaw itself regulates the "empowerment and protection of women", including the protection of women regarding their work.

Indonesia's labor law requires that women be collected or taken home when working between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Although the similar logic to protect women applies, the law does not restrict women's working hours. This implies assurance that both male and female citizens should be facilitated with security around the clock while conducting their activities.

Some Acehnese have voiced agreement to the new municipal bylaw while others have questioned its urgency. "What's the guarantee for lesser sexual harassment?" one resident asked on Facebook.

Like other Indonesians, women in Aceh are still vulnerable to harassment and assault outside and inside the home, based on available data, despite the law on domestic violence and the ratification of the international convention on discrimination against women.

Aceh has every right to issue its own bylaws and, uniquely in Indonesia, bylaws based on sharia. Aware of women's high position in Islam, many women had welcomed sharia in Aceh.

However the process of issuing bylaws around the nation has come into question, regarding how far different social groups have been consulted. Ask female employees at department stores and they may agree, or disagree, to restrictions on the shifts they are allowed to work on compared to men – given the likely lower income they would receive.

True, smaller towns compared to Jakarta may not need late-night shifts for women. However, regulations cannot be based on crude assumptions, especially when authorities have not pinpointed the source of harassment and violence against women. It is simpler indeed to restrict women, but it is neither "empowering" nor "protecting" anyone when policies do not address the attitude that females are "natural" objects of attack just because they are on their own.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/12/editorial-protective-curfew.html

In Freeport permit extension, hard questions emerge

Jakarta Globe Editorial - June 11, 2015

With Freeport Indonesia, the local unit of US mining giant Freeport- McMoRan, agreeing to work under a Special Mining Business Permit, or IUPK, from its current Contract of Work, or KK, the government is set to grant the company a new 20-year permit to continue its operations in Papua.

Under the new arrangement, the miner can renew its permit twice more, for 10 years each time, allowing it to operate in the country's easternmost province through 2055.

For Freeport, this is great news; it heralds a rare moment of legal certainty. But Freeport's KK was due to expire in 2021 and it was only due to request an extension in 2019. That poses big questions: Why the rush to extend four years ahead of time? And why change the nature of the contract itself?

The government is obliged to answer these questions, which have given rise to speculation about all kinds of suspicious dealings.

We have reason to believe that the change of arrangement is just a form of legal manipulation to secure an early extension, in which the current ruling elites pushed for the extension before President Joko Widodo's term in office ends in 2019.

From that we can conclude with almost near certainty that these elites – be they members of the president's inner circle or of the ruling coalition – are receiving financial benefits from the extension.

This benefit, if indeed it exists, comes at the expense of state revenue: Under the IUPK, Freeport's tax rate goes down to 25 percent from the current 45 percent under the KK.

We warn the elites to think about future generations and the harmful consequences that this scheming will have on countless innocents. One day, you will be in their place.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/editorial-freeport-permit-extension-hard-questions-emerge/

The spy who didn't love me

Jakarta Post Editorial - June 11, 2015

Public perception that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo tends to reserve strategic posts in his government for political parties that supported his election last year is difficult to deny, although anyone who assumes power would most likely do the same. A president will prefer people he or she can trust and work with to fill posts in order to govern effectively.

Jokowi's choices of Sutiyoso as State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief and Army chief of staff Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo as the new Indonesian Military (TNI) commander should stem from his subjective consideration that the two could translate his vision of state security and defense into reality, apart from their technical qualifications for the jobs.

Still, the nominations of Gatot and especially of Sutiyoso have raised many eyebrows.

Gatot's promotion marks a departure from the tradition of rotating the TNI chief post between the three branches of the armed forces, which was initiated by the late President Abdurrahman Wahid, the first head of state in the reform era. The pattern continued until the term of Jokowi's predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as president, albeit with a revision in favor of the Army.

No less controversial is the candidacy of Sutiyoso to replace Marciano Norman as the new BIN chief. Sutiyoso, a retired Army general and former Jakarta governor, is the incumbent chairman of the Indonesian Unity and Justice Party (PKPI), one of five political parties that supported Jokowi in the 2014 presidential election.

Jokowi's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Nasdem Party, the National Awakening Party and the Hanura Party have all received their slices of cake as their members fill almost half of the 34-strong Working Cabinet, plus the Attorney General's post.

"The smallest member of the ruling coalition has finally got a reward," Democratic Party politician Ulil Abshar Abdalla tweeted, as if to represent the many who questioned Jokowi's pledge to not follow the power sharing formula his predecessors had practiced.

Rather than being a politician, Sutiyoso is in fact a military man whose postings have included the intelligence unit within the Army's Special Force. He was the Jakarta military commander when the July 27, 1996 bloodshed that marked the forcible takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (now PDI-P) office in Central Jakarta occurred. Strangely, PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, then the president, endorsed Sutiyoso's reelection as Jakarta governor in 2002.

History shows that BIN, formerly Bakin, has always been led by an Army general since the New Order era, except in 2009 to 2011 when former National Police chief Sutanto took charge. The militaristic style of BIN is therefore unavoidable, but in this era of democracy any abuse of human rights involving state intelligent operatives under the pretext of national security is unacceptable.

As an espionage authority, BIN's image as an adversary of human rights has remained intact. Perhaps Sutiyoso can make a difference.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/11/editorial-the-spy-who-didn-t-love-me.html


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