TABLE OF CONTENTS

NEWS & ISSUES

* Blast at Indonesia oil refinery, 150 hurt

* Locals suffer from forest policy inconsistencies

* Publisher says book ban harks back to ’red
scare’

* Pacific talks to ease threat of separatism

* Persija Park demolition starts despite land
dispute

* Shops torn down as overpass work begins

* City’s children lacking safe places to play

ACEH

* Indonesia’s Aceh canes two in public for
adultery

* Aid groups are criticized over tsunami

reconstruction
* Aceh: Government declares sixteen organisations
’illegal’

WEST PAPUA

* Tribes hold peace talks in Papua, no deal yet

* Suyanto: TNI still keeping on guard against OPM

* Indonesian court jails two more over mine
protest

* Autonomy brings little progress to Papua: Study

* Defendants in Abepura incident jailed for five
to six years

* Papuan resistance meets in PNG to unify

PORNOGRAPHY & MORALITY

* ’Anti-porno’ fight tests Muslim tolerance in
Indonesia

* NU states opposition to sharia bylaws

* Playboy Indonesia: Modest flesh meets Muslim
faith

HUMAN RIGHTS/LAW

* Government urged to drop restrictions on
communism

* Criminal Code draft ’impinges on privacy’

* Experts point to holes in Criminal Code draft

LABOUR ISSUES

* Special agency to take over labor exports

* Indonesia criticized on migrant policies

* Medan workers protest shortage of gas

POLITICS/POLITICAL PARTIES

* Local elections affirm fickle nature of party
politics

* PDI-P moves in on splinter group ’territory’

GOVERNMENT/CIVIL SERVICE

* Activists say recess funds prone to abuses

* House should kick out more lawmakers, say
activists

WAR ON CORRUPTION

* AGO girding for tougher war on corruption

* President asked to drop ’policy-error’ decree

ENVIRONMENT

* As mud flows in East Java, people ask what next

* Forest fire haze hits major city in Sumatra

* Logging, habitat loss threaten Kalimantan,
Sumatra orangutans

HEALTH & EDUCATION

* Indonesia burns 100 tonnes of useless donated
medicines

* Activists say migrant workers vulnerable to
HIV/AIDS

ISLAM/RELIGION

* Religious leaders united against Israel

* Indonesia cartoon editor charged

* Survey reveals Muslim views on violence

* Young Muslims gather, look to future
* Ahmadiyah members consider seeking asylum in
Australia

* Indonesian sect meets Australia’s consul

ECONOMY & INVESTMENT

* Indonesian economy continues to lose altitude

* IMF debt may be fully repaid this year

 NEWS & ISSUES

Blast at Indonesia oil refinery, 150 hurt

Agence France Presse - July 29, 2006

Jakarta — An explosion at an oil refinery in
Indonesia early Saturday injured nearly 150 people
and caused about 7,000 residents to flee their
homes, police said.

The explosion took place at a joint Pertamina-
Petrochina oil refinery in eastern Java province
as workers tried to contain a gas leak by setting
it on fire, local police chief Rumhadi said.

There were no deaths reported, but nearly 150
people were hospitalized suffering from
respiratory problems after inhaling gas, said
Rumhadi, who like many Indonesians goes by one
name. "Police are still investigating the cause of
the accident," he said.

Although the fire was put out, around 7,000
residents from 10 villages in the district about
350 miles east of the capital, Jakarta, will not
be allowed to return to their homes and must stay
in government offices until the area is safe,
Rumhadi said.

Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina and PetroChina
of China did not immediately comment on the blast.

---

Locals suffer from forest policy inconsistencies

Jakarta Post - July 31, 2006

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta — Muhidin, 34, a
farmer from Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara, is in
despair. The Dompu District Court recently
sentenced him to seven months in prison for
cultivating a piece of land in the So Ncadu
Conservation Forest.

He was found to have violated the 1999 Law on
Forestry by crossing into the conservation area to
grow cashew trees.

"Muhidin is innocent. He and his friends are
victims of policy inconsistencies between the
central government and the local administration,"
Alamudin, a member of the Dompu farmers’ advocacy
team, said at a seminar on the abuse of local
communities in forestry management.

Muhidin’s initiative to farm the land was
motivated by a Dompu administration bylaw that
allows locals to cultivate about 750 hectares of
the forest in a joint forestry management program.

Without giving a clear reason, the administration
changed its policy at the end of last year and
arrested Muhidin, along with 80 other farmers in
the area, for cultivating land in the forest.

Muhidin and his friends are not the only victims
of policy inconsistencies in forest management.
Such problems have happened throughout Indonesia
for decades, and have been exacerbated by policy
changes due to regional autonomy.

Up to 65 million people live in and around a total
of 50 million hectares of conservation forests in
Indonesia.

"I think the government deliberately leaves the
problem unresolved, so it can blame locals for
chopping down the woods and living in conservation
forests," activist Abusaid Pelu of the Commission
for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras) told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He accused the central government, regional
administrations and businesses of trying to
scapegoat forest settlers in order to cover up
their own roles in rampant deforestation.

A similar case occurred in Muna regency, Southeast
Sulawesi, when residents were battling the local
administration over its effort to remove them from
a conservation forest in Kontu subdistrict.

The Muna administration had previously supported
the cutting of teakwood by logging companies, but
two years ago it suddenly stopped the logging
activities. Later it expelled hundreds of locals
who had moved in to cultivate the cleared land.

At least 12 residents and four members of a local
advocacy team were arrested when the
administration closed the area to further farming.

"They have used the forestry law to arrest these
people, even though they benefited from the
teakwood clearance revenue as a source of regional
income for years. So which conservation area are
they talking about?" Abusaid said.

Hariadi Kuntodihardjo, a forestry expert from the
Bogor Agriculture Institute, said the problems
with managing forest communities in Indonesia
stemmed from the government’s poor assessment of
the local situation before establishing and
implementing laws. "The government and local
administrations have never involved residents in
enacting regulations, although they know that the
locals are affected by them," he said.

Hariadi added that the government actually had a
good forest community model that involved locals
in managing some parts of the forests, but had
never applied it in a substantive way.

Meanwhile, Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban
said local administrations and local communities
were both to blame. He said his ministry was
limited in its ability to advocate for residents.

"Basically, we don’t want to hurt locals but we
cannot take firm actions against the
administration because they are overseen by the
Home Ministry," he said.

He urged law enforcement authorities to act
objectively in dealing with these complicated
situations.

---

Publisher says book ban harks back to ’red scare’

Jakarta Post - July 28, 2006

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta — Two scholarly
treatises on Indonesian communism remain banned
more than 40 years after the Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI) was obliterated in the wake of an
abortive coup.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and the
Customs and Excise Office prevented the entry of
the two books imported by Jakarta-based publisher
Equinox.

Copies of the Indonesian Communism Under Sukarno:
Ideology and Politics by Australian historian Rex
Mortimer and The Rise of Indonesian Communism by
Indonesianist Ruth McVey are now being held in
customs pending approval from the AGO for their
release.

Publisher Mark Hanusz of Equinox said he wrote to
the AGO asking for the books’ release, but found
himself mired in red-tape. "After we sent the
letter, they called and said they needed a copy
for review. We told them the only copy we have is
with the customs office," Hanusz told The Jakarta
Post.

Equinox printed a limited number of the two books
in the US to test the local market, but those held
in Customs are the proofs of the works.

The books are part of a series called Classic
Indonesia, a collection of books published by the
Cornell University Press and long out of print.
Mortimer’s work was published in 1974, while
McVey’s book was originally published in 1965 as
the wave of anti-communist sentiment got underway.

Hanusz believes many other scholarly works on
communism remain banned. "In spite of the media
opening and the closing of the information
ministry, there is still censorship for books
about communism."

AGO spokesman I Wayan Pasek Suarta said it was
hardly surprising the books were withheld.
"Learning from their titles, the books could be
categorized as materials that could disrupt the
country’s ideological foundations and provoke the
rise of communist movement."

However, after the Post informed him they were
academic works, Wayan said approval could be given
for their release after two or three months.

He noted the AGO could ban books based on their
contents under the 2004 law on its scope of
authority. "Everyone should also bear in mind that
the decree of the People’s Consultative Assembly
that bans the propagation of Marxism and Communism
is still intact."

The AGO spokesman was unaware that Indonesian-
language versions of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital and
works by Vladimir Lenin, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and
Leon Trotsky are widely available in bookstores
throughout the country.

---

Pacific talks to ease threat of separatism

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Abdul Khalik, Kuala Lumpur — In an attempt to
reduce outside influence over its eastern
territories, especially Papua province, and to
limit the danger of separatism, Indonesia on
Wednesday hosted a Southwest Pacific dialog on the
sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM)
and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Kuala Lumpur.

The meeting was chaired by Indonesian Foreign
Minister Hassan Wirayuda, and was attended by
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, New
Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, Papua New
Guinea’s Petroleum and Energy Minister Sir Moi
Avei, the Philippines Foreign Minister Alberto G.
Romulo and Timor Leste Foreign Minister Jose Luis
Guterres.

"We need to hold a dialog with our neighbors in
the eastern part, like what we have in the western
part in the form of ASEAN, because these neighbors
are very influential on our eastern territory,
such as Papua," said the Indonesian Foreign
Ministry’s director general for Asia, Pacific and
Africa, Primo Alui Joelianto, who attended the
talks.

He highlighted the importance of the dialog,
pointing out that the majority of Indonesians
living in eastern areas of the country were ethnic
Melanesians, who constitute the majority in many
Pacific islands.

"Failing to pay adequate attention to our eastern
neighbors and the situation in our eastern
territories can cause our eastern areas to fall
under the influence" of outside forces, Primo
said.

Indonesia continues to be sensitive to the
possibility of losing Papua, where a low-level
separatist movement has been active for decades.
Also, the independence of Timor Leste, a former
Indonesian province, is still fresh in the minds
of Indonesian authorities.

In addition to racial differences, many Papuans
believe they are not benefiting from the
exploitation of the province’s abundant natural
resources.

Five years since the passage of the law on special
autonomy for Papua, a status which also is shared
by West Irian Jaya province, people in the
provinces have yet to truly benefit from their
rich natural resources. According to the latest
data from the State Ministry for the Development
of Disadvantaged Regions, 19 of 20 regencies
across Papua were classified in 2005 as
underdeveloped.

A series of violent clashes, culminating in the
tumultuous rally against gold mining firm PT
Freeport Indonesia in mid-March, just a few days
after the gubernatorial election, and the choice
of 43 Papuans to seek asylum in Australia the
previous month, only added to Indonesia’s concerns
over the province. Maluku, West Timor and Flores,
to a lesser extent, also share some of Papua’s
problems.

Primo said that the meeting also aimed at
strengthening people-to-people contacts among the
six participating countries.

"The ministers share a common view that
cooperation in the areas of education and culture
should be further promoted. They also discussed
ways to fight terrorism, combating communicable
diseases and illegal fishing," he said, adding
that the dialog would be continued in the
Philippines, which will play host to the next AMM
and ARF meetings.

---

Persija Park demolition starts despite land
dispute

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Adianto Simamora, Jakarta — Despite an ongoing
land dispute and mounting protests from area
residents, public order officers began demolishing
the historic Menteng Stadium in Central Jakarta on
Wednesday.

The stadium is also the base of city soccer club
Persija, and is commonly referred to as Persija
Park.

As some 1,200 officers began tearing down the
property and nearby cafes, Persija lawyer Victor
Sitanggang told angry club supporters that the
land ownership dispute was still being processed
by the Central Jakarta District Court. "The
demolition is illegal because the court has yet to
issue any decision on the land’s status," Victor
said.

Three bulldozers, an excavator and seven trucks
were involved in the demolition, which started at
7 a.m. Persija club members protesting outside the
stadium demanded to the see public order officers’
demolition warrant.

“One of the officials hit me with a stick,” said
Miftah, a member of Persija’s student soccer team.
An hour later the warrant, issued by the public
order agency, was delivered to the Persija
supporters.

Victor said he would take the letter, which
ordered the demolition of Menteng Stadium and was
signed by Central Jakarta’s mayor, Muhayat, to the
police as proof that the city administration was
ignoring the ongoing legal process.

Separately, city administration law bureau head
Jornal Siahaan said the demolition was legal. "The
Central Jakarta district court has not ordered the
city administration to withhold any actions in
connection with the legal process," he said.

Siahaan said that as long as the court did not
issue any orders, the city administration would go
ahead with its plan. The city intends to replace
the stadium with a new multi-sport facility and
green area, along with a five-story carpark.
Persija is to move its headquarters to the
Voetbalbond Indische Jakarta (VIJ) Stadium in
Roxy, Central Jakarta, while its matches are to be
held at Lebak Bulus Stadium in South Jakarta.

According to a gubernatorial decree on heritage
conservation, Menteng Stadium is a designated
historical site. It was originally the Voetbalbond
Indische Omstreken (Indies Football Association)
ground. Victor said that Indonesia’s first
president, Soekarno, gave the stadium to Persija
in the 1960s to replace the Ikada Stadium, which
was demolished to make way for the National
Monument (Monas).

The fight between the city administration and
Persija officials over the stadium began in
February this year. Persija brought to court their
concerns over the legality of three certificates
the city administration had obtained in 2001 for
the 35,458 square meters of land on which the
stadium stands.

Victor said that the city administration’s action
also contravened the 2005 Law on Sports, which
states that any plans to build or shift the
function of a sports venue needs the approval of
the state minister for youth and sports affairs.

Jornal said the city administration had sent a
letter to minister Adyaksa Dault to notify him of
the plan, but was yet to receive a response.

Meanwhile, a meeting between Menteng residents and
the city’s environmental management body to
discuss the potential environmental impact of the
planned redevelopment was interrupted by news of
the demolition.

“Of course, it’s shocking,” said body official
Febri Prasetyadi. "I don’t know whether or not it
is connected with the planned renovation of the
Menteng soccer fields." He said the frustrated
residents were depending on the environmental body
to force the city to drop its development plans
for the area.

The body’s head of environmental impact affairs,
Ridwan Panjaitan, said his unit’s recommendation
should be used as a basis for continuing or
dropping the plans for Persija Park.

"We have gathered input from several parties,
including people living near the project. But we
can’t simply rely on the claims of certain
parties. We have to see it from the broad view of
public need," he said.

---

Shops torn down as overpass work begins

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang — At least 35 shops and
makeshift kiosks were demolished Tuesday by the
Tangerang regency administration to make way for
the construction of the Ciputat overpass.

Traders along Jl. Dewi Sartika, Jl. Juanda and Jl.
Aria Putra were forced to leave after
unsuccessfully campaigning against the demolition.
"We have done enough bargaining and negotiating
with traders who refused to leave," Deden
Sugandhi, the administration’s assistant for
development control, said Tuesday.

Traders had demanded greater compensation for the
land and buildings than had been offered, but the
local government refused to pay.

Deden said the administration had warned the
traders to leave their buildings by July 24, but
few had complied with the warning until it was
clear the buildings were to be demolished.

"We will notify the Public Works Ministry once the
demolition is complete. The ministry can start the
construction work immediately as it is responsible
for it," he said, adding that the local
administration had only been responsible for
acquiring the land.

The Tangerang administration spent Rp 25 billion
from its 2005 budget and another Rp 15 billion
from this year’s budget on buying the land. The
overpass, which is estimated to cost Rp 100
billion, is being funded by the Public Works
Ministry through a loan from the Japanese
International Bank Corporation.

The administration and the ministry believe the
800-meter-long overpass, which will run from Jl.
Dewi Sartika to Jl. Juanda, is the only solution
to the chronic traffic congestion in the area.

---

City’s children lacking safe places to play

Jakarta Post - July 26, 2006

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta — As soon as he got
home from school Monday, eight-year old Yoga
changed out of his uniform, reached for his yellow
plastic kite and ran out to join several friends
in a narrow alley in Cipete, South Jakarta.

His first attempt at flying the kite failed when
it hit an electricity pole on one side of the
lane. A few minutes later the kite made it into
the air, but then a motorcycle forced Yoga to
move, and down came the toy. Child’s play is
anything but easy in Jakarta.

"The development of the city has not paid enough
attention to the needs of children, even for
something as basic as playing," non-governmental
organization Plan Indonesia project manager
Amrullah said Monday. "We plan to push the agenda
in order to get children heard in the process of
making the city’s spatial plan," he said.

Currently, the city’s open green space covers only
7,250 hectares, nine percent of the city’s total
area. Jakarta plans to increase the percentage of
open green space to 13.94 percent by 2010, a
smaller target than the 26 percent stated in the
city’s 1985-2005 spatial plan.

With some 32 percent of Jakartans living in houses
that provide less than 10 square meters of space
per person, many children are forced to play on
the streets.

Indonesia lags behind other countries in public
outdoor facility ratios. There is just over half a
square meter of open public space for each person
in Jakarta. In comparison, the ratio is two square
meters per person in Malaysia, and in crowded
Japan it is five square meters per person.

As a result of the lack of open spaces, especially
playgrounds and parks, children make use of
whatever areas are available to them. Those living
in shanty towns behind business districts play in
empty building project lots. As soon as
construction starts, the children lose their
football field.

Median strips often serve the same function.
Drivers frequently complain about children running
in front of cars while pursuing balls and toys.

A 2003 study of Kwitang, Central Jakarta,
conducted by urban planning researcher Hamid
Patilima concluded that the city administration
had not paid enough attention to providing open
public spaces. As a result, children in Kwitang
play in parking lots, on riverbanks and in the
street.

Access to a close, safe and suitable play area is
recognized as a basic right in the United Nations
Convention on Children’s Rights.

The Indonesian Children’s Welfare Foundation says
Indonesia’s children were ranked last in a recent
study of fitness and physical level in Asian
children, a dismal result aided by the absence of
recreation areas available in the country,
particularly for city children.

The study also showed Indonesian children spend
most of their time at home, either doing homework
or — less productively — watching television.

Various businesses have opened recreation centers
in the city’s malls and commercial outdoor
playgrounds in suburban areas such as Serpong and
Depok. But with entrance fees of around Rp 35,000,
many people cannot afford to take their children
to such parks. Children like Yoga are left to play
in the streets and alleyways, competing with cars
and motorcycles for space.

 ACEH

Indonesia’s Aceh canes two in public for adultery

Reuters - July 30, 2006

Banda Aceh — Two people in Indonesia’s Aceh have
been caned for adultery, the latest case of public
punishments since courts in the province were
allowed to implement Islamic sharia law. Indonesia
is the world’s most populous Muslim nation but
only Aceh has the right to adopt sharia law in the
judicial system.

Aceh courts received that freedom in 2003 as part
of an autonomy package Jakarta offered in an
attempt to quell separatist passions in the
province, where thousands died in a long-running
insurgency.

"Both of them were arrested by sharia police in a
kiosk in Sawang district two weeks ago after they
were caught in an intimate situation," Tengku
Marnus Labsyar, head of the South Aceh Sharia’s
office, told Reuters by telephone. He said the
woman was a 23-year-old widow, while the married
man was a 35-year-old teacher.

Television footage showed first the man and then
the woman, both dressed in white, given nine and
seven strokes respectively with a rattan stick on
a platform surrounded by a jeering crowd in the
compound of the Kasik Putih mosque in Samadua, a
town in the south of Aceh.

The woman was led away sobbing after receiving her
punishment from a blindfolded man man wearing a
red robe. The caning took place on Friday. Aceh
has previously caned people under sharia law for
gambling and stealing. The rulings by sharia
courts have to be approved by Aceh’s governor.

Caning is a common judicial practice in
neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. Most
Indonesian Muslims are considered relatively
moderate and the government is officially secular,
but Aceh is a more staunchly Muslim province.

Located on the northern tip of Sumatra island,
Aceh is dubbed the “Verandah of Mecca” because
Islam first entered Indonesia from there centuries
ago. Analysts say Aceh sharia courts are unlikely
to use stronger penalties such as stoning for
adultery or amputation for theft.

[Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia in
Jakarta.]

---

Aid groups are criticized over tsunami
reconstruction

New York Times - July 27, 2006

Jane Perlez, Masjid — For a moment, the villagers
in this seaside community glimpsed a vision of a
splendid future: houses with shady verandas, a new
elementary school and an end to the squalid
barracks that had been their world since the Asian
tsunami swept all before it 19 months ago.

But the houses, built with untreated, rickety wood
by the aid agency Save the Children, turned out to
be uninhabitable — some of them were thrown
together in three days and nights, the villagers
said. The foundations of the school remain
abandoned, overgrown with weeds.

“People are mad,” said Innu A. Barkar, the village
head, as he walked around the empty houses, some
of them relegated for use as chicken yards. "The
aid workers gave promises, but they don’t turn out
to be reality."

Life in Aceh, the northernmost province of
Indonesia where 170,000 people perished in the
December 2004 tsunami, has resumed a semblance of
normality.

For the most part, children are in school, roads
are being rebuilt, outdoor markets are packed with
local produce, employment is not too hard to find,
and even the peace accord between the national
government and separatist guerrillas is sticking.
Almost everyone has been moved out of muddy tents,
though many families still live in dilapidated
barracks.

But beneath the activity, a veil of disenchantment
with international aid agencies pervades, a
feeling that extravagant promises backed by
unprecedented donations, large and small, from the
around the world have yet to materialize.

To many, the $8.5 billion that humanitarian
agencies, foreign governments and Indonesia say
they will spend on the rebuilding of Aceh seems a
mirage. In some ways, they are right. So far, the
World Bank says only $1.5 billion of the $8.5
billion dedicated to the disaster has yet been
disbursed.

More than that, much of what has been spent has
not been spent well. A scathing report issued in
mid-July by experts from governments, the United
Nations and international aid agencies, and
endorsed by former President Bill Clinton, makes
clear that the villagers are not just grumbling.

Many of the hundreds of aid agencies that poured
into Aceh in the aftermath of the tsunami
displayed “arrogance and ignorance” and were often
staffed by “incompetent workers” who came and went
quickly, the report said.

Although the billions of dollars in donations
translated into a record $7,100 for each affected
person — compared with $3 for each survivor of
the 2004 floods in Bangladesh — the people of
Aceh have not seen the fruits of the generosity,
the report added.

The assessment, which Mr. Clinton noted in a
foreword contained “uncomfortable reading,” rapped
the aid agencies for paying more attention to
advertising their “brands” and releasing self-
laudatory reports than accounting for their
expenditures.

The agencies performed relatively well during the
first three months after the tsunami when they
delivered food and water, and kept diseases at
bay. Much of that success was "thanks largely to
local inputs," the report said. For the longer
term reconstruction, the report said that lack of
expertise by the agencies had led to "shoddy
results."

House building is in fact the main source of
complaint. In some areas, clusters of new houses,
their corrugated iron roofs glinting in the
tropical sun, have sprouted in the barren
landscape. In others, row upon row of dilapidated
barracks, swollen with families squatting in tiny
rooms, attest to the slow going in building new
family dwellings. In all, about 25,000 houses,
constructed by a wide variety of agencies, have
been completed out of a projected 120,000 that are
needed, according to the United Nations agency
Habitat.

There were many reasons the rebuilding has fallen
short, said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, director of the
Indonesian rehabilitation and reconstruction
agency. Flush with donations from the public as
never before, the aid agencies felt compelled to
press ahead with building houses even though they
lacked experience.

“They said, ’Let’s build,’” Mr. Kuntoro
explained. "They don’t talk about contracts; there
are no agreements with contractors. It’s build
houses, boom, boom, boom.“He said he had warned the agencies.”I kept
telling them that the type of people they had, the
way they managed, had to change,“he said.”It
took until the end of last December to convince
them to change."

As for the disappointments in Masjid, Save the
Children said it would demolish 371 unusable
houses it had built here and elsewhere, and would
repair 200 others.

The agency, which suspended its construction
programs in order to investigate what went wrong,
has ordered prefabricated houses from Canada.
Starting in September, it plans to train villagers
on how to assemble them, said Mike Kiernan, the
group’s director of communications.

Three housing inspectors have been fired from the
agency for failing to do their jobs, Mr. Kiernan
said. Similarly, Oxfam dismissed 10 staff members
on grounds of gross misconduct after uncovering
collusion between them and Indonesian contractors
that resulted in shoddy houses, said Ian Small,
the director of Oxfam in Aceh.

There were other problems as well, some peculiar
to Aceh. One of the big stumbling blocks, for
instance, has been the supply of wood, the most
common material in local housing.

The province of Aceh, a great storehouse of timber
with some of the most valuable forests in
Indonesia, is also one of the most over-logged
places in the nation. In a move to preserve the
endangered forests, the Indonesian rehabilitation
and reconstruction agency, which is overseeing the
rebuilding, issued a ruling that basically
prohibited the use of wood from Aceh.

The scramble for enough wood for 20,000 one-room
temporary houses became an enduring quest for
Kevin Duignan, a building contractor from New
Zealand who came to Aceh to head up the housing
efforts of the International Federation of the Red
Cross.

To build the houses, he issued families do-it-
yourself kits with tools and steel frames bought
in Bangkok. But to get the wood planks for the
walls, the Red Cross signed on with a British
timber company, which supplied Baltic pine bought
in Scandinavia.

Concerned about potential health problems
associated with the wood’s antitermite treatment,
the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva took two
months to approve the contract. Finally, the wood
was milled in Britain, and then shipped via
Singapore to Medan, the Indonesian port just south
of Aceh, Mr. Duignan said.

But often the journey by ship from Britain to
Singapore took much longer than the three weeks it
was supposed to take, and delivering the wood over
Aceh’s rotten roads ate up still more time. By
mid-July, just 8,900 of the planned 20,000
temporary houses that were supposed to be up
months ago were finished, Mr. Duignan said.

One of the occupants of the tiny new homes, Cut
Darnita, decorated her interior with vases of
fabric roses and orchids, a cheery red rug and a
coffee table draped with a white linen cloth. The
five-member family lay down mats on the floor to
sleep at night. “It’s small but nice,” she said of
the room, about 226 square feet. When would she
get a permanent home? Ms. Darnita shrugged.

Not all the news is bad. Work on a highway down
the devastated west coast of the province,
financed by the United States government, is under
way, and a new port has opened in Meulaboh, the
seaside town that was smashed to smithereens.

Of the lucky ones with a roof over their heads,
those with houses built by the Turkish Red
Crescent Society are the most pleased.

“They’ve given us good quality,” said Khairuman,
45, a building laborer, and his wife, Suginah, 43,
as they showed off their blue-tiled bathroom
replete with bath and shower in the beachside
community of Lampuuk. Like many Indonesians, they
use one name.

The Red Crescent Society paid $10,000 for each
brick house, about double the cost of houses built
by other agencies. And it sent a team of engineers
with experience from the 1999 earthquake in
Turkey. "The people of Aceh suffered; they need to
stay in good houses," said an engineer, Ali Pekoz.
From the sunproof window glass to imported hinges
on the doors, the Turks chose the best fittings,
he said.

The harsh analysis by Mr. Clinton’s evaluation
group has prompted some introspection among the
major aid agencies. The criticisms come as some
argue here in Aceh, and in Washington, that more
experienced private contractors or national armies
should take on future reconstruction efforts in
disaster areas.

But the humanitarian agencies reject that idea,
saying they bring a special dimension to the work
that is implied in their very name. "I suppose we
all could have given the billions raised for the
effort to the Halliburtons of this world, and
perhaps the job would be done by now," Mr.

Small of Oxfam said in a recent speech. "But would
that build a fairer, more accountable and
equitable society where the poor are not left
behind for the lack of a voice and where women are
empowered to effect change, and society as a whole
has built up the capacity to go forward on its
own?

---

Aceh: Government declares sixteen organisations
’illegal’

Green Left Weekly - July 26, 2006

James Balowski, Jakarta — Less than two weeks
after the House of Representatives passed the Aceh
governance bill — which the government says will
pave the way for greater autonomy in Indonesia’s
northern-most province — on June 21, the Aceh
governor issued a decree declaring 16 Acehnese
groups “illegal”.

While most of the organisations named in the
decree are anti-separatist militia groups set up
by the military prior to the signing of the peace
agreement between the Indonesian government and
the Free Aceh Movement last August, the list also
includes the Aceh chapter of the highly respected
environmental forum Walhi, the Aceh Referendum
Information Centre (SIRA), the Acehnese solidarity
organisation Student Solidarity for the People
(SMUR) and a number of other student and activist
groups.

SIRA and SMUR have been campaigning to ensure that
the Aceh governance bill adheres strictly to the
peace deal — particularly over issues such as
Acehnese control over its vast natural resources,
the right to form local political parties and the
establishment of an ad hoc human rights court to
try perpetrators of past human rights abuses in
the province. In a July 13 statement, SIRA said
the new bill contravened the spirit of the peace
deal and is even worse than the 2001 special
autonomy law, which was enacted in a bid to
appease separatists.

Walhi has been highly critical of the Aceh Nias
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for using
timber from conservation forests and illegally
importing timber from outside of Aceh to rebuild
the thousands of houses destroyed in December
2004’s massive earthquake and tsunami.

Although SIRA has reaffirmed that despite the word
“referendum” in its name, it is no longer seeking
an independent Aceh and fully supports the peace
deal, in recent months the organisation has been
the target of attacks.

In February, the SIRA offices in western Aceh were
vandalised by a group of around 100 militia. In
June, the Indonesian government’s senior
representative on the Aceh Monitoring Mission,
Major-General Bambang Darmono, claimed that SIRA
was illegal and called for the organisation to be
disbanded. Then on July 10, three SIRA activists
were arrested for distributing a leaflet calling
for a general strike against the endorsement of
the Aceh governance bill.

The bannings came in the wake of mounting public
pressure for stern government action against
groups taking the law into their own hands, in
particular the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and
the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR). Although the
FPI is best known for smashing up Jakarta
nightspots and exhorting money, while the FBR is
used to provide hired thugs in local disputes, in
recent months the two have been campaigning for
the enactment of the controversial Law Against
Pornography and Porno-Action (UUAPP). Most
Indonesians see this as a step towards the
implementation of Islamic law and it has generated
a wave of popular resistance from women, who view
it as a further violation of their already limited
rights.

More recently, FPI made headlines by vandalising
the offices of the local version of Playboy
magazine, harassing women activists campaigning
against the UUAPP and even forcing former
president Abdurrahman Wahid — a moderate Muslim
cleric and steadfast advocate of pluralism — off
the stage at a meeting in West Java in May. In
almost all cases police simply stood by and
watched.

Rather than putting pressure on police to take
action against the members of these groups who are
clearly breaking the law, the government is
instead seeking to revise the 1985 law on the
freedom to organise in order to allow for the
disbanding of organisations deemed to have
“disrupted security and public order”.

 WEST PAPUA

Tribes hold peace talks in Papua, no deal yet

Jakarta Post - July 31, 2006

Markus Makur, Timika — Two tribes involved in a
series of deadly clashes over the past week in
Mimika regency, Papua, have sat down for peace
talks, but no deal has yet been reached.

Ten people have died in fighting between the
tribes since July 21. Four of the dead were from
the Damal tribe and six from the Dani tribe. The
government has been criticized for being slow to
step in and stop the fighting.

Though talks have so far failed to reach a
settlement, Elminus Mom, chief of the Damal tribe,
said he was prepared to end the violence. "We are
still waiting for a decision from the families of
the victims from the Dani tribe. We’re still in
negotiations, under the sponsorship of the Mimika
regency administration," Elminus said.

While waiting for the results of the talks, the
Damal tribe held a traditional funeral for one of
its members killed Sunday. The body of the
deceased was incinerated, which the Damal believe
frees the soul to move into the next life. If this
traditional ceremony is not performed, they
believe the soul will remain trapped on earth,
disturbing family members.

There have been conflicting reports about how the
clashes in Mimika began. Most say the fighting
began July 21, when Yohanes Kogoya from the Damal
tribe was killed by arrows while attending the
funeral of Nugi, the son of the Bhintuka village
head, who was from the Dani tribe. Nugi reportedly
drowned in a river, but the Dani blame the Damal
for the death.

Fighting later broke out in the area of Kwamki
Lama, not far from the massive gold and copper
mine operated by PT Freeport Indonesia.

The situation around Kwamki Lama was calm Sunday,
and residents were able to attend to their daily
business. Two companies from the Mimika Police and
paramilitary police unit Brimob have been deployed
to Kwamki Lama to prevent the violence from
escalating.

---

Suyanto: TNI still keeping on guard against OPM

Tempo Interactive - July 31, 2006

Dimas Adityo, Jakarta — The Indonesian military
(TNI) will continue to keep on guard against the
Free Papua Movement (OPM) groups that are still
exist in the Papuan interior, even though several
members surrendered to the government late last
week.

"The next measure is that vigilance must be
maintained", said TNI commander in Chief Marshal
Djoko Suyanto when contacted by Tempo yesterday.
Maintaining vigilance said Suyanto does not mean
TNI troops will be pursuing the groups that still
exist. "We are no longer on the offensive in terms
of conducting military operations to pursue them",
he said.

Rather, the steps being taken by TNI troops in
Papua at the moment are to make approaches to the
members of OPM groups that are still in the
mountains to return to society. "We are inviting
them to come down to the villages, more in the
direction of social activities, so no longer
through military operations", said Suyanto.

According to Suyanto, the TNI’s policy of no
longer conducting military operations to pursue
OPM separatists has been applied for several years
now. "This has been the case since [the time of]
Pak Tarto (former TNI chief Endriartono Sutarto)",
he said.

Suyanto said that the military strength of the OPM
groups who are still in the mountains is now
minimal. "In any single group there is less than
10 people", he said. They are spread among several
groups in the villages far in the interior.

Likewise is the case with regard to the weapons
they posses. Although they still have them its is
not very strong. "Like those who surrendered last
week they only had homemade weapons", he said.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

---

Indonesian court jails two more over mine protest

Agence France Presse - July 26, 2006

Jakarta — A court in Indonesia’s easternmost
province of Papua on Wednesday jailed two people
for five and six years each for taking part in
violent protests against a US-run mine, a lawyer
said.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with security
officers in March near Papua’s capital Jayapura
over the mine run by US giant Freeport-McMoran,
leaving six people dead.

The Jayapura district court found Selpius Bobi,
22, guilty of “inciting others to commit violence”
during the melee and sentenced him to five years,
said lawyer Iwan Niode. He said the court also
sentenced 20-year-old Elias Tamaka to six years
for “resisting against authorities by using force”
during the clash.

"We are going to file an appeal this Friday for
the pair and for Nelson Rumbiak and the other 10
defendants," Niode told AFP. Niode refused to
attend the trial, charging that it was a
“theatrical act” and that his clients were
innocent. The same court on Monday sentenced
Rumbiak to six years while 10 of his co-defendants
were jailed for five years.

Sixteen Papuans, mostly students, have been
standing trial accused of stoking the violence in
Papua’s Abepura, which left five security
personnel and one civilian dead.

Critics accuse Freeport-McMoran of not giving
enough to the people of Papua in return for the
mine. They allege the mine causes pollution and
that the military’s protection of the site leads
to human rights abuses.

At the time, the violence fanned fears of further
unrest in the isolated province some 3,000
kilometres (1,800 miles) east of Jakarta, where
Indonesia has grappled with a sporadic separatist
conflict for decades.

---

Autonomy brings little progress to Papua: Study

Jakarta Post - July 26, 2006

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta — Papua’s "special
autonomy" status has not brought significant
progress to the people because it has failed to
address their fundamental needs, a survey
suggests.

The survey was conducted by National Solidarity
for Papua (SNUP) in cooperation with Partnership
for Governance Reform in Indonesia. It examined
the impact of special autonomy, which began in
2002 in an effort to ease separatist tensions and
grant Papuans greater control over their
government and the province’s resources.

The 323 respondents were from different
backgrounds and locations across six regencies.
They said their welfare has not improved because
the local political elite, the bureaucracy and
non-governmental organizations are out of touch
with the common people.

Seventy-six percent of respondents said autonomy
has yet to strengthen basic services in the areas
of health care, education and the economy. This,
they said, is closely related to rampant
corruption and nepotism among those in power.

SNUP executive director Bonar Tigor Naipospos said
a sizable portion of the funds granted to Papua to
implement autonomy have been spent on things other
than essential needs.

"Besides the conflicting interests between local
people and their elite group, the two resource-
rich provinces have spent a lot of money to
establish new institutions required by the special
autonomy law, on the controversy over the
formation of West Irian Jaya province and on local
elections," Naipospos said while presenting the
survey’s results Monday.

West Irian Jaya was split off as a separate
province in 2002, despite complaints that the move
violated Papua’s special autonomy law.

Naipospos said a majority of Papua’s 2.5 million
people still lived in poverty.

Forty-six percent of respondents said that the
newly-established Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP)
and political parties had not paid serious
attention to their fundamental problems, and that
the increasing number of security personnel did
not improve their sense of security. Instead,
respondents felt their freedom of expression had
been hampered.

Seventy-six percent said the administration at all
levels in the two provinces needed reform, and
that NGOs should be encouraged to closely monitor
the implementation of autonomy in outlying areas.

Naipospos said the proposed reform of the
bureaucracy and the adoption of transparency and
accountability have to be carried out by the
provinces’ newly elected governors.

"West Irian Jaya Governor Octavianus Atururi and
Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu should start their
jobs by reforming the bureaucracy while pressing
the MRP to issue the necessary bylaws to implement
autonomy," he said. Only two such bylaws have been
issued, on health and education, and critics have
called them unworkable.

Bram Atururi was sworn in by Home Minister Moh.
Ma’ruf on Monday for the 2006-2011 period.
Barnabas Suebu took the oath as Papua governor
Tuesday.

Laode Ida, the deputy chairman of the Regional
Representatives Council (DPD), blames Jakarta for
the slow development of autonomy. He said the
central government still interferes in Papua’s
internal affairs. "Jakarta remains suspicious that
the local political elite and bureaucracy are
sympathetic to the separatist movement," he
explained.

He said that the territory has received more than
Rp 6 trillion in autonomy funds annually but no
significant progress has been made on health,
education, transportation and the economy, four
sectors given high priority by the law.

He called on the two provinces to review all
contracts with national and multinational
companies to seek greater economic benefits for
local development programs.

Observer Mohamad Sobary said there was nothing
surprising in the survey results. He added it was
important for Jakarta and the Papua political
elite to cooperate to make autonomy effective.

"The politicians in the two provinces should learn
from the church institutions how they have won the
hearts and minds of the Papuan people in their
religious mission," he said.

---

Defendants in Abepura incident jailed for five to
six years

Jakarta Post - July 25, 2006

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura — The Jayapura
District Court on Monday sentenced 11 protesters
involved in a deadly March 16 clash with police in
Abepura to jail terms of between five and six
years.

The men were charged with a series of offenses
during the violence in front of the Cenderawasih
University campus, including disobeying a police
officer’s order to disperse and violent offenses.

Five people were mobbed to death in the clash,
including four policemen and one member of the Air
Force. Another group of men is on trial for the
murders.

The heaviest sentence was given to Nelson Rumbiak,
who was jailed for six years, two more than the
four years demanded by prosecutors. The panel of
judges ruled Nelson was guilty of violating the
Criminal Code when he took a tear gas canister
belonging to Daud Soleman, a police officer.
Soleman died in the incident.

Other defendants — Patrisius Aronggear, Thomas
Ukagol, Penius Waker, Othen Dapyal, Elkana
Lokobal, Mon Obadja Pawika, Bensuir Mirin and Musa
Asso — were each sentenced to five years jail for
similar offenses.

The defendants’ lawyers left the court when the
verdicts were read out to protest the sentences
they called “subjective” and said did not take
into account witness testimony and other evidence.

"The judges’s verdicts have been contaminated by
an evaluation outside the court. The judges are
like laymen — they have sentenced the defendants
before the legal process is completed, only
because they were influenced by watching TV
coverage of the incident or reading newspapers,"
Paskalis Letsoin, one of the lawyers, said.
Paskalis said the team would appeal against the
verdicts.

---

Papuan resistance meets in PNG to unify

Australian Associated Press - July 24, 2006

The meeting in the port city of Madang brought
together commanders from six commands in the West
Papuan National Army.

Meeting organiser Jonah Wenda told AAP most of the
commanders had crossed the border from Papua to
attend the meeting and they had pledged to
continue their struggle for a free Papua through
non-violent means.

The meeting continued the work of the West Papua
Coalition for National Liberation to bring
together all resistance groups under one umbrella
organisation, he said.

A low-level secessionist struggle has been going
on in the province for decades with Melanesian
Papuans pitted against Indonesian security forces.

Wenda said the commanders signed a memorandum of
understanding to form a new coordinating body in
October. Their aim was to use peaceful means to
free West Papua, promoting defence rather than
offence or violent struggle, he said.

"We don’t want to attack but if the Indonesian
army chooses to attack, we will stand to defend
our people and our land and the future of West
Papua."

 PORNOGRAPHY & MORALITY

’Anti-porno’ fight tests Muslim tolerance in
Indonesia

Reuters - July 29, 2006

Jonathan Lyons, Jakarta — A battle brewing over a
draft anti-smut law has laid bare deep divisions
within Indonesia and, say critics, threatens its
traditionally tolerant approach to Islam.

With parliament back in session from August 18,
the world’s biggest Muslim nation faces what could
prove a defining moment. Pressured by growing
demands from Muslim activists, lawmakers are
expected to hammer out the legislation in the
coming months.

Just what kind of bill emerges — and how much
liberal Muslims, secular nationalists, and non-
Muslim minorities water it down beforehand —
remains to be seen.

Already, proposed changes would remove kissing in
public from its catalog of proscribed acts. Other
revisions exempt art and cultural activities from
censorship, and reduce the chance of vigilante
enforcement by Muslim hardliners.

Supporters say tough measures are necessary to
protect the public from corrupting Western
influence. Although barred by law, explicit
material is available with relative ease in
Indonesia, and television programs regularly
feature bared flesh and sexual innuendo.
Indonesia’s population of 220 million is roughly
85 percent Muslim.

"We need to protect our young generation from
moral degradation," said Tifatul Sembiring,
chairman of the fast-rising Islamist party, PKS.
"There has not been an anti-pornography bill in
Indonesia, while (such laws) exist in a western
liberal country like America."

Many mainstream politicians, including President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, have yet to take a
stand, apparently for fear of alienating
influential religious forces, including members of
the governing coalition.

Some are no doubt also wary of hardline Muslim
gangs, who have taken to smashing up nightclubs,
bars and discos. Recent targets include offices of
the Indonesian edition of Playboy. The magazine is
tame by local standards but the name conjures up
powerful images of Western excess.

Stalking horse

Opponents see the "Anti-Pornography and Porno-
acts" law as a stalking horse for demands for
austere Saudi-style Islamic law, which they say is
at odds with Indonesian values.

"There is now a growing tendency for conforming
Islam, and identifying it, with the Arabs," said
Lily Zakiyah Munir, a Muslim intellectual and
graduate of a traditional Islamic boarding school.

In general, Islam in Indonesia is "immersed in
local culture and local custom," with a wide
tolerance for dissent, said Munir, who says the
proposed bill dangerously distorts her faith.

"Now things seem to be changing. More and more
people... have reduced religion to what is visible
rather than internalizing the values and teachings
of the religion."

In recent years, Indonesia has seen rising
popularity of modest dress for women and men,
increased use of Arabic honorifics and phrases,
and national efforts to regulate citizens’
behavior.

For example, a proposed new criminal code would
impose harsh penalties on unmarried couples living
together and other private acts deemed to violate
social and religious norms.

Seizing on the decentralization that accompanied
the fall of the authoritarian Suharto government
in 1998, some locales have passed restrictive laws
designed to further public morality.

One such ordinance requires shopkeepers to close
their businesses during Muslim prayer-times.
Another bylaw gives police the power to detain
women for prostitution based on subjective
judgments about their appearance. It was widely
ridiculed after the arrest of a schoolteacher
waiting innocently on the street for her husband.

---

NU states opposition to sharia bylaws

Jakarta Post - July 29, 2006

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya — The country’s
largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),
strongly reiterated its opposition Friday to
efforts to turn Indonesia into a theocratic state.

NU lawmaking body chief Sahal Mahfudz said the
organization needed to reaffirm its commitment to
the country’s secular traditions amid concerted
moves to introduce sharia as a legal foundation
for drafting legislation.

"The NU upholds pluralism in line with the
Pancasila. We oppose the implementation of sharia
because this will only lead to disintegration.
Sharia can be implemented without being
formalized," Sahal told the opening ceremony of a
three-day national NU ulema conference in
Surabaya, East Java.

He added that the NU should continue to be at the
forefront in campaigning for the preservation of
local values.

The organization has been particularly vocal in
its opposition to the passage of sharia-based
bylaws in several areas of the country.

NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi said in a recent meeting
with Vice President Jusuf Kalla that the country
risked disintegration from the campaign of some
groups to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state.

The NU has joined other commentators in pointing
out that the moves undermine the all-encompassing
principles of the state ideology Pancasila.

Kalla, who officiated at the opening of the
congress, also believed there were efforts to
create conflict by promoting Islam to replace
Pancasila in multiethnic, religiously diverse
Indonesia. "One indication of the plot is the
drawing up of numerous sharia-inspired bylaws,"
Kalla said in his address to 2,000 senior Muslim
clerics.

He backed NU’s campaign against the implementation
of sharia in the country. "We fully support NU’s
stance on opposing the sharia-inspired bylaws that
have been enacted in several regions."

Since the passage of the regional autonomy law in
2000, 22 municipalities and regencies have
implemented bylaws showing the influence of
sharia, including stipulations for Koran literacy
among schoolchildren, the obligation for women to
wear headscarves in public and heavy punishment
for adultery, alcoholism and gambling.

Concerns about sharia will be one among many
subjects discussed by the senior clerics during
the congress. Other issues likely to invite heated
debate are growing tension in the Middle East
following the Israeli attacks against Lebanon and
Palestine, disaster mitigation and the involvement
of NU members in politics.

The latter is especially sensitive, with Sahal
saying the trend of NU figures joining political
parties compromised the organization’s true
spirit. "Ulemas should not use the NU as vehicle
to meet their political objectives... it would
only tear the NU apart and tarnish its good
image," he said.

---

Playboy Indonesia: Modest flesh meets Muslim faith

New York Times - July 24, 2006

Jane Perlez, Denpasar — When Erwin Arnada, editor
in chief of Playboy magazine in Indonesia,
answered a summons at police headquarters in the
national capital, Jakarta, he turned up smiling,
behaved like a good citizen and, in turn, was
treated politely during nearly six hours of
questioning.

The Playboy edition in Indonesia, the world’s most
populous Muslim nation, was designed with local
customs in mind. It contains no nudity, and its
first centerfold featured a model wearing a modest
negligee.

The parrying, he recalled, went something like
this: "When did you first meet Kartika Oktavina
Gunawan?" the police asked, referring
knowledgeably to the model who appeared in the
first centerfold of the Indonesian edition wearing
a modest blue negligee that made lingerie
advertisements in Western newspapers seem
decidedly lewd.

“How can you not remember?” the policeman asked,
according to the editor’s account of the recent
good-natured encounter. "Because I meet many
beautiful people every day," Mr. Arnada said he
replied.

The questioners chuckled enviously, he said. They
charged him, and Ms. Gunawan, with violating the
indecency provisions of the criminal code, then
let them go.

Playboy arrived in Indonesia, the world’s most
populous Muslim nation, three months ago with an
edition specially created to take account of local
customs — no photographs of nude women, no nudity
at all.

Playboy is published under license in 20
countries, mostly in Europe. Indonesia is the
first Muslim country for the magazine since a
Turkish edition folded in the mid-1990’s.

Fairly predictably, an Indonesian group, the
Islamic Defenders Front, which specializes in
attacks on nightclubs and gambling dens, threw
rocks at the Playboy office in Jakarta, causing so
much physical — and psychological — damage, Mr. 
Arnada said, that it was impossible for the staff
to continue publishing there.

The magazine decamped here to the capital of Bali,
a Hindu island, where foreign tourists parade in
skimpy swimsuits and frolic in alcohol-suffused
nightclubs.

The second and third issues were produced from the
magazine’s new headquarters, a floor of a house
belonging to a Hindu spiritual leader, a friend of
Mr. Arnada, who is a Muslim. The latest layouts of
the magazine are fashioned among Balinese wall
hangings and religious offerings to the Hindu
gods.

While the reaction of the Islamic groups in the
capital was not surprising, the magazine was also
caught in a parliamentary debate over an
antipornography bill that is testing the heart of
Indonesia’s tolerance.

The Indonesian Society Against Piracy and
Pornography, which is pushing the bill, filed suit
against the magazine, prompting the police
investigation.

Goenawan Mohamad, the founder of Tempo, an
Indonesian newsweekly, and a distinguished
columnist, says Mr. Arnada has fashioned a
magazine so tame that it would be absurd to ban
it.

Although he supported the right of Playboy to
publish, Mr. Mohamad said he found it difficult to
be really enthusiastic about the magazine’s cause.
"Playboy is a well-known magazine because of
women’s lack of dress,“he said.”What’s the
fuss?"

In an effort to make the Indonesian edition
palatable to local sensibilities, the first
issue’s interview of the month was with the
nation’s most famous author and dissident
novelist, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. He died April 30
at the age of 81, soon after the issue appeared.
Most of the articles in the first three issues
were the run-of-the-mill fare of any general
interest magazine in Asia, an account of amputees
from Cambodia’s civil war, the stories of
Indonesian mail-order brides, a photo essay about
domestic violence against children and a long
article on East Timor.

The photographs of the centerfold Playmate in
sparse though hardly salacious clothing (the
second playmate was a Bali-based Frenchwoman,
Doriane Amar — the attacks had temporarily
frightened off Indonesian models) and a lonely
hearts column geared to men were about the
strongest suggestion that Indonesia’s Playboy was
actually aimed at male readers.

The cover of the third issue was certainly
fleshier, though still demure compared with other
men’s glossies on the newsstands here: an
Indonesian model dressed in a long mohair sweater
and a pair of briefs shows cleavage and the
suggestion — though only a suggestion — of her
navel.

For Mr. Arnada, 41, who has a background in
publishing entertainment tabloids and producing
horror movies, all the fuss reflects fears about
the intrusion of Western culture. "Why else do
they keep shouting about Playboy?" he asked.

A widely distributed publication in Indonesia, Red
Light, which is owned by one of the biggest
Indonesian media conglomerates, Jawa Pos, is far
more provocative, Mr. Arnada said.

Printed on crude newsprint and sold on the street
by hawkers for the equivalent of 20 cents, Red
Light carries advertisements for prostitutes and
their phone numbers, features photos of naked men
and women and is festooned with sexually
provocative headlines.

The Indonesian Press Council, a government body,
in fact has supported publication of Playboy,
saying the country now has freedom of the press.
So for the moment, Mr. Arnada and Ponti Corolus,
who looks after the financial side of their
publishing company, Velvet Silver Media, appear to
have prevailed.

Mr. Arnada’s case on a charge of purveying
indecency remained with the police, but had not
been sent to the prosecutors. Before that
happened, he said, “I hope they drop the charges.”

The first two issues of 100,000 copies each sold
out briskly, even at the relatively steep price of
$3.80. The third is doing nicely.

Some of the major advertisers — cigarette and
cellphone companies, and brands of perfume,
sunglasses and watches — who fled the second
issue, afraid of threats from the Islamic
Defenders Front, returned for the third issue.

Mr. Arnada, a self-described party boy, said a
prominent Balinese nightclub owner had agreed to
hold a Playmate event.

But ever the businessman, Mr. Arnada remains
cautious. “I don’t say I win,” he said. "I don’t
know where the ball is going. Suddenly I’m a
suspect, and other publications with nude pictures
are having a good life."

 HUMAN RIGHTS/LAW

Government urged to drop restrictions on communism

Jakarta Post - July 31, 2006

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta — The government should end
the bans on communism and Marxist-Leninism in the
new Criminal Code because the restrictions are
outdated and repressive, experts say.

While he acknowledged the good work done in
revising the code first enacted by the Dutch in
1918, political analyst Daniel Dhakidae said there
was no need to incorporate regulations that banned
ideologies deemed subversive.

The bans are a throwback to the anti-communist
Soeharto era, he told The Jakarta Post. The
regulations are irrelevant in a democratic country
like Indonesia, where people could study many
ideologies through the Internet, he said.

"This part of the draft is ridiculous. Why do we
have to be afraid of an ideology that has been
abandoned by its main proponents," Daniel said.
The government should keep in mind that the former
Soviet Union has collapsed, while the People’s
Republic of China is gradually abandoning
communism, he said. Fidel Castro’s Cuba is one of
the last communist states left in the world, he
said.

The draft code punishes people found to have
spread communist teachings with jail terms of up
to seven years. Those learning Marxist teachings
as part of a course of study, however, are exempt
from punishment. Anyone attempting to establish a
communist organization in the country or make
contact with similar groups abroad still risks
prosecution.

Communism and related teachings were banned after
a coup attempt in 1965, in which five members of
the armed forces and one civilian were murdered.
The killings were widely blamed on the now-defunct
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the
bloodletting that followed pitted the military and
religious groups against the communists.
Historians estimate that from 400,000 to a million
people died in this violence, which saw the
downfall of Sukarno’s Old Order and the beginning
of the Soeharto regime.

Memories of the coup and its aftermath still
linger and materials deemed communist by the
authorities continue to be banned today.

The Customs and Excise Office recently seized two
scholarly treatises on Indonesian communism —
Indonesian Communism under Sukarno: Ideology and
Politics by Australian historian Rex Polimer and
The Rise of Indonesian Communism by Indonesianist
Ruth McVey.

New editions of the two works, originally
published by Cornell University Press, were
imported by Jakarta-based publisher Equinox. The
publishers have protested the seizure. They say
rather than promoting communist ideologies, these
books are dispassionate political histories of the
PKI.

Political commentator Fadjroel Rahman said the
Criminal Code should only regulate people’s deeds
— not their thoughts. "People should not be made
into criminals because of their ideas," he told
the Post.

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation chairman Patra M.
Zen said the passages on communism were
unnecessary because the draft already included
articles that criminalized attempts to undermine
the Pancasila state ideology.

"Anyone can try to replace the Pancasila, not only
those believing in communism," Patra said. In
their extreme forms, liberalism, conservatism,
fascism and religious fundamentalism all threaten
the existence of the Pancasila, he said.

Senior lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution said if the
subversion law was incorporated into the revised
code, it would undermine the country’s emerging
democracy. "It would be dangerous. You can’t judge
what is in people’s minds. No matter how vicious a
person’s thoughts are, they should not be charged
with a crime if they haven’t done anything," he
said.

---

Criminal Code draft ’impinges on privacy’

Jakarta Post - July 28, 2006

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta — Critics are accusing the
government of compromising individual rights in
the newly drafted Criminal Code that provides
stiff punishment for cohabitation and other
private behavior.

The bill has already triggered heated debate
because it comes amid growing religious
conservatism and, activists say, a systematic
erosion of the country’s pluralistic foundations.
Sharia-based regional bylaws have been passed in
several areas across the country.

"I think some parties are attempting to apply the
substance of sharia-based bylaws nationwide
through the amendment of the Criminal Code
(KUHP)," Women’s Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Apik)
chairwoman Ratna Batara Murti told The Jakarta
Post.

The draft, a copy of which was obtained by the
Post, includes the stipulation: "Anybody who
cohabitates... could be sentenced to five years in
prison."

Ratna said the passage of the bill would pave the
way for state intervention in the private lives of
citizens, which is a gross violation of the
international civil rights convention ratified by
the country.

"The draft will consequently outlaw all forms of
sexual activity beyond marriage. It is definitely
discriminatory and solely based on mainstream
sexual discourse."

Ratna also said the bill criminalized
prostitution, while sex workers were not criminals
but victims of poverty and patriarchal society.
She added that it clashed with the anti-
trafficking law currently being drafted by her
institution. "It’s ironic. While we’re trying to
protect prostitutes from trafficking and other
violence, the government is making them
criminals."

Ratna urged the government to carefully evaluate
the contentious articles before filing the bill
with the House of Representatives. "The draft
would need to be adjusted with the new laws
currently being deliberated before the House," she
said.

Muslim scholar Masdar Farid Mas’udi said Islamic
jurisprudence deemed adultery, cohabitation and
fornication as crimes. "Muslims believe that we do
not own our bodies as they belong to God who
created them."

He added that the purpose of sharia in prohibiting
adultery and cohabitation was for the protection
of women. "Women are obviously the parties who
suffer the losses, physically and
psychologically,“he told the Post.”The most
crucial thing is that the law must be consistent
to its purpose, which is to protect women."

Criminologist Adrianus Meliala said it appeared
the article was incorporated into the bill to
uphold the traditional definition of marital
unions. "I believe that the article has been
formulated to respect the institution of marriage.
But, of course, I can’t accept the notion that
cohabitation is considered a crime."

Pocut Eliza, secretary of the team assigned to
draft the bill, said the amendment of the Criminal
Code would accommodate public input. The new law
also will accommodate the customary law in
connection with acts considered as criminal
according to societal norms and local traditions.

---

Experts point to holes in Criminal Code draft

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta — Legal experts have
faulted the bill on the Criminal Code, drafted by
the government to replace its outdated antecedent,
for glaring omissions on democratic and human
rights principles.

Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation chairman
M. Patra Zen outlined at least five contentious
articles in the bill, initiated 25 years ago to
replace the Dutch colonial code and now being
drafted by a special team under the Justice and
Human Rights Ministry.

"I’m afraid that the government is now trying to
extend its power through the Criminal Code," he
said on the sidelines of a seminar on the bill
Wednesday.

He urged the government to evaluate articles on
capital punishment, defamation and public
disorder, state secrets and the prohibition of
Marxism and communism.

"The application of the death sentence is against
the human rights and it should be removed from the
bill," Patra said, adding there was no direct
correlation between the application of capital
punishment and an attendant low crime rate.

Also controversial is the definition of
“defamation” in Article 308, which states that
"anybody who publishes obscure, excessive and
incomplete news that could prompt public disorder
could be sentenced to one year in prison".

Patra said the phrase “excessive” and "public
disorder" were open to wide-ranging
interpretations, and they should be made more
specific or totally removed from the bill.

The government has in the past used such articles
to jail journalists for reports deemed to endanger
the nation’s “social order”. "Freedom of the press
that gives journalists the right to publish news
is not a criminal act," Patra said.

He also questioned an article that could lead to
five years’ imprisonment for those convicted of
defaming the president and vice president. "What
if we try to criticize the person of the
president, not the institution, then will we also
be charged?"

University of Indonesia scholar Rudy Satrio
Mukantardjo, who specializes in the study of the
Criminal Code, said the House of Representatives
would encounter difficulty in deliberating the
bill because of the many points requiring lengthy
discussion. "It could take years for its
deliberation," he said.

Pocut Eliza, the secretary of the team assigned to
draft the bill, said that President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and Justice and Human Rights Minister
Hamid Awaluddin had requested revisions to the
draft. "We’ll have a meeting to discuss the bill’s
contentious articles next Monday," she said. But
she argued that criminal law reform was urgently
needed as part of the process of decolonization,
modernization and democratization.

The bill, consisting of 36 chapters and 741
article, would incorporate new laws, including on
corruption and child protection. It also includes
articles on pornography and money laundering
although their drafts are still before the House.

 LABOUR ISSUES

Special agency to take over labor exports

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta — A special agency
would protect Indonesian migrant workers and
oversee the labor export program under a decree
expected to be issued next month by President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno
said the planned agency would begin operations in
September. Its establishment is required by the
2004 law on labor protection.

"The special agency, directly under the
supervision of the President, will take over the
role the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry has
long played in overseeing labor export
procedures," he told a seminar on the protection
and empowerment of migrant workers Tuesday in
Jakarta.

Following the establishment of the agency, Erman
said, the ministry would focus on drafting
regulations to enforce a 2004 law concerning the
protection of migrant workers, and designing labor
training programs to improve workers’ skills.

The ministry’s Directorate General for Overseas
Labor Development would be liquidated after the
agency was formed, he added.

The ministry has been under fire for the extortion
of migrant workers before they leave and after
they return to Indonesia. Erman was also
criticized for taking a series of steps to reform
labor export procedures before the establishment
of the special agency.

"We support a sweeping reform of the labor export
procedures but the move should have been made by
the special agency to avoid conflicts of
interest," said Husein Alaydrus, chairman of the
Association of Labor Export Companies.

"All sides should let the new agency reform the
current export procedures, including designing a
new export and protection system," he added.

The manpower ministry under Erman simplified the
labor export procedures so that workers could
obtain their documentation in only 12 days, rather
than three months, before leaving to work
overseas.

Erman also made plans to issue so-called "smart
cards" to workers to simplify their banking
transactions, and appointed a new consortium to
provide an insurance scheme for migrant workers.

Under the planned reforms, Indonesia is expected
to be able to send around one million workers
abroad annually, with about Rp 25 trillion (about
US$2.7 billion) projected to flow back into
Indonesia. Currently, around 350,000 workers go
overseas annually.

Husein said labor exporters were suspicious of the
involvement of Erman’s National Awakening Party
(PKB) in the planned insurance consortium and in
the transportation of workers to their home
villages from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport

---

Indonesia criticized on migrant policies

Jakarta Post - July 29, 2006

Hera Diani, Jakarta — National Commission on
Violence Against Women Chairwoman Tati Krisnawaty
looked a tad irritated when most of the questions
posed in a press conference Friday focused on the
death of an Indonesian migrant worker in Lebanon.

While the death of Siti Maemunah, 24, was tragic,
Tati felt it was garnering attention only because
it occurred in the international spotlight focused
on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

"Death and violence are faced daily by more than
2.7 million Indonesian migrant workers in
Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Saudi
Arabia, but they have received little exposure. It
becomes such a futile death," she told the
conference, which closed a three-day regional
meeting on the rights of migrant workers.

The death of Siti, Tati added, should become a
wake-up call to protect Indonesian migrant
workers, particularly those like Siti who are
undocumented.

The commission and activists from neighboring
countries urged the Indonesian government to take
the lead in protecting migrant workers in
Southeast Asia, since it has the highest number of
such workers.

Nisha Varia, a senior researcher at New York-based
Human Rights Watch, said that among 12 countries
monitored by her organization, Indonesia stood out
in the number of abuse cases involving migrant
workers. Still, she said, the government paid
little attention.

"Indonesia must take strong and immediate steps to
improve the recruitment process because there are
exploitations and abuses in every stage of the
immigration and recruitment process," she said.

The government, she added, should provide better
legal protections, improve its memorandums of
understanding with destination countries like
Malaysia and cooperate more with other countries
in establishing regional standards.

There will be a high-level dialog about migrant
workers at the United Nations in December, Varia
said, adding that Indonesia should stand up at the
forum to demand an emphasis on human rights in all
policies concerning migrants.

Human rights activist Irene Fernandez of Malaysia
said it seemed Indonesia wanted good relations
with her country, even if its own people paid a
price as a result.

"There have been five or six crackdowns in
Malaysia against undocumented migrant workers, but
the Indonesian government’s response has been
unsatisfying. Of course, employers love to have
undocumented workers," said Fernandez, a co-
founder of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law
and Development.

Malaysian activists criticized the crackdowns as
violent, she said. "Malaysia should change its
framework and review the immigration act. There is
no framework for the protection of human rights
and it cannot be tolerated. Indonesia has to make
sure it works, and it isn’t just a statement,"
Fernandez said.

The meeting also urged Indonesia to ratify the
1990 International Convention on the Protection of
the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of
their Families.

Homayoun Alizadeh, who represents Southeast Asia
and Timor Leste at the UN High Commission on Human
Rights, said ratification was the first step
toward protecting migrant workers. "The
Philippines and Timor Leste have ratified it; I
hope Indonesia will be the third country to follow
suit," he said. No destination country in the
world has ratified the convention.

Fernandez said if the countries of origin took the
lead, destination countries would consider
ratifying the convention. "We will continue to
push Malaysia. But Indonesia is responsible for
protecting its citizens, while Malaysia is
accountable to the international community," she
said.

---

Medan workers protest shortage of gas

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Medan — Some 800 employees of companies that are
heavily reliant on gas staged a protest Wednesday
at the North Sumatra provincial council and the
governor’s office demanding the government reduce
the current gas-supply shortage.

The workers, all members of the Gas Customers
Communications Forum, said a number of companies
had sent workers home because of the supply
shortage.

A representative of workers at glove-making
company PT Intan Hevea Industry, James HS Ketaren,
said the company had lowered its production over
the past three weeks, sending home 100 workers.

"Our company is in a tricky situation, which has
forced it to send workers home. We are producing
600,000 fewer pairs of gloves a day. The decline
in unavoidable due to the gas-supply shortage,"
James told The Jakarta Post at the protest. The
company usually produces around 1.5 million pairs
of gloves a day.

He said the government needed to act fast, before
more workers lost income. The company currently
receives 0.2 bar of gas a day from state gas
company PGN, from 1 bar a day previously. Because
of this the company can only operate two of its
seven machines.

Jefri Sirait, the manager of PT Kawasan Industri
Medan industrial complex, said the gas-supply
shortage in the province has seriously affected
business. He said the shortage had affected 57
companies, including 20 in the industrial complex.

Responding to the shortage, the general manager of
PGN in North Sumatra, Arsyad Rangkuti, said the
company had been limiting its gas supply since
July 9, when state oil and gas company Pertamina
told it to only distribute gas in accordance with
the contract between them. Before that, Pertamina
had been more flexible about whether PGN
distributed more gas than the contract allowed.

The new policy, he said, was made because of the
declining capacity of gas wells and the increasing
demand for gas from state power company PLN, due
to last year’s fuel price increases.

"Official notice of the new policy was delivered
to our office by Pertamina on July 7 and, on the
same day, we notified our customers," Arsyad said.

 POLITICS/POLITICAL PARTIES

Local elections affirm fickle nature of party
politics

Jakarta Post - July 31, 2006

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Jakarta — If one
thought that regional elections would produce a
more accurate map of the strengths and ideological
leanings of political parties, think again!

Thirteen months and some 211 local elections —
including seven at the provincial level, 130 at
the regency level and 34 at the municipal level,
with eight more due this year — since the first
one was held in Kutai Kartanegara, East
Kalimantan, we have learned that political parties
are as fickle as voters.

The only conclusion that can be made is that the
balance of power is very much “status quo”,
mirroring the results of the 2004 general
election.

Nationalist parties are not waning, but neither
are Islamic ones gaining in strength. No party is
making solid gains and no parties seem to have
succeeded in making inroads toward establishing a
bottom-up support system across the archipelago.

Most, if not all, political parties have been un-
ideological, peddling alliances for the sake of
victory. This includes two of the major players,
Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI-P).

PDI-P can claim the upper hand with victories in
several high-profile areas, such as gubernatorial
elections in West Sumatra, North Sulawesi and
Central Kalimantan, and elections in the cities of
Surabaya and Ambon. The party can also be proud of
approaching its target of victory in 40 percent of
regional elections.

Nevertheless, a thorough tabulation shows that
generally the spoils have been somewhat evenly
split.

Golkar Party has not achieved its declared target
of sweeping up 60 percent of the elections. But
frankly that target was unrealistic, given its
returns in the 2004 general election of just 21.5
percent.

Golkar’s “failure” was again mainly due to its
inability to win on Java, where it won less than a
dozen elections. Most of Golkar’s victories were
is eastern Indonesia.

Despite this, Golkar still won about one-third of
contested elections. It won only two of the seven
gubernatorial elections, but it still prevailed in
over a third of the regency-level elections and in
nearly half of the mayoral polls.

It should also be noted that compared to the PDI-
P, Golkar does much better in single party
candidacies (tickets/candidates which are backed
by only one party). Golkar won 39 elections where
it was the sole party sponsor, compared to PDI-P
which only won 19 elections by itself.

The most interesting development is how pragmatic
the parties have been. Ideology and political
lines, which seem so dominant in Jakarta, are
easily crossed in the regions. There is no
detectable pattern of coalitions, other than being
a coalition of (short-term) interest.

Nearly two-thirds of winning tickets (candidates)
were nominated by a coalition of parties. One
winning ticket in Banyuwangi, East Java, was
supported by as many as 18 political parties.

Nowhere is this lack of consistency in coalitions
more apparent than in East Java, where political
parties, namely Golkar, the PDI-P and the National
Awakening Party (PKB), compete with each other in
one regency but coalesce in an adjacent one.

Despite claiming to be staunch nationalist-
pluralist parties, neither Golkar nor the PDI-P is
adverse to cooperating with each other or with
Islamist parties such as the PKS, as was the case
in Pandeglang, Banten.

Neither do they turn away from cooperation with
parties, such as Partai Patriot and the PKPB,
which at the national level are considered
“inconsequential”.

One consistent trend demonstrated by the results
of regional elections is to debunk the “myth” of a
“greening” of the political landscape. Nationalist
parties remain the predominant force. Coalitions
involving nationalist parties remain the
predominant winners. Islamist parties, or their
coalitions, have won just 17 elections. Two of
these are significant: the PKS winning in Depok,
and a PKS-PBR coalition winning the gubernatorial
post in Bengkulu.

One lesson that can be learned from all these
elections is that parties like the PDI-P have been
relatively successful because they are more open
to receiving nominations from outside the party.
Compare this to Golkar which, until recently,
remained mired in its old style, politically laced
internal nomination process.

While it may be a good short-term strategy for
parties to look outside for nominations, in the
longer term there are serious questions about the
viability of the parties since the elected
representatives will not necessarily be party
loyalists, and may not be personally inclined to
follow party directives once in office.

---

PDI-P moves in on splinter group ’territory’

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Suherdjoko and Ridwan M. Sijabat, Semarang/Jakarta
— Hundreds of members of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) Central
Java chapter occupied the Panti Marhaenis building
in Semarang on Wednesday.

The building has been the office of a splinter
group of the PDI-P, the Reformed Democrat Party
(PDP), since early 2005.

Supporters of the two opposing groups, which use
the same bull head symbol, clashed but no
casualties were reported.

One of the PDP’s Central Java representatives,
Agus Teguh Santoso, said he had received word
Tuesday the PDI-P planned to take over the
building.

"We were preparing for the PDP’s first national
working conference from July 30 to Aug. 1, when we
heard the building would be taken over at
midnight. However, nothing happened," he said.

Instead, more than 200 PDI-P members came to the
building at 3:30 a.m. Police officers were
guarding the building at the time. The two groups
agreed that neither of them would occupy the
building. But after the PDP supporters left, the
PDI-P supporters stayed behind.

The building was formerly the headquarters of
PDI-P’s Central Java chapter, under the leadership
of Mardijo. However, the office was moved after
Mardijo was fired by PDI-P leader Megawati
Soekarnoputri because he insisted on running for
Central Java governor in the 2004 election.

Mardijo later joined the PDP, which consisted of
former PDI-P figures who were not aligned with
Megawati. "This building belongs to the Marhaenis
Foundation, not the PDI-P. The PDI-P had the
privilege of using it, and now it’s the PDP’s
turn," Mardijo said.

In Jakarta, the PDP condemned the building’s
occupation by the PDI-P. "We regret the
uncivilized actions of the political party
concerned. We have lodged a complaint with the
police and hope justice will be upheld," PDP
secretary-general Didik Supriyanto said. Didik
said the PDP had begun renting the Marhaenis
building in March.

Laksamana Sukardi, a member of the PDP executive
committee, said he had told PDP supporters in the
province not to attempt to take back the building,
to avoid physical clashes.

Laksamana and Didik, along with many others,
formed the PDP after failing to bring about the
PDI-P’s reform at a national congress in Bali in
2005, following the latter’s defeat in the 2004
general election.

The deputy chairman of the PDI-P, Tjahyo Kumolo,
challenged the PDP to prove its right to the
building in court. He said his party had the right
to use the building because all members of the
Marhaenis Foundation were also PDI-P members and
assured the building had not been taken over using
physical force.

 GOVERNMENT/CIVIL SERVICE

Activists say recess funds prone to abuses

Jakarta Post - July 29, 2006

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta — The funds given to
lawmakers to visit their constituents during their
one-month recess are prone to abuse due to a lack
of standard accountability procedures, say anti-
graft activists and analysts.

The government allocated Rp 27 billion (nearly
US$3 million) on May 6 to finance trips by the 550
members of the House of Representatives to their
electoral districts during the current recess, so
that they could hear directly from their
constituents. The legislators are allowed up to Rp
50 million each to cover the costs of
transportation, accommodation and meetings with
constituents.

Sources at the House secretariat general said
Friday that more than 40 percent of lawmakers have
received recess funds.

The House ended its session on June 16 for a one-
month recess, during which lawmakers usually hold
meetings with constituents. Critics said the
recess funds could be spent on other purposes due
to the absence of internal supervision in the
House.

"If the recess fund is booked as part of
lawmakers’ income and the recipients are not
required to uphold standard accountability, it is
quite prone to corruption," Ibrahim Zuhdi Fahmi
Badoh of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said at
a discussion here Friday.

He said the ICW has reason to worry about the
funds being misused because the House has failed
to exercise good oversight in other areas. "How
can the public be convinced of the field tour’s
effectiveness while the House has performed poorly
in carrying out its legislative, budgetary and
social control functions?" Ibrahim asked.

He also charged that most legislators have been
spending the recess participating in their local
party meetings, rather than holding forums with
voters. "Legislators should play a role as
parliamentarians or people’s representatives
rather than as party figures during the field
tour," he said.

Former legislator Imam Churmen said, based on his
own nearly 30 years in the House, the field tour
during the recess has been frequently abused. Imam
was a legislator with the United Development Party
(PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) from
1971 to 2004. He said many legislators often spent
only a handful of days out of their recess seeing
constituents, or did not see them at all in order
to keep what was then a small amount of recess
funds.

"Before 1999, legislators did not receive any
funds during recess. After that, we received only
Rp 7 million each," he explained.

Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of the Prosperous Justice
Party (PKS) faction in the House, said more than
40 percent of the party’s 45 legislators have
already received recess funds to cover their
spending during their field tours.

"Our faction has decided to receive the recess
funds, and all faction members are required to be
transparent in spending the funds and to account
for their field tours following the recess," he
said.

House Secretary-General Faisal Djamal said his
office has established technical and
administrative procedures in distributing the
funds. He added that legislators must be able to
show how they used the money.

"Legislators must sign several forms about the
proper use of funds and be accountable for their
trips through their respective factions," he said.
He added, however, that he had no authority to
supervise whether the funds would be spent or
pocketed, or used according to their specified
purpose.

Faisal explained that Rp 31.5 million of each
legislator’s recess funds was intended to finance
at least seven meetings with relevant groups of
people. The remaining Rp 18.5 million was meant to
cover the lawmaker’s transportation, entertainment
and accommodation fees.

The deputy chief of the Supreme Audit Agency
(BPK), Baharuddin Aritonang, said legislators
should give a financial accounting of their trips
and activities during the recess in accordance
with the standard audit procedures. He said the
spending would be audited.

"Ideally, the House secretariat general should set
up an internal audit team to avoid irregularities
in the House’s activities, including the field
tour," he said.

It has been difficult for the BPK to uncover any
suspicious use of House finances in the past,
however, because the audit agency has handed over
its results to the legislature.

---

House should kick out more lawmakers, say
activists

Jakarta Post - July 24, 2006

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta — Activists want to
know why Democrat Party lawmaker Aziddin has been
the only legislator so far dismissed from the
House of Representatives for unethical conduct.
Aziddin is one of numerous unscrupulous lawmakers
who should be made to leave by the House’s
disciplinary committee, they say.

Sebastian Salang, secretary-general of the Forum
of Concerned Citizens for Indonesia’s Parliament
(Formappi), said there were many legislators who
had committed more serious transgressions than
Aziddin but for some reason had managed to elude
the council’s scrutiny.

"It has been an open secret that numerous House
members have acted as middlemen (in deals). These
lawmakers, who run their own businesses, often use
their clout to bully ministers to give them
contracts," Sebastian told The Jakarta Post over
the weekend.

However, Sebastian said the disciplinary council
often found it difficult to corroborate
allegations with evidence. "That is why Aziddin
was the only lawmaker dismissed, the disciplinary
council had for long time collected evidence to
support their allegations, and they found Aziddin
guilty of a long list of offenses," he said.

The council had found Aziddin was involved in
lucrative land deals before a haj fund scandal
that surfaced last week led to his dismissal.

Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni told
House Commission VIII on social and religious
affairs that Aziddin had served worked as a
middleman for a firm to secure a government
contract to build a dormitory for haj pilgrims in
Mecca.

In its latest round of investigations, the
disciplinary council uncovered three serious
offenses involving three lawmakers, however the
axe only dropped on Aziddin, with two other
“unscrupulous” lawmakers given reprimands.

They were Tamsil Linrung of the Prosperous Justice
Party, accused of serving as a broker in the
procurement of medical equipment for disaster-
stricken provinces, and Anhar Nasution of the
Reform Star Party, who was alleged to have
demanded a Rp 700 million kickback from a regent
in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province for the quick
disbursement of Rp 700 billion in emergency funds.
A reprimand was also given to senior Golkar Party
legislator Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, who chaired the
House special committee on the Aceh governance
law, for paying legislators with Home Ministry
money to finish deliberating the bill.

Some activists believe Aziddin was singled out
because his misdeeds were exposed by a government
minister before the House.

Benyamin Tukan, an activist from
awasiparlemen.org, an Internet database for
lawmaking activities run by the Center for Press
and Development Studies, said the disciplinary
council should investigate public complaints about
lawmakers in the same way the Corruption
Eradication Commission received input from graft
watchdogs before launching an investigation. "It
is time for the disciplinary council to open
itself up and hear more reports from the public,"
he said.

Responding to the suggestion, deputy chairman of
the disciplinary council Gayus Lumbuun, a lawmaker
with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle,
said the council welcomed input from the public.
"But we have the final say over what decision the
council should take, as it concerns our own
members," Gayus told a discussion organized by a
private radio station.

 WAR ON CORRUPTION

AGO girding for tougher war on corruption

Jakarta Post - July 27, 2006

Jakarta — The war against corruption has become
tougher for the Attorney General’s Office since
the Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that
investigators can name suspects only if they are
believed to have violated formal regulations.

Previously, AGO investigators were allowed to name
graft suspects and bring them to court simply on
the basis of reports from the public. The ruling
came in a Constitutional Court review of the 1999
Law on Corruption.

Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said Wednesday
that although his office respected any verdicts,
especially those handed down by the Constitutional
Court, the AGO had its own views on the subject.
"I feel sad about this because it will make our
war against corruption harder,“he said.”I guess
this is going to be a big day for corruptors."

The Law on Corruption stated that a person would
be considered to be breaking the law if he
violated formal or written regulations, such as
the Criminal Code, or unwritten values, such as
the principles of justice and other social norms.

In response to the Constitutional Court ruling,
Abdul Rahman said that even the 1945 Constitution
states that the country acknowledges unwritten
social norms as a basis for legal action. "Because
no matter how perfect a written regulation is, it
will never be able to cover all violations of the
law in the eyes of the public," he said.

The Constitutional Court reviewed the 1999 law at
the request of both Dawud Djatmiko, who is facing
a graft trial at the East Jakarta District Court,
and the Indonesian Legal Society. The
Constitutional Court, chaired by Jimly
Asshiddiqie, said social norms such as proper
conduct and principles of justice were indefinite
standards that could vary from place to place.

The court, however, declined to review the 2002
law that established the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK). "The petitioners have failed to
explain the violations of constitutional rights
they suffered as individuals or a group as a
consequence of the execution of the KPK law,"
Jimly said.

Deputy KPK chairman Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean
voiced similar disappointment over the court
ruling. He said Tuesday the war on corruption
would go ahead despite the verdict, but added that
the KPK was now forced to work harder to collect
evidence before bringing charges.

The Indonesian Legal Society argued in its
petition that the KPK law contradicted the
principles of people’s sovereignty and the balance
of power as stated in the Constitution. It said
this had disturbed "the administrative system of
the government and in turn disrupted the life of
its citizens due to a lack of legal certainty."

The KPK was also accused of being ineffective and
discriminatory in investigating and charging
people with corruption. Antigraft activists fear
some parties are trying to hinder the KPK’s drive
against corruption.

---

President asked to drop ’policy-error’ decree

Jakarta Post - July 24, 2006

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta — More public
figures are adding their voices to the chorus of
opposition against a planned government decree
that would protect officials from prosecution for
“erroneous” policies.

The decree would diminish government control of
the public sector and hamper efforts to ensure
good and clean governance in Indonesia, which is
ranked among the world’s most corrupt countries,
critics say.

"We don’t need a ruling that would prevent us from
creating a good and clean government... one of the
main goals of the current regime," People’s
Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid
said.

Hidayat said he would personally ask President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to drop the decree.

Kalla initiated the drafting of the regulation
early this year with Home Minister M. Ma’ruf.

Internal mechanisms in government agencies could
deal with alleged corruption cases without
necessarily having to involve the police,
prosecutors and the courts, Kalla said.

Ma’ruf said last month the decree was necessary
because many regional officials were not doing
their jobs over fears they would be prosecuted for
policy mistakes.

These worries have led to over-cautious spending
and some development project delays, he said. The
central bank has reported that regencies and
municipalities spent only an average of 20 percent
of their total budgets last year.

However, the regulation’s critics have dismissed
the fears as exaggerated and said honest officials
had nothing to fear from law enforcement agencies.

In the draft decree, law enforcers can only start
graft investigations into officials after the
government’s Internal Oversight Body (APIP)
conducts a preliminary probe. They must also get
permission from governors or government ministers
to begin the investigations, according to the
draft.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) advisor
Abdullah Hehamahua said the planned decree would
hinder his office’s work. "The regulation would
make our jobs more complicated and... would erode
our powers and authority, which are mandated by
the law," he said.

The 2002 law on the KPK gives the commission the
right to investigate any individual based on
reports and evidence provided by the public.

Regional Representatives Council deputy chairman
La Ode Ida said the decree would make it more
difficult for people to control state officials
via the commission.

"If the public, particularly the media, cannot
balance the power of government agencies then who
will?" he said. La Ode said the decree would give
top government officials extra powers and would
discourage people from exercising their right to
report graft offenses.

He said the decree was part of “systematic”
attempts to restrict the public scrutiny of
officials, which included the bill on state
secrecy currently before the House of
Representatives.

Press Council member Sabam Leo Batubara noted a
journalist in Medan in North Sumatra was recently
sentenced to a year in jail after reporting on a
graft case implicating a university rector. "This
sentence will discourage journalists and people in
general from reporting graft cases," he said.

 ENVIRONMENT

As mud flows in East Java, people ask what next

Jakarta Post - July 28, 2006

Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo — Almost two months
since it began, hot mud continues to pour from the
ground in the East Java regency of Sidoarjo.

Work has been done, including setting up a
snubbing unit to try and detect the exact source
of the mud, building a relief well to block the
mudflow and signing at least 140 contracts with
various companies to speed up the work.

Still, as of Thursday, mining, oil and geology
experts could not say whether these efforts were
doing any good, and the mud continued to come,
inundating around 190 hectares in Porong district.

This uncertainty over what, if anything, can be
done to stem the mudflow, which started May 29 at
the site where a gas well was being drilled, has
turnpike operator PT Jasa Marga worried.

"If the mudflow can’t be stopped soon, we plan to
build a new turnpike. We’re afraid the mudflow
will again inundate the Surabaya-Gempol turnpike,
forcing its closure again," said the company’s
president director, Frans Sunito, when inspecting
the area.

He provided no details on where a new turnpike
might be built, saying the company would first
have to coordinate with the government over the
plan. However, a new toll road could be the best
option for the company, considering it lost about
Rp 380 million (US$41,304) a day when the turnpike
was closed the last time.

The road reopened to traffic last week, but the
two-week closure caused export companies to lose
Rp 1 billion a day, while the Organization of Land
Transportation Owners estimated its members lost
Rp 9 billion a day.

The secretary-general of the Association of Mining
Companies in East Java, Hudin Al-Sorry, said the
turnpike’s reopening could not guarantee it would
not again be affected by the mudflow. "Several
companies have restarted their operations but who
will be responsible if the mudflow again inundates
the road?" he told The Jakarta Post.

Police have named the general manager of gas well
driller Lapindo Brantas Inc., Imam Agustino, a
suspect in the case, along with eight others.

The uncertainty that surrounds the mudflow and the
efforts to stop the deluge has also affected
residents.

"I’m worried about the psychological state of the
mudflow victims in shelters if the mud can’t be
stopped," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said
while visiting Pasar Baru market, where many
residents have taken shelter. The Sidoarjo regency
administration says more than 2,000 families,
comprising more than 7,000 people, have lost their
homes due to the mudflow.

To help the families, starting in August Lapindo
will pay them up to Rp 2.5 million per year to
allow them to rent houses until the mudflow
problem is resolved. "What can you do? We were
told to move out. We were happier living in our
own houses and working like we used to," said
Agus, a displaced resident.

Several people have been found trying to take
advantage of the situation by applying for
identity cards in the regency to allow them to
collect money from the company.

Renokenongo village head Hasan said more people
were applying for identity cards since Lapindo
promised to pay compensation. He said at least 300
people were applying for cards each week, a sharp
increase from the regular 50 applications.

"I didn’t know some of the applicants but I had to
help them because they got angry and threatened
me. I’m a victim myself and I’d rather avoid
conflict," he said.

Another concern is farmers whose fields have been
inundated by the mud. They are worried about
losing their livelihood because experts say the
mud contains natrium, aluminum, iron and chloride,
which could permanently damage the fertility land.

The mudflow also has affected 1,736 employees of
15 companies whose operations have been affected
by the disaster. Most of these companies say they
don’t know when they might reopen.

---

Forest fire haze hits major city in Sumatra

Agence France Presse - July 27, 2006

Jakarta — Acrid smoke from raging ground and
forest fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra blanketed the
city of Pekanbaru, stinging eyes and reducing
visibility, a meteorology official said.

"The smoke is visible and it stings the eyes. It
is especially felt when riding a motorcycle," said
Anwar from the meteorology office in Pekanbaru,
the capital of Riau province, a major source of
the haze in recent years.

The latest report on the fires released by the
Indonesian Space and Aviation Agency showed that a
total of 28 hotspots were detected in Sumatra, 25
of which were in Riau. Seven others were burning
in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo
island.

Anwar said that since dawn visibility had been at
less than 1.5 kilometers (one mile).

"We’ve also only had weak winds in the past few
days... not strong enough to drive away the
smoke," Anwar said.

Haze caused by burning in Indonesia and some parts
of Malaysia to make way for crops causes an annual
haze that afflicts countries in the region
including Singapore and Thailand.

Some 1,500 firefighters have been deployed this
month to help battle the blazes, Indonesian
officials have said. Most fires appeared to have
been started to clear land in commercial timber or
palm oil plantations.

While the government has banned the practice of
using fire to clear land enforcement remains weak.

In 1997 and 1998 choking haze caused mainly by
Indonesian forest fires enveloped parts of
Southeast Asia for months, losing the region some
nine billion dollars due to a disruption of air
traffic and other business activity.

Malaysia and Indonesia agreed last week to join
forces to stamp out fires in palm oil plantations,
which are contributing to the annual problem.

---

Logging, habitat loss threaten Kalimantan, Sumatra
orangutans

Jakarta Post - July 25, 2006

Jakarta — The conversion of jungles into
plantations is becoming the biggest threat to the
survival of orangutans in Kalimantan, while
illegal logging will likely remain the most
significant threat to the big apes in Sumatra, an
environmentalist says.

Large-scale forest conversion in Kalimantan has
just begun to increase in this decade, said Carel
P. van Schaik of the Borneo Orangutan Survival
(BOS) Foundation.

"In the ’90s, there were a lot of forest fires in
Kalimantan, instead of forests being converted
into oil palm plantations," he said in Jakarta
recently.

In Sumatra, he said, the massive conversion of
forests into oil palm plantations during the 1990s
caused a more than 50 percent decline in the
orangutan population. "It was the biggest habitat
destruction for the last 15 years," said van
Schaik, who also teaches at the University of
Zurich.

BOS executive director Aldrianto Priadjati
confirmed the decrease in the orangutan population
in Kalimantan and Sumatra, the big apes’ original
habitat. "According to data released by
International Workshop on Population and Habitat
Viability Analysis in 2004, there are 57,797
orangutans left in Kalimantan and 7,501 in
Sumatra," he said.

Aldrianto said the population could plunge to zero
over the next decade or two, as predicted by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources, if steps were not taken to
mitigate the threats.

According to a World Bank report, oil palm
plantations are the major reason forest has been
destroyed at the rate of two million hectares each
year for the last decade.

Until recently, the government had planned to
clear 1.8 million hectares for oil palm
plantations along Indonesia’s border with Malaysia
on Borneo. Research showed, however, that only 10
percent of the land was suitable for oil palms.
The rest was either too high or too steep.

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said in
early May that the government would clear only
180,000 hectares. BOS hopes there will not be any
further forest conversion into oil palm
plantations.

"It’s not that we are opposed to the use of palm
oil as a new alternative biofuel. I agree that the
project may bring more job opportunities and
development to this country,“said Aldrianto.”However, the government should allow plantations
of the oil palm to be planted on existing unused
land instead of clearing more forests."

Clearing more land, he added, would impair the
forest’s functions of absorbing water, producing
clean air and providing homes for a wide variety
of plants and animals.

The Forestry Ministry’s director of biodiversity
conservation, Adi Susmianto, said the government
always weighs the social, economic and
environmental aspects of its programs.

"The oil palm plantation project will be good for
the country’s economy, but the question is whether
it will also be good for our society and
environment," he said. Adi said that he opposed
any project that would hamper conservation.

 HEALTH & EDUCATION

Indonesia burns 100 tonnes of useless donated
medicines

Agence France Presse - July 28, 2006

Bogor — About 100 tonnes of useless and out-of-
date medicines donated by foreigners after a major
earthquake last year have been incinerated this
week, an official said.

"One hundred tonnes have already been burned,
beginning from Tuesday," Vincent Aloysius from the
cement plant where the drug disposal is taking
place in Bogor, south of Jakarta, told AFP. He
said a further 100 tonnes were set to be burned
from Saturday at the plant’s incinerator.

The medicines were sent to Indonesia in the wake
of an 8.7-magnitude quake that struck off the
coast of Nias island in March 2005, killing more
than 850 and injuring 6,000.

The destruction was organised by the World Health
Organisation and the United Nations Development
Programme, which is funding the incineration.
Indonesia has struggled to deal with hundreds of
tonnes of unwanted medicines being donated in the
wake of a slew of disasters in recent years.

After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed
168,000 people in Aceh province, some 600 tonnes
of expired, damaged or inappropriate medicine were
donated. A further 50 tonnes of such drugs are
also set to be destroyed following the May 27
Yogyakarta earthquake, which killed some 5,800
people.

---

Activists say migrant workers vulnerable to
HIV/AIDS

Jakarta Post - July 25, 2006

Hera Diani, Jakarta — Many have been raped,
abused and neglected. But there is another factor
that is rarely raised in discussions about the
chronic struggles of Indonesian migrant workers:
their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

There are no official statistics available on the
number of HIV/AIDS cases among migrant laborers,
but data from the Association of Medical Clinics
for Migrant Workers (HIPKTEK) released at a
seminar Monday showed 0.09 percent of potential
migrants who applied for jobs in the Middle East
tested positive for HIV/AIDS.

There has been an increase in the prevalence of
HIV/AIDS among workers planning to travel to the
Middle East.

The showed there were 131 cases of HIV/AIDS among
potential migrant workers who underwent testing
while applying to work in the Middle East from
January through October 2005. This was an increase
from 2004, when 203 potential migrant workers out
of 233,626 seeking work in the Middle East tested
positive.

Many were women, reflecting the fact that more
than 80 percent of Indonesian migrant workers are
female.

Thaufiek Zulbahary of Women’s Solidarity for Human
Rights (Solidaritas Perempuan), who presented the
data, said workers in other countries were
believed to be as vulnerable. "But the government
does not see the workers as a high-risk group," he
told the seminar.

The factors contributing to workers’
vulnerability, Thaufiek said, include lack of
information, low rates of condom use, poor
health-seeking behavior, and lack of access to
health services.

"There is a pre-departure orientation seminar and
pre-departure training held for the migrant
workers, but it is not sufficient. From our
observation, only 45 minutes is allocated to
health issues, with only 15 minutes devoted to
HIV/AIDS," Thaufiek said.

The training materials even contained some
incorrect information, he added, such as
statements that HIV can be transmitted through
saliva or by wearing the clothes of people who
have HIV/AIDS — neither of which is a mode of
transmission.

The migration process itself can expose workers to
HIV/AIDS, Thaufiek said, because of sexual abuse
perpetrated by brokers. During medical checks,
women who want to become migrant workers have to
strip down to their underwear, making them
vulnerable to assault. They have little
information on how HIV is spread, and they lack
the confidence to ask for safeguards such as
sterile needles.

Potential migrant workers’ privacy and
confidentiality are not respected, according to
HIPKTEK. The potential workers do not receive
health certificates. There is mandatory HIV
testing, but no counseling or information is
offered. None of the potential migrants
interviewed knew they were being tested for HIV.

Once they are placed in jobs, female migrant
workers are still vulnerable to sexual assault.
Their quality of health care, if any, is poor.

Solidaritas Perempuan urged the government to
ensure migrant workers’ access to accurate health
information and affordable, good-quality health
care.

"Migrant workers must be directly involved in the
discussion, development, implementation,
monitoring, and evaluation of laws, policies and
programs aiming to protect and promote migrant
worker’s access to health information and
services," Thaufiek said.

 ISLAM/RELIGION

Religious leaders united against Israel

Jakarta Post - July 29, 2006

A group of leaders of different faiths demanded
Friday that the UN intervene to put an end to the
Israeli military assault on Lebanon.

"We are here to urge the UN to immediately
organize a special emergency assembly to discuss
the issue," Muhammadiyah leader Din Syamsuddin
(center in photo) said after a meeting with
officials at the UN representative office here.

Din was accompanied by several leaders of major
religions here, including popular Muslim cleric
Abdullah Gymnastiar, Andreas Yewangoe of the
Communion of Indonesian Churches (PGI) and Rev.
Theophilus Bella of the Catholic community. UN
representative Georg Peterson met the group and
said he would convey the message to UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan.

Din said Indonesia’s interfaith leaders, like
their peers around the world, condemned the
Israeli aggression that killed many civilians and
devastated scores of vital infrastructure
facilities in Lebanon and Palestine.

"We also condemn the killing of members of the UN
peace-keeping mission in Lebanon." He said the UN
should not hesitate to investigate the deaths and
take action against Israel for human rights
violations.

A reluctance to deal with the issue by the UN
would diminish its international reputation for
failing to enforce international law and keeping
world peace, he added.

The chairman of the National Commission on Human
Rights, Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, has sent a
letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
expressing dismay at the UN Security Council’s
failure to reach a consensus to stop Israeli
military operations.

He described the attacks as a violation of the UN
charter and many international covenants. "...On
behalf of Komnas HAM, I appeal to you to seek
other means, within the scope of your mandate and
competence, to mobilize international actions to
ensure that Israel ceases its military operations
in Lebanon...," he said in the letter, of a copy
of which was made available to The Jakarta Post.

---

Indonesia cartoon editor charged

BBC News - July 29, 2006

An Indonesian journalist faces trial over his
decision to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet
Muhammad. Teguh Santosa, online editor of Rakyat
Merdeka, is charged with inciting hatred towards a
religious group.

Mr Santosa posted the cartoons in February at the
height of international controversy over drawings
which first appeared in a Danish newspaper. The
images, including one which showed Muhammad with a
bomb in his turban, sparked anger across the
Islamic world. Islamic tradition explicitly
prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet.

Denmark was forced to temporarily close its
embassy in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, as
days of protests peaked.

Mr Santosa said he published the images to give
readers the full story on the cartoons issue. "We
just wanted to let people know about the cartoons,
which were being strongly protested at that time,"
he told the Associated Press news agency.

Mr Santos, who was formally arrested and charged
on Thursday, faces up to five years imprisonment
if found guilty, his lawyer said. Media freedom
watchdog Reporters without Borders condemned his
arrest and called for the charges to be withdrawn.

---

Survey reveals Muslim views on violence

Jakarta Post - July 28, 2006

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta — Up to 1.3 percent
of Indonesian Muslims nationwide admit using
violence against people or objects they consider
contradictory to their beliefs, a survey found,
with more than 40 percent ready to wage war for
their faith.

Acts of violence in the survey on religion and
violence by the Center for Islamic and Social
Studies (PPIM) ranged from 0.1 percent of
respondents admitting their involvement in
demolishing or arson of churches constructed
without official permits, to 1.3 percent who
committed “intimidation” against those they
considered had blasphemed Islam. The survey
spanned 1,200 Muslims in 30 of the country’s 33
provinces.

"The percentage looks very small but it is very
high in its real figure when you note that 85
percent, or 200 million, of the country’s 230
million population are Muslims," PPIM researcher
Jajat Burhanudin said Thursday during the release
of the results.

However, other scholars said violence was
traditionally widespread in local cultures, and it
was unfair to blame Islam for its prevalence.

The survey, conducted from 2001 to March 2006,
found 43.5 percent of respondents were ready to
wage war on threatening non-Muslim groups, 40
percent would use violence against those
blaspheming Islam and 14.7 percent would tear down
churches without official permits.

"This condition has helped terrorists easily
recruit new comrades and makes the country a
fertile ground for sectarian radicalism," Jajat
said.

He added that a simultaneous study on the reasons
for the results found Islamic teaching and
Islamism made the most significant contributions
to violent behavior, both in the domestic and
public spheres. "The more Muslims give their
support for certain Islamic teachings legitimizing
the use of violence, the more violence will
happen."

He noted that between 30 percent and 58 percent
approved of amputation of the left hand for
thieves and the stoning to death of rapists, as
well as other tenets of sharia law, and opposed
the election of non-Muslims for president.

Simplistic understanding of Islamic teachings and
the introduction of so-called “yellow books”,
detailing Islamic law and regulations, in Islamic
boarding schools contributed to the emergence of
hard-line groups, the issuance of sharia bylaws
and sowed hostility toward non-Muslims, he said.

"To end this, the government must take strategic
steps to campaign for pluralism among the people
and enforce the law to ensure legal certainty."

But Islamic scholar Azyumardi Azra said the roots
of the violence could not be blamed entirely on
Islam, but also on the vengeful nature of some
local cultures and common social and political
problems, such as poverty, unemployment and
political instability.

"The country’s self-image of kindness, tolerance
and hospitality must be questioned because local
cultures are very close to violence," he said.

Although there has been increasing unrest since
the end of authoritarian rule in 1998 and the
dawning of the reform era, he said there were
numerous ethnic conflicts since the 1950s.

Azyumardi, also rector of Syarif Hidayatullah
State Islamic University in Ciputat, Tangerang,
suggested the reformulation of all Islamic
teachings that could be construed as promoting
violence and the development of democracy through
a campaign for pluralism and tolerance.

"Besides, the country is in dire need of a strong
government to create political stability and good
governance and ensure the rule of law, while the
development of democracy should not end with the
general elections and local elections,"

He warned that religious radicalism would become a
dangerous threat unless good governance was
created, laws were enforced and old religious
doctrines were reformulated.

---

Young Muslims gather, look to future

Jakarta Post - July 26, 2006

Makassar — Hundreds of young people from across
the country attended Monday the first congress of
the newly formed Association of Young Indonesian
Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI Muda).

The Association of Indonesian Muslim
Intellectuals’ executive committee is opposed to
the use of its name, saying it will confuse the
public. However, the young people said they would
produce future leaders, with a genuine
intellectual curiosity, for the ICMI.

"The birth of the ICMI Muda does not signify a
split within the ICMI. Quite the contrary, the
ICMI Muda will strengthen the ICMI," AM Iqbal
Parewangi, the head of ICMI Muda’s national
working committee, said.

Iqbal said his organization would continue using
ICMI Muda. "We decided at the congress to go ahead
with using ICMI Muda. No one can change our
minds."

---

Ahmadiyah members consider seeking asylum in
Australia

Jakarta Post - July 25, 2006

Denpasar — Members of the Ahmadiyah religious
group sought asylum Monday at the Australian
diplomatic mission in Denpasar and claimed the
government neglected their needs.

Representatives of the group, accompanied by two
legal advisers, met with staff from the Australian
consulate-general in Denpasar. They told them they
felt abandoned by the local government, which had
promised them a safe haven to live and practice
their faith.

About 187 members of Ahmadiyah — a splinter group
of Islam that follows the teachings of Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad — fled their homes in Lingsar
district, West Lombok, from attacks in February.
They are now living in a shelter in Denpasar.

"We came here to seek asylum from the Australian
consulate-general and report to it about the poor
handling by the local government," one of the
legal advisers, Syamsir Ali, was quoted as saying
by Antara newswire.

He said the local government paid little attention
to the members. "There isn’t any medical care nor
education for us. Some of our members even died
from the lack of medical care."

He quoted deputy consul general Adelaide Worcester
as saying the consulate-general would relay the
members’ demand to the Australian Embassy in
Jakarta.

February’s attack came after growing unease among
locals about the presence of Ahmadiyah members in
the village, especially after rumors spread of the
planned construction of a boarding school. A mob
stoned the Ahmadiyah compound and set buildings on
fire, injuring at least four people.

Many Indonesian Muslims consider Ahmadiyah a
heretical sect because it recognizes Pakistani
Mirza as the last prophet, instead of Prophet
Muhammad

Human rights advocates have criticized the
police’s slow handling of attacks on the group,
which has been officially recognized in Indonesia
since 1953.

---

Indonesian sect meets Australia’s consul

Australian Associated Press - July 24, 2006

An Indonesian Islamic sect which claims it has
been persecuted by extremist Muslims met with
Australia’s consul in Bali to seek support,
warning they may lodge pleas for political asylum.

Asylum claims lodged by a group of 43 Papuans
plunged Indonesian and Australian relations to a
fresh low earlier this year before Prime Minister
John Howard promised support for Indonesian unity.

Two leaders from Ahmadiyah, a minority Muslim
group, met with Australia’s vice consul in Bali,
Adelaide Worcester, to complain about the
harassment and eviction of 187 sect followers in
neighbouring Lombok island.

Over the past few months one of their members had
been stabbed to death and more than 50 houses had
been torched by Islamic hardliners. As a result,
most were now living in a temporary shelter in the
Lombok capital Mataram.

"We met (Worcester) and talked about what we have
been going through, and we think Australia is one
of the countries which is concerned about human
rights,“sect spokesman Syamsul Ali said.”Australia has accepted our brothers from Pakistan
who requested asylum. We hope we can get it too."
Sect members, he said, were so frustrated, they
were also considering applying for asylum in
countries including Germany, Japan and the US.

"This is a dead end, and the only way is to ask
for political asylum,“Ali said.”In a radical
country, Ahmadiyah will always be preyed upon."
Ahmadiyah sect members have infuriated extremist
Muslims with claims that Mohammed was not the last
prophet.

Followers describe their version of Islam, founded
in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in India, as the one
prophesied in the Koran and by Mohammed himself.

Hardliners last year attacked the sect’s annual
meeting in Bogor, south of Jakarta, throwing
stones and bricks at participants, while
Indonesia’s peak Islamic body, the Indonesian
Ulemas Council, declared the group heretical.

Ali said Indonesia’s government and security
forces had done nothing to stop the violence
against them, recommending only that they move to
Borneo island.

"But who can guarantee we will not be murdered
there?" Ali said, pointing to bloodletting between
local Dayak people and Muslim immigrants from
Madura island in 1999. Australian consulate
officials refused to comment on whether the
meeting took place.

 ECONOMY & INVESTMENT

Indonesian economy continues to lose altitude

Jakarta Post - July 31, 2006

Jakarta — If Indonesia’s economy was a jumbo jet,
it would be flying on the single engine of exports
at the moment, with the other engines of private
consumption, investment and government spending
having stalled out.

And there are rising concerns about the ability of
exports to continue providing enough thrust for
the economy, with many industries in the country
seeing a downturn in their first-half output,
sales and profits, on the current slump in demand
and rising production costs.

The automotive sector, for example, saw sales of
passenger and commercial vehicles fall 49 percent
to only 149,634 units during the first six months
ending in June, as compared to the same period
last year.

Astra International, the country’s largest
automotive firm, saw car sales drop 30 percent and
motorcycle sales 26 percent, president director
Michael D. Ruslim reported of the company’s
first-semester results. This led to a 39 percent
fall in net income to Rp 1.86 trillion (US$204
million).

The country’s cement industry also had a poor
start to the year. According to data from the
Indonesian Cement Association, first-half domestic
cement consumption dropped 3.3 percent to 14.5
million tons from a year earlier, affecting
producers’ sales and output.

“The sector may experience flat growth for 2006,”
said Dwi Sutjipto, president director of PT Semen
Gresik, Indonesia’s largest cement maker. Though
demand is expected to pick up next semester on the
back of infrastructure and reconstruction
projects, observers do not believe this will
compensate for the first-half drop in consumption.
Last year’s total cement production was around 33
million tons, with some three million tons
exported.

Companies involved in the food business also are
facing hard times, with monthly sales of processed
food until June slowing to Rp 18 trillion from Rp
20 trillion, according to Indonesian Food and
Beverages Association chairman Thomas Dharmawan.

The Industry Ministry announced earlier industrial
production growth reached only 2.38 percent in the
first half. Its target for the whole year is 7
percent. The textile, leather, footwear, and pulp
and paper industries have also seen slower demand.
However, the agricultural, energy and mining
sectors have bucked the trend due to a recent rise
in commodity prices.

Local demand for goods and services slumped after
last year’s fuel price hike bumped inflation up to
17 percent and sapped people’s purchasing power.
Ensuing high interest rates worsened the
situation, curbing demand for both consumer and
business loans.

On-year inflation in June eased to 15.53 percent,
but the central bank’s key interest rate, which
lenders refer to for their rates, remains at 12.25
percent.

All of these factors combined to hamper the
country’s main growth engine of private
consumption, as government spending failed to
provide the much-needed drive.

The country’s economy only expanded by 4.6 percent
in the first quarter of this year, the fifth
consecutive quarter of slowing expansion, from 6.2
percent the previous year.

Investment has not helped much, with the
Investment Coordinating Board reporting only a 4.6
percent increase in foreign direct investment to
$3.5 billion during the first semester.

In view of these factors, Bank Indonesia sees
growth staying put again in the second quarter, at
between 4.6 and 5.1 percent, and wrapping up the
year at the lower end of the central bank’s
projection of 5.0 to 5.7 percent. The
International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, projects
Indonesia’s economy will grow 5.2 percent this
year.

The Central Statistics Agency is scheduled to
announce Indonesia’s economic growth data in mid-
August. "I think growth in the second quarter will
not be far from the first, with consumption and
investment still slow. For the whole year, our
forecast is only 5.4 percent," said Citigroup’s
chief of economists for Indonesia, Anton Gunawan,
during its recent investor gathering. "Indonesia
needs more spending, especially from the
government."

---

IMF debt may be fully repaid this year

Jakarta Post - July 25, 2006

Indonesia may be able to press ahead this year
with its plan to fully repay its remaining debt to
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — a year
earlier than scheduled — on the back of recently
strengthening foreign exchange reserves, the
central bank said Monday.

"If we have enough money, then we will repay it
this year," Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin
Abdullah told reporters Monday. "If not, then
we’ll give it another six months and made the
final payments then."

Burhanuddin’s latest remarks are in line with
those made by BI Senior Deputy Governor Miranda S.
Goeltom in Malang last week, when she said that
the repayment process would be completed this
year.

In June, Indonesia repaid half of its remaining
US$7.8 billion debt to the IMF, which it received
in the form of standby loans as part of a
multibillion dollar bailout package after the
eruption of the regional financial crisis in the
late 1990s.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had earlier
this year proposed accelerating the repayment of
the debt to ease the increasing interest burden
arising from it, with the government and the
central bank finally agreeing to the repayment of
the debt in two tranches.

Burhanuddin had said that a second payment could
be made either in November or December this year,
or in 2007, after the making of the first payment
in June. The original schedule for the repayment
of the total debt was December 2010.

The decision to fully repay the IMF debt will,
however, still depend on the adequacy and
sustainability of Indonesia’s forex reserves,
Burhanuddin said. He stated that the reserves must
be sufficient to cover the cost of between 4.5 and
4.7 months of imports, and the interest payments
on the government’s foreign debts. "If (the
reserves) are more than that, then we will be able
to pay (this year)," he said.

Indonesia’s forex reserves currently stand at
US$44 billion, figures from the central bank show,
which is enough to cover the cost of almost 5
months of imports and foreign debt interest
payments. BI has also strengthened its reserves
position through a number of swap agreements with
other central banks in the region.

But BI still needs to exercise prudence in
managing the reserves, which serve to support the
rupiah, given the jitters affecting the rupiah
recently in the wake of persistently rising oil
prices and worries over the new crisis in the
Middle East.