TABLE OF CONTENTS
=====================
NEWS & ISSUES
* Police: al-Qaida funded Indonesia attacks
* Woman sells daughter to pay up debts, buy
furniture
* Water rate hike met with deluge of protest
* Family blocks road to dispute land
* Indonesians give up their birds but grumble over
cash
* Employers, workers threaten to boycott
electricity payments
* Ex-guards demand severance pay
ACEH
* Transvestites unfazed by Sharia
* Aceh legislators take issue with revised bill
* Corruption undermines Aceh tsunami aid
* EU extends peace mission in Aceh by three months
* Aceh agency criticized, again
* AMM asks government to investigate and disarm
Aceh militia
* AMM asks police to investigate attack on SIRA
offices
* Aceh bill constitutional: Government
* Testing times ahead for tsunami recovery - envoy
* Aceh peace process at crossroads
* Acehnese accuse religious police of ’arrogance’
and thuggery
* Students still in tents one year after tsunami
WEST PAPUA
* Protesters want Freeport’s Indonesia mine closed
* Protesters want Freeport to stop operation in
Papua
* Papuan Front’s five demands
* Plant’s shutdown adds pressure on Freeport
* Asylum-seekers top agenda in Jakarta
* Six arrested at Freeport demonstration in
Jakarta
* Police fire tear gas to disperse Freeport
protestors
* Freeport back in operation after three-day
shutdown
* Papuan asylum process dragging: Jakarta
* ’Stone fire’ ends Freeport standoff
* Troop reinforcements sent in as Freeport
standoff continues
* Protesters end blockade at Freeport mine: police
* Papuan backlash closes gold mine
* US lawmaker wants Indonesia to ease access to
Papua
* Indonesia to press on Papuans’ return
* Blockade continues at giant gold mine
* Papuans take out anger at Freeport
* Don’t blame locals for incident in Freeport area
* Protesters vandalize mining company offices
* West Papua and East Timor parallels
* West Papuan asylum seekers need protection
* Jimly reaffirms legal status of West Irian Jaya
* Production suspended at US gold mine in
Indonesia
* Hidden wars West Papua: Manifest destiny redux
MILITARY TIES
* Kopassus, SARS resume joint exercises
* Rights group blasts plans for expanded military
cooperation
HUMAN RIGHTS/LAW
* SBY still seeking political support for truth
body
* Human rights a non issue to elite
* Abducted activists disappointed in Komnas HAM
CORRUPTION/COLLUSION/NEPOTISM
* Six officials quizzed over ’Embassy-gate’
* Court a ’graveyard’ for anti-graft efforts
MEDIA/PRESS FREEDOM
* Controversial broadcasting regulations to be
revised
* Government bid to control media has public
feeling anxious
ENVIRONMENT
* Some local banks finance illegal logging
* NGOs call for moratorium on mining projects
* Illegal wildlife trade running wild: NGO
MORALITY & GENDER ISSUES
* Legislators to reach out to critics over
indecency bill
* Sexy clothes a no-no in Batam
* Pornography debate heats up
* Puppeteer wonders if ’wayang’ will pass porn law
inspection
ISLAM/RELIGION
* Activists to continue ’surveying’ foreigners
* Police arrest activists who targeted foreigners
* Indonesia labors to weed out Muslim radicalism
ARMED FORCES/DEFENSE
* Jail for soldier who shot student protester
* Activists protest against military
* Ma’ruf backs soldiers’ right to vote
BUSINESS & INVESTMENT
* 51.6 billion rupiah lost in natural disasters
* Ministers disturbed by IMF assessment
* IMF upbeat about Indonesia’s economic prospects
* FDI approvals plunged in January
* Consumers to keep tight grip on spending
* 85 percent of SOE shares owned by foreign
parties
OPINION & ANALYSIS
* West Papua - Horror on our doorstep
* Let Papuans decide
BOOK/FILM REVIEWS
* Sulostomo’s accountability to 1965 tragedy
* Pramoedya: Between Fury and Alienation
=============
NEWS & ISSUES
=============
Police: al-Qaida funded Indonesia attacks
Associated Press - February 28, 2006
Zakki Hakim, Jakarta — Osama bin Laden’s terror
network helped fund suicide bombings in Indonesia
over the past four years, a senior police official
said Tuesday, highlighting links between al-Qaida
and the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.
The mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on
the United States, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad,
personally arranged for a courier to deliver money
to leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah to help fund
attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim
country from 2002-2005, said Col. Petrus Reinhard
Golose of Indonesia’s counterterrorism task force.
Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for the 2002 nightclub
attacks on the resort island of Bali that killed
202 people, attacks in the capital Jakarta in 2003
and 2004 that together killed 21, and triple
suicide bombings on Bali in October that killed
20.
Indonesian authorities have claimed since 2003
that al-Qaida helped finance the terror campaign
in Indonesia, but they never before provided the
level of detail given by Golose.
Golose said several members of Jemaah Islamiyah
met directly with bin Laden in Afghanistan and
signed agreements with him before launching the
attacks, but he did not elaborate.
It was not immediately clear from which country
the funds originated, but he said the money passed
through Thailand and Malaysia before reaching
Indonesia.
"Thirty thousand US dollars was sent for the first
Bali bombing,“Golose said, adding that”tens of
thousands of dollars" was sent for the 2003
bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
Some of the leftover cash was used for the 2004
attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, he
said. He said he was uncertain how much al-Qaida
money was used for the latest attack on Bali,
targeting three crowded restaurants.
Woman sells daughter to pay up debts, buy
furniture
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Jakarta — It may be a cliche, but grinding
poverty continues to force women into sex work. It
also drives children on to the streets. Dahlia,
not her real name, was just 15 when her mother
sold her to a woman for Rp 2 million.
She worked in the sex industry until she was 18
and could no longer bear it. Upon returning to her
studies, Dahlia’s mother threatened to kill her if
she did not skip school to meet “clients”.
Desperate for help, Dahlia told other members of
her family, who were unaware of her past, she was
working as a prostitute. Dahlia and her family
members reported the case to the police, leading
to Wednesday’s arrest of her mother and the woman
she worked for.
To police, the 44-year-old mother, identified only
as KH, said she was in debt and tired of living a
life of poverty. She then met the woman, NS, who
lived nearby in Kampung Bulak, Central Jakarta.
In a statement made available to The Jakarta Post
on Friday, NS was said to have been running her
business since 2002 through word of mouth. She
received orders for girls over the phone.
Most of her workers were under the age of 18. She
sold their services for between Rp 500,000 and Rp
1 million. Dahlia’s mother was able to pay her
debts and buy new furniture and a TV set from
prostitution money.
Police said both women would be charged under the
2002 Child Protection Law and Article 297 of the
Criminal Code on child trafficking. If convicted,
they could face up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a
Rp 200 million fine.
When asked to comment, women’s rights activist
Rita Kalibonso said forced prostitution was an
ongoing problem here. "This is not just about law
enforcement but also about people’s awareness of
children’s rights," she said.
Family members and neighbors must be ready to take
action if they believe a child is being abused.
"We cannot rely on the police to address this
issue because such crimes happen in homes," she
said.
Water rate hike met with deluge of protest
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Jakarta — Dozens of people, many of them mothers
with small children in tow, protested outside City
Hall on Friday the water rate increase.
The protesters grouped in the Movement of
Indonesian Consumers Rights demanded the Jakarta
administration revoke the 8.39 percent increase,
which was announced Feb. 17.
"The rate increase only benefits the foreign
partners of the city water utility. It hurts us
consumers," protest coordinator Tono said.
No official was available to meet with the
protesters as they were all busy overseeing bird
flu checks.
The administration increased water rates so it
could pay its debts to its two foreign partners.
Family blocks road to dispute land
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Jakarta — Members and supporters of a family
blocked on Friday a section of the BSD turnpike
linking Bintaro, South Jakarta, and the Bumi
Serpong Damai satellite city (BSD), demanding
payment for land acquired for the road’s
construction.
Traffic ground to a halt when Natigor Pandjaitan
blocked access at 8 a.m. to a 1,000 square meter
section of Pondok Ranji-Serpong turnpike, not far
from Pondok Ranji tollgate in Ciputat, Tangerang.
"We demand our rights... We are not the play
things of the authorities, who have ignored the
prevailing laws," Natigor said.
In their legal battle for a Rp 2.9 billion (US$3.1
million) land payment, which began in 2002, the
Pandjaitan family has often placed barricades
around the section of the road they claim is
theirs.
The Supreme Court awarded them the Rp 2.9 billion
on March 25, 2004, while Public Works Minister
Djoko Kirmanto ordered on Dec. 21, 2005, turnpike
operator PT Jasa Marga to pay the family. "But,
until today, we have received not a cent from the
company," said the family’s spokesman, Rony
Pandjaitan.
Jasa Marga acquired the plot of land in 1997 to
construct the turnpike without paying any
compensation. In 2002, the Tangerang District
Court ruled in favor of Natigor, ordering the
government and the company to pay Rp 1.5 million
per sq m of land, totaling Rp 2.9 billion.
The company has asked the Supreme Court to review
the decision based on new evidence.
Indonesians give up their birds but grumble over
cash
Agence France Presse - February 25, 2006
Jakarta — Until a team of government workers
sniffing out bird flu descended on his slum by a
railtrack in the Indonesian capital, Setia Budi,
45, was the proud owner of a dozen preening
turtledoves.
"I have been raising turtledoves pretty much all
my life, feeding and taking care of them
regularly. It is a lovely sight to watch them soar
in the sky," says Budi as the workers mill around
the hodge-podge of neighbourhood cages.
But four birds out of more than 250 owned by the
residents here have just tested positive to avian
influenza according to the team, which last week
launched a door-to-door campaign in Jakarta to
stamp out the virus here.
Bird flu has killed 20 Indonesians since July last
year, mostly in the capital and its surrounds, but
this is the first mass culling campaign of this
size — even though by global standards it’s still
very small scale.
Agricultural officials initially said they would
kill all birds in a one-kilometre (half-mile)
radius of any infections, but now they are saying
they will be selective, killing all only if they
believe there is a real risk that they are
infected. Vaccinations are slated to occur within
a three-kilometre radius.
Positive test results, carried out using a South
Korean kit costing about 100,000 rupiah (about ten
dollars) per bird, leads to all the birds here
today being destroyed. They are transported to a
nearby incinerator before their throats are
slashed.
"This is for our own interests. Go ahead, take
down the names of the bird owners and how many
birds each man has," subdistrict chief
Hidayatullah tells the task force workers.
"It is the lives of the people that we have to
save. I’m not going to lie to you by declaring
unhealthy birds healthy," he tells the residents,
with those owners present reluctantly agreeing to
the birds being destroyed.
As in many places in Indonesia, the birds here are
kept in close proximity to people’s homes, which
in this teeming slum in the Central Jakarta area
of Kramat are constructed of nothing more than
cardboard and corrugated iron.
Setia Budi is upset both about losing his birds
and his money. "What I regret is that the
government is only willing to pay 10,000 rupiah"
for each bird, he says, gesturing to a pair that
cost one of his neighbours 1.5 million rupiah. His
own cheapest pair were 300,000.
The amount is a huge sum for the slum dwellers,
most of whom are unemployed or working as scrap
collectors. Naked children squeal as they run
freely down the narrow, rubbish-strewn lanes. "If
I could choose, I would be more willing to set
them free," Budi says angrily.
Edi Maryono, a 44-year-old parking attendant, is
more philosophical. "If they have truly tested
positive, then it’s okay for them to be killed as
long as the other bird owners agree to do the same
thing,“he says.”I too am afraid of being infected with bird flu,
although I have never heard of anyone from this
neighbourhood being treated as a suspected
patient."
Sixty-year-old Ichsan, who owns 20 birds, is also
willing to give them up for the sake of people’s
health, but complains about the compensation. "I
think it’s a little bit too heavy for me to take
because I have paid quite a lot of money for my
birds," he mutters.
And he points out an alarming practice that may be
contributing to Indonesia’s bird flu death toll.
"Whenever we find unhealthy birds we just kill
them. We slaughter them, but sometimes we eat
them," he admits.
While cooked poultry kills the virus, coming into
contact with infected carcasses can pass on the
virus to humans, increasing the possibility that
the virus will mutate into a form easily
transmissible from human-to-human.
Experts fear that this will eventually occur,
sparking a pandemic that could kill millions
around the world.
Setia Budi, downcast, blames the government, which
many have accused for being slow to act in
Indonesia. "The government is at their best when
it comes to giving us problems," he grumbles.
Employers, workers threaten to boycott electricity
payments
Tempo Interactive - February 25, 2006
Imron Rosyid, Surakarta — Employers in the
Central Java city of Surakarta (Solo) have
threatened to send thousands of their workers onto
the streets if the government goes ahead and
increases electricity rates. Workers have agreed
to hold joint actions with employers and students
including launching a boycott on paying
electricity bills.
"If the government is still determined to increase
electricity rates, then businesspeople won’t pay
the electricity [bills]", said the executive
secretary of the Solo Indonesian Employers
Association, Pank Supardi, on Friday February 24.
Supardi said that not long ago that Solo
employers, trade unions and student organisations
made an agreement to form a joint coalition
against the planned increases to electricity
rates. The coalition, named the Student Employer
Worker Movement (Gerakan Mahasiswa Pengusaha
Buruh, Gemuruh), plans to hold a street action on
Saturday March 4. The planned action was confirmed
by the chairperson of the Solo National Workers
Union (SPN) Hudi Wasisto who said that workers
were given permission not to go to work but to go
into the streets instead."Students oppose [the
price increases] moreover workers as well", he
said.
According to Aji Kurnia from the Indonesian Muslim
Students Action Front (KAMMI), increases to basic
electricity rates are unacceptable to the public
on any grounds. He said that it is unreasonable
for the public to be burdened because of the
inefficiencies of the state-owned electricity
company PT PLN. In fact the basic supply cost of
electricity set by PT PLN of as much as 1,052
rupiah per Kilowatt-hour is the highest in Asia.
"Increasing rates on the grounds of filling the
[shortfall] in PLN’s operational costs as a
consequence of fuel price increases is totally
wrong", he said.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Ex-guards demand severance pay
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Jakarta — Dozens of former security guards of
city-owned company PT Pulomas Jaya demonstrated in
front of City Hall on Thursday, demanding of
Governor Sutiyoso their severance pay.
Chairman of the Indonesian Independent Labor Union
(SPMI) and coordinator of the demonstration,
Sultoni, said the company had ignored the security
guards’ working hours, excluded them from the
Jamsostek insurance scheme and denied them
severance pay after it outsourced their jobs.
"The Sutiyoso administration failed to meet its
contractual obligations and outsourced jobs, which
was detrimental to the guards’ future," Sultoni
was quoted by Detikcom as saying.
He demanded the governor sanction the directors of
PT Pulomas Jaya for violating the Labor Law.
=================
ACEH
=================
Transvestites unfazed by Sharia
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Banda Aceh — If you happen to pass an alleyway in
the Banda Aceh’s Kuta Alam area at night, don’t be
surprised if you bump into beautiful, flirtatious
and scantily dressed “women”.
Ignoring Aceh’s sharia laws, which enforce strict
dress codes on women, the transvestites emerge
after 11 p.m. and hang out in the area until dawn.
Many have been seen openly soliciting passers-by
on Jl. T. Hasandek, Antara reported Friday.
“They don’t seem to be aware of sharia,” an
annoyed resident, Abdurrahman, said. "They make a
lot of noise in the middle of the night when
people need to rest." Banda Aceh sharia
enforcement office chief Nasir Ilyas said he was
aware of the problem. "We will act when the right
time comes," he said.
Aceh legislators take issue with revised bill
Jakarta Post - February 28, 2006
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta — The Aceh
legislative council is displeased with an article
on the bill on governance in Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam that would give Jakarta broader powers
to issue regulations in the province.
A representative of the council, speaking during a
hearing Monday with the House of Representatives,
discussed revisions to the council’s draft of the
bill by the Home Ministry. The council is
particularly concerned by Article 7, Paragraph 3,
that allows the central government to issue
regulations in Aceh concerning issues other than
foreign policy, defense security, judicial
affairs, monetary and fiscal matters.
In the peace agreement signed by the government
and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki last
August, Jakarta was restricted to handling the six
areas of policy, with the rest the responsibility
of the Aceh administration "The article would
create problems in its implementation and looks
very centralistic," said councillor Azhari Basar,
who is the spokesman of the Aceh legislative
council.
He said the law on Aceh governance must only be
implemented through qanun, or Aceh administration
bylaws, instead of a government regulation or
presidential decree.
If the central government issued the regulations,
there would be the chance they would override
those of the Aceh administration, said Azahari,
who was speaking on behalf of the general Aceh
community, including the legislature and GAM.
Among those at the hearing were Aceh acting
governor Mustafa Abu Bakar, Aceh legislative
council chairman Sayed Fuad Zakaria and GAM
representative Faisal Putra.
The hearing ran smoothly, with no mention of other
potentially contentious issues, such as
independent candidates, local political parties
and the partitioning of the province.
In his address, Faisal said the GAM recognized
Aceh as a part of the Unitary Republic of
Indonesia operating under the Constitution. He
joined other legislators and the Acehnese
delegation in singing the national anthem at the
end of the hearing.
Legislator Permadi of the Indonesia Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-P), whose party has opposed
the bill because, it says, it sells out to the
GAM, said it may support a compromise on several
issues for the welfare of the Acehnese.
"But we consider articles about the anthem, flag
or local political parties as too political, they
don’t seem to help improve peace and welfare," he
said.
Mustafa said the House should not rush to complete
the deliberation of the bill in accordance with
its deadline of March 31. "The most important
thing is the deliberation of the bill produces an
effective and substantial law," he said.
Corruption undermines Aceh tsunami aid
Sydney Morning Herald - February 27, 2006
Matt Wade — Government aid to the tsunami-
devastated province of Aceh has been undermined by
corruption, poor communication with locals and a
failure to protect the environment, a report has
found.
The document, by the aid-monitoring group
Aidwatch, is critical of the Australian
Government’s assistance to Aceh, saying it has
been painfully slow and excessively secretive.
"AusAID and the Australia-Indonesia Partnership
for Reconstruction and Development are the least
transparent donor agencies," it said.
After the tsunami, the Prime Minister, John
Howard, announced that aid of $1 billion would go
to Indonesia in what is Australia’s biggest aid
program.
But the report said that just $156 million —
about 16 per cent of the paid — had been
committed of the $945 million in grants and soft
loans so far allocated.
The report’s co-author, Tim O’Connor, said that
not enough of the Australian Government’s
contribution was reaching affected communities.
"It is more about the strategic interests of
Australia than about the needs of the people in
Aceh," Mr O’Connor said.
The Aidwatch research team evaluated almost 50
projects, visited more than 100 villages and towns
in Aceh and spoke to more than 2000 people in
compiling its report.
The team focused on big aid donors such as the
World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the
European Commission. These agencies were providing
the “big money” for tsunami reconstruction and
deserved more scrutiny, Mr O’Connor said.
The report found the big donors had often failed
to monitor or evaluate projects, and researchers
were told of many blatant examples of corruption.
"Corruption, collusion and nepotism are widely
present in Aceh, including in the reconstruction
environment," it said.
Agencies involved in reconstruction were failing
to protect the environment, especially Aceh’s
forests, Mr O’Connor said. "There have been
alarming levels of environmental damage,“he said.”There is huge demand for timber, and the logging
going on to feed that demand is of real concern.
There is a real danger of Aceh losing its
forests."
The report also said many local communities had
not been properly consulted about reconstruction,
and there had been a failure to build local
capacity. Reconstruction efforts had also
increased social tension in Aceh, while turf wars
between donor agencies, competition for project
areas and a reluctance for donors to exchange
information had dogged the reconstruction effort,
the report said.
"Basic aid practices like including local people
in design, implementation and evaluation are being
forgotten, and this will drastically undermine the
long-term effectiveness and sustainability of the
reconstruction efforts," Mr O’Connor said.
The report found that many Acehnese citizens were
left feeling powerless and were frustrated about
unexplained delays, and easily avoided mistakes
such as design flaws in houses or boats.
Labor’s spokesman on overseas aid and Pacific
island affairs, Bob Sercombe, said the Government
had “taken its eye off the ball” in Aceh.
"The Howard Government is happy to take the credit
for big announcements, but isn’t interested in
following through and actually helping people in
affected areas," he said.
EU extends peace mission in Aceh by three months
Agence France Presse - February 27, 2006
Banda Aceh — European Union peace monitors in
Indonesia’s Aceh province said Monday the EU has
extended their mission by another three months
until June 15.
"The mission has been extended by another three
months, although the official announcement will be
made in Brussels," said Faye Belnis from the Aceh
Monitoring Mission (AMM).
The AMM, composed of some 200 monitors from the
European Union and five Southeast Asian nations,
had been due to end its mission on March 15 but
the Indonesian government on Feb. 15 requested the
extension.
It was formed following a peace pact between
Jakarta and the separatist Free Aceh Movement in
Helsinki last August, which is aimed at bringing
nearly three decades of conflict to an end.
The AMM’s mandate is to help ensure that the
agreement, spurred along by the deadly 2004
tsunami, is implemented by both sides.
Both parties have already successfully achieved
the first stage, the withdrawal of non-local
Indonesian troops and police in return for the
surrender of the rebels’ weaponry.
The mission has also assured a smooth start for
thereintegration of former rebels into Acehnese
society.
Aceh agency criticized, again
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2006
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh — Activists have slammed
the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for
Aceh and Nias for failing to perform its duty,
asserting that many of its working units are
totally inactive.
The finding was disclosed by the Anticorruption
Movement (Gerak) and several non-governmental
organizations in Banda Aceh, Aceh.
"There are 145 working units from various sectors
which still have not made payment orders (for
projects funding)," Gerak’s chairman Akhiruddin
told The Jakarta Post. Progress was almost
nonexistent, he said.
"Even for the most important sectors, like
education, there has been no progress although the
money is there," he said.
He said that last year, the agency received Rp 3.9
trillion from the state budget, of which Rp 3.4
trillion was still untouched. For the year 2006,
the agency received Rp 9.6 trillion from the state
budget.
Akhiruddin said many of the agency’s staff and
working units did not know what to do, and were
plagued by poor coordination.
He cited the situation in Lampaseh village as an
example. "The tsunami survivors have submitted all
the necessary requirements to rebuild their
village, including a blueprint and land documents.
But it has not been rebuilt," he said.
He also lashed out at the agency for claiming to
have built 35,000 houses. "I see they pay
attention more to quantity than quality. Are they
also counting all of the houses which are not fit
to live in?" he said. He cited several houses in
Neuhen village in Aceh Besar regency, that
collapsed after being built due to poor quality
construction.
The agency’s communication director Mirza Keumala
said the working units had not performed well as
they were set up late. "So they haven’t started
working yet," he said. The agency’s deputy
communications director, Sudirman Said, said
earlier that it would take at least four years
from the time the tsunami occurred to complete the
rehabilitation of Aceh and Nias.
It would be an impossibility, he added, to
complete all the work within a year after the
tsunami struck in December 2004.
Responding to the statement that most of the
agency’s budget had not been spent on projects, he
said the agency did not spend it as scheduled
since it received the money only in mid 2005 and
the working units received it in September 2005.
AMM asks government to investigate and disarm Aceh
militia
Detik.com - February 27, 2006
Banda Aceh — The Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM)
has asked the Indonesian government to immediately
conduct an investigation into the illegal groups
that were behind the recent attack on the Aceh
Referendum Information Center (SIRA) in Blang
Pidie, West Aceh. This is because it smacks of the
behaviour of an illegal group resembling a certain
type of militia group.
"And the Indonesian government has a commitment to
conduct and investigation and if it is open, the
Indonesian government also has a commitment to
disarm them", explained AMM chief Pieter Feith at
a press conference at the AMM offices in Banda
Aceh on Monday February 27.
AMM said it wants to receive confirmation from the
government in relation to the militia. If they are
indeed an illegal group, Feith is asking them to
be disarmed immediately. "We require confirmation
from the Indonesian government before we can
leave", said Feith.
He added that it is absolutely disgraceful for
both the European Union and ASEAN who have members
in the AMM to just leave this problem with the
Indonesian government so when the AMM has left and
these illegal groups come to the surface again.
"With regard to illegal groups we have already
asked the Indonesian government to conduct and
investigation and to deal with the incident at
Blang Pidie, there is a possibility of a militia
connection behind this and it is up to the
Indonesian government to draw a conclusion", he
said.
Nevertheless said Feith, it must also be
remembered that SIRA is a civilian group in Aceh
that must also be paid close attention to as an
institution that gives the impression of
struggling for a referendum for Aceh because of
the use of the word “Referendum”. "We must pay
close attention to SIRA’s presence here, and if so
we must pay close attention to SIRA’s program
where there is the word ’referendum’ that could
lead towards independence and a referendum which
is not in accordance with the Helsinki MoU
[Memorandum of Understanding]", he said at great
length.
The AMM has therefore invited the chairperson and
members of SIRA to discuss its program and bring
it into line with the Helsinki MoU. (asy)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
AMM asks police to investigate attack on SIRA
offices
Aceh Kita - February 26, 2006
Rilis, Banda Aceh — A meeting of the Commission
for Security Arrangements (COSA) on Saturday
February 25 has discussed a number of crucial
issues that have taken place in Aceh such as
violence against members of the Aceh Monitoring
Mission (AMM) and the vandalism of the Aceh
Referendum Information Center (SIRA) offices in
Blang Pidie, West Aceh.
According to the AMM, the vandalism of the SIRA
office by the illegal group is a violation of
Article 4.9 of the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU). "AMM is asking the Indonesian government to
investigate and report back to the AMM by March 9
and to discipline those involved", said AMM press
officer Juri Laas in a press release received by
Aceh Kita on Saturday February 25. "The AMM will
propose a number of steps to ensure that SIRA is
fully conforming with the MoU."
In addition to this, the AMM also conveyed its
dissatisfaction with provocation and violence
against AMM members during incidents that occurred
in Alue Leuho in the Cot Girek sub-district of
North Aceh. "The AMM is also asking the Indonesian
government to investigate the identities of the
perpetrators", continued Laas.
The COSA meeting, that was chaired by AMM
chairperson Pieter Feith and attended by Major
General Bambang Dharmono (Indonesia) and Irwandi
Yusuf (Free Aceh Movement, GAM), took place in a
cordial atmosphere. They also discussed the issue
of the reintegration of GAM members, the
distribution of new identity cards for the
Acehnese people and the issue of GAM members who
have yet to be granted amnesty by the Indonesian
government.
"With regard to the delayed amnesty cases, the AMM
states that progress has been made in the
clarification of 20 cases, were in 13 of the cases
they will be released", said Laas. The two parties
also took the opportunity to commit themselves to
safeguarding the momentum of the peace process and
provide direct information to each other in assist
in solving cases. The AMM also expressed its
satisfaction with the Indonesian government’s
desire to form a human rights court on June 15.
[dzie]
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Aceh bill constitutional: Government
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta — The new bill
on Aceh governance is in line with the
Constitution and the Helsinki peace pact signed
last August with rebel leaders, the government
said in its briefing to the House of
Representatives on Friday.
Critics of the controversial draft bill say it is
unconstitutional because it allows Aceh to have
its own flag, provincial symbol and hymn, and
permits the creation of local political parties.
"The substance of the bill is in line with the
Constitution and the Memorandum of Understanding
(peace accord)," Home Minister M. Ma’ruf told a
hearing with a House special committee formed to
discuss the bill.
At the session, Ma’ruf was accompanied by State
Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Communications
and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil. Djalil was
a government negotiator in the peace talks in
Finland with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
"The local elections (in Aceh) will be held by
(the provincial elections commission) KIP. Foreign
observers will be welcome to monitor the poll,"
Ma’ruf said. Aceh would hold regional elections
after the bill was passed into law and the
elections commission was established.
Ma’ruf said the Acehnese could also set up
political parties as mandated in the bill and the
peace accord. However, local parties could only
run for elections once central government issued a
regulation on the matter, which would happen by
February next year at the latest, he said.
All factions in the House but the Indonesia
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) are
supporting the bill, although a National Awakening
Party (PKB) leader and former president
Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid remains against it.
Several leading Acehnese figures met Friday with
Gus Dur to ask him to accept the bill. Aceh
legislative council member Abdullah Saleh said the
Acehnese people had no intention whatsoever of
separating from Indonesia.
Gus Dur ordered the PKB to reject the bill because
he doubted GAM’s commitment to the peace accord.
During the Friday meeting, Gus Dur seemed to
mellow his opposition to the bill, promising to
study it again, Antara reported.
Acehnese representatives also met with former
president and PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri
to canvass her support. Megawati has warned that
if the bill was passed into law, it could lead to
the separation of Aceh from Indonesia.
Testing times ahead for tsunami recovery - envoy
Reuters - February 23, 2006
Jerry Norton, Jakarta — Sustaining world interest
in aid to areas devastated by the December 2004
tsunami is about to get tougher, a top recovery
official said on Thursday as he visited
Indonesia’s hard-hit Aceh province.
The giant wave from a Dec. 26, 2004, undersea
earthquake which smashed into Indian Ocean
coastlines damaged Aceh the most, leaving some
170,000 dead or missing and disintegrating the
homes of half a million more.
The reconstruction and recovery effort in Aceh
alone is expected to take years and cost around $5
billion. Billions more are required for India,
Thailand and Sri Lanka to rebuild.
"... in the wake of the one-year commemoration it
shouldn’t be surprising that we have a sustained
level of interest," Eric Schwartz, deputy to Bill
Clinton in his UN role of keeping tsunami aid
flowing and insuring it is well-spent, told
Reuters by telephone from Aceh.
But as that anniversary attention fades in the
months ahead "when some of the most difficult
recovery challenges are ahead of us", Schwartz
said: "I think it’s going to be more and more
difficult" to keep the world focused on the need
for a continuing effort.
One key task for recovery is housing. In Aceh
around 300,000 people remain in temporary housing,
Schwartz said, ranging from tents to barracks to
lodging with friends and relatives.
Some analysts have criticised such large numbers
as showing the pace of rebuilding is moving far
too slowly.
Schwartz said while everyone would like things to
go faster, "you have to appreciate the obstacles
that the government has", citing the extent of the
devastation, logistical requirements, difficulties
in establishing land titles, and a desire not to
move so fast the process goes seriously wrong. "To
put it in very simple terms, if you want it bad,
you’ll get it bad."
Schwartz said he was very encouraged with efforts
to end 30 years of civil conflict between Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels and the government. On
a visit to Aceh last year, Schwartz’s boss former
US President Clinton had warned a complete
recovery required a settlement of that simmering
civil war.
Since then the two sides have signed an agreement,
GAM has turned in its weapons and Indonesia has
withdrawn many of its troops.
While difficult issues remain, "I think most of
the indications are very positive", Schwartz said,
pointing to government cooperation with
international peace monitors and encouragement of
aid for displaced victims of the conflict. "I’m
confident that the spirit of reconciliation will
prevail," he said.
Regarding another worry about the recovery
process, the danger of funds going astray in a
country where corruption is endemic, Schwartz said
an anti-corruption programme that has been put in
place in Aceh would probably not mean an end to
graft.
However, "what it does do is it enhances the
likelihood that malfeasance will be deterred, and
it enhances the likelihood that when bad stuff
happens it’s going to be uncovered."
Aceh peace process at crossroads
Radio Australia - February 23, 2006
The peace process in the Indonesian province of
Aceh is about to face its next big test., with
parliament setting up a special committee to
debate a draft law granting a level of autonomy to
Aceh. The committee’s 50 members hold their first
meeting this week. The draft law is one of the
commitments made when Jakarta signed a peace pact
with the separatist Free Aceh Movement GAM, in
August. But there are still concerns within GAM
that parliament may cause the peace process to
falter.
Presenter/Interviewer: Sen Lam
Speakers: Dr Damien Kingsbury, former adviser to
the Aceh separatist peace negotiating team.
Dr Kingsbury: Certainly the cross roads, this
legislation is fundamental to ensuring the peace
process goes ahead as agreed. The piece of
legislation in question contains all of the
provisions from the peace agreement. It’s a very
complex piece of legislation. Within it there are
three outstanding issues, one of which is the
potential for the division or unity of the
province which was a basic element of the
agreement. The second point is the creation of
local political parties which will require a shift
in Indonesian political law and the third point is
the capacity for independent candidates to contest
local elections.
Lam: Well, the peace deal or the Memorandum of
Understanding signed by the government and GAM
last August states that the law must be passed by
the end of March. It’s a very tight deadline,
isn’t it?
Dr Kingsbury: Well, it is a tight deadline. Of
course there’s always a capacity to slow these
processes down intentionally as well, and
certainly I think there’s some people in Jakarta
who would like to see that happen. It may be
delayed and indeed the election schedule for 26
April may be delayed. At this stage, we don’t have
confirmation on that, but it may be pushed back.
And I think that GAM would probably accept that if
they believed that the process was being handled
appropriately. They would not accept it if they
thought it was just a delaying or wrecking tactic.
But at this stage, the legislative process does
look like it’s going to go ahead okay. Sofian
Djalil, the Indonesian Information Minister has
stated categorically that Aceh will not be
divided, so that’s one of the main problems that
looks like it’s out of the way.
The issue of independent candidates I believe is
now basically been resolved and that they will be
allowed to go ahead if they meet certain
conditions.
The real question is the creation of local
political parties and this is absolutely central
to the agreement. This was what the agreement
hinged on, whether or not there was an agreement.
So I suspect that this will actually also go
through, but there will be considerable debate
about it.
Lam: And from where you sit, do you think it’s
likely to face much opposition in parliament when
it’s finally presented?
Dr Kingsbury: Oh yes, there will be considerable
opposition, but I suspect it will fall along party
lines and if that’s the case then the legislation
should be passed with about 53 or 54 per cent of
the vote.
Lam: Mm. And what’s the situation in Papua
Province right now?
Dr Kingsbury: Well, the situation in Papua is that
the government has indicated that they also want
to reach a similar type of agreement.
They basically want to resolve the outstanding
problems there which have been going on for
decades. The various Papuan organisations have
also indicated that they would like to do
something like this, but they need to become a bit
more unified, a bit more organised to be able to
present their claim. There is a move in that
direction at this time. We will know within the
next couple of weeks I think whether or not such a
claim will be able to be presented and whether
such an agreement may be able to be at least
discussed if not actually reached.
Lam: In both these issues in Papua and Aceh, are
we seeing a tussle here between the administration
in Jakarta and sections of the TNI who are perhaps
loathed to give up its influence in the
Archipelagoes political affairs?
Dr Kingsbury: Absolutely. They’re also loathed to
give up their economic investments in both of
those provinces and that’s a significant source of
revenue for the military.
The Indonesian Government does have in place a
program of civilian control over the military and
it is going forward. The TNI, the military is on
the back foot in this regard, but they still have
the capacity to spoil these processes,
particularly through the use of militias and
creating problems, which they have a history of
doing in the past. The question really now is
whether or not the administration can sufficiently
control the military and ensure that these types
of problems don’t derail the peace process in Aceh
or the possibility of agreement in Papua.
Acehnese accuse religious police of ’arrogance’
and thuggery
Jakarta Post - February 23, 2006
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh — The religious police
are earning a bad reputation among some Banda Aceh
residents for arrogance and thuggery.
Known locally as Wilayatul Hisbah, the sharia
police were set up under a 2001 regulation on
Islamic law, part of the special autonomy granted
to Aceh by the central government. As part of the
regulation, a special “religious police” unit was
established to enforce religious norms, such as
the ban on alcohol, gambling and “intimacy”
between unmarried couples. Those found violating
these norms can be punished by caning.
However, some residents of the provincial capital
believe the sharia police have become arrogant and
overzealous. "They (the sharia police) should show
some consideration when enforcing the law and not
be so arbitrary," a cafe owner, Malkin, 27, told
The Jakarta Post.
Members of the sharia police raided Malkin’s small
cafe as he was attending customers and took him to
the local public order office for questioning,
along with his chairs and tables as evidence.
"They said my cafe was dimly lit and could become
seedy. But it’s located right next to a main road,
where no one would think of doing anything
immoral," he said.
Malkin said all he did at his cafe was sell food.
He also accused the members of the sharia police,
as well as officers from the municipal public
order agency, of treating him roughly during the
raid. "If they pray five times a day, OK, but I’m
not sure they do," he added.
The religious police also have raided beauty
salons and restaurants, reportedly looking for
prostitutes, but only finding hair stylists,
waitresses and diners.
“Mira”, for example, was eating at a restaurant
one night with several friends when the sharia
police and public order officers burst into the
place and surrounded them. "It was unbelievable,
and a violation of privacy. They acted like we
were doing something immoral simply by having
dinner together in a restaurant," she said.
Sharia police, with public order officers, have
rounded up girls not wearing headscarves and
seized dozens of bottles of alcohol during raids
over the past several days.
The head of the Banda Aceh Sharia Administration
Office, Raja Radan, said the sharia police still
had to be accompanied by public order officers or
the police on raids, because they were not yet
full civil servants and were thus unauthorized to
carry out raids alone. "In the future they will
conduct the raids by themselves. As to the charge
of arrogance, that is just not true," said Radan.
He said the sharia police would focus their
attention on the dress code and immoral acts such
as gambling, drinking and premarital sex. "Most
cases so far have been related to sexual
promiscuity, which has influenced our youths,"
said Radan.
Asked if corruption cases eventually would be
tried in sharia courts, Radan said there was still
no bylaw on corruption that would allow the
religious courts to hear these cases. "But we are
considering the matter," he said.
Students still in tents one year after tsunami
Jakarta Post - February 22, 2006
Nani Afrida, Aceh Jaya — Thousands of students in
Aceh Jaya regency, Aceh, are still attending
lessons in tents more than a year after the deadly
tsunami destroyed many of the regency’s schools.
At least 98 of 161 schools in Aceh Jaya regency
were destroyed in the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami, Aceh
Jaya Regent Zulfian Ahmad said.
"We are still waiting for help from the German Red
Cross and Samaritan Purse to rebuild the schools,"
Zulfian said.
However, with much of the road network in the
regency also destroyed in the tsunami, it is
impossible to get building supplies to the area
with any kind of speed.
Whatever the reasons, the children of the regency
just want a proper place to study. Srikandi, 12,
who attended Keude Teunom elementary school before
the tsunami, said: "I wish I had a classroom like
the one before the tsunami." Srikandi, a fifth
grader, now attends a “school” that consists of
two large tents and a hut where the textbooks and
classroom supplies are kept. Eighty students have
attended this makeshift school for the past year.
The students were only recently provided with
chairs and desks, before that they sat on mats or
on the dirt.
There are two classrooms to a tent, forcing the
teachers to take turns leading lessons. For
example, when one class is quietly doing math
exercises, the other class will have an Indonesian
lesson.
"It’s hard to concentrate, especially when there’s
an aftershock or a storm, because the school is
near the sea," Srikandi said, pointing toward the
beach just 100 meters from the tent.
Principal Syamsuddin said the German Red Cross had
promised to rebuild the elementary school, but the
work had yet to begin. "The quality of education
here has dropped drastically since the tsunami,"
Syamsuddin told the Post.
Students at a private Islamic junior high school
in Panga district also find themselves still
attending lessons in a tent. And perhaps even more
distracting than being located meters from the
beach, this tent sits along a main road in the
district.
When asked about the delay in rebuilding the
school, principal Abubakar Arhas could only guess.
“Perhaps it’s because we’re a private school.”
There are about 100 students studying in the
battered tent, all that is left of what was the
best private Islamic junior high school in the
regency before the tsunami.
===================
WEST PAPUA
===================
Protesters want Freeport’s Indonesia mine closed
Reuters - February 28, 2006
Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta — Hundreds of native
Papuans are demonstrating to demand the closure of
a huge mine in Indonesia’s Papua province run by
the US company Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc,
police and witnesses said on Tuesday.
In Jakarta, 100 protesters trying to enter a
building that houses Freeport offices scuffled
with anti-riot police, who eventually used a water
cannon to help disperse the crowd.
Protesters also have staged rallies in Papua’s
provincial capital of Jayapura and in Timika, the
nearest town to Freeport’s Grasberg mine, Papuan
police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra said.
"Yesterday, we had 700 protesters in Jayapura.
Today, around 200 of them have showed up again to
demand the closure of the Freeport mine while
around 50 residents have erected tents in Timika
to display their grievances,“Wangsadisastra said.”They want other residents to join the rallies and
we are guarding them. Everything is under control
over here," he said.
Antara national news agency reported members of
Papuan local councils have promised the protesters
a discussion with the Jakarta government on the
future of the controversial mine, located in the
snow-capped Papuan highlands.
Operations at Freeport’s Grasberg mine, believed
to have the world’s third-largest copper reserves
and one of the biggest gold deposits, came to a
standstill for four days last week before
protesters, mostly illegal miners, left the site
near the town of Timika, about 3,400 km (2,100
miles) east of Jakarta.
Rock-throwing mob
Papuans in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, have
vented anger against Freeport over a range of
issues by damaging parts of the building housing
company offices last week and by protests this
Monday and Tuesday.
On Tuesday, hundreds of police in anti-riot gear
exchanged blows with the outnumbered protesters,
who tried to strip officers of their riot helmets
and plastic shields, some of which were shattered
in the scuffles.
Police sprayed water at the rock-throwing
protesters but that only pushed them out of the
building compound. Steps away, on one of Jakarta’s
busiest streets, they continued their rally loudly
condemning Freeport, Indonesia’s largest taxpayer.
"The police have over-reacted. This is just the
beginning of our fight because we have not
received anything good from Freeport. We are going
to protest until Freeport is shut," said rally
spokesman Marthen Goo.
So far, protesters have not reached the actual
Freeport offices that occupy the higher floors of
the building.
The Freeport operation has been a frequent source
of controversy in Indonesia over issues ranging
from its impact on the environment, to the share
of revenue going to Papuans and Papua, to the
legality of payments to Indonesian security forces
who help guard the site.
Illegal miners often enter mining areas in
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that is the
world’s fourth most populous country with huge
metal deposits such as copper, gold and tin.
[Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia.]
Protesters want Freeport to stop operation in
Papua
Jakarta Post - February 28, 2006
Jakarta/Jayapura — Police used a water cannon and
fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters
who gathered in Jakarta on Monday to denounce US
gold mining giant Freeport, saying its mine in
Papua province had brought no benefits to local
residents.
In the rally outside the offices of the Indonesian
unit of US company Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold
Inc., 500 protesters smashed the ground-floor
windows of the Plaza 89 office building in
Kuningan, South Jakarta, but none reached
Freeport’s offices on the fifth and seventh
floors.
A policeman and a protester were hurt during the
rally, a Reuters photographer on the scene said.
“Close Freeport! Close Freeport!” chanted the
protesters, who briefly clashed with police before
authorities brought in the water cannon, AP
reported.
Authorities succeeded in calming the protesters,
who responded by sitting cross-legged in front of
the high-rise building, but still refused to
leave.
Meanwhile, in Jayapura, the capital of Papua
province, some 500 students marched from
Cendrawasih University to the provincial council
building Monday, demanding the provincial
administration stop Freeport’s operations. The
students also demanded the release of Papuan
students held after they vandalized Plaza 89 on
Thursday.
The detained Papuan students went on a predawn
rampage inside the building Thursday, setting fire
to a travel agency on the ground floor. There were
no casualties in the incident.
Responding to the protesters’ demand, the chairman
of the council’s human rights commission, Yance
Kayame, said the administration and the council
did not have the authority to stop Freeport’s
operation; only the central government had such
power.
He said the council could only issue
recommendations to the House of Representatives.
"We support the students’ aspirations, but the
Papua provincial council can only issue a
recommendation on the matter to be delivered to
the House of Representatives." In the town of
Timika, near the Grasberg mine operated by
Freeport, about 100 protesters staged a rally but
did not disrupt mining operations, which resumed
Saturday afternoon after being suspended last week
following protests outside the mine.
The Grasberg mine — the largest gold mine in the
world and the third largest copper mine, which
opened in 1973 — has long had an uneasy
relationship with locals, some of whom are
desperately poor and argue that they should be
able to retrieve and sell tiny amounts of gold and
copper from waste rock dumped by the mine, AP
reported. Freeport says the practice is illegal
and dangerous.
Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons
and Victims of Violence, Usman Hamid, said earlier
the regional government and legislators were
partly to blame for the frequent disputes between
locals and the mining company, because they had
not striven to overcome misunderstandings between
the communities.
Papuan Front’s five demands
Tempo Interactive - February 28, 2006
Muchamad Nafi, Jakarta — The Peoples’ United
Front Struggle of West Papuan proposed five
demands regarding PT Freeport’s continuation on
their land. The proposal was read when the Front
held a demonstration at the Plaza 89 building in
Kuningan, South Jakarta, the office of Freeport’s
Rio Tinto.
The action’s coordinator, Marthen Goo, said that
the five demands were to close the PT Freeport-Rio
Tinto operation completely; audit and investigate
the company entirely, pull back all of the non-
organic Indonesian National Army (TNI) and the
Police in Papua, and strictly investigate the
statement of the Indonesian government through
Vice President Jusuf Kalla. "This concerns the
instruction to add TNI troops to secure the mining
area of PT Freeport-Rio Tinto," said Marthen.
The fourth demand is the unconditional release of
all the captives in the Timika and Plaza 89
Kuningan cases. The last one is critical of the
US-European Union domination on the possession and
destruction of the natural resources and the
economy-politics in Papua.
Marthen emphasized that if the demands are not
fulfilled, they will generate solidarity action of
a total national strike in Papua in the form of
stopping all kinds of activity. In Jakarta, the
demonstration lasted three days. "We will fight
and it must be closed," said Marthen.
The demonstation was joined by about two hundred
people. They brought various posters and banners,
among them was written: ’Close Down Freeport Now’,
’Freeport is the Root of Papuan Problems’, and
’Stop Sending the Troops’.
Plant’s shutdown adds pressure on Freeport
Financial Times - February 28, 2006
Shawn Donnan, Jakarta — When hundreds of illegal
miners last week blocked the access road to
Freeport McMoRan’s gold and copper mine in
Indonesia’s remote Papua province, it was tempting
to describe the incident as just another clash
between a multinational miner and its indigenous
neighbours.
For Freeport, however, the four-day shutdown of
the Grasberg mine that resulted from the blockade
was the latest piece of unwelcome news in what is
already emerging as a difficult year.
With gold and copper prices notching record highs
in recent months, Freeport is well-positioned for
another lucrative year after reporting profits of
$934.6m in 2005 on revenues of $4.2bn.
But the miner is under growing pressure in
Indonesia and the US over its environmental
practices and its relationship with the Indonesian
military.
US authorities have launched preliminary
investigations into reports that it allegedly paid
millions of dollars to individual Indonesian
officers in recent years — on top of what it pays
the military for security at the Grasberg mine.
And Jakarta recently sent a team to investigate
Freeport’s environmental practices. The company
denies any wrongdoing on all fronts.
Increasingly, the mine is also re-emerging as a
target in the long-simmering battle for Papuan
independence. Police in Jakarta yesterday used
tear gas and water cannons to try to disperse
hundreds of protesters outside Freeport’s offices
there and protests against the miner have become
increasingly common in Papua.
Last week’s blockade ended peacefully on Saturday
after Freeport apparently agreed to extend the
reach of its community programmes to the several
hundred squatters-cum-illegal miners at the centre
of the dispute. Freeport said production at the
mine, which processes 200,000 tonnes of ore a day,
resumed on Saturday evening.
The blockade began last Wednesday, a day after an
operation by security forces to clear illegal
miners away from the banks of a river into which
Freeport dumps its tailings. The operation led to
a clash during which police fired rubber bullets
while the miners reportedly used bows and arrows.
At least five people — including two of the
illegal miners — were injured, according to
police.
The incident and subsequent blockade highlighted
the company’s often awkward relationship with
local communities in Papua. But current and former
Freeport employees, say the incident also pointed
to a relatively new issue for the US miner, which
has been operating in Papua since the early 1970s.
Illegal mining was never a problem at Freeport
before small-scale panning of the river near the
mine began about 2000 or 2001, they said.
Since then the number of illegal miners around the
mine has risen as gold prices have soared. Working
in teams, the panners can recover one to two grams
of gold a day, making the venture a lucrative
business in a country where more than half the
220m people live on less than $2 a day. At current
prices, one gram of gold is worth about $18.
“All of that has become a major problem,” says Tom
Greene, a former American diplomat who until 2004
was a Freeport executive. And, he says, "it’s not
going to be an easy problem to fix".
The attraction of a lucrative pay day has led to
other social issues. Most of the panners are
Papuans and live in a dishevelled camp near the
Freeport mine. Many are gold rush migrants to the
area and Dani tribesmen, historic enemies of the
Amungme people, the original landowners.
A similar influx in the 1990s led to a 1997 tribal
war between Dani and Amungme tribesmen that left
11 dead. It also resulted in a costly fix for
Freeport, which spent millions funding the
resettlement of 2,500 squatters. Many believe the
security forces play some role in the increasingly
organised illegal mining around Freeport’s
operations.
Mama Yosepha Alomang, a Papuan activist, says
access to the area in which last week’s clash
occurred is heavily restricted. Local people
cannot go there, she says, "if they don’t have a
link with the security forces". Allegations like
that are hard to prove. But such links are common
in Indonesia and Freeport has long had an uneasy
relationship with the security forces.
Many believe the military played a role in at
least inflaming 1996 riots near the mine. The 2002
ambush of a convoy of Freeport employees, which
left three dead, has also been blamed by some on
the military, al-ough eight Papuans are due to go
on trial soon.
Asylum-seekers top agenda in Jakarta
The Australian - February 27, 2006
Patrick Walters — Alexander Downer will meet
senior Indonesian officials today in a bid to calm
Jakarta’s concerns over Australia’s handling of 43
Papuan asylum-seekers now on Christmas Island.
There is a growing expectation in Canberra that
most, if not all, of the 43 could end up staying
in Australia after having their cases examined by
the Department of Immigration.
The issue is extremely sensitive for the Yudhoyono
Government, with senior Indonesian officials
warning recently that conferring refugee status on
the Papuans would undermine bilateral relations
with Canberra.
"Their applications are being considered one by
one by the Immigration Department and they will
make an assessment consistent with the legal
obligations that Australia has," Mr Downer said
yesterday ahead of leaving Australia for Jakarta.
The Foreign Minister will have breakfast with his
counterpart, Hassan Wiryuda, this morning at the
start of a 16-hour visit to the Indonesian
capital.
Mr Wiryuda raised the Papuan case in a recent
telephone call with Mr Downer following a similar
call from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to
John Howard last month. A grant of asylum by
Australia would confirm in the minds of some
Indonesian policy-makers that Canberra was seeking
to undermine Indonesian sovereignty over West
Papua and encourage secessionist sentiment.
Immigration officials have interviewed all the
group who landed near Weipa, in northern
Queensland, after a five-day canoe voyage. The
department will make a final assessment on their
applications by mid-April.
Dr Yudhoyono personally guaranteed to the Prime
Minister that the asylum-seekers would not be
harmed if they returned to Indonesia.
Dr Yudhoyono and Mr Wiryuda say that Indonesia has
steadily improved its human rights record in West
Papua.
The 43 Papuans, who included independence
activists, say they could be killed or persecuted
if they are forced to return home — a claim
rejected by Jakarta.
Mr Downer will also discuss strategies for curbing
illegal fishing in Australian waters by Indonesian
fishing vessels and raise the issue of clemency
for Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran — sentenced to death by a Bali court
two weeks ago — with Mr Wiryuda.
Six arrested at Freeport demonstration in Jakarta
Detik.com - February 28, 2006
Iqbal Fadil, Jakarta — Apes. Perhaps this is what
six demonstrators at Plaza 89 in Kuningan, South
Jakarta, were thinking earlier this afternoon.
Because it was precisely when the demonstration
was ending that police arrested them.
The arrests occurred in front of Plaza 89 on Jl.
HR Rasuna Said on Tuesday February 28 at 5.30pm.
At the time police had been repeatedly asking the
demonstrators to disband before 6pm. All of a
sudden, several plain-clothed police officers
dragged a number of demonstrators to the side of
the road.
The arrested are Islah from the Commission for
Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras),
Wahyu from the Action Study Circle for Indonesian
Democracy (LSAD), Ari Arianto from Aceh-Papua
Solidarity (SAP), Awing and Ridho from the
Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI) and Ruis.
Sensing they were about to be arrested, they even
struggled to get free. They were not released
however with several police officers instead
assisting in ’securing’ them. Although several of
their colleagues had been arrested, the hundreds
of other demonstrators were undaunted and
continued to sing spirited songs of struggle.
South Jakarta municipal police chief, Police
Superintendent Wiliardi, claimed to knowing
nothing about the arrests. "The police only arrest
people who are guilty", he said diplomatically.
Several police officers that declined to give
their names said that the six were arrested on
suspicion of provoking anarchy.
Protest ends peacefully
After repeated attempts at persuasion, the 200 or
so demonstrators finally disbanded. Earlier they
had stubbornly insisted on staying in front of the
building where PT Freeport has its offices. After
lengthy negotiations they finally ended the
action. "You can come here tomorrow and we will
stand watch", said Wiliardi though a loudspeaker.
Police had prepared three trucks and two medium
size busses to transport the demonstrators away
but the majority declined and chose to walk to the
Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) offices in
the Mampang Prapatan area of South Jakarta.
Protesters used only one of the trucks.
As a result the flow of traffic from Mampang in
the direction of Menteng slowed to a crawl because
only the fast lane could be used with the slow
lane being taken over by the march. (ton)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Police fire tear gas to disperse Freeport
protestors
Agence France Presse - February 27, 2006
Jakarta — Police fired tear gas and water cannon
to disperse hundreds of protestors outside the
offices of Freeport Indonesia in the capital
Jakarta, as demonstrators demanded the closure of
its mine in Papua.
About 300 protestors clashed with security
personnel and several police and protestors were
injured, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
“Close down Freeport!” the protestors shouted.
Glass panels at the security post outside the
building were smashed, but the protestors did not
enter the lobby of the building, which houses the
offices of the local unit of US-based giant
Freeport-McMoRan on a higher floor.
The move followed the peaceful ending at the
weekend of a four-day blockade of a road near
Freeport’s mine in Indonesia’s remote Papua, after
the company said it would allow local miners to
continue prospecting through its waste.
The blockade by hundreds of the miners brought
production at the world’s largest gold and copper
mine to a standstill.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had directed
his energy minister to coordinate with the
security minister to resolve the dispute, fearing
a loss of national income if the mine stayed shut.
One of the leaders of Monday’s protest accused the
company of abusing human rights, fostering
corruption and damaging the environment. Some
protestors also demanded that non-local soldiers
and police officers be withdrawn from Papua.
About a dozen Papuan students last week vandalised
the building in a pre-dawn attack that led to nine
of them being arrested.
In Abepura near Papua’s capital of Jayapura, about
100 people took to the streets also demanding
Freeport’s closure, Papua police spokesman Kartono
Wangsadisastra told AFP. The march disrupted
traffic near Jayapura’s airport but after
negotiations the protestors took their protest to
the provincial parliament, Kartono said. No
violence was reported, he added.
Freeport is one of the top sources of revenue for
Indonesia’s government. But it has repeatedly come
under the spotlight following disputes with local
residents, allegations of human rights violations
and queries about its payments to the military to
provide security.
Freeport back in operation after three-day
shutdown
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2006
Jakarta — With activities resuming at PT Freeport
Indonesia’s mine in Papua, activists called for
the release of Papuan students detained for
vandalizing a Jakarta high-rise that is home to
the gold and copper company’s Jakarta office.
"We are very pleased to report that the situation
at the Grasberg Mine in Papua has been resolved
peacefully and our operations resumed at
approximately 6 p.m. on Saturday," spokesman
Siddharta Moersjid was quoted as saying by
Reuters.
Operations at the Grasberg mine, believed to have
the world’s third-largest copper reserves and one
of the biggest gold deposits, were suspended
Wednesday after illegal miners armed with bows and
arrows clashed with security officers, soldiers
and police the day before after a dispute over
their sifting through the company’s tailings.
Siddharta said that only one individual — a
security officer for Freeport Indonesia — had
been hurt. He said losses due to the disruption
had not been determined. "There are a number of
factors needed to be taken into consideration," he
said, without elaborating.
After reaching an agreement with the company,
protesters obstructing access to the site left on
Saturday after conducting a tribal ceremony. The
Freeport spokesman said the protesters had wanted
to benefit from the initiatives and programs
established by the company for locals in the vast
province of Papua.
Meanwhile, a human rights activist demanded the
immediate release of nine students held after an
early morning attack Thursday on Plaza 89 office
building in Kuningan, South Jakarta.
"The legal matters in Jakarta cannot be separated
from incidents in Papua," coordinator of the
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) Usman Hamid was quoted as
saying by Antara news service. "If activities have
returned to normal in Timika, there must be the
consideration to free these students in Jakarta."
Usman said the regional government and legislators
were partly to blame for the frequent disputes
between locals and the mining company because they
had not striven to overcome misunderstandings
between the communities.
He said he did not condone the student’s use of
violence but added the incident, sparked by
reports of the shooting of three civilians during
a protest Tuesday, resulted from a buildup of
“disappointment” at the allegedly high-handed
approach of security forces in dealing with
locals.
A total of 13 students went to the Kontras office
after the attack at the office building. The
students, at the urging of Kontras, later turned
themselves in to the Central Jakarta Police.
Police named nine out of 13 people suspects in
damaging property and the remaining four would
only become witnesses.
Papuan asylum process dragging: Jakarta
Australian Associated Press - February 27, 2006
Indonesia complained that Australia’s processing
of asylum applications for 43 Papuans on Christmas
Island was “dragging”.
In Canberra, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone
said she was unable to confirm when a decision
would be made about the asylum claims.
"Domestic law in Australia takes time. It is
dragging a little a bit," said Indonesian Foreign
Minister Hasan Wirayuda after a Jakarta meeting
with visiting Australian Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer. "It is a time-consuming
process," he said.
As well as signalling Indonesia’s impatience over
how long the cases have run, Dr Wirayuda also made
little headway with calls for face-to-face
consular access to the Papuans.
He said Indonesian official access to the group so
far had been limited to telephone conversations.
"Telephone access is not satisfying enough. We are
trying again to have direct access," he told AAP.
Mr Downer said the Papuans have not received
Indonesian consular visits because they had not
wanted them. "If they don’t wish to have access we
will not give them access," Mr Downer said.
He said he explained the asylum process to Dr
Wirayuda and said the applications, regardless of
the outcome, would not affect Australia’s support
for Indonesia’s territorial integrity and
rejection of Papuan separatist claims.
"We fully support Indonesia’s territorial
integrity. We fully support the province of West
Papua remaining part of the Republic of
Indonesia,“he said.”We offer no sympathy or
support for succession from Indonesia."
The 36 adults and seven children arrived at Cape
York earlier this year after spending five days at
sea in a rickety boat. They were then taken to
Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, where their
asylum claims were now being assessed.
Refugee groups have lobbied the government to
release the independence advocates into the
community on the mainland while the claims were
being done.
But Senator Vanstone said the Papuans would go
through the normal processes. "Look, they’re going
through the normal process, that process can take
some time,“she told reporters.”Getting in-country information is not always
easy. That’s not something that’s done by my
department, that’s done by the department of
foreign affairs and trade. "They will be handled
in the normal way."
’Stone fire’ ends Freeport standoff
Jakarta Post - February 26, 2006
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta — Hundreds of
protesters ended their three-day roadblock at the
entrance of PT Freeport’s Grasberg mine in Timika,
Papua, on Saturday with a traditional outdoor
peace ceremony, officials said.
The illegal miners lifted their barricades and
abandoned the mine after holding a traditional
ceremony in which they burned stones as a sign of
peace and read out their demands.
A solution to the standoff was reached Friday
night during a meeting between protest leaders,
local tribal figures and Freeport management.
The protesters established the roadblock Wednesday
outside the mine, one of the world’s largest
copper and gold reserves, after a clash a day
earlier between miners and Freeport security
guards. The dispute began when guards stopped
locals from sifting through the company’s tailing
ore.
Mimika legislative council speaker Yoseph Yopi
Kilangin said the protesters dispersed after the
Papua administration promised to issue a bylaw
allowing local miners to prospect Freeport waste.
"The local administration and Freeport will also
soon set up a cooperatives unit to facilitate the
miners," Yoseph told The Jakarta Post by phone.
The Amungme tribe leader said he had assured
Freeport management there would be no more trouble
at the mine as long as Freeport and the government
were committed to hearing the protesters’ demands.
The Amungme is one of several tribes living near
the mining area.
Freeport spokesman Budiman Moerdijat welcomed the
peaceful settlement, saying the company would
resume operations as soon as the barricades were
lifted.
Yoseph, who attended the Friday-night meeting that
resulted in the agreement, said the protesters had
also demanded they meet Freeport chief executive
James Moffet so he could hear their aspirations
personally. "The company said it would try to meet
the demand within a month," he said.
Locals wanted Freeport to improve their welfare by
offering them more employment opportunities in the
mine and promotions for existing employees, Yoseph
said.
The protesters also urged Freeport to stop using
soldiers as its security guards. "The locals want
the nine Freeport security guards from military
backgrounds replaced with civilians," Yoseph said.
A recent US report revealed the company has made
direct payments to soldiers who guarded the mine,
leading to allegations Freeport had acted
improperly and was fueling corruption in the
military.
Yoseph said the protesters wanted the government
to revise its working contract with Freeport by
involving local tribespeople. The government
extended Freeport’s 1967 working contract in 1991,
allowing the firm to exploit the area for 30 years
until 2027.
Freeport’s independent commissioner and local
Amungme tribal leader Tom Beanal said he did not
expect all of the protesters’ demands to be met by
the company and the government. However, revising
the contract was the best way to avoid further
protests in the future.
"This should be a lesson to the government not to
hand over the management of the country’s rich
natural resources to foreigners without involving
local people," he told the Post.
Meanwhile, National Police spokesman Sr. Comr.
Bambang Kuncoko said Papua Police officers would
continue guarding the mine until the company
resumed production.
The end to the standoff in Timika would not affect
police charges against 10 students for disorderly
behavior outside Freeport’s main office in
Kuningan, South Jakarta, he said.
Troop reinforcements sent in as Freeport standoff
continues
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta — The government was
sending hundreds of troops Friday to safeguard PT
Freeport Indonesia as a roadblock continued at the
mine site in Papua province, halting its
production for a third consecutive day.
"Today, the government has mobilized 300 police
personnel and one battalion of (about 700) Army
soldiers to secure Freeport," National Police
spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said in
Jakarta.
The deployment of troops was ordered by
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and
Security Affairs Widodo Adisucipto, Energy and
Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro
said separately.
"Police can’t handle the security alone. The chief
security minister has asked the military to handle
it and it will be returned to police after things
are back to normal," he was quoted by Reuters as
saying.
Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked
Purnomo to coordinate with the chief security
minister to end the standoff, fearing a sizable
loss of national income if the mine stayed shut.
The government, which owns 9 percent of the
company’s shares, calculates the halt in
operations is costing it US$3 million in tax and
non-tax revenue every day.
Hundreds of Papuans maintained barricades at the
main entrance of the Grasberg mine, forcing the
local arm of US-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper &
Gold Inc. to stay closed. They are demanding that
Freeport allow local people to sift through the
firm’s waste ore.
"If they are prevented from doing so, they demand
compensation from the company," Freeport’s
independent commissioner Tom Beanal, who is also a
local Amungme tribal leader, told The Jakarta
Post.
Tom once sued Freeport in a United States court
for allegedly polluting the environment.
"Actually, shifting through tailings, which
consists of toxic (materials), is dangerous to
human health. But we are still looking for a way
out to settle the problem," he said.
Negotiations with the company’s management, local
government, security officials and tribal leaders
were deadlocked.
The director of local human rights group Elsham
Papua, Aloysius Renwarin, said the demand for
compensation was merely an expression of anger
from locals who long felt they were ignored by
both Freeport and the government.
"If they demand compensation, that’s normal
because it’s their land, which they inherited from
their ancestors,“he told the Post.”Freeport is just a company that acquired a
contract to make use of the land, not to own it."
He said the problem was not simply about locals
looking for a handout. Aloysius said that Jakarta
should realize the current tension in the area
resulted from the buildup of many problems, due to
political, social, economic and environmental
causes.
"Protesters have demanded a dialog with Freeport’s
director James Moffett and President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss how to improve the
welfare of Papuans," he said.
Aloysius warned that ignoring the demand for
dialog could further fan separatist sentiment
among Papuans.
"Freeport’s operations have brought a huge fortune
to Jakarta. Papua has been its ’kitchen’ of
development. The government must pay more
attention to Papuans... otherwise they will be
very disappointed to be part of this republic," he
said.
He also said some protesters demanded the
company’s operations be stopped permanently
because they said it failed to better the welfare
of local people.
Protesters end blockade at Freeport mine: police
Agence France Presse - February 25, 2006
Jakarta — A blockade by alleged illegal miners
that has halted production at the world’s largest
gold and copper mine in Indonesia’s Papua province
has ended with an outdoor party for peace, a
police spokesman said.
The stand-off between 500 protesters and police
near the massive Freeport-McMoRan mine ended in a
celebration that was held after the group read out
a peace statement and a statement on their demands
to Freeport, said Colonel Kartono Wangsadisastra.
"They are now having a party, locally known as the
’fire stone’ celebration, in which they burn
stones as a sign of peace," Wangsadisastra told
AFP.
He said the protesters agreed to end the blockade
during a closed-door meeting with local religious
leaders and administrative officials Friday night
in the town of Timika.
The protesters promised to remove wooden planks
from the road near the mine and leave the premises
“as soon as the party is over”, Wangsadisastra
said, but he was unable to specifically say when
it would take place.
"They are not a group of people who can be easily
trusted as they are an unpredictable lot. But they
have promised to leave the area once the party is
over some time today," the spokesman said.
One of the demands to Freeport, Wangsadisastra
said, included "a permission for the miners to
continue" prospecting through the waste tailings
produced by the mine. He said he had no immediate
information whether Freeport would meet the
demands.
However he said production was expected to resume
at the mine as soon as the protesters leave the
premises. No Freeport officials or spokesmen could
be immediately reached for comment.
"What is important now is once Freeport can have
its engineers and workers back to the mine, they
should resume production there," Wangsadisastra
said.
Freeport has been one of the top sources of
revenue for Indonesia’s government, reportedly
providing it with 33 billion dollars in benefits
from 1992 to 2004.
The mine blockade, which has halted production
since Tuesday, is the latest headache for
Freeport-McMoRan in Indonesia.
The company’s payments to the military to provide
security have been under intense scrutiny amid
allegations that they amounted to corruption,
while the environment ministry claims it is
investigating pollution allegations against it.
International media are banned from travelling
freely in the easternmost province of Papua, where
a simmering separatist conflict persists.
Prosecutors are preparing court dossiers for the
preparation of trials for eight alleged members of
the Free Papua Movement (OPM) rebel group held in
Jakarta for the August 2002 shootings of two
Americans and an Indonesian in Papua.
The three victims were working as teachers for
Freeport at the time of the shooting, which took
place on the road to the mine in Timika.
OPM rebels have been fighting a sporadic and low-
level guerrilla war since 1963 when Indonesia took
over the huge mountainous and undeveloped
territory from Dutch colonisers.
Papuan backlash closes gold mine
Sydney Morning Herald - February 25, 2006
Tom Allard and agencies — Indigenous Papuans
scraping a living from the tailings at Freeport’s
goldmine, the world’s biggest, have halted
production after injuring two armed security
guards and blockading a road.
As the blockade grows and the halt to Freeport’s
production enters its third day, it emerged
yesterday that the Indonesian military is being
sent in to break up the protest, sparking fears of
more violence in the province.
The Papuans attacked the guards with stones and
arrows fired from bows earlier this week after
they were told to stop mining the waste flowing
from Freeport. The mining is illegal but has long
been tolerated by Indonesian soldiers, who often
buy the gold. Four of the Papuan miners were also
injured in the incident.
The crackdown by the security guards is the
culmination of months of unrest and sparked a
protest by locals resulting in the main road to
the open-cut mine being blockaded.
Papuans have long complained they get little money
and few jobs from the huge gold and copper mine,
and yet suffer from the severe environmental
damage.
They are also incensed that eight Papuans were
arrested and taken to Jakarta last month on
suspicion of murdering two American teachers and
an Indonesian — all workers at the mine — during
an armed ambush in 2002. Most local Papuans blame
the Indonesian military, which is paid for
security at Freeport, but has periodic disputes
with the company over pay.
The unrest extended to Jakarta this week with
students, some dressed in traditional Papuan
outfits, attacking the office of Freeport-McMoRan,
the US company that owns the mine, leading to 13
arrests.
Indonesia’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
has told his Energy Minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro,
to sort out the dispute. Dr Yudhoyono is under
pressure from parts of the Indonesian media to
acknowledge and address the aspirations of Papuans
and a history of rights abuses.
US lawmaker wants Indonesia to ease access to
Papua
Agence France Presse - February 24, 2006
Jakarta — A US lawmaker Friday urged Indonesia to
ease access to its easternmost province of Papua,
the site of a long-simmering separatist movement,
amid allegations of military abuse.
Human right groups claim some 100,000 people have
died in the province as a result of military
action or atrocities by Indonesian troops during
the decades-long rebellion.
The government makes it difficult for foreigners
to visit Papua, the country’s most remote region,
geographically and politically, so allegations of
abuse are difficult to confirm.
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., said he told
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono "any
degree of openness and ability to examine what
happened there would be helpful."
Granting some sort off access would demonstrate
Indonesia’s "dedication to trying to solve this
difficult problem," he told reporters after a
meeting at the presidential palace.
Indonesia seized Papua province in 1963 and
formalized its occupation in 1969 following a UN-
sanctioned ballot that rights groups have labeled
a sham.
Ever since, the poorly armed Free Papua Movement
has fought a sporadic campaign for independence.
The military has been accused of widespread abuses
in its effort to defeat the group.
"The question was whether the people... can be
made feel comfortable in their region and had the
openness and the protection from many possible
abuses by the military," Feingold said.
An attack in 2002 on a convoy of teachers working
at the mine that killed two US citizens disrupted
moves to normalize military ties between Jakarta
and Washington.
However, Washington lifted a six-year embargo on
arms sales to Indonesia in November as a reward
for Indonesia’s cooperation in fighting terrorism.
In January, police arrested eight suspects in the
killings, all members of Papua’s tiny separatist
army who were said to have intended to kill
soldiers who patrol the road.
Indonesia to press on Papuans’ return
Sydney Morning Herald - February 25, 2006
Indonesia is expected to press Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer for consular access to 43 Papuan
asylum seekers when he visits Jakarta next week to
discuss clemency for the Bali Nine and counter-
terrorism.
Indonesia’s chief foreign spokesman Yuri Thamrin
repeated that the Papuans would be welcomed to
return to Indonesia. He said that supporters of
the group or Australian parliamentarians would
also be welcome to visit them to verify they have
not been persecuted.
"We are open to consider sympathetically the
possibility of supporters, parliamentarians to
come to Indonesia in order to verify that there is
no persecution at all," said Mr Thamrin, who also
heads a section within the ministry which deals
with Australia.
Mr Downer and Australian Federal Police
Commissioner Mick Keelty arrive in Jakarta on
Monday for a counter-terrorism conference to be
opened by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono.
Prior to making a keynote address to the
conference, Mr Downer will have a breakfast
meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan
Wirayuda.
Indonesian foreign ministry officials said while
no agenda had been agreed, Wirayuda expected Mr
Downer to raise the issue of clemency for Bali
Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran,
who have been condemned to death. The asylum
claims of the Papuans would also likely come up,
Mr Thamrin said.
Indonesia has challenged the Australian government
to prove the group, whose asylum claims are being
assessed on Christmas Island, are really fleeing
persecution.
The Papuans, who included pro-independence
activists and their families, arrived in northern
Australia last month after a five-day voyage in an
outrigger canoe.
Their leader Herman Wainggai says they fear they
may be killed if returned to Papua, where
separatists have been waging a low-level
insurgency for decades.
Mr Thamrin said Australia must give Indonesia
consular access to the group under UN conventions
and warned a briefing given to Indonesian
officials by Australian immigration officers on
the asylum claims process was not enough.
"It’s a legitimate right of a sovereign country to
have access to meet their citizens," he said.
He backed a suggestion by Papuan MPs from Merauke
to visit the group and reinforce a promise by Mr
Yudhoyono to Prime Minister John Howard that the
group would not be harmed if they were returned.
“This is a really good idea,” Mr Thamrin told AAP.
"The parliamentarians (want to) explain to the
Papuans... they are not the target of
persecutions. I would like to really underscore
that no persecution will be directed against our
brothers."
Mr Thamrin said appeals launched by the Bali Nine
would be dealt with according to the law, which
was aimed at ridding the country of a serious and
growing drug problem.
Indonesia’s police chief said this week that an
estimated 3.2 million Indonesians, or 1.5 per cent
of the population, use illegal drugs.
"What is important is that we need a certain due
process of law, a credible process, a transparent
process, whose outcome is believable," Mr Thamrin
said. “We believe we have followed that path.”
Mr Downer will be keynote speaker on Monday at a
conference hosted by the Indonesian Crime
Prevention Foundation focusing on suicide
bombings.
Blockade continues at giant gold mine
Radio Australia - February 24, 2006
A blockade by protesters at the giant gold mine in
Indonesia’s Papua province has entered its fourth
day. Small-scale miners who have been prevented by
police and security guards from scavanging in the
mine’s tailings say they are determined to keep up
the blockade until their demands are met. The mine
is operated by a subsidiary of the US-based
Freeport McMoRan and provides substantial income
to the Indonesian Government.
Presenter/Interviewer: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Torry Kuswardono, Mining Campaigner with
Indonesia’s Friends of the Earth.
Snowdon: Unconfirmed reports on the first day of
trouble, Tuesday said several people had been
injured when security tried to remove protesters
from blocking a road to the mine. Since then
there’s been a stand-off with no-one arrested.
The closure of the mine’s operations would have
cost millions of dollars every day in lost
earnings for Freeport. But the protesters say they
won’t budge until the US based boss of Freeport,
Jim-Bob Moffat meets with them.
They want to continue their scavenging in the
waste tailings of the world’s biggest gold mine.
Torry Kuswardono is the mining campaigner for
Indonesia’s Friends of the Earth. He says the
unusual self-control of the hundreds of security
personnel facing off the protesters is a
reflection of Freeport wanting to avoid more
attention.
Kuswardono: It is quite unusual, because usually
years ago, police could easily crush every protest
in Papua, but I think it’s because Freeport has
been in attention for months since the New York
Times released their report, particularly on the
connections between Freeport and Indonesian
military and police. So I think the police and the
security forces are quite careful to handle these
situations.
Snowdon: And is it your understanding that the
protesters intend to blockade the mine for as long
as it takes to get what they want?
Kuswardono: Yes, they demand to have negotiations
with James Moffat the Commissioner of Freeport.
Snowdon: James or Jim-Bob Moffat has been to
Freeport that was ten years ago to talk with the
local people, thousands of whom have been
forcefully removed from their tribal lands. Others
have died at the hands of the notorious Indonesian
security forces employed by the mine.
Freeport shifts hundreds of thousands of tonnes of
rock a day, dumps contaminated waste into the
river which serves the locals, earns billions from
gold and copper and employs mostly non-locals in
its 9-thousand strong workforce.
Freeport said it needs to prevent the small scale
miners from working in the tailings because of the
presence of potentially harmful chemicals.
I asked Friends of the Earth representative Torry
Kuswardono if this wasn’t reasonable.
Kuswardono: Yes, this is quite reasonable for
Freeport, but quite un reasonable for poor people
who are living in the round mining. Because for
years, Freeport didn’t bring any change to the
betterment of life of local people around the
Freeport area.
Snowdon: So your saying the small miners have no
choice, this is their only form of livelihood?
Kuswardono: Yes.
Snowdon: But is it dangerous?
Kuswardono: It is dangerous, but for poor people
they don’t care about the dangers if they can get
some money to survive. Local people they don’t
have skills to compete with the modern economics
with the cash economy, and Freeport failed to
improve their situation.
Snowdon: Given the danger, Friends of the Earth
doesn’t support the small miners returning to
scavenging for gold. Torry Kuswardono says the
current dilemma should be an opportunity for
Freeport and the Indonesian government to clean up
their economic, social and environmental acts.
Kuswardono: Well, our position is that Freeport
has to be made responsible for many things,
including financial management, and parliament
accountability and also their connections with the
military and also they have to be audited on the
system how to give responsibility to the people.
So it might be good for the people to scavenge in
the tailing to seek some gold, but support and the
government of Indonesia should do something to
maintain a sustainability of livelihood in the
area.
Papuans take out anger at Freeport
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Jakarta — The police have vowed to tighten
security at key foreign facilities in the capital
following a violent attack Thursday morning at the
office building where PT Freeport Indonesia is
located.
The Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Ketut
Untung Yoga Ana said the police would deploy more
officers to guard foreign premises, including
embassies. “We will do our job proportionally,” he
told The Jakarta Post.
Earlier this week, the Islamic Defenders Front
(FPI) attacked the US Embassy in protest of the US
Supreme Court’s 90-year-old sculpture that
features the Prophet Mohammad and several other
important lawgivers in history.
Head of the general crimes unit at the city
police, Sr. Comr. Muhamad Jaelani, said the police
had named 10 Papuan students as suspects in the
attack in the lobby of Plaza 89 in Kuningan, South
Jakarta. Three more students were allegedly
implicated in the attack, but are still at large.
The office of PT Freeport Indonesia is located on
several upper floors of the building. A total of
25 students from various universities here arrived
at the building to protest against Freeport over
clashes of local people and security officers
during a demonstration Wednesday at the company’s
mine in Timika.
At about 3:30 a.m., 13 of them stormed into the
lobby of the building by destroying the glass
windows with flower pots. The other 12 remained
outside.
There were only two security guards in the
building, and they were unable to stop the
students from entering, but managed to extinguish
a fire set in the lobby by the students, who were
armed with Molotov cocktails.
As city police officers began to arrive, 10
students hopped into a public minivan they had
rented, while three others sped away on
motorcycles. The students sought protection at the
office of the Commission for Missing Persons and
Victims of Violence (Kontras).
The police followed them to the rights activists’
office and negotiated with Kontras, who will now
act as their legal representatives. The activists
agreed to hand the students over for arrest, said
Kontras’ executive Abu Said Pelu.
The students are all members of the Papua Students
Council, according to the council chairman Yan
Matua. "The attack was not premeditated. It was a
spontaneous act triggered by accumulated
disappointment toward Freeport and the Indonesian
government, as we believe that Freeport paid the
police..." he argued.
Freeport’s mining operations remained suspended
Thursday as residents continued to block access to
the site for the second consecutive day. Freeport
is trying to negotiate with the residents.
About 400 independent local miners set up
barricades Wednesday at a road near the mine,
which is owned by the local unit of US-based
Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., forcing the
halt in production, after security forces
attempted to evict them from the mine a day
earlier.
The company’s corporate communications senior
manager Siddharta Moersjid said that the situation
remained unchanged from Tuesday and that talks
were being held between representatives of the
protesters and Freeport officials.
The local miners have been demanding permission to
sift through the waste pumped from the mine.
Meanwhile, in Papua’s capital of Jayapura, some
300 people staged a protest at the local council
building as well the Freeport office, demanding
the company shut down its operation.
The incident near the mine is the latest snag in
Indonesia for Freeport-McMoran, which has been
under scrutiny for making payments to Indonesia’s
military for protection.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo
Yusgiantoro to coordinate with the security
minister to resolve the dispute, fearing a loss of
national income if the mine stays shut.
The company is the largest taxpayer in Indonesia,
reportedly contributing at least US$33 billion to
government coffers in recent years.
Don’t blame locals for incident in Freeport area
Antara News - February 23, 2006
Jakarta — A University of Indonesia sociologist
said the indigenous Papuan people should not be
blamed in the clash that occurred in the mining
area of giant US-based mining company PT Freeport
Indonesia in Timika on Tuesday.
"We should not put the blame (for the incident) on
the indigenous people but on PT Freeport
Indonesia, the central and provincial governments
who have not given enough attention to the fate of
those people," Thamrin Amal Tamagola said on
Thursday.
He said the incident was the culmination of their
annoyance about the mining company that had shown
an unfriendly attitude towards the local people by
using military and Police Mobile Brigade personnel
to guard its premises.
"The local people also want to enjoy the benefits
derived from the exploitation of Papua’s natural
resources," he said.
He suggested that PT Freeport change its way of
thinking and pursue a more friendly approach to
the local people. "It should also stop using
military and police personnel against the local
people," he added.
Previously, it was reported that security
personnel of the company and Police Mobile Brigade
members clashed with illegal miners at Mile 71 in
Tembaga Pura, Mimika district, Papua on Tuesday
afternoon. Five people, including two company
security guards, were injured.
The incident began when company security guards
asked the illegal miners to stop their activity in
the area of the company. The illegal miners
responded by throwing stones and blowing arrows at
the company security personnel.
All the injured people are now being treated at
the Tembaga Pura Hospital.
Meanwhile the company ceased its operation
following the closing of the road at Mile 72, 74
by the government. "We can not give any
confirmation on when we will resume our
operations," a company spokesman, Sidharta Mursid,
told Antara News in Irian Jaya on Thursday.
On the total loss of the ceased-operations he said
the company could not confirm the amount of the
loss.
Protesters vandalize mining company offices
Associated Press - February 23, 2006
Zakki Hakim, Jakarta — Students attacked the
building housing offices of a US gold mining giant
in Indonesia’s capital on Thursday, as the
company’s mine in western Papua province remained
shut for a second day due to protests, police
said.
Up to 20 Papuan students broke windows and damaged
facilities in the lobby of the building in the
pre-dawn attack, said police chief Gen. Sutanto.
Thirteen people were arrested.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. was forced to
shut its massive gold and copper mine in Papua on
Wednesday after locals — some of them carrying
bow and arrows — set up barricades and demanded
permission to sift through waste ore pumped out by
the mine.
The New Orleans-based company, already under fire
over pollution allegations and its practice of
paying security forces to guard its open pit mine,
said it hoped to resume operations soon, but the
mine remained close Thursday.
The blockades followed clashes Tuesday after
police and company security guards tried to
prevent locals from sifting through the waste
rock. Six people were injured.
Adrianto Machribie, head of PT Freeport Indonesia,
the company’s Indonesian subsidiary, told Metro TV
the closure could cost the company $10 million to
$12 million a day.
The mine, which has long had an uneasy
relationship with local people, many of whom are
desperately poor, last temporarily closed in 2003
after a landslide killed several workers. Although
illegal, many people earn their living retrieving
and selling tiny amounts of gold and copper from
waste rock, or tailings, dumped by the mine.
Security practices at the site have came under
renewed scrutiny since a 2002 attack on a convoy
of teachers working at the mine killed two US
citizens. Local and foreign rights groups claim
soldiers took part in the attack, allegedly to
extort more security payments from Freeport.
Papua is also home to a separatist rebellion,
further complicating Freeport’s security.
The Grasberg mine, the largest gold mine in the
world and third largest copper mine, opened in
1973. Freeport estimates the mine, some 2,300
miles east of Jakarta, has decades of future
production.
West Papua and East Timor parallels
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network - February
22, 2006
[Talk by Scott Burchill, senior lecturer in
international relations, Deakin University Forum
for West Papua, RMIT University, Victoria,
Australia] February 15, 2006
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to you
briefly tonight about this important subject. For
those of you disheartened by the immensity of the
struggle for freedom in West Papua, let me say at
the outset that I still have vivid memories of
addressing meetings just like this — many on a
smaller scale — throughout the 1980s and 1990s
when East Timor was our priority. This is how
change is ultimately effected.
We were told then, as we are now, that we were
wasting our time on a “lost cause.” Our critics
were wrong then and they seem determined to repeat
their mistakes today.
The picture of human rights abuses in West Papua
is all too depressingly familiar, especially to
those who know what went on in East Timor between
1975 & 1999. It has been:
– systematic & state sponsored (more accurately
state terrorism, but of the kind that doesn’t
excite or even interest Western political elites,
including the use of militias to target
independence activists)
– grave (bordering on genocide according to a Yale
University Law School study, perhaps 400,000
unnatural deaths over four decades)
– crimes against the West Papuans have been
committed with impunity (no appetite for
prosecution in the Indonesian legal system, no
accountability)
– characterised by political persecution of
independence activists (OPM — clearly the crucial
issue of the moment for those who recently arrived
here by boat)
– involved cultural attacks against Melanesians
(including attempts to alter the demographic
balance in the territory through transmigration)
– also involving resource exploitation (the
enormous mineral wealth of the country should have
made the West Papuans the wealthiest people on the
planet, not some of the poorest) and environmental
destruction (pollution of river systems, illegal
logging, and so on)
The good news is that these crimes have been
extensively documented in studies by Yale
University’s Law School and the centre for Peace
and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney,
amongst others.
No-one, especially neighbouring governments, can
plead ignorance about the plight of the indigenous
people in the territory. In my view, the evidence
of human rights violations in West Papua has been
more systematically recorded and comprehensively
documented than they were in East Timor during its
period of Indonesian occupation. But then again,
the crimes have been going on much longer.
This means that although the Department of
Immigration must assess all claims for refugee
status on a case by case basis, it can be in no
doubt about the context in which the 43 asylum
seekers are making their appeals. No-one,
including the Indonesian Defence Minister — and
who knows even the Foreign Editor of The
Australian, now denies that these crimes took
place. Importantly, they continue today and have
not been mitigated by Indonesia’s recent
democratic transition.
It should be interesting to watch events in
Canberra. It’s not often that one department of
state — in this case the Department of
Immigration and Multicultural Affairs — gets to
pass judgement on another department of state —
the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Vanstone v Downer for the South Australian
heavyweight title!
Let there be no mistake about what is at stake
here. This is not just an assessment of the
international legal rights of 43 people. It is a
judgement about both the state of political
freedom in Indonesia’s eastern province and the
success or failure of Australian diplomacy towards
Indonesia since 1969.
The granting of refugee status will formerly
acknowledge that Jakarta is guilty of crime
against humanity in West Papua. The refusal to
grant refugee status to the 43 would not only
further damage our international reputation —
especially with the UNHCR — but would confirm yet
again the triumph of tawdry and myopic politics
over humanitarian concerns and ethical
obligations.
Successive Australian Governments have adopted the
mistaken belief that political stability across
the Indonesian archipelago — which they believe
is bedeviled by inherent centrifugal forces — can
be secured through military repression. Precisely
the opposite is true. Military repression is a
cause of political fragmentation and secession in
Indonesia. A few points about this deserve
elaboration:
– fears about the Balkanisation of Indonesia is
irrational and unfounded (beyond Aceh & WP, what?)
– promoting stability in a territory is
meaningless unless you understand what is being
stabilised (in WP repression and human rights
violations)
– Canberra looks foolish when it appears more
committed to West Papua’ retention within the
Republic of Indonesia that the people of the
province are
– the political boundaries of states are not
immutable, they change all the time (USSR,
Germany, Yugoslavia, ET, Czechoslovakia —
Palestine, Korea, Cyprus, Kurds) — they are not
as sacred or sacrosanct as often claimed
– self-determination is not a once and forever
event — people have the right to reconsider their
political arrangements, especially when the bonds
of nationalism are broken by state violence and
exploitation
– before we consider the possible consequences of
altering stateboundaries, we need to first ask:
what are the human costs of maintaining the status
quo? Does Australia believe what is going on in WP
is tolerable and sustainable?
– Canberra should also consider answering the one
question they always try to avoid asking: what do
the people of West Papua want?
Now let me make some remarks about our
responsibilities in this issue.
1) Outsiders shouldn’t reflexively support
independence for West Papua or integration with
PNG or Indonesia or any other option. Outsiders
should support the right of the people of West
Papua to decide their own political arrangements
— their right to self-determination. The freedom
they are entitled to is the freedom to choose
their political future.
This is the political principle at stake here.
This right — to fashion their own preferred forms
of political community — has been denied to them
by outsiders:
– Indonesia’s territorial claim as inheritor state
of the Dutch East Indies (paradox of sanctifying
the borders of a colonial system they despised and
violently resisted) — the UN’s complicity in
holding and validating a sham plebiscite — the
Act of Free Choice in 1969, which has no moral or
legal legitimacy
– the diplomatic preferences and conveniences of
others, including Australia, which reinforce
Indonesia’s territorial claim (as we did with ET),
thus denying the West Papuans the opportunity to
make their choices. Our complicity extends to the
tolerance, and therefore de facto encouragement,
of serious international crimes.
2) If the West Papuans are to enjoy the rights we
take for granted, their struggle needs to be
internationalised. This will not be easy.
The East Timorese eventually received the
patronage of their former colonial overlords —
the Portuguese. The West Papuans cannot expect
similar levels of support from the Dutch. A
starting point is for the United Nations to
acknowledge the error of its ways in 1969 and
revisit the issue so that an authentic expression
of political intention (beyond the rejection of
special autonomy) can be made. This is a
responsibility New York cannot avoid. But which
state will sponsor this? A Scandinavian state?
3) The demilitarisation of the province, an end to
corruption, terrorism, exploitation, and cultural
repression in the territory, together with
investigations into crimes against humanity
committed in West Papua must take place
simultaneously and regardless of what transpires
in the short term on the political front.
Accountability for these crimes is a pre-requisite
to any political solution. These are matters of
justice.
4) Australia should stop buckling to pressure from
the political elite in Java which gets nervous
each time its crimes in West Papua are exposed to
the international community. Questions of
Indonesia’s territorial integrity are no business
of Australia’s. Ritualised commitments need not be
made each time the Australian foreign minister or
Prime Minister visits the country, nor should they
be written into any future bilateral security
agreement.
Why does Jakarta have so little confidence in the
commitment of some of its citizens to the Republic
that it needs to elicit Canberra’s support in
persuading them otherwise? As if we have either
influence or the best interests of the West
Papuans at heart.
Canberra should be telling Jakarta that it has a
problem in WP because of its own behaviour there
and not because of unruly activists in the
province or solidarity groups in Australia. Until
it civilianises political rule in the territory,
enforces the rule of law there and treats its
indigenous inhabitants with dignity, nothing will
change.
For its part, the Australian Government should
reflect on the recently released UN report into
Indonesia’s horrendous behaviour in East Timor,
its complicity in those crimes, and ask whether it
has learnt from its diplomatic mistakes there or
is determined to repeat them in West Papua.
West Papuan asylum seekers need protection
Green Left Weekly - February 22, 2006
Gillian Davy, Melbourne — A powerful video
message from Herman Wainggai, spokesperson for 43
West Papuan asylum seekers incarcerated on
Christmas Island, was a highlight of a Free West
Papua Collective public forum attended by 120
people on February 15.
Wainggai made a passionate call for Australian and
international support for his peoples’ struggle
for independence from Indonesia. He explained that
he and fellow independence activists had fled West
Papua because they were being targeted by the
Indonesian military (TNI).
Uncle Kevin Buzzacott welcomed the meeting to
Indigenous land and Kimberly Smith, a member of
the Council of the Anglican Diocese, said a
petition calling on the church to investigate
claims of TNI human-rights abuses in West Papua,
and to explore the call for a United Nations
review of the 1969 “Act of Free Choice” has been
presented to the Melbourne Anglican Synod.
Scott Burchill, senior lecturer in international
relations at Deakin University, recalled
addressing similar meetings throughout the 1980s
and 1990s in support of the East Timorese
independence struggle when critics argued that he
was supporting a lost cause. “They were wrong.”
"The issue of terrorism is new for Canberra. But
for 43 years West Papuans have been terrorised",
Australian Jacob Rumbiak, West Papua Association
spokesperson, explained, adding that West Papuans
wanted to solve the independence issue through
peaceful means.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, who recently visited
the asylum seekers on Christmas Island, recounted
their personal stories of persecution and abuse.
One asylum seeker spoke of being poisoned while
imprisoned for his pro-independence activities;
another spoke of the murder by the TNI of his 14-
year-old child. Wainggai explained that he put his
three-year-old twin girls onto the handmade boat
that took five days to make the crossing to Cape
York, because he wanted them to survive the TNI’s
repression.
Nettle called for a national day of action in
support of West Papuan independence on April 2.
Jimly reaffirms legal status of West Irian Jaya
Jakarta Post - February 22, 2006
Jakarta — Despite opposition from Papuan
community groups, the Constitutional Court has
reaffirmed the status of West Irian Jaya as a
province, saying it only lacks a legal operational
basis to regulate government activities there.
West Irian Jaya Legislative Council chief Jimmy
Demianus Itjie and West Irian Jaya caretaker
governor Timbul Pudjianto were part of a
delegation that met Tuesday with Constitutional
Court Chief Justice Jimly Asshiddiqie and justice
Achmad Rustandi to ask about the legal status of
their province.
In 2004, the Constitutional Court was asked to
rule on the validity of West Irian Jaya province,
established in 1999, following the enactment of
the 2001 Papua Special Autonomy Law.
The latter stipulated that any partitioning of
Papua province would require the approval of the
Papua People’s Assembly (MRP). The court ruled the
1999 law was unconstitutional, but said the 2001
law could not be applied retroactively because
West Irian Jaya was already established as a
province.
"Establishment of a gubernatorial government is an
act of law which cannot be rescinded," Jimly said.
His comment drew cheers from the delegation.
He noted that under the Constitutional Court’s
ruling, the government needed to establish a legal
basis regulating operational matters for its
activities there, not a legal basis for the
province itself.
The government missed its deadline of Feb. 20 to
reach a solution with groups opposed to the
partition of Papua to establish West Irian Jaya.
The MRP has cited the 2001 law in its objection to
the establishment of the province, saying it also
received overwhelming support from community
groups.
MRP chairman Agus Alue Alua said Monday the
council would only be willing to negotiate on the
issue if all matters related to the easternmost
province referred to the special autonomy law.
Jimly reiterated that because West Irian Jaya was
established by the 1999 law and legitimized by the
court in 2004, the special autonomy law of 2001
was not pertinent.
He added that he believed every party involved in
the issue understood the 2004 Constitutional
Court’s decision. "It is just a matter of
determination from the government,“he said.”The
Constitutional Court cannot dictate to the
government what to do."
Jimmy said he was relieved by the explanation, and
the province would go ahead with gubernatorial
elections on March 10 concurrently with Papua
polls.
Production suspended at US gold mine in Indonesia
Associated Press - February 22, 2006
Jakarta — Production at the world’s largest gold
and copper mine was suspended Wednesday after
illegal miners blocked the road leading to the
site in Indonesia’s remote Papua province, a
company spokesman said.
Around 400 illegal miners have set up wood and
stone barricades on the road leading to the
Grasberg mine in Indonesia’s Papua province, which
is run by a local unit of New Orleans-based
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), said
police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra.
"Mining and milling operations have been
temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure,"
said Freeport spokesman Siddharta Moersjid in
Jakarta. "The Indonesian authorities are working
to resolve the situation in a peaceful and
expeditious manner."
The last time the mine closed down was in 2003
after a landslide killed several workers.
The protest followed clashes Tuesday after police
and company security guards tried to disperse the
miners, who earn their living retrieving gold from
waste rock dumped by the mine, said
Wangsadisastra. Three Freeport employees, one
policeman and two illegal miners received minor
injuries in the clash, said Moersjid.
The mine in the remote province has long had an
uneasy relationship with local people, most of
whom are desperately poor. Papua is also home to a
separatist rebellion, complicating Freeport’s
security still farther.
Security practices at the site have came under
renewed scrutiny since a 2002 attack on a convoy
of teachers working at the mine killed two US
citizens. Local and foreign rights groups claim
soldiers took part in the attack, allegedly to
extort more security payments money from Freeport.
Hidden wars West Papua: Manifest destiny redux
Nonviolent Activist - February 22, 2006
Charles Scheiner — Imagine a vast land mass,
laden with gold and timber and populated only by a
few “primitive” tribes. Imagine an overpopulated,
expansionist neighbor eager to reap the harvest
next door. In North America from 1492 through
1849, the result was enslavement and genocide of
Native Americans and a United States that now
stretches from sea to shining sea and exerts
global economic, military and political power.
Indonesia aims to repeat the saga, and the
parallels are striking.
But instead of the Homestead Act giving Native
land to Easterners who move West, the Indonesian
government subsidizes transmigration from Java to
Indonesia s outer islands. Instead of rugged
individualist 49ers rushing to California with
pickaxe and pan, New Orleans-based multinational
corporation Freeport-MacMoRan uses the latest in
20th-century technology to run the world’s largest
gold mine in West Papua. Indonesia’s treatment of
the West Papuans, particularly its lack of respect
for their human, civil and economic rights, is a
macabre reminder of our own national history, with
the US Cavalry superseded by the tanks,
helicopters and machine guns of ABRI, the Armed
Forces of the Republic of Indonesia — and with
the corpses black instead of red.
We can no longer avert the genocide that
accompanied European expansion over our continent.
But we can be aware of the repetition of that
history now occurring in West Papua — and of the
key role the United States played in laying the
groundwork for this reprise. It is not too late to
stop history from repeating itself to the bloody
end.
The colonial history
Most of Southeast Asia was colonized by Western
powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The
Japanese occupation of the area (French Indochina,
British Burma and Malaya, the US Philippines,
Dutch Indonesia and Portuguese Timor) during World
War II, coupled with the growth of indigenous
liberation movements, led after the war to
revolutions and independence formany of those
countries.
Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies) was no
exception, declaring independence in 1946 and
achieving it three years later. The United States
encouraged the Netherlands to leave the colony,
thereby opening it up to freer international
trade.
In neighboring resource-rich Dutch New Guinea
(West Papua), which had been ruled as a separate
colony, independence did not come so readily, as
much of the territory was still isolated from
international contact. But by 1957, the Dutch —
with deliberate slowness — promised West Papua it
would be self-governing by 1970 and belatedly
began to develop local infrastructure and skilled
personnel.
Indonesia was not so patient, however;
assimilating West Papua became a major cause for
the Sukarno government, despite the fact that the
1.5 million West Papuans who live in the territory
are religiously, culturally and racially distinct
from Indonesians. In 1962, the United States
averted a possible war by negotiating the so-
called “New York Agreement” between the
Netherlands and Indonesia. It provided for eight
months of transitional UN rule, then Indonesian
control, to be followed by a plebiscite to be held
before 1970. Jakarta named the territory "Irian
Jaya,“an acronym for”Follow Indonesia Against
Holland."
Although West Papuans were not included in the
negotiations leading up to the New York Agreement,
the pact was sanctioned by the United Nations and
the world community. Indonesia took over the
territory May 1, 1963. Two years later, Indonesia
itself was taken over in the cataclysmic military
coup that put still-reigning General Suharto in
power. Suharto followed up with mass killings of
alleged supporters of the mass-based, formerly
legal Communist Party of Indonesia; the slaughter
claimed upwards of a million lives.
No choice
The misnamed “Act of Free Choice” of 1969 that
ostensibly implemented the New York Agreement gave
the people of West Papua no choice at all. In a
travesty of a plebiscite, Indonesia allowed only
1,025 carefully selected “traditional leaders” to
vote on the question; they unanimously chose for
their country to remain a province of Indonesia.
Journalists were excluded from the meeting,
although leaked UN and diplomatic reports convey
its coerced, uninformed and undemocratic nature.
Angered by this betrayal and receiving no support
from the international community, West Papuans
began to organize guerrilla resistance under the
Organisasi Papua Merdeka, the Free Papua Movement.
Although the OPM occasionally engages the
Indonesian military, usually resulting in
reprisals against neighboring civilian
populations, its resistance is primarily symbolic;
it is difficult, with spears and captured
handguns, to win against a modern army equipped
with the latest in US-supplied helicopters and
munitions. But the OPM knows West Papua s jungles
and mountains far better than ABRI does and
continues to control significant areas in the
bush.
Casualties are hard to estimate, but the pattern
is familiar. In addition to military retaliation,
forced relocation, coerced labor and imported
diseases have taken their toll; a hundred thousand
or more West Papuans have died from the Indonesian
occupation, and tens of thousands of Indonesian
troops remain in West Papua to preserve control
and order.
Transmigrasi policy
One of Indonesia s greatest needs (and part of
West Papua’s attraction for Indonesia) is relief
for overpopulated Java, an island with 30 percent
the area of West Papua but almost 100 times as
many people. Since the early 1970s the 20th-
century version of the Homestead Act (often
financed by the World Bank) has enticed more than
200,000 people to move to West Papua, threatening
to outnumber the locals.
Inaria Kaisiepo, a young West Papuan woman living
in exile in the Netherlands, put it this way:
"The Papuans have always led a self-sufficient way
of life. They have their own agricultural systems.
The Indonesian authorities do not show any respect
for the Papuans and are only interested in [West
Papua’s] minerals and other natural resources.
They say West Papua has little people and is
practically empty. The multinationals are being
allowed to come in. Papuans have no place in this
development process. They are considered backward
and primitive, and they become second-class
citizens in their own country.
"There are 240 languages in West Papua, and even
more tribes. The people try to defend their land.
For instance, the Moi people are very strongly
resisting a logging company in their area. There
is also the transmigration policy in Indonesia. A
lot of immigrants come to West Papua, and the
Papuans are being pushed aside for the immigrants,
who have better education opportunities. There is
a lot of discrimination going on. At the moment it
is difficult to get exact figures because the
Papuans are not allowed to call themselves Papuan,
and everyone is supposed to call themselves
Irianese. But there are estimates of a 3.5 percent
population growth in West Papua but only 0.2
percent among the Papuans, so in a few years, the
Papuans may become a minority in their own
country.
"Papuans have no right to their own culture. They
are not allowed to practice their own culture
except when they are forced to practice it for
tourism, like in woodcarving, where they are
forced to do woodcarving all day and then these
are sold for a hundred times more than they were
paid for it.
"It is difficult to organize for indigenous
peoples because they are not recognized. There are
supposedly no Papuans in Papua so they are not
allowed to organize. We are struggling for a right
to self-determination."
Resistance continues
In addition to the military resistance, the West
Papuans often use nonviolent and cultural tactics
— and are met with violence. In 1984, for
example, West Papuan anthropologist Arnold Ap was
killed by Indonesian troops after a ceremonial
raising of the West Papua flag in Jayapura, the
capital. Subsequent Indonesian military
“exercises” caused 10,000 refugees to flee over
the border to Papua New Guinea.
In December 1988 Dr. Thomas Wainggai (a US- and
Japanese-educated Papuan scholar) led about 70
people, including many church leaders, in a
similar flag-raising at a Jayapura sports stadium.
Although military leaders were invited to attend,
they chose to participate by arresting those
present. Dr. Wainggai was sentenced to 20 years
for his peaceful protest. After his March 1996
death (probably of natural causes) in a Jakarta
prison, 4,000 people rioted when they were
prevented from holding a public funeral.
The cracked golden egg
Although West Papuan land and lumber are valuable
commodities, the real prize is the gold and copper
reserves estimated to be worth more than $60
billion. And the winner is: Freeport Pacific
Indonesia, a joint venture of the Indonesian
government and Freeport MacMoRan, the largest US
investor in Indonesia. Freeport s huge gold mine
in West Papua processes more than 120,000 tons of
ore daily, netting $200 million profit in 1995
alone. With the help of Freeport director and
consultant Henry Kissinger, they recently obtained
rights to an even larger area of West Papua and
have arranged with the British RTZ mining company
to increase by half again their rate of conversion
of West Papua s mountains into gold, copper — and
river silt. More than 90 percent of the mined
mountains end up as tailings, clogging rivers and
destroying the environment for miles and miles
downstream.
Freeport was the first US company to rush into
Indonesia after Suharto’s brutal takeover, and it
continues to front for the regime.
Its active presence in the US Congress — opposing
any pressure on Indonesia (and lobbying to hasten
the demise of the Endangered Species and Clean
Water Acts, among other environmental protections)
— is little noticed outside the Beltway. But the
bluntness of Freeport CEO James R. “Jim-Bob”
Moffett is having repercussions as the company has
come increasingly into the spotlight for its
involvement in human rights violations.
In April 1995, the Australian Council for Overseas
Aid documented the killing or disappearance of 15
alleged OPM guerrillas and 22 civilians in
Freeport-controlled territory. In one incident,
ABRI attacked a peaceful flag-raising ceremony on
Christmas Day, 1994, killing at least three and
arresting and torturing more than a dozen.
Although Freeport denies that its own people were
involved, it works closely with ABRI, providing
equipment and transport for the soldiers who
“protect” Freeport s facilities. Other reports
(including one by the usually compliant Indonesian
National Human Rights Commission) have confirmed
the Australian Council s findings, as well as the
fact that ABRI used Freeport-provided containers
as torture chambers.
At the same time, Freeport s destruction and
dishonesty about its operations effects on the
West Papuan environment became better known back
in the United States, where the company is
renowned for flouting local and federal anti-
pollution rules. Things got so bad that the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the US
government took the precedent-setting action of
canceling Freeport s $100 million "political risk
insurance" policy, even after President uharto
personally urged President Clinton to forestall
the action.
Freeport appealed the ruling, and an arbitrator
worked out a settlement that restored the
insurance only until the end of 1996 — but not
before anti-Freeport riots this March shut down
the mine for several days.
Following the riots, Moffett met with local
leaders, and Freeport’s aggressive public
relations people falsely claimed a settlement had
been reached. Tom Beanal of the local Amungme
Tribal Council is currently suing Freeport in New
Orleans federal court.
Meanwhile, at the University of Texas in Austin,
Moffett promised a multimillion donation in return
for a building to be named after him and his wife.
As student and faculty activists raised questions
about the appropriateness of an academic
institution honoring such an individual, Freeport
wrote several professors and journalists,
threatening lawsuits if they continued to write
about Freeport s activities. The controversy grew
so intense that the University s Chancellor
William Cunningham had to resign his $40,000/year
post as a Freeport director.
At Loyola in New Orleans, Freeport had endowed a
$600,000 chair in “environmental communications.”
But after some students demonstrated at Jim-Bob’s
home (some signs read "Jim-Bob Moffett kills for
profit"), he demanded the return of the money. The
Wall Street Journal opined that Freeport’s
"Wielding a Howitzer against a mosquito is a
dangerous strategy," but Forbes Magazine depicted
Freeport as victim, railing against the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation and US and
Indonesian environmental groups for "using their
power in the US bureaucracy to impose their own
standards on other countries."
Desperate measures
Freeport is not the only West Papua story deemed
more newsworthy than ongoing genocide. An OPM
guerrilla group near the Freeport mine seized 26
hostages Jan. 8, including seven Europeans, and
demanded independence for West Papua. Although a
few were released quickly, half were still captive
four months later, as the Red Cross tried to
resolve the situation, promising to keep the
military out. A settlement had nearly been reached
when Indonesian military helicopters came flying
over the site in violation of the Red Cross
promise. In response, OPM guerrilla leader Kelly
Kwalik (several of whose relatives had been killed
by ABRI/Freeport forces in 1994) withdrew his
promise to free the hostages. The Red Cross gave
up May 9, and a few days later a massive
Indonesian military operation freed all of the
European and most of the Indonesian and West
Papuan hostages. Several OPM people were killed by
the military, and two Indonesian hostages were
apparently killed by their captors. At this
writing, the actual events are still unclear, and
many fear military reprisals against the
neighboring civilian population.
The hostage drama and its ambiguous ending
illustrate the despair felt by many West Papuans
at their inability to effectively challenge the
Indonesian and corporate rape of their land and
people. Many OPM leaders in exile criticized the
hostage-taking as wrong and/or counter-productive,
but the personal histories and isolation of some
guerrillas in the jungle made them unable to see
that Indonesia would not accede to their demand
for independence.
Although the incident did put West Papua s
independence struggle on the front pags
(especially in the British, Dutch and German
home-country press of the captives), its
resolution was a serious setback for the OPM.
As in East Timor, invaded and occupied by
Indonesia since 1975 with genocidal results, it
will take sustained pressure from many quarters —
international solidarity, foreign governments, the
developing democratic movement in Indonesia and
the West Papuan people themselves — to bring
Jakarta around. But the first step, for Americans,
is learning about a drama that is disconcertingly
similar to one of the most shameful aspects of our
own nation s history.
Fast Facts about West Papua:
http://www.warresisters.org/nva796-5.htm
Further Information:
http://www.warresisters.org/nva796-5.htm#moreinfo
[Charles Scheiner, formerly of the WRL Executive
Committee, has worked on Pacific peace and
sovereignty issues for more than a decade and is
national coordinator of the East Timor Action
Network. The opinions in this article are his own
and not those of ETAN.]
======================
MILITARY TIES
======================
Kopassus, SARS resume joint exercises
Antara - February 28, 2006
Jakarta — Indonesia’s army special forces,
Kopassus, has resumed a joint exercise with
Australia’s special forces SASR after the program
was stopped in 2002.
"The joint exercise between Kopassus’ 81 Gultor
and SASR was code-named Dawn Kookaburra in Swan
Bourne, Perth, Australia and lasts 10 days,"
Kopassus’ general commander Major General Saiful
Rizal said on the sidelines of an army leadership
meeting here on Tuesday.
The exercise included attacks on buildings, raids
on aircraft, snipers, react shooting, mount
attacks, improvisation of explosives and
procedures of troop leadership.
He said the exercise was aimed at maintaining and
increasing capability as well as skills of the
soldiers in combat tactics and techniques.
It was also aimed at promoting the relationship
and cooperation between the Kopassus and the SASR
in particular, and between the two countries in
general.
Saiful said the exercise focussed on an anti-
terror exercise as a manifestation of the two
countries’ commitment to combat terrorism.
He said the Kopassus sent 31 personnel led by
Major Suhardi, the present chief of Battalion 812,
to the exercise which lasted from February 13 to
23.
Rights group blasts plans for expanded military
cooperation
Associated Press - February 27, 2006
Jakarta — The United States will undermine
efforts to reform Indonesia’s armed forces if it
sharply increases military sales to the world’s
most populous Muslim nation next year, rights
activists said Tuesday.
"Arming the military is not the way to promote
democracy and human rights in Indonesia," said
Karen Orenstein, National Coordinator of New
York-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network
(ETAN).
"Congress should zero out the Bush
administration’s unwarranted gift to Indonesia’s
unreformed military."
The administration of US President George W. Bush
allocated nearly US$1 million dollars for military
sales to Indonesia in 2006, and has asked Congress
for a six-fold expansion of the program next year.
Washington, which sees Indonesia as a close ally
in the war on terror, last year lifted a six-year
military embargo that was imposed on the Southeast
Asian giant because of alleged rights abuses.
"Impunity for serious human rights violations,
including crimes against humanity, still reins
supreme in Indonesia," ETAN said, adding that
unrestricted military sales will signal an end to
efforts to reform the armed forces. More than
100,000 East Timorese were killed, abducted,
starved or died of illnesses under Indonesia’s
occupation from 1975-1999, according to a truth
commission report submitted to the United Nations
last month.
======================
HUMAN RIGHTS/LAW
=====================
SBY still seeking political support for truth body
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Tony Hotland, Jakarta — The government continues
to drag its feet on setting up the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (KKR), despite a law
ordering its immediate establishment. When
questioned about the body, State Secretary Yusril
Ihza Mahendra said Thursday President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono wondered whether there was
sufficient “public support” to establish the
commission, which was supposed to have been up and
running by April last year.
Under the law, the commission will be tasked with
probing past human rights abuses that took place
from 1945-2000. Many high level government
officials and security chiefs from the New Order
era are implicated in these abuses.
The KKR will also seek to draw up a truth-telling
mechanism to deal with the perpetrators and
compensate the victims of past human rights cases.
Yudhoyono met the KKR selection team on Thursday,
more than six months after it screened and
submitted 42 candidates to the President.
Yudhoyono is supposed to pick 21 names for the
commission, a list which will then be sent to the
House of Representatives for approval.
However, Yusril said the President still planned
to meet the selection team and senior officials
one more time to canvas their political support
for the commission. The government was also
preparing auxiliary regulations to implement the
much-debated law, he said.
"The President will try to meet and consult with
heads of state institutions, such as the House of
Representatives, the Supreme Court and the
Constitutional Court on the working mechanism.
(He) needs (more) political backing," Yusril said.
He reiterated the President’s commitment to
establishing the commission. "We are aware that
the process is overdue... (but) we are considering
the social and political situation. Please
understand this," he said.
Human rights observers have criticized the
government for delaying the establishment of the
commission. They particularly took issue with
Kalla’s comments on the affair last week.
Comparing the situation at home to that in South
Africa, Kalla said there was no need for Indonesia
to have such a commission because there were no
longer any alleged human rights abuses that needed
to be resolved. Kalla also heads the Golkar Party,
the home to many former Soeharto loyalists.
Also on Thursday, Yusril announced the President
had selected three police experts and three public
figures to join a commission tasked with
supervising the police. Yusril declined to name
the six, pending the issuance of their appointment
letters.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and
Security Affairs Widodo Adisutjipto, Justice and
Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin and Home
Minister M. Ma’ruf will also sit on the Police
Commission.
Human rights a non issue to elite
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Tony Hotland, Jakarta — Doing the necessary work
to address human rights issues has never held much
appeal for any administration in Indonesia. During
the many decades that Sukarno and his successor
Soeharto were in power, rights abuses of all types
occurred. Subsequent presidents — B.J. Habibie,
Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri —
had little time for such issues.
Indeed, human rights were never discussed when
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Megawati were
campaigning for the presidency in 2004.
On the legislative side, it does not take a genius
to determine the House of Representatives has
never lived up to its billing as the
representatives of the people, especially
regarding rights issues.
While the future protection of human rights in the
country remains an uncertainty, settling past
atrocities seems to be even less likely.
Already frustrated by a lack of action over the
1998 Trisakti and Semanggi student shootings,
families of the victims were dealt another blow
last Thursday when the House decided to do nothing
about a recommendation issued by lawmakers from
the previous term.
Legally flawed, the recommendation says there were
no elements of gross human rights violations in
the shootings, although an investigation by the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
found otherwise. The commission implicated the
military in the shootings.
Unlike the commission, the House does not have the
authority to make such a determination, and now
this recommendation poses a hurdle to the Attorney
General’s Office as it tries to follow up on the
case.
House Commission III overseeing human rights
issues promised last June to have the
recommendation revoked, providing a glimmer of
hope for the families of the victims. But months
passed with no news until Thursday’s decision,
which was reached in a leadership forum.
House Deputy Speaker Zaenal Maarif quoted fellow
Deputy Speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno, who is
said to be the person most familiar with the
issue, as saying that revoking the recommendation
would be unethical. Speaker Agung Laksono says
there is no precedent for revoking earlier House
recommendations.
It can be dangerous to make assumptions, but let’s
try these: Fact No. 1: Soetardjo is a top figure
in the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-P), which has close ties with the military,
at least when it was the ruling party under
Megawati’s administration.
Fact No. 2: Agung is the vice chairman of the
Golkar Party, an inseparable ally of the military
during Soeharto’s reign.
"Funny, even the Constitution and laws can be
revised and revoked," said National Awakening
Party legislator Nursjahbani Katjasungkana, who
dealt with human rights cases before moving into
politics.
"The idea that a decision by a commission can be
overruled by four people is ridiculous. The
leadership forum is only a substitute for a House
consultative meeting, which deals only with
scheduling issues."
Another avenue for probing past human rights
cases, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(KKR), is still a long way from being formed,
almost a year since the April 2005 “deadline” for
its creation passed.
The KKR eventually will investigate alleged human
rights abuses that occurred between 1945 and 2000,
with its main tasks being to seek the truth behind
alleged abuses, facilitate a reconciliation
between perpetrators and victims, and provide
compensation and amnesty for both parties.
Stuck with the President is a list of 42 names to
be screened for possible inclusion on the
commission, as he is too busy to arrange a meeting
with the screening team.
Yet, the President has time to travel the world.
He even plans to visit Myanmar to preach democracy
in another country accused of gross human rights
abuses, as well as to South Korea to help
reconcile the two Koreas.
He can spare time to play golf with colleagues and
even has time to meet with a group of librarians
to discuss a private library at his residence.
It is again shaky to make assumptions, but who’s
to blame? Fact No. 1: The President, infamous for
his indecisiveness, is a retired military general.
Fact No. 2: Vice President and Golkar leader Jusuf
Kalla has openly expressed his objection to the
KKR, calling it unnecessary.
Still waiting for justice are hundreds of families
and victims of the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre,
the 1989 Lampung incident, the 1997 forced
disappearances of government critics, the May 1998
riots and others.
This makes one wonder if the President’s show of
interest in the Commission of Truth and Friendship
jointly formed with Timor Leste was only a result
of international pressure.
Yet the House remains more interested in toying
with political issues rather than questioning the
President’s commitment to the national truth
commission that has eluded the country. Usman
Hamid of the Commission for Missing Persons and
Victims of Violence said no one had the courage to
hold people accountable for past abuses.
Ifdhal Kasim of the Institute for Policy Research
and Advocacy agreed. "Reform isn’t only about
clean governance. It’s also about respecting the
right to speak up, as well as coming clean about
the past," said Ifdhal.
With all the human rights cases so far heard in
court having ended with the acquittal of the
accused perpetrators, the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission looks to be the last chance for victims
and families of atrocities to seek justice.
[The writer is a journalist at The Jakarta Post.]
Abducted activists disappointed in Komnas HAM
Detik.com - February 23, 2006
Ken Yunita, Jakarta — It has not just been once
or twice that the families of pro-democracy
activists that were abducted in 1997-98 have
expressed their disappointment with the National
Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Ad Hoc team.
This time around they are conveying the same
thing, annoyance and disappointment with the
sluggishness of the team’s work.
"Whereas shouldn’t the team finish in June 2006,
but as of this month why hasn’t there been a
single summons of those suspected of [carrying out
the] abductions", said one of the victims, Mugiono
(sic), during a meeting with Komnas HAM at their
offices in Jakarta on Thursday February 23.
The mothers of two abducted activists and a member
of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims
of Violence (Kontras) accompanied Mugiono.
The delays have made Mugiono wander because the
team has already gathered information from a
number of witnesses. "Is the information from the
witnesses that has been gathered so far [still]
not enough", he said.
In response the deputy head of the Ad Hoc team,
Martono, said that in fact the team’s working
program has been on schedule. Martono admitted
however that so far it was still at stage I, the
compiling data and listening to testimonies from
the victims and their families and friends.
Starting in March the team will begin visiting the
locations where victims say they were detained.
"We may perhaps visit the national police
headquarters where friends previously said they
had been detained, or perhaps the Jakarta
metropolitan police", he said.
Mugiono added that Komnas HAM must ask for
political support from the president or the House
of Representatives in order that the case can be
resolved properly and quickly. "Komnas HAM must
demand the fulfillment of President SBY’s [Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono] promise to complete [the
investigation into] cases of human rights
violations, both those in the past and now", he
said.
In response Martono said that Komnas HAM as
actually already sent letters to Yudhoyono and the
TNI (Indonesian military). The letter basically
appealed to and informed them that the Komnas HAM
Ad Hoc team was currently conducting and
investigation into the abduction of pro-democracy
activists and asked that it be heeded because it
is mandated by legislation. (umi)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
==========================
CORRUPTION/COLLUSION/NEPOTISM
==========================
Six officials quizzed over ’Embassy-gate’
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Jakarta — Police have questioned six Cabinet
Secretariat staff members in connection with
Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi’s controversial
letters recommending a company for an embassy
renovation project.
Police intelligence officers also went to the
Foreign Ministry on Friday to obtain the original
copies of the two letters that Sudi sent last
year.
In the letters, Sudi asked Foreign Minister Hassan
Wirayuda to attend a presentation by PT Sun Hoo
Engineering on a planned renovation project for
the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul. PT Sun Hoo does
not exist as a legal entity in Indonesia.
Sudi now claims the letters were altered by his
staff after he signed them. National Police
spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bahrul Alam refused to
identify the six state secretariat employees but
he said they knew about the correspondence.
Anton said Sudi recognized his signature on the
letters but denied the content. "Pak Sudi
acknowledged the signature was his but maintained
that the content was not the same as the letter he
read and signed," Anton said.
The investigation follows Sudi’s report to the
police that the content of the letter had been
altered by his staff to make the letter read as if
he was recommending PT Sun Hoo for a job — a
serious abuse of his authority as state secretary.
Sudi, a confidante of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, has alleged that the controversy
surrounding the letters is politically motivated
and aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the
Yudhoyono administration, which has been
campaigning to combat corruption.
In the letter dated Feb. 21, 2005, Sudi appears to
have written, "Mr. President asked that you
(Minister Hassan) kindly accept the presentation
of PT Sun Hoo Engineering management and dully
follow it up."
In a hearing with the House of Representatives on
Thursday, a legislator from the National Mandate
Party, Andi Yulandi Paris, confronted Sudi with
another memo he had written to Forestry Minister
M.S. Kaban. In that letter Sudi had appealed to
Kaban to help a timber company belonging to a
well-connected businesswoman, Hartati Murdaya,
which was in danger of losing a concession. Sudi
said he “couldn’t remember” issuing the letter.
Anton said the police had also coordinated with
the foreign ministry to cross-check information
about the letters.
The foreign ministry has said it never had any
intention of renovating the embassy in Seoul.
Antara reported that police investigators met
Friday with Foreign Ministry administrative bureau
chief and spokesman Desra Percaya. Desra said that
the officers asked for the letters that Sudi had
sent to the ministry and other related documents.
Court a ’graveyard’ for anti-graft efforts
Jakarta Post - February 22, 2006
Jakarta — The South Jakarta District Court is
coming under increasing fire from officials and
legal activists for its many questionable
acquittals of high-profile graft suspects.
Activists branded the court Tuesday a “graveyard”
for justice, after its latest verdict exonerating
former president of state-owned Bank Mandiri ECW
Neloe and two other former directors, I Wayan
Pugeg and M. Soleh Tasripan in a corruption scam.
The court found the three not guilty Monday of
corruption in the disbursement of a Rp 165 billion
(US$18.5 million) loan from the bank to PT Cipta
Graha Nusantara. Prosecutors had sought 20 years
for the men.
"This acquittal increasingly strengthens the image
of the South Jakarta Court as a graveyard for
efforts to combat corruption," Indonesia
Corruption Watch deputy coordinator Danang
Widoyoko told Antara.
Danang said the judges’ decision to acquit the
three because their lending had incurred no losses
to the state was “extremely illogical”. The judges
ignored the fact that the loan later turned into a
bad debt in 2002, he said.
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said he was
not surprised by the acquittal of the three former
directors. The South Jakarta District Court was
“notorious” for its many controversial verdicts
involving big-time graft suspects, he said.
The AGO would soon appeal the verdict to the
Supreme Court, spokesman Mashyudi Ridwan
announced.
Judicial Commission chairman Busyro Muqoddas said
he planned to summon the panel of judges led by
Gatot Suharto to look into whether the judges had
violated their code of ethics when releasing the
men. However, he said his commission would first
examine the verdict before summoning the judges.
The controversial acquittal also drew a reaction
from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who asked
the court to explain its verdict to the public.
Responding to the call, new South Jakarta District
Court chief judge Andi Samsan Nganro said the
public scrutiny of the verdict was a healthy,
positive response. "We will open public access to
all verdicts the court has and will hand down," he
told The Jakarta Post on his first day of work.
"The transparency and public supervision of all
trials is absolutely necessary to restore the
court’s tarnished image." He said improving the
court’s image would be his biggest challenge.
Andi said he had met the panel of judges who tried
the case to seek a legal explanation for the
acquittals.
"I will first learn about the case and the verdict
before deciding whether there is a need to set up
a special team to look into it." Andi replaced the
court’s former chief Sudarto, who was promoted to
a senior judge in the Denpasar High Court in Bali.
Quoting the statements by the panel of judges,
Andi said there was no legal requirement the
judges must punish the three defendants.
"Three key elements that must be fulfilled in
corruption charges have not been met. Referring to
Law No. 31/1999 on corruption, the three breached
standard procedures because they approved the
disbursement of a loan for a private company
without any feasibility study. However, there was
no evidence that the approval enriched (the
judges), or others, and it did not cause any
material losses to the state,“he said.”Nor was the credit problematic because the
company (Cipta Graha) had no financial problems
repaying the loan to the bank," Andi said.
=====================
MEDIA/PRESS FREEDOM
=====================
Controversial broadcasting regulations to be
revised
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta — The government,
the House of Representatives and the Indonesian
Broadcasting Commission agreed Friday to end their
dispute over the four controversial government
regulations on broadcasting, saying they will team
up to revise the laws.
The agreement was reached in talks mediated by the
Constitutional Court, which advised the three
disputing parties to find an out-of-court
settlement, commission member Sasa Djuarsa
Sendjaja told The Jakarta Post.
"(The commission) will drop its plan for legal
action to review the regulations and has decided
to allow a team of five people to work together
with the government to revise the regulations
within a month," he said.
Lawmakers, commission members and other
broadcasting organizations have criticized the
four regulations — No. 49/2005 on foreign
broadcasters, No. 50/2005 on private broadcasters,
No. 51/2005 on community broadcasters and No.
52/2005 on foreign broadcasters — which they said
violated the 2002 Broadcasting Law.
They argued that the regulations authorizing the
government to license broadcasters and banning
local media from directly relaying news programs
provided by foreign networks would curb media
freedoms in the country.
The regulations also provide frameworks to
allocate broadcast frequencies, monitor programs,
sanction errant broadcasters and put limits on
foreign ownership of local media.
Sasa said the revisions to the regulations would
hopefully benefit all parties. "We would like to
encourage local TV and radio stations to grow and
allow people to get information from abroad. The
regulations should be revised to fulfill these
needs," he said.
Legislator Dedi Jamaludin Malik said although the
agreement was informal in nature, it was a step
forward to designing better regulations for the
country’s broadcasting industry.
"We believe that the (current) regulations
infringe on the authority of other institutions
and therefore we want the government to postpone
the implementation of the regulations until the
revisions are made,“he said.”The revisions should place the government and the
KPI on the proper (equal) footing as mandated by
the broadcasting law," Dedi said.
Government bid to control media has public feeling
anxious
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Abdullah Alamudi, Jakarta — The eyes and ears of
broadcast organizations focused on the
Constitutional Court building Friday, anxiously
waiting for the outcome of a meeting between four
government agencies that will decide the fate of
the broadcast media in the country.
Independent regulatory body the Indonesian
Broadcasting Commission (KPI), Information and
Communications Minister Sofyan Djalil, members of
House of Representatives Commission I on
information, and Constitutional Court judges met,
after a dispute between the KPI and the
information ministry over who should do what in
handling the broadcast media reached an impasse.
KPI has stopped processing applications from
broadcasting organizations until all the seven
controversial government regulations on
broadcasting are revoked, after Sofyan insisted on
enforcing the regulations while debate on them
continued.
The boycott leaves the government without
documents to process and its desire to control the
broadcast media thwarted — at least for the time
being. Under the Broadcasting Law, all
applications must first be verified by the KPI.
On its part, the newly set up legislative caucus,
whose members include all political parties
represented in House Commission I except President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party,
threatened to boycott the information ministry’s
budget deliberation if the government failed to
review the controversial regulations, a process
which the politicians said had to involve the KPI.
In another twist, the Constitutional Court is
coming under pressure following reports which
questioned the integrity of two of its judges who
heard the motion for a judicial review of the 2003
Broadcasting Law.
Judge Achmad Syarif Natabaya, who was an expert
advisor of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry
and member of the government team that drafted the
Broadcasting Bill, and court president Jimly
Asshiddiqie, admitted to owning shares in Global
TV, one of the television stations which requested
the judicial review.
Jimly claimed that although the shares, with a
nominal value of Rp 500,000 each, were registered
under his name, they actually belonged to an
Islamic organization of which he was the
secretary-general. A total of Rp 375 million had
been deposited for the shares. Jimly said the
shares still existed.
To uphold impartiality, both the law on judiciary
power and the Constitutional Court Code of Ethics
prohibits a judge from hearing a case in which he
or she is indirectly or directly involved. Jimly
denied that the shares registered under his name
had influenced his decision.
The Constitutional Court ruling in 2003 revoked
two of the 22 articles brought for a review by six
broadcast-related organizations. There was no
dissenting opinion.
The broadcast organizations requested the judicial
review over fear of what they called KPI’s
“monstrous power”. The broadcasting industry has
had decades of experience dealing with government
officials and bureaucrats but not with the nine
independent-minded members of the KPI, which must
always defend the public’s right to information.
Article 62 of the Broadcasting Law stipulates that
rules and regulations on broadcasting shall be
jointly formulated by the KPI and the government,
and be enacted through government regulations. The
judicial review awarded the monopoly to form such
regulations to the government, at the expense of
KPI’s status as an independent regulatory body.
Empowered by the court’s decision, many believe
the information ministry, which is in fact run by
bureaucrats of the New Order’s powerful
information ministry, maintains the old paradigm
of exercising control over broadcast media through
government regulations.
Civil society, and members of the House, are of
the opinion that the regulations run counter to
the Broadcasting Law and article 28 of the
Constitution on press freedom and the public’s
right to information and article 33 on social
welfare.
President Yudhoyono signed the regulations last
year, but their implementation was postponed for
two months following public protests, to enable
the information ministry and the KPI to review
them.
There has been no meeting between the two,
however. There was a suggestion to postpone the
enactment of the regulations for another month to
give the conflicting parties extra time to review
the controversial regulations. The government,
however, insisted that the review should not delay
the enforcement of the regulations on Feb. 6. KPI
has lost confidence in the ministry, particularly
after it was left in the cold during the drafting
of the regulations.
The opposition groups insist that information is a
public domain. They assert that allowing the
government to encroach upon that would only mean
the government would be tempted to regain control
over the press.
The public is now anxiously waiting for the
outcome of the meeting at the Constitutional Court
building. Whatever the result may be, public
interests cannot be sacrificed.
[The writer is a senior journalist, who teaches at
Dr. Soetomo Press Institute. He can be contacted
at abdullahalamudi yahoo.com.]
=======================
ENVIRONMENT
=======================
Some local banks finance illegal logging
Antara News - February 29, 2006
Jakarta — Some banks in regencies have been
involved in financing illegal logging, though the
forestry industry has been regarded as a sunset
industry and put in the negative list for the
extension of bank credits, according to a
researcher.
The Executive Director of Wana Aksara Research and
Study Agency, Agung Nugraha, said further here
Tuesday that besides giving contribution to
illegal logging, banks in certain regencies have
also served money laundering for funds derived
from illegal logging.
From interviews, observation and investigation
performed in a sub-district in Kota Waringin Timur
regncy, Central Kalimantan province, the research
and study agency has recorded some 1,500 units of
trucks serving the transportation of illegal logs.
The agency has observed that most of those trucks
belong to leasing companies and illegal loggers
have leased the trucks with funds borrowed from
banks, according to Agung Nugraha.
The very big profit offered by illegal logging has
tempted banks to channel loans for the provision
of equipment for illegal wood cutting and vehicles
for logs transportation, especially with the
support given by civilian and military officials,
including the local elite, he explained.
Agung estimated that logs and sawn timber
transported from the locations of those unlawful
activities can reach about 4,000 cu.m. a day. With
the assumption that the log average price Rp1
million per cu.m., illegal logging backed by banks
and the local elite has inflicted a total loss of
Rp120 billion on the state per month, he added.
Based on Wana Aksara Research and Study Agency’s
observation, 20 units of trucks have left illegal
wood cutting locations in the forest every one
hour.
They work 24 hours a day, except in Ramadhan
Islamic fasting month and during rainfall.
Illegal logging has been prevalent in Indonesian
forests since the beginning of the current reform
period, according to Wana Aksara executive
director. "It is ironic that about 40 percent of
companies in the forestry industry are currently
troubled by stagnation and 60 percent of those
operating in the upstream forestry sector are on
the brink of bankruptcy," he said
The intensity of illegal logging has begun down
since the launching of the first and second
Sustainable Forest Operation (OHL) by the Forestry
Ministry.
NGOs call for moratorium on mining projects
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2006
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta — An alliance of
environmental activists have called on the
government to stop all mining operations in the
country until their negative environmental, social
and economic impacts are properly tackled.
The call came amid pollution allegations leveled
at international mining firms, which have spilled
over into protests against the companies. Illegal
local miners are also involved in disputes with
legal operators.
Mining Advocacy Network director Siti Maimunah
said the mining industry was doing more harm than
good in the country. The regulations on mining
must be revised, she said.
About 100 clashes occurred every year between
mining firms and local residents or environmental
authorities, she said.
"Recently, many environmental and social issues
involving mining companies have surfaced. This is
because the operations have not been
environmentally friendly and because they have
neglected the welfare of local people," Siti told
a discussion on mining and poverty here last week.
Papuans have protested outside PT Freeport’s main
office in Jakarta and at its mine in Timika.
Locals set up a roadblock outside the Timika mine
for three days last week. Papuans had fired arrows
at Freeport security guards earlier, forcing the
world’s largest copper and gold mining firm to
suspend production.
The clash broke out after Freeport prevented local
people from sifting through waste rock to retrieve
tiny amounts of gold there.
Siti said that aside from triggering frequent
clashes, mining industries contributed
comparatively little to the country’s economy.
"In 2004, their tax and non-tax contributions to
state revenues were no more than Rp 7.8 trillion
(US$842 million). But the social and environmental
costs are much higher," she said.
The millions of tons of tailings produced by
mining operations had polluted the country’s land,
seas and rivers and sickened people living near
the tailing areas.
"Therefore, the government needs to declare a
moratorium on new mining investment and review the
contracts of about 70 mining firms presently
operating in Indonesia.
"The purpose is to find solutions on how to save
the environment, eliminate social clashes and
increase the state’s revenues," Siti said.
Greenomics executive director Elfian Effendi said
he preferred a temporary halt to selective mining
operations.
During the suspension, Elfian said, the government
should calculate how much mineral resources the
country had and should oblige mining firms to
allocate money for environmental development,
including land reclamation and reforestation
costs.
He said firms whose operations needed to be
suspended should include those that were not
specifically allocating money to tackle
environment problems.
Elfian said in the Philippines, a court had
ordered a mining firm to pay US$100 million to
clean up an area after leaks were found in its
tailings disposal system.
"In this case... the Philippines judiciary fined a
mining firm a huge amount... Here, I wonder why
Freeport can use a whole river to channel its
tailings for free?" he said. Lawmaker Kahar
Muzakkir, who is a member of the House of
Representatives’ working committee on the draft
mineral and coal bill, said formulating stricter
regulations on licenses for mining companies could
ease environmental destruction and social
tensions.
"Therefore the new bill should also regulate those
authorized to issue mining licenses," he said.
Illegal wildlife trade running wild: NGO
Jakarta Post - February 23, 2006
Jakarta — It’s long been known that animal
markets in Jakarta are the place to pick up
endangered animals at bargain prices to add to a
personal menagerie.
While hunters may only get a few hundred thousand
rupiah for catching a rare animal, organizers of
the illegal wildlife trade are assured a princely
sum, a non-governmental organization said
Wednesday.
ProFauna Indonesia estimates Rp 9 trillion (US$9.2
billion) is made annually from illegal sales of
endangered species at East Jakarta’s Pramuka bird
market and Jatinegara market, and Barito market in
South Jakarta.
It said the most sought-after primates were the
Javan langur (trachypithecus auratus) and slow
loris (nycticebus coucang), as well as the green-
winged king parrot (alisterus chloropterus) and
yellow striped cockatoo among birds.
"We want the government to be more serious in
stopping the wildlife trade," said the group’s
conservationist, Eni Nurhayati, during a rally
here Wednesday.
Although trading in the animals is prohibited
under the 1990 government regulation on the
natural ecosystem and the 1999 regulation on
animal preservation, Eni said it was going on
unchecked.
"They are not making any effort to stand up
against the illegal animal trade." The group,
established in 1994 in Malang, East Java,
campaigns for the protection of wild animals,
investigates trade in wild-caught animals
throughout the country and conducts animal
rescues.
She claimed the bird markets were covers for
wide-scale trading in other endangered animals,
with reptiles and primates, including orangutans,
also on sale.
The traders, she said, can even take care of
sending rare animals to a foreign destination,
where they can earn even greater rewards.
"Pramuka market is the biggest bird market in
Indonesia. Wildlife traders at the market are
casual about exporting animals overseas," Eni
said.
"One orangutan, for example, is priced from Rp 3
million to Rp 5 million in local markets, but in a
foreign market it could soar to $45,000." The
Jakarta market agency overseeing traditional
markets, including the bird markets, denied rare
wildlife was up for sale, although it admitted it
may have happened in the past or sales were
conducted in secret at other locations.
Agency spokesman Nurman Adhi said regular
inspections were held in 2005 to ensure there were
no endangered species among the animals for sale.
"These traders have networks. It is possible that
they do the transactions somewhere else, but I can
assure you no illegal wildlife trading takes place
in Pramuka market or any other bird markets
managed by our agency," he said.
The Forestry Ministry’s director of biodiversity
conservation, Adi Susmianto, said there were sales
of protected species, but he could not confirm the
total amount from illegal sales in 2005.
The wildlife trade is thriving, especially for
export, because people who formerly dealt in
illegal logging are looking for another income
source.
Adi said Malaysia and the Philippines were among
the illegal importers of Indonesian animals.
"There is no particular demand for a certain type
of animal from these countries. Everything sells.
It’s easy to smuggle the animals there, a mere
small boat is enough," he said.
The ministry, he added, had taken action to curb
the illegal trade, including signing an MoU with
the international group TRAFFIC in 2004 to join
forces in wildlife protection.
====================
MORALITY & GENDER ISSUES
====================
Legislators to reach out to critics over indecency
bill
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2006
Jakarta — Legislators of the House of
Representatives are moving to appease opponents of
the pornography bill. They plan to approach Bali,
Papua and Batam, regions where the strongest
opposition to the bill has come from.
Yoyoh Yusroh, deputy chairman of a special House
committee in charge of deliberating the bill, said
the visits to the regions this week would be part
of the efforts to obtain and share first-hand
information.
"We’d like to explain the bill. They will get the
information directly from us rather than from
other parties or from the media," Yoyoh, a
legislator from the Islam-based Prosperous Justice
Party (PKS) told Antara on Sunday.
Among contentious issues is the definition of
pornography in the bill, which critics say is too
loose prompting strong protests in regions such as
Bali and Papua where nudity in certain contexts is
part of the culture. Nudity or partial nudity in
paintings, statues and dance, are part of the
culture in Bali and Papua.
Being the country’s gateway to Singapore, the
industrial island of Batam is likely to reject the
bill for fear that it would adversely effect its
tourism industry.
The arts, however, are among the exceptions in the
bill’s numerous prohibitions on displays of
sensuality, eroticism and sexuality, if they are
performed or on display in a "government-
sanctioned arts center." Yoyoh said that more
input was expected after people were more familiar
with the bill so that the committee can finalize
it.
"The finalization process is set to begin on March
8," he said. Until then, he added, people still
have the opportunity to give their views.
"We will accommodate each input. So far, aside
from formal hearings, we have also received
written suggestions from people from various
professional backgrounds, from designers to lay
people and models," Yoyoh said.
If everything works out as planned, he said, the
bill will be passed in June.
Meanwhile, legislator Agung Sasongko of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)
said that the bill will not be passed if
objections are strong, particularly from diverse
ethnic groups in the country.
"It has to be acceptable to the majority of
Indonesians, who have diverse religious, ethnic
and cultural backgrounds. If resistance is so
strong to the point that the law would cause more
harm than good, we may well not pass the law," he
said. Pornography, he said, is a very subjective
matter, and involves people’s personal lives in
which the state cannot interfere. "If the law
leads to disintegration, then why pass it."
Sexy clothes a no-no in Batam
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2006
Fadli, Batam — Police in Batam, Riau Islands
province, began trawling the city’s malls Thursday
looking for women wearing revealing clothes.
However, police insist they are not out to punish
the women, but to protect them from sex-related
crimes.
Policewomen deployed as part of the campaign have
stopped women in at least five shopping centers in
the city and warned them against dressing
provocatively.
Adj. Comr. Dewantoro of the Batam Police said
Saturday the operation was launched as a way to
deal with a rise in crimes against women. "This is
part of our efforts to reduce crimes against
women. We hope to continue the operation, though
it is now being evaluated following protests,"
said Dewantoro, declining to provide statistics on
the number or types of crimes against women in the
city.
However, some residents have complained about the
operation, which they say was introduced without
first informing the public, has no legal basis and
is nothing more than an attempt by the police to
prepare the people of Batam for life under the new
pornography law currently being debated by the
House of Representatives.
Dewantoro acknowledged the police operation was
launched at the same time the House was
deliberating the pornography bill, but said the
timing was coincidence. "We are not only warning
women for wearing sexy outfits, but we also are
calling on stores to stop selling such outfits,"
Dewantoro said.
Santi, a shop attendant at Mega Mall Center in
Batam, said the operation had upset both female
shoppers and the people who work in the shops. "We
don’t know which outfits are sexy and which
aren’t. My boss is afraid to sell women’s clothes,
fearing it might be against the law," she said.
One female shopper said there was nothing wrong
with women wearing sexy clothes, which she said
were fashionable. "Besides, the weather in Batam
is very hot. If a top that is open in the back is
considered pornographic, what clothes can we
wear?"
The head of the Batam office of the Indonesian
Tour Guides Association, Edy Surbakti, is
concerned the police operation could harm tourism
to the city. "Lots of Koreans visit Batam every
day. You see how they dress. If they’re warned by
the police, they might not come back to Batam.
Hopefully, this is only a trial operation," he
said.
However, the operation has won the backing of some
residents, including the chairman of the Batam
branch of the Indonesian Ulema Council, Asyari
Abbas. "I thank God for the operation, because
exposing one’s body is not part of our culture,
and especially not our religion," Asyari said.
Pornography debate heats up
Radio Australia - February 22, 2006
A debate about pornography is growing in
Indonesia. The controversy has been sparked by
news that Playboy magazine has signed a deal to
produce a local edition. Parliament’s expected to
pass a law this year banning sensual diplays of
the body. But there are fears Indonesia could be
heading back into the dark ages of censorship and
repression.
Presenter/Interviewer: Marion MacGregor
Speakers: Dr Ahmad Syaffi Maarif, former head of
Indonesian Muslim group Muhammadiyah; Women’s
rights activist Smita Notosusanto; Janet de Neefe,
director of the Ubud Writers festival in Bali.
MacGregor: You don’t need to look hard to find
porn in most countries, and modern Indonesia’s no
exception. So called ’soft porn’ photos can be
found in calendars, magazines and tabloid papers
just about everywhere, and the hardcore stuff on
DVD is now readily available on the street. And of
course, any kind of porn you want is only as far
away as the local internet cafe.
As early as 1995, the Indonesian government was
trying to block porn on the internet, without
success. Now, they’re getting serious, introducing
laws against all kinds of public display of flesh,
and more.
Dr Ahmad Syaffi Maarif is the former head of the
Muslim group Muhammadiyah which has 40 million
members. He says the country is in a state of
moral decline.
Syaffi Maarif: Because you see Indonesia is a
Muslim country, and most of the people practise
rare religions, Islam Catholic Christianity,
Buddhist and so on. They do not want to see the
younger generation go into a moral decadence. this
is the main reason why the law the regulation of
anti-pornography should be implemented. Because we
don’t want to lead the nation into moral
relativism. You know Indonesia is a trembling
nation now. Corruption is here, is rampant here,
mismanagement is with us. If the moral problem
cannot be overcome, I think it would be very
difficult for this nation to survive.
MacGregor: But not everyone is happy about the law
which would mean that in a few months time, it
could be an offence to show your belly button,
hips or thighs Wearing low-cut jeans or shorts and
a crop top could land you in jail for two years.
Women’s rights activist Smita Notosusanto says
it’s hard to see what this has to do with
pornography.
Notosusanto: What they are proposing is actually
two things: First is to regulate individual
morality regulating on how people should wear.
What kind of things that they should wear. And the
defintiaion of the proper way of dressing up is
that you don’t arouse a desire on the part of the
opposite sex. That’s just a bizarre definition I
think. How could you really be sure that even if
you cover yourself up that you don’t attract a
sexual desire from the opposite sex.
MacGregor: Opponents of the law which sees no
difference between pornography and nudity have
pointed out that it would make criminals of most
of the population of Papua and Bali. It will also
mean the end of traditional Balinese dance.
Indeed, Janet de Neefe, the director of the Ubud
Writers festival in Bali, says all forms of art
and expression risk coming under attack.
De Neefe: People are saying well the parliament
they don’t even know the difference between film
and dancing and all of that... and then artists
also are concerned that it will affect their
artwork, representation of nudes, life drawing. I
think the art community the writing community, I
know in Bali they’re even saying well if they
bring this in then better we become independent.
So people are very concerned about this.
MacGregor: Public opinion in Indonesia may be
divided over the anti-pornography bill, but the
parliament is not. It’s almost certain to pass the
bill some time this year. Janet de Neefe says
large demonstrations are already being planned.
De Neefe: I know that there will be big
demonstrations over this because people are seeing
that it’s going back to the dark ages at a time
when Indonesia really needs to move forward and
project a more modern perspective in a way they
just feel that this is a huge slap in the face.
Puppeteer wonders if ’wayang’ will pass porn law
inspection
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta — Shadow puppet master Ki
Manteb Sudarsono has joined the ranks of seductive
singers and erotic models wondering if they could
fall foul of the proposed pornography law.
"I’ve got a couple of puppets and they don’t wear
pants," he told a discussion at the House on
Thursday. "And they have these things and they
move when I maneuver the wayang (shadow puppet),“he added, gesturing to indicate male genitalia.”Will I get into trouble?" The frank comments of
the famous figure from the traditional arts,
dressed in his “uniform” of Javanese attire, drew
chuckles at a discussion held by the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
But actually ending up behind bars amid a wave of
moralistic crusading would be no laughing matter,
opponents of the bill say. The arts are among the
exceptions in the bill’s wide-ranging prohibitions
on displays of sensuality, eroticism and
sexuality, so Ki Manteb and his graphic puppets
would probably escape arrest if they performed in
a “government-sanctioned arts center”.
Apart from the arts community’s objection to
subjective definitions of what constitutes
obscenity, feminist groups also expressed fears it
would be used to subjugate women. Support for the
bill has mainly come from Islamic groups, who were
not present at Thursday’s discussion.
The event’s main message was that PDI-P, claiming
to be considerate of communities likely to
affected by the proposed pornography law and
emerging protests against it, might try to have
the bill scrapped. It was notable that the
communities identified included traditional
sources of PDI-P votes but where votes dropped in
the 2004 general elections compared to 1999.
"We are taking into account the impact that the
future law might have on our nation’s diverse
ethnic groups, such as those in Bali, Central Java
and Papua,“party legislator Agung Sasongko said.”And if resistance increases to the point that the
law would cause more harm than good, we may attach
an academic draft to the bill" to try to delay its
passage, added the deputy of the House special
committee for the bill.
A delegation from Bali, the birthplace of the
fraternal grandmother of PDI-P leader Megawati
Soekarnoputri, said the display of body parts,
such as in paintings, statues and dance, was part
of their culture. Myra Diarsi of the National
Commission for Women said the bill must clearly
target industries involved in producing
pornography instead of individuals, who would
likely be women. "Besides, (the definition of)
pornography must involve all three criteria:
Graphic portrayal, excessively vulgar presentation
and subordination and humiliation of women." Some
others also found the bill lacking. A total of 14
community group and non-governmental organizations
said the bill did not do enough to protect minors
from porn in the media and the Internet; and that
adults were equated with children, thus hampering
their right to information on reproduction and
sexuality.
===================
ISLAM/RELIGION
===================
Activists to continue ’surveying’ foreigners
Jakarta Post - February 26, 2006
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung — Twenty-seven Muslim
activists, who were released by police in Bandung
on Saturday after being detained for “disturbing”
foreign nationals during a protest, vowed to
continue with their actions.
The activists said they would continue
distributing questionnaires to foreign nationals
to gauge their opinions of the publication of
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
However, police said the activists would again be
detained if they attempted to hand out the
questionnaires, which they said was a violation of
the privacy of foreign residents and tourists.
Among the 27 people detained Friday were Muhammad
Mukmin, the coordinator of the Anti-Apostasy
Movement, a group involved in shutting down
churches in West Java, as well as members of the
Islam Defenders Front and other hard-line groups.
Police made the arrests outside the Holiday Inn
hotel on Jl. Juanda, where the activists were
searching for foreign nationals to question.
A minor scuffle broke out when some of the
activists refused to get into trucks to be
transported to Bandung Police Headquarters.
However, police quickly gained control of the
situation and the men were taken to police
headquarters.
The activists said the questionnaires were
intended to gauge the opinion of the foreign
nationals to the Prophet cartoons, with anyone
found to be “hostile toward Islam” to be ordered
out of Indonesia.
Mukmin told a press conference Saturday police
questioned the activists for five hours, and
released them after determining "the protest was
legal“.”After cross-checking with the permit section,
they found our letter (informing the police of the
planned protest). We even sent copies of the
letter to West Java Police Headquarters and the
West Java Military commander," Mukmin said.
He said the activists would distribute the
questionnaires at international hotels in Bandung,
including the Hyatt Regency and the Holiday Inn.
However, Bandung Police chief Sr. Comr. Edmon
Ilyas said officers would prevent the activists
from handing out the questionnaires because it had
the potential to cause unrest and disturb
tourists.
"They do not have any authority to do this. If
they were allowed to just do what they liked,
everybody would be able to do whatever they wished
as well. The security of foreign tourists must be
ensured to prevent our image from being tarnished
internationally," Edmon said.
Police arrest activists who targeted foreigners
Jakarta Post - February 25, 2006
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung — Police arrested at
least 27 Muslim activists in Bandung on Friday for
targeting foreigners during a protest against the
depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons
first published by a Danish newspaper.
Muhammad Mukmin, the coordinator of the Anti-
Apostasy Movement, a group involved in shutting
down churches in West Java, was among those
arrested, along with activists from the Islam
Defenders Front (FPI) and other hard-line groups.
Police made the arrests outside the Holiday Inn
Hotel on Jl. Juanda, Bandung, where the activists
were searching for foreigners so they could
distribute questionnaires to them. "We just want
to give out questionnaires containing five
questions to survey (foreigners’) opinions about
the publication of the cartoons, about the stigma
put on Muslims as terrorists, and about whether
the media should be punished for publishing the
cartoons,“Mukim said.”If they support the cartoons, we will have no
other choice but to ask them to leave Indonesia,"
Mukmin said before being arrested. Mukmin said the
protesters had no plan to target foreigners after
collecting data on them.
After the activists were detained a minor scuffle
broke out when some refused to get into two trucks
that were to take them to the Bandung Police
headquarters. Police quelled the scuffle and the
activists boarded the trucks.
Mukmin said the protesters had planned to go to
the Homann Hotel on Jl. Asia Afrika after the
Holiday Inn.
The arrests were made after the groups’ leaders
organized a public rally to protest the
publication of the cartoons. Thousands of people
from Bandung and neighboring areas joined the
event.
The demonstrators marched to the Holiday Inn in
two groups. Both were blocked from entering the
hotel by hundreds of police officers, headed by
Central Bandung Police chief Adj. Sr. Com.
Masguntur Laupe.
"They have no authority to survey people like
this. Who are they? What if everyone could do this
to foreigners? How would this affect business?"
Masguntur said.
Bandung Police chief Sr. Com. Edmon Ilyas said the
activists were arrested for violating the 1998 Law
on Public Gatherings because they did not have a
permit to march. Their attempt to target
foreigners meant they would be charged under the
Criminal Code for disorderly behavior, he said.
Mukmin said he had sent a notification letter to
the Bandung Police and the West Java Police
headquarters about the demonstration on Friday
morning.
Indonesia labors to weed out Muslim radicalism
Reuters - February 22, 2006
Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta — Indonesia is working
to uproot militant Islamic ideas but officials and
moderate clerics say they face a long struggle,
while also coping with setbacks such as anger over
cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Mohammad.
In November, Indonesian police discovered videos
showing three young suicide bombers using Islam to
justify attacks on restaurants in Bali that killed
20 people the previous month.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the videos showed
radical ideas had penetrated deep into Indonesia’s
Muslim community. He ordered Muslim clerics who
had been reluctant to criticize militancy to speak
up.
Three months later, a team of top Islamic clerics
and scholars set up after Kalla’s concerns has had
some successes.
"We are trying to embrace all, the soft and the
hardline, to keep them away from violent acts.
Some have resisted, but we have been largely
effective in cleansing the general understanding
(of militancy)," said Ma’ruf Amin, who heads the
team.
"But terrorists are still looking for recruits
while we are deflecting their influence. If they
succeed, they won’t get 10 followers but
thousands."
The team has been to Islamic boarding schools
across the world’s most populous Muslim nation,
including some accused of fanning militancy, and
convinced some hardline clerics to tone down their
rhetoric, said Amin.
New textbooks
Such schools were seen as off limits until
discovery of the videos and the intervention of
Kalla, who has strong Muslim credentials and is
unlikely to be accused of attacking Islam. The
team will also publish books for schools that set
out why the use of violence in Indonesia cannot be
justified under Islam.
Moderate cleric Ali Maschan Moesa said he had
toiled to shield pupils of his Islamic school in
East Java, the country’s political heartland, from
the temptation of radicals.
"There are groups that have twisted the meaning of
jihad for their political gain. They are
intensifying the agenda to create an Islamic state
here," said Moesa, a senior member of the 40
million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s
largest mainstream Muslim group.
Jihad means “struggle” in Arabic but Islamic
militants and some non-Muslims link it to warfare.
Moesa felt his version of jihad and other moderate
teachings had sometimes failed to find an audience
among disenfranchised Muslim youth, politicians
and the media. "How can we stop the wave of
radicalism if (moderates) are disregarded," he
said.
He is not alone. The leader of Indonesia’s second
biggest Muslim organization, the 30 million-strong
Muhammadiyah, has also chastised the media and
some officials for giving radicals too much
airtime and room to move.
Cartoon controversy
Hardliners have been energized by publication of
cartoons denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, first
printed in Denmark last year and then by other
European newspapers. The cartoons have angered
Muslims across the world.
"Radicals are getting their second wind. The
cartoon row has added a burden on the clerics who
are trying to defuse radical ideas," Ansyaad Mbai,
a top counter-terrorism official in Jakarta, told
Reuters.
"The reason why the radical propaganda is
effective is because they say the West is against
Islam. These cartoons give them a kind of
vindication and this is troubling our mainstream
clerics who are advocating tolerance." Protests
against the cartoons sparked violence in Indonesia
and prompted Danish embassy staff to leave.
Government officials, politicians and leaders of
moderate Muslim groups in Indonesia have condemned
the cartoons while urging that protests be
peaceful. However, they have been cautious in
attacking those responsible for the violence, with
some officials saying such acts were spontaneous.
"We need to avoid provocation... Remember, we
don’t recognize (the labels of) radicals and
moderates," parliament speaker Agung Laksono said
when asked what should be done to the radical
groups.
Analysts say many Indonesian public figures,
especially those without strong Muslim credentials
like Laksono, are reluctant to step into any
debate that could give the impression they are
trying to create a rift over Islam. Hence, Mbai
said the ideological war was far from over.
"We still have a long way to go and we need to
work hard. One wrong move and the government will
be seen as the enemy of the religion," the police
general said.
[Additional reporting by Heri Retnowati in
Surabaya.]
=====================
ARMED FORCES/DEFENSE
=====================
Jail for soldier who shot student protester
Sydney Morning Herald - February 28, 2006
Jakarta — A military tribunal in Indonesia’s
Papua province has jailed a soldier for eight
months for his role in a shooting last month that
left a student dead and two others wounded.
Police have already admitted that their officers
and the military fired into a mob of about 100
protesters, but the circumstances surrounding the
death of Moses Douw, 13, and two others have been
in dispute.
Human rights activists have said Douw was a close
relative of one of the 43 boat people who landed
at Cape York last month in an outrigger that
featured a large sign claiming military oppression
in Papua.
They believe the three people who were shot were
students ambushed on their way to school in what
appeared to be an unprovoked attack. Australian
politicians called for an investigation into the
shooting of the teenagers.
The newspaper Kompas reported that Arif Budi
Situmeang was found guilty of wounding the two
with his firearm. Situmeang was not charged over
the boy’s death. However, his eight-month sentence
was three months longer than recommended.
The court heard that Situmeang fired shots during
a protest at a police post in Paniai on January
20, following a brawl between residents and
soldiers who refused to contribute money for the
repair of a bridge.
Situmeang maintained his innocence, saying the two
were wounded when he accidentally dropped his gun
after a protester kicked him in the back, Kompas
said. He has appealed.
The report did not say whether anyone else was
facing charges.
Human rights activists have accused the Indonesian
military of widespread human rights abuse in
Papua, fuelling a sporadic, low-level separatist
insurgency that has lasted decades.
An Australian charged with murdering a two-year-
old boy who was killed by a bullet fired during an
attack by a raskol gang in Port Moresby has won
leave to a judicial review.
Rick Harvey Goodwin, 63, also had committal
proceedings against him stayed by the judge, who
ruled he had an arguable case that his rights had
been breached during an inquest.
Goodwin, the general manager of a security
company, was charged with murder after intervening
in a raskol car hijacking attempt in the suburb of
Koki.
[Agence France-Presse, Australian Associated
Press.]
Activists protest against military
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2006
Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi — A rally was held at
the Southeast Sulawesi provincial council Saturday
to protest against the involvement of military
personnel in a land eviction case in Korumba
district, Kendari.
"We condemn the Indonesian Military (TNI) for its
involvement in the eviction. Some of them pushed
and hit people...," Hidayatullah, chairman of the
Southeast Sulawesi Residents Council, told several
council members who met the protesters.
The protesters, consisting of the victims of the
eviction and dozens of activists, demanded that
the council summon the local TNI commander and the
governor.
Councillor Abdul Hasid Pedansa promised to summon
officials from the provincial administration and
the military for an explanation.
Meanwhile, Haluoleo military commander, Col. Wahju
Rijanto, said Friday that military personnel had
only been assisting the provincial administration
in cleaning up the location, which will host a
Koran recital competition in June 2006.
Ma’ruf backs soldiers’ right to vote
Jakarta Post - February 23, 2006
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta — Home Minister M.
Ma’ruf supports the idea of soldiers being allowed
to vote in the 2009 elections.
Ma’ruf, a retired Army lieutenant general, said
Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers should be
allowed to vote in the general elections because
it was their democratic right. "In a democratic
country no one should be discriminated against,"
he said.
The debate about whether soldiers should be
allowed to vote in the next elections was started
by departing TNI chief Endriartono Sutarto.
Endriartono said as the military was no longer
directly involved in politics, soldiers should be
allowed to vote.
Since the 2004 election, the TNI no longer has
seats reserved for it in the House of
Representatives. Its officers must also retire
from active service if they want to join political
parties. However, the 2003 Election Law stopped
soldiers and police officers from voting in the
last election.
Ma’ruf said the country was becoming increasingly
democratic. The 2009 election would be the perfect
time for soldiers to exercise their rights, he
said.
Meanwhile, National Resilience Institute
(Lemhanas) governor Muladi suggested the TNI
should continue its internal reforms before
dealing with the voting question. "There is no
need to rush (the changes)," he said.
Activists and experts say the armed forces have
yet to settle issues relating to their illegal
businesses, alleged human rights abuses involving
personnel and the restructuring of territorial
commands.
Muladi agreed the right to vote was a basic right
for all citizens, including soldiers. However, he
suggested soldiers should be educated about
politics to ensure they were not manipulated into
conflict. "We are afraid the TNI (voters) will
serve the interests of certain groups," he said.
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) coordinator Usman Hamid also
rejected the idea. "So far, the TNI has been an
organization that has obstructed human rights
campaigns here. I’m afraid they’ll use their votes
to weaken political parties fighting to uphold
human rights principles by voting for parties that
are willing to ignore human rights violations
carried out by soldiers," he said.
=====================
BUSINESS & INVESTMENT
=====================
51.6 billion rupiah lost in natural disasters
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Semarang — The financial losses suffered by
Central Java province last year due to various
natural disasters has been calculated at Rp 51.6
billion, with the death toll at 19. However, there
were 133 in January this year due to a massive
landslide.
According to the head of the provincial welfare
agency, Ristanto, the death toll in January’s
disaster also included the 76 victims of the
Banjarnegara landslide, which covered most of the
village of Gunungraja.
The financial mostly due to the damage in
infrastructures and public facilities including
roads, bridges, irrigation ditches, dams, and the
people’s houses.
Unfortunately, the funding allocated to cover such
problems, like disasters, was Rp 19 billion for
2005 and Rp 25 billion for 2006.
In this case, according to Ristanto, priorities
would be given for the rehabilitation of public
facilities, including the relocation of disaster
survivors.
Ministers disturbed by IMF assessment
Jakarta Post - February 27, 2006
Jakarta — Some top Indonesian officials appear
peeved over the latest assessment on the country’s
economy by the International Monetary Fund, which
for six years after the monetary crisis had
administered tough and painful medicine to get the
country back on its feet.
State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto,
for instance, said he was disturbed by the
remedies suggested by the Washington-based Fund
for lingering problems in state-owned banks.
He told reporters Saturday that the government was
no longer obliged to follow the economic advice of
the IMF as the Fund ended its economic bailout
program here in 2003.
"We have our integrity, independence and identity
as a nation. The IMF does not necessarily have to
be obeyed," Sugiharto was quoted by Antara as
saying. He added that the government would only
follow the advice of the IMF if it was considered
beneficial to the country.
The IMF issued its latest assessment of the
country’s economy Thursday, which highlighted the
need for further strengthening of oversight in
respect of state-owned banks’ managements and
lending practices, particularly in the light of
soaring non-performing loan (NPL) levels, high
interest rates and lower-than-expected growth.
The IMF board of directors also noted that the
strategic privatization of state-owned banks over
the medium term should be considered.
But Sugiharto said that the authorities had
already imposed tight supervision on the country’s
banking sector, pointing to the number of
institutions involved in the job, such as Bank
Indonesia, the accountancy profession and the
Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).
"So, in truth, the checks and balances introduced
in the banking sector have been the most dramatic.
I’m not that overly worried about the supervision
issue," he said.
Concerns over the state of the country’s banking
sector have reemerged following the revelation of
soaring NPL levels in Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara
Indonesia (BNI), respectively the second and third
largest banks in the country by assets.
Mandiri’s gross NPLs as of last September stood at
24.57 percent of its total loans, up from 7.49
percent in the same period last year. The
equivalent figures for BNI were 14.44 percent and
6.12 percent. With the two state-owned banks
accounting for some 27 percent of the market, the
banking industry’s average NPL ratio has risen to
8.3 percent, compared to only 4.84 percent if
Mandiri and BNI were excluded, Bank Indonesia, the
central bank, has said.
The authorities are now seeking ways of resolving
the NPL problem. One of the proposed measures is
the setting up of a special purpose vehicle to
take over and restructure NPLs held by state
banks. But the plan has been hampered by an
obstacle in the form of the 2003 State Finances
Law and a current finance ministry regulation,
both of which operate to prevent state firms from
writing off debts or selling assets at a discount
without the consent of the finance minister. In
its assessment, the IMF expressed its support for
the SPV mechanism.
In other parts of its report, the IMF forecast
that the country’s economy would grow at a slower
rate this year of between 4 and 4.5 percent due to
lingering high inflation and high interest rates.
The economy grew last year by 5.6 percent.
State Minister for National Development Planning
Paskah Suzetta was disturbed by the IMF’s
pessimistic growth forecast. He stressed that the
government was optimistic the official growth
target of 6.2 percent was still achievable.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono
also said Friday that the IMF was pessimistic
about Indonesia’s prospects. "The slowing down of
the economy is not as bad as estimated by the
IMF,“he said.”There will be improvement this
year."
IMF upbeat about Indonesia’s economic prospects
Jakarta Post - February 24, 2006
Jakarta — Despite the recent downturn,
Indonesia’s medium-term prospects for growth
remain strong, the International Monetary Fund
says, with economic expansion reaching up to 5
percent this year as long as government policies
are consistent with achieving macroeconomic
stability and pushing structural reform to attract
investment.
In its latest economic review on Indonesia, the
Fund commended the government and the central bank
for hiking fuel prices and raising interest rates
last year to stabilize the rupiah and restore
policy credibility in the financial markets.
While the measures had resulted in adverse effects
in the near-term, with high inflation and interest
rates slowing down last year’s economic growth and
likely to limit growth in the first half of 2006,
medium-term prospects were good.
"The outlook should remain favorable, provided the
authorities continue to implement policies
consistent with macroeconomic stability and
accelerate structural reforms," the IMF said,
projecting growth of between 4.5 and 5 percent for
2006. The government’s growth target for this year
is 6.2 percent.
Indonesia’s economy grew by 5.6 percent last year,
higher than the 5.05 percent notched up in 2004.
The government, however, missed its 6 percent
growth target as a result of a slowdown from 6.2
percent in the first quarter to 4.9 percent in the
fourth as soaring inflation from a double fuel
price hike and increases in Bank Indonesia (BI)’s
key rate to 12.75 percent stymied consumer demand
and investment.
Looking ahead, the Fund said the priority now for
monetary policy was to ensure that inflation was
brought down.
The IMF deemed appropriate BI’s commitment to
maintaining a tight money supply until inflation
showed clear signs of abating, and said that BI
should be ready to raise rates further if
inflation failed to subside.
The Fund noted that "once inflationary pressures
subside, interest rates could be reduced." The IMF
sees inflation as possibly easing to 8 percent by
year-end, which is in line with the government’s
budget target. BI is projecting inflation of
between 7 and 9 percent.
For the government, the IMF recommended a
continued emphasis on limiting the budget deficit,
which would help to further reduce the public debt
burden.
If the recent economic slowdown continued,
however, the government could run a higher budget
deficit so as to provide a mild fiscal stimulus.
The government plans to carry over Rp 12.95
trillion in unused funds from last year’s budget,
which officials said could raise the budget
deficit to between 0.9 and 1.1 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) this year, compared to the
initial forecast of 0.7 percent. Last year, the
deficit came in at 0.5 percent of GDP.
The IMF underscored the importance of structural
reform to help boost investor confidence, and
welcomed the government’s plans to formulate
transparent, time-bound schedules for tax and
labor market reforms, upgrading the country’s
woefully deficient infrastructure, and improving
legal certainty.
"This will not only provide an important stimulus
in the current economic environment but also
ensure sustained growth over the medium term," the
IMF said.
The IMF also emphasized the need to address
vulnerabilities in the banking sector,
particularly the recent rise in non-performing
loans at state banks. It backed the establishment
of an asset management company to restructure the
loans, and recommended that the government
consider amending the legislative and regulatory
provisions that hampered such a development.
Commenting on the IMF review, Coordinating
Minister for the Economy Boediono said the
government would further intensify policy
coordination with BI.
Boediono said he expected that this would result
in lower inflation and interest rates, which would
enable the economy to kick into gear by the second
half of this year. He expressed optimism that the
6.2 percent growth target could be achieved in
2006, while forecasting 6.4 percent growth for
2007.
The economic review, released Wednesday in
Washington, is the IMF’s fourth semi-annual review
as part of its post-program monitoring arrangement
with Indonesia following the country’s decision to
terminate its program with the Fund at the end of
2003.
FDI approvals plunged in January
Jakarta Post - February 23, 2006
Jakarta — The government’s hopes of achieving
higher growth this year on the back of increased
investment has suffered a setback, with official
figures showing a slow start to the year for both
foreign and domestic investment approvals.
The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) announced
Wednesday that foreign direct investment (FDI)
approvals for the first month of the year amounted
to only US$463.2 billion (112 projects), in stark
contrast to the $872 billion (1,226 projects)
recorded during the same month of 2005.
A similar downward trend was also evident in the
domestic investment figures, with proposed
investments declining to Rp 359.8 billion ($38.7
million) involving only 8 projects, compared to Rp
1.89 trillion for 15 projects last year.
Overseas investors mostly applied for investment
licenses in the construction sector (3 projects
valued at $288.9 million), and the commercial
sector (42 at $31.9 million), with one application
worth $27.2 million in the food processing
industry. Local investors, meanwhile, were
primarily interested in the transportation,
warehousing, communications, chemical,
pharmaceutical, and timber processing industries.
January’s low level of investment approvals
appears to reflect uncertainty among investors
about Indonesia’s business climate, which would be
in line with the latest surveys by Bank Indonesia
and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), which
show that the business community still sees tough
going ahead amid high inflation and interest
rates, at least until the second half of the year.
The government may, however, take some solace from
the fact that actual FDI realizations in January
soared to US$1.31 billion (91 projects), compared
to $118.4 billion (57 projects) for the same month
last year. Meanwhile, realized domestic
investments tripled in value to Rp 2.58 trillion
(27 projects), from Rp 783.4 billion (17 projects)
in January last year.
In total, realized foreign and domestic
investments provided employment for 42,782
workers, compared to 8,172 workers in the same
period last year.
The government is hoping that realized foreign and
domestic investments will grow by 11.1 percent
this year from last year’s combined value of Rp
113.5 trillion.
The BKPM figures exclude investments in the oil,
gas and mining industries, banking and non-bank
financial institutions, and the capital markets.
Licenses in these sectors are issued by other
government agencies.
Total investment grew by only 9.93 percent last
year, compared to 15.71 percent in 2004, thus
reducing 2005’s overall economic growth to 5.6
percent from the government’s target of 6 percent.
The government is targeting growth of 6.2 percent
this year, and has recently announced various
incentives designed to improve legal certainty and
provide financial guarantees so as to encourage
greater private sector involvement in
infrastructure development.
Consumers to keep tight grip on spending
Jakarta Post - February 23, 2006
Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta — If there is anything
that Indonesians all agree on right now, it is the
need to put off unnecessary expenditures, two
newly released consumer confidence surveys reveal.
An ACNielsen survey for the Danareksa Research
Institute on consumer confidence levels in January
shows that Indonesians are delaying forking out on
non-essential items due to worries over the
country’s economic situation and job prospects.
The bleak mood has clearly affected people at all
levels — from prominent industrialists to blue-
collar workers.
"This year will be a tough one. The employment
situation is not good and I’m going to postpone
spending on things I don’t really need, just in
case the situation gets worse," 28-year-old
Bambang A. Wibawa, a sales executive working for
an auto parts manufacturer, told The Jakarta Post.
Having to provide for a wife and child on monthly
commissions, he says he would rather save what he
can and avoid unnecessary outlay.
In an online survey conducted by ACNielsen last
November, the results of which were only released
Wednesday, 74 percent of the respondents opted for
a similar strategy for coping with the economic
situation.
Although Nielsen’s consumer confidence index for
November improved slightly compared to a similar
survey in May, half of the 500 respondents said
they would rather save their money than face
possible financial hardship later.
"People are now adopting a wait-and-see attitude
as regards spending their money," Nielsen’s
Southeast Asia managing director, Farquhar
Stirling, said Wednesday.
The November survey also revealed that the
country’s economic difficulties and job security
topped the list of major concerns for Indonesians.
Meanwhile, Nielsen’s January survey for the
Danareksa Research Institute, which involved more
than 1,700 respondents, paints a more up-to-date
picture of consumer confidence, especially in the
wake of last year’s fuel price hikes.
It reveals that consumers are now cautiously
optimistic about the economy, although the index
has yet to fully recover to the level prevailing
before the fuel price hikes.
"There is also, however, widespread recognition
among consumers that the economy is slowing down
and unemployment rising," the survey report said.
A proposed hike in electricity prices has further
added to consumer concerns, encouraging them to
hold on to their money. This, in turn, implies
that growth in spending on durable goods could
well remain low for the first half of the year.
Currently, spending by upper-income-bracket
consumers still dominates overall consumer
spending, while those in the lower income brackets
are finding it difficult to cope with higher
inflation.
Given that consumer spending accounts for 65
percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product, the
surveys convey a clear message to the government:
it needs to shift from relying on consumer
spending for economic growth to more domestic
production.
85 percent of SOE shares owned by foreign parties
Tempo Interactive - February 23, 2006
Tito Sianipar, Jakarta — Muhammad Said Didu,
Secretary to the State Minister of State Owned
Enterprises (SOEs), has stated that 85 percent of
SOE shares already listed on the stock exchange
are owned by foreign parties.
In spite of them being foreign owned, there has
not been any negative effect on the SOEs. "It is a
fact that 85 percent of the shares of listed SOEs
are owned by foreigners," said Said Didu after a
discussion at Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jakarta, today
(23/2).
With such a large ownership, this means that it is
foreigners who benefit from a large portion of
SOEs’ profits.
Large SOEs that are already listed and always
record profits include PT Telkom, PT Indosat, PT
Semen Gresik, PT Bank Mandiri, PT Bank Rakyat
Indonesia, PT Kimia Farma, PT Adhi Karya, PT
Perusahaan Gas Negara (State Gas Company), and PT
Bukit Asam.
But Said did not specifically mention which SOE
shares were owned by foreigners. He went on to say
that although the shares were in the hands of
foreigners, it did not mean there was no negative
effect.
"If 85 percent of the shares are owned by
foreigners, it is they who enjoy much of the
profit, not Indonesia," he said.
The high rate of foreign ownership, Said
continued, showed the minimum ability of domestic
investors to own SOE shares. "Indonesian people
must increase their capabilities so that they can
obtain dividends or enjoy profits from SOEs," he
said.
======================
OPINION & ANALYSIS
======================
West Papua - Horror on our doorstep
The Courier-Mail (Queensland) - February 27, 2006
David Costello — If our leaders were to have a
collective brain meltdown and press Jakarta over
Papua, the regional fallout would be dramatic
At times, the politicians acting in this nation’s
interest can take it a long way from our core
values. This sums up Australia’s position not to
seriously challenge Indonesia over its appalling
treatment of indigenous Melanesians in Papua
province.
There is no doubt that crimes against humanity are
being perpetrated on our doorstep. Some believe
the policies the Indonesian state is pursuing,
through its armed forces (TNI) and police, amount
to genocide.
A 2003 Yale Law School paper found the evidence
"suggests that the Indonesian Government has
committed proscribed acts with the intent to
destroy the West Papuans... in violation of the
1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of Genocide".
Jakarta took control of what was the Dutch colony
of West New Guinea in 1963 and legitimised the
seizure in the 1969 Act of Free Choice, in which
Papuan representatives were forced at gunpoint to
join Indonesia. Since then, the military and
police have acted with impunity against the local
population.
Reports compiled by the US State Department, the
University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies, Amnesty International and Papuan
rights group Els-Ham have documented arbitrary
killings, rape and torture as well as forced
labour and relocation.
The Yale study claimed that Indonesian authorities
destroyed the property and crops of indigenous
people and excluded them from upper levels of
government, business and education.
Els-Ham says the documented death toll is more
than 100,000 but many observers say it is higher.
No one should be surprised at this catalogue of
horror. It is a common pattern in "military
operations" areas at the mercy of the TNI and its
militia groups.
A recent UN-sanctioned report found up to 180,000
East Timorese died as a result of the Indonesian
occupation and that the military used rape and
starvation as weapons. Papuan separatists took
heart from the events of 1999 when East Timor
chose independence in a process started by
Australian diplomacy.
But the violence unleashed by the TNI and the
subsequent intervention by an Australian-led UN
force has left deep scars in Canberra and Jakarta.
Sections of Indonesia’s elite worry Australia is
trying to break up their country and secretly
supports Papuan independence.
That is why the Howard Government and Labor
Opposition preface remarks on the area by pledging
support for the territorial integrity of
Indonesia.
They say Jakarta should crack down on military
excesses and follow up on the 2001 special
autonomy package — even though autonomy is a sham
and undermined by Jakarta’s unconstitutional move
to split the province. But the message from
Canberra is that Papuans can forget about self-
determination — or any independent investigation
of human rights.
This, the major parties believe, is not in
Australia’s interest. And they are correct. If our
leaders were to have a collective brain meltdown
and seriously press Jakarta over Papua, the
regional fallout would be dramatic.
Relations with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
and his government would be frozen and a bilateral
security treaty, to be signed this year, aborted.
Other Asian countries — including China — would
accuse Australia of lecturing and interfering in a
neighbour’s internal affairs and our participation
in meetings such as the Asia-Europe Summit would
be at risk.
Washington would not be impressed given that both
the US and Australia are resuming links with the
TNI with the aim of fighting Islamist terror
groups.
Indonesia views the acquisition of the province as
one of its key achievements and has vowed never to
let it go. It needs the wealth from projects such
as the massive Freeport McMoRan gold and copper
mine at Grasberg.
If pushed to the wall by foreign intervention, TNI
would take a terrible revenge and create a refugee
crisis which would destabilise Papua New Guinea.
But for all Australia’s caution, the Papua
question is erupting again thanks to the 43 asylum
seekers who arrived on Cape York in January and
are now on Christmas Island. Queensland lobbyists
close to the refugees and their leader Herman
Wainggai expect the group will get bridging visas
allowing them to stay while their cases are
assessed.
Indonesia, which has asked for the return of the
asylum seekers, would view such action as an
acceptance of their claims of persecution. It
would also fear the Papuans would use Australia as
a base to further their cause. This concern is
well-founded.
Until now, Papua has been an issue for the minor
parties, with Democrat Senator Natasha Stott
Despoja and Green senators Bob Brown and Kerry
Nettle expressing concern. But after visiting
Christmas Island, Queensland National Party
Senator Barnaby Joyce said the Papuans’ claims of
religious and ethnic persecution should be
assessed.
Watching all this are pressure groups, including
the Australia West Papua Association. Jason
McCloud, a Brisbane-based AWPA spokesman, says
Australia should investigate reports of atrocities
and support an independent review by the UN
Commission on Human Rights.
It should also support observer status for the
province at the Pacific Islands Forum. He says the
Federal Government should acknowledge Australia’s
role in Papuan history, particularly its support
for the flawed Act of Free Choice.
None of this is going to become mainstream party
policy any time soon. But there is a price to pay
in the world arena for equivocating when civilians
are being slaughtered and starved.
Australia is likely to be judged adversely when
the definitive history of this mess is written.
[David Costello is The Courier-Mail’s foreign
editor.]
Let Papuans decide
Jakarta Post Editorial - February 24, 2006
The government, in refraining from forcing its
will on Papuans in the protracted dispute over the
status of West Irian Jaya, seems to have learned
from the past.
Although earlier setting a Feb. 20 deadline for a
settlement of the dispute, the government has
opted to heed the wishes of the Papuan People’s
Assembly (MRP) and the provincial legislature.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who has facilitated
negotiations over the issue, made it clear the
central government preferred to defer the issuance
of a legal umbrella, including an emergency
government regulation, to sanction West Irian Jaya
province and its administration. This deferral
also means a delay in the West Irian Jaya
gubernatorial election until the dispute is
resolved.
Both the MRP and the Papuan legislature said they
did not oppose the formation of West Irian Jaya
province, but underlined that people in the
proposed province were not ready to break away
from Papua.
This conclusion was reached after a popular
consultation in eight regencies and a mayoralty in
West Irian Jaya, which defenders of the new
province claimed did not represent the true wishes
of people.
In addition, the establishment of the province
must first be approved by the MRP, in accordance
with the 2001 Papua Special Autonomy Law.
In its seven-point recommendation, the Papuan
People’s Assembly said any decision to split Papua
must not lead to more military soldiers in the
territory or result in an influx of migrants. The
assembly also said Papu must be maintained as a
unified cultural, social and economic entity.
In short, the assembly is seeking a guarantee that
any division of Papua would benefit local people
and protect their social, economic and cultural
rights.
A hasty division would only keep Papuans,
particularly those in the western half of the
territory, from achieving the underlying
objectives of special autonomy status. Under
special autonomy, Papua receives 70 percent of oil
revenue, 80 percent of mining revenue and 70
percent of natural gas revenue. However, despite
these generous divisions, ordinary Papuans have
seen little change in the quality of their lives
since the special autonomy law was introduced five
years ago.
Statistics from the Office of the State Minister
for the Development of Disadvantaged Regions speak
of the paradox of development in Papua. Of 29
regencies and mayoralties across the territory, 19
are categorized as underdeveloped. This paradox
was underlined by reports of famine in remote
villages in Yahukimo a few months ago, and more
recently in Wamena, Jayawiyaya, Bintang and Gunung
Mulia.
With indigenous Papuans lacking the skills and
knowledge to compete with migrants in many jobs,
the fast-growing migrant population is another
cause for concern for the MRP. The indigenous
Papuan population is now only 10 percent higher
than the migrant population, prompting concern by
the MRP that Papuans will become a minority in
their own land within the next decade.
The MRP clearly has strong reasons for calling for
a delay of the partition agenda, which dates back
to 2003 when then president Megawati Soekarnoputri
tried to push through a law on the formation of
West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya provinces.
Whatever the motivations of Megawati, however,
West Irian Jaya has become a de facto province. It
has four elected legislators each in the House of
Representatives and Regional Representative
Council, and a working administration. These facts
were taken into consideration when the
Constitutional Court ruled that West Irian Jaya
was a legitimate province, even though the legal
basis for its formation was questionable.
While the Constitutional Court’s ruling is final
and binding, it is now the central government’s
ball to play without ignoring the 2001 Papua
Special Autonomy Law.
West Irian Jaya province, and perhaps one or two
more new provinces in Papua, is only a matter of
time. There is no opposition to the division of
Papua, as far as the MRP recommendation is
concerned, but a reminder that such a division
must reflect the wishes of Papuans, not the
politicians in Jakarta.
===================
BOOK/FILM REVIEWS
===================
Sulostomo’s accountability to 1965 tragedy
Jakarta Post - February 26, 2006
[Di Balik Tragedi 1965 (Behind the 1965 Tragedy)
Yayasan Pustaka Umat. Januari 2006. 179pp.]
Alpha Amirrachman, Jakarta — Sulastomo has
presented his personal account of the 1965 aborted
coup in his book Di Balik Tragedi 1965 (Behind the
1965 Tragedy). As a chairman of the Indonesian
Muslim Association (HMI) from 1963 to 1966,
Sulastomo not only observed the transition of
power from Sukarno to Soeharto, but was directly
involved in the power game at a time when young
Indonesia was bitterly sandwiched between two
competing ideologies: communism and capitalism.
The HMI survived amid intense pressure from the
PKI to disband the Muslim students’ organization.
Sulastomo’s humble personality and his sharp mind
in assessing the situation helped the organization
build strategic rapport with the Army as the
emerging political force.
Now Sulastomo, a physician whose clean record has
never been tainted by the New Order’s corrupt
practices, is speaking up to challenge the
theories surrounding the tragedy. He divides his
red-covered book into six analyses. Analysis one,
the coup was the result of internal friction
within the military, particularly the Army;
analysis two, it was orchestrated by Soeharto
against Sukarno’s leadership; analysis three, it
was engineered by Sukarno; analysis four, it was a
conspiracy between DN Aidit/Sukarno and Mao Ze
Dong; analysis five, the CIA fueled the conflict;
and lastly it was the PKI that masterminded the
coup.
The first analysis he considers unacceptable
because it was the Army itself that was targeted
by the PKI. Indeed, there were internal rifts and
the kidnappers of the generals killed were Army
personnel. However, he considered the kidnappers
as mere puppets who exerted little influence on
others.
The second analysis is also thrown out by the
writer because Soeharto was very loyal to Sukarno
and was not ready to accept more authority.
Soeharto’s attitude reflected a Javanese saying
mikul nduwur mendem jero (highlight one’s good
deeds and bury his bad deeds). After the 1965
aborted coup, however, people’s demand for regime
change intensified.
The third analysis is also not plausible because
Sukarno himself was bewildered in the morning of
Oct. 1, 1965 after the kidnapping of the generals.
Having received the report from Brig. Gen.
Supardjo — one of the leftist military personnel
— Sukarno denounced the kidnappings. Sukarno
himself was very cautious regarding the issue of
the Dewan Jenderal (The Council of Generals).
The fourth analysis purports that because
Sukarno’s health had deteriorated there was an
agreement between DN Aidit, Mao Ze Dong of China,
and Sukarno that the latter “take a rest” in Swan
Lake, China. Sulastomo refuted this, as it was
implausible that the founding father would agree
to leave behind his people in such a critical
situation. Kruschev of the USSR once offered
Sukarno the opportunity to “take a rest” as a
government guest during the struggle to reoccupy
Irian Jaya, but he refused.
The fifth analysis is also refuted. It is true
that CIA intelligence officers might have played
role in Indonesian politics, but credible
documents show that Western countries were
surprised over the “premature” coup by the PKI,
which was more likely inspired by political
developments in Peking (now Beijing).
The sixth analysis suggests that it was the PKI
who masterminded the coup. There are several
arguments purported. The PKI was strongly inspired
by Peking which was at that time spreading its
power throughout Asia. The “progressive” political
party was also anxious that Sukarno’s health was
deteriorating and was concerned that if it did not
seize control through a coup, the Dewan Jenderal
would do so first. He added that although not all
members of the Central Committee of the PKI were
aware of the coup, such as Nyoto, the system
within the party dictates that the PKI as an
organization should bear all responsibility.
Based on his recollections and interviews with
other players, including former president Soeharto
and Hardoyo, the former chairman of the left-wing
Concentration of Indonesian Student Movement
(CGMI, a student organization affiliated with the
PKI), Sulastomo defends the sixth analysis. His
defense is also supported by Harry Tjan Silalahi,
a former activist of the Indonesian Catholic
Students Association (PMKRI), who helped campaign
for the elimination of the PKI. Harry Tjan has
contributed his thoughts in Sulastomo’s book.
Nonetheless, during the launching of the book at
Jakarta Hilton Hotel on Jan. 25, which was marked
by a “PKI bashing” poetry reading by a prominent
poet Taufik Ismail, the book drew criticism from
Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno,
who was among the audience. She argued that the
coup was a result of bitter friction and rivalry
within the Army, particularly between Soeharto and
Ahmad Yani. The latter was murdered during the
coup.
Understandably, the Di Balik Tragedi 1965 did not
attempt to discuss how millions of ex-PKI members,
sympathizers and their families were killed,
tortured or discriminated against following the
coup or how Sukarno was in fact was put under
house arrest until his death.
Indeed, when a nation painfully reflects on past
wounds, it is always advantageous to hear directly
from the people involved, whatever perspectives
they might hold. As noted historian Anhar Gonggong
said during the book launching, the writing of
history never finishes. Equally important is what
human rights campaigner Salahudin Wahid said that
truthful reconciliation is what this nation badly
needs to heal its wounds. Jakarta Feb. 1, 2006.
[The reviewer is a lecturer at Sultan Ageng
Tirtayasa State University and a researcher at the
International Center for Islam and Pluralism
(ICIP).]
Pramoedya: Between Fury and Alienation
Jakarta Post - February 26, 2006
[Saya Terbakar Amarah Sendirian! (I’m Enraged
Alone!) Pramoedya Ananta Toer talks to Andre
Vltchek & Rossie Indira. By Andre Vltchek & Rossie
Indira Edited by: Chandra Gautama & Linda
Chistanty. Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia (KPG)
January 2006 xxix + 130 pp
Tasyriq Hifzhillah, Yogyakarta — Indonesia’s
most-famous living novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer
and his works are an inexhaustible source of
discussion. Pram, the abbreviated name by which he
is usually referred to, is himself like a thick
book, containing all sorts of stories. A major
icon in Indonesia’s literary arena, each of his
works always shows some relationship between
history and fiction.
Pram, of course, has lived history, and it has
been hard on him. A former member of the
Indonesian Communist Party, he was jailed for
years during Soeharto’s crackdown on communism,
while hundreds of his friends and former comrades
were murdered in the bloodletting that followed
the aborted 1965 coup.
However, since he was freed from prison, the 81
year-old from Blora, Central Java, has earned
dozens of citations for his work, including the
Pablo Neruda Award, the Wertheim Award and the
Ramon Magsasay Award. Since 1981, Pram’s name has
always been included on the list of nominees for
the Nobel Prize for Literature.
But despite being a much-admired and
internationally feted writer, Pram has more than a
few bitter memories left of his former oppressors
and the nation they have left him.
As an unreconstructed communist, who still
believes in the power of Marxism to transform,
Pram’s civil rights continue to be curtailed here
years after his books were banned during the
Soeharto era.
And the old wounds are healing slowly. Despite his
successes in life, it is perhaps not surprising to
learn that Pram still describes himself as "being
alienated in his own land." Pram’s personal
literary history is a touching legend. Not
infrequently have the words he penned caused guns
to be directed at him; his social exile made
formal by his imprisonment on Buru Island. But
Pram has refused to bow down to these forms of
repression. Instead, he has steeled himself and
let these experiences enrich his creativity.
Even at his advanced age, Pram is still producing
work and the book’s researchers, Andre Vltchek and
Rossie Indira, have done their best to represent
the voice of this great Indonesian writer and his
lingering fury. What makes this book interesting
is that Pram’s rage is not just a personal
response to hardship, it is anger about the decay
of Indonesia as a nation.
In Saya Terbakar Amarah Sendirian!, Pram calls a
spade a spade. In his unique way, Pram, as a
principled man imbued with humanity, expresses his
response to the historical, political and inhuman
oppression that he has personally gone through.
Pram’s statements in this book begin and end with
a comment that he still burns with fury when
thinking about Indonesia, which he says "has set
fire to itself". His pent-up rage finds a channel
in a discussion of Indonesian society, which he
sees as being dominated by consumerism and rampant
graft, a collapsing culture whose people, he says,
have a form of historical amnesia.
The way Pram voices his ideas urgently and plainly
lends great significance to the interviews in this
book, which were held between December 2003 and
March 2004. One finds not only the angry Pram but
also new information about his lot, his attitude
to life and his dreams.
It is Pram’s desire that there will come a day
when Indonesia becomes a unitary state free from
all forms of intervention and colonialism. This
notion of independent nationalism in opposition to
colonialism is central to his ideas. However, in
another part of the book, Pram says he would
prefer to be ruled by the colonial governments of
old rather than his own people if his countrymen
grossly abused the powers they were given.
There is a great consistency in Pram’s criticism,
starting from his highly personal statements —
about his relationship with his family for
example, to his statements about language,
politics and history — aspects that occupy
important places in his body of work.
In one section, Pram complains about his children
and grandchildren being no longer fond of reading.
He expresses wonder at why they are different from
him, a bookworm: "My children and grandchildren do
not want to read newspapers. It has never occurred
to me how they can be like this. They no longer
have a reading habit. They prefer watching the
television and do not wish to acquire more
knowledge." Pram’s complaint is not simply one of
a disgruntled grandfather who hates to see his
grandchildren glued to trashy TV. It is also the
response of a man who continues to see the state
doing little to improve the education of its
people, one of its biggest resources.
However, one of the biggest targets of Pram’s
spleen is at the center of Indonesian public life,
Javanese culture, which he says leans towards
fascism. “Javanism” according to the writer, is a
culture of subjugation and blind obedience to
one’s superior.
Pram notes the levels in the Javanese language
signify different social classes. Because of the
existing linguistic hierarchies, the Dutch and the
Japanese could easily control Java, he says.
And Pram sees little difference between the lot of
present-day Indonesians and those working in
forced labor camps during the Japanese occupation.
What is different, he says, is only the labeling,
which is now more refined. Many Indonesians are
still forced to eke out a living locally, for
foreign companies, or as low-skilled migrant
workers overseas, he argues. All this, he says, is
evidence that governments here have little concern
for the welfare of their citizens.
And for Pram the outlook looks bleak. For him,
Indonesia is still in a process of decay, which
will continue until the oppressive system here is
done away with. Justice and prosperity will remain
empty words uttered by high-ranking state
officials, until a war is declared against the
forces of colonialism, imperialism and capitalism,
he says. If nothing changes, hope will continue to
remain hope.
At the peak of his argument, Pram becomes his most
provocative. There is now no time for compromise,
he says. The only solution is revolution. An all-
out revolution of power.
Not all will agree with his solution. Of course
the attitudes in this book run parallel to the
themes expressed in Pram’s body of work — the
importance of the need to disobey, refuse,
challenge and guard one’s freedom to think.
The winding road that Pram has traversed in his
life can also be a valuable lesson learned. That
is why this book is a must-read for anyone who
wishes to have a good grasp of the root causes of
the problems Indonesia is facing today.
From the burning fires of his anger, Pram has
welded a coherent argument for his alienation and
the necessity for change in a nation in need of
creative solutions.
[The reviewer is a researcher at the Yogyakarta
Institute for Liberation Studies.]