Jakarta Official Defends Bailout

The Wall Street Journal, 10 December 2009

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said a parliamentary probe into the government's handling of a $700 million bank bailout last year is an attempt by rival politicians to unseat her because of her efforts to overhaul the country's bureaucracy.

Ms. Sri Mulyani and Vice President Boediono have become subjects in recent weeks of a parliamentary investigation into the bailout in November 2008 of Bank Century, a small Indonesian lender. As finance minister, Ms. Sri Mulyani oversaw the bailout; Mr. Boediono was central-bank governor at the time.

Ms. Sri Mulyani said in an interview that failing to guarantee Bank Century's deposits at a time of huge capital outflows from emerging markets could have sparked panic among depositors of other banks. "I felt like what I did was the right thing for the country," she said.

Mr. Boediono has also defended the bailout as necessary to stop wider panic in the banking sector.

The head of the investigation, Idrus Marham, who is secretary-general of the Golkar Party, said on Wednesday the investigation was backed by all major political parties and wasn't targeted at Ms. Sri Mulyani.

"We didn't do this to target Sri Mulyani. The focus is to get data and facts" on the bailout, Mr. Marham said.

He declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation, which began this month and he said will take two months to complete.

Mr. Marham and other Golkar Party lawmakers who are leading the probe claim the bailout of Bank Century was done without legal authority and without proving a capital injection was needed to stave off a run on other banks. Some politicians have said the bank wasn't eligible for a rescue because its problems stemmed from fraud that led to the bank's near-collapse. One of the bank's former owners, Robert Tantular, was sentenced in September to four years in prison for fraud.

Ms. Sri Mulyani said the bailout was legal.

A former university economics professor and International Monetary Fund senior executive, Ms. Sri Mulyani is respected by many foreign investors for her role in managing Indonesia's economy, which has included efforts to weed out endemic corruption.

She said she believed the probe was an attempt to discredit her by politicians that oppose her reform agenda, notably leaders of the Golkar Party, including Chairman Aburizal Bakrie, a billionaire businessman and former cabinet member in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's first-term administration.

Ms. Sri Mulyani said tensions between her and Mr. Bakrie date to last year when she opposed the closure of Indonesia's stock exchange amid a run on companies controlled by Mr. Bakrie. Mr. Bakrie, one of whose coal-mining firms accounted for a third of daily turnover on the bourse at the time, ordered the closure, she said.

Mr. Bakrie, through a spokesman, declined to comment on the closure.

The finance ministry also last year imposed a travel ban on a number of coal-mining executives, including some from Mr. Bakrie's companies, after a dispute over the refusal of the companies to pay royalties on the sale of coal to the government.

"Abuizal Bakrie is not happy with me," she said. "I'm not expecting anyone in Golkar will be fair or kind to me" during the probe.

Mr. Bakrie denied there was any problem between himself and Ms. Sri Mulyani.

Many analysts say the claim that the bailout was illegal appears to be without merit.

"Under the circumstances, what Sri Mulyani and Boediono did was to prevent a crisis," said Umar Juoro, chairman of the Center for Information and Development Studies, a Jakarta-based think tank.

Other government officials involved in the bailout have supported Ms. Sri Mulyani. The head of Indonesia's Deposit Guarantee Agency told an Indonesian magazine, Gatra, last week that the rescue was lawful.

Some senior Golkar politicians have in recent weeks publicly called for Ms. Sri Mulyani and Mr. Boediono to hand their jobs to deputies while the investigation is under way.

President Yudhoyono won re-election to a second term this year on a graft-busting platform. Indonesia's natural-resources-powered economy is forecast by private economists to grow by more than 4% this year, a healthy clip compared with many developed economies, but economists question whether that growth will be sustained if the country can't get a handle on corruption -- a major deterrent to foreign investment here, which lags behind India and China.

Popular dissatisfaction with corruption continues to mount. On Wednesday, students armed with rocks and wooden planks clashed with riot police as more than two dozen rallies involving thousands of protesters broke out as part of annual events designed to mark International Anticorruption Day.

Any signs of an intensification of efforts to oust Ms. Sri Mulyani would also likely spook foreign investors who have applauded her antigraft drive and management of the budget. Since taking up her job at the finance ministry in 2005, she has overseen a reduction in public debt to 30% of GDP from 60%, making it easier for Indonesia to sell debt to foreign institutional investors, bankers say.

"There's no way you could fill the credibility gap that would be created by her departure," says David Fernandez, a managing director of J.P. Morgan in Singapore who heads the bank's emerging-Asia research.

Indonesia is serious about pushing through overhauls to clear up what Mr. Yudhoyono has referred to as a "judicial mafia" of corrupt officials in the courts, attorney general's office and police, Ms. Sri Mulyani said. But she acknowledged that Mr. Yudhoyono's first term was a "honeymoon" for her.

"I should become more realistic. I'm expecting a nasty battle if I'm going to do the reform," she said.

Priorities, Ms. Sri Mulyani said, include continuing to clean up her own ministry, where there is still corruption, and catching more tax cheats. Past efforts led by Ms. Sri Mulyani have included a war on graft in the tax office, greatly increasing the nation's tax base, and customs department.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Corruption Hinders Efforts to Combat People-smuggling

The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 2009

Hundreds of asylum seekers have escaped Indonesian immigration detention centres and boarded boats to Australia this year amid widespread bribe-taking by guards and the brutal treatment of those who have been recaptured.

The rampant corruption is undermining efforts to curb human trafficking, even as Indonesia prepares to introduce long-awaited laws that will mean people-smugglers will spend up to 10 years in prison.

A breakout out from the detention centre in Makassar, South Sulawesi, two weeks ago is the latest in a list of escape plans hatched by asylum seekers and aided by corrupt Indonesian officials.

At a briefing in Jakarta yesterday, the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Tony Negus, said the issue was a concern. ''There are people who have been detained and they have ended up on boats to Australia a short time later,'' Mr Negus said. ''It's frustrating for the local police because they actually collect these people, put them into processing and all of sudden find them again having to be either rounded up or on a boat to Australia.''

The Herald understands as many as one in five of the almost 2300 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia over the past year escaped Indonesian detention and used people smugglers.

A detainee at the Makassar centre, ''Muhammed'' - not his real name - spoke of regular breakouts, including one last month. ''The No. 1 man here said he could fix our problem if we gave him $US4000 [$4390].

''We said we only had $US2500. He refused but his No. 2 said later that this was OK. He took the money and said you are free to escape.''

Sixteen people fled the centre. Ten were later rounded up.

''Three of them, the bachelors, were punched in the eye sockets and kicked very hard in their bodies,'' Muhammad said.

The long wait to be resettled in Indonesia - up to nine years - meant refugees were prepared to do anything to leave detention.

The Indonesian Justice Rights Minister, Patrialis Akbar, told Australian officials that Indonesia hoped to pass laws outlawing people smuggling next year. They would allow for prison terms of five to 10 years.

The policy was announced 12 months ago but passing the laws has remained on the backburner for parliament.

A lack of people-smuggling laws has meant that people traffickers, who are charged with minor immigration offences, are handed sentences of 18 months at the most.

Australian and Indonesian police have stepped up operations, using 12 dedicated ''strike teams'', but Mr Negus said there was no sign the flow of immigrants was slowing.

''We are very concerned that eventually we will see a tragedy on a massive scale, where a boat does sink and nobody will come to the rescue,'' he said.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Thousands in Anti-graft Rally

STRAITS Times, 9 December 2009

THOUSANDS of Indonesians rallied on Wednesday in several major cities to mark international anti-graft day, urging the government to seriously investigate a controversial bank bailout scandal.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is under mounting pressure as lawmakers probe allegations of corruption linked to a contentious US$700 million government bailout for the failed local institution Bank Century last year.

He has strongly denied accusations that some of the money was channeled into his campaign for re-election in July, which he won with 60 per cent of the vote on the back of a promise to stamp out corruption.

In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, up to 5,000 students and anti-graft activists flocked to a road in the city centre, calling on the government to probe the bank bailout.

Protesters carried banners and posters reading 'Investigate Bank Century case to save state money' and 'SBY is incapable of ruling this country", a reference to the president's nickname. In Jakarta, more than a thousand protesters marched to the state palace with banners urging the president to act, with one banner claiming '90 per cent of law enforcers here are rotten'.

Yudhoyono appealed late on Tuesday for people to demonstrate peacefully, saying his government was serious about tackling graft. He previously expressed his fears that unnamed forces could hijack the rally to topple him. Organisers of the anti-graft rally said the president was paranoid and called on him to join them rather than demonising a popular movement.

Source: STRAITS Times

Activist Dies During Anti-corruption March

ANTARA news, 9 December 2009

Chairman of the National Corruption Eradication Movement (GNPK) for Pemalang, Andi Faralay (31), died during a long march to observe world anti-corruption day here on Wednesday.

Chief of the GNPK Education Center, M Basri Busi Utomo, said Andi who died during a march towards the Hotel Indonesia (HI) Traffic Circle in Central Jakarta, possibly suffered from exhaustion.

"On the way to the HI Traffic Circle during the long march, Andi suddenly collapsed and fell unconscious. Moments later, he died," Utomo said.

He said GNPK activists had just finished a three-day national working meeting on eradication of corruption in Central Java. "We just finished it today and spent the night at the RedTop hotel," he said.

Utomo said he had immediately contacted Andi`s family. "We will take his body to Pemalang today," he added.

In the meantime, deputy chief of Metro Jakarta Police Adjunct Senior Commissioner Firli denied that Andi had died because he fell when he was conducting an oration.

"When he was marching towards the HI traffic circle, the victim suddenly collapsed and died in the street," he said.

The body of the victim was taken to Budi Kemuliaan Hospital in Central Jakarta.

Source: ANTARA news

Indonesian President Fears Plot Amid Protests

channelnewsasia.com, 7 December 2009

Indonesia's top brass met Monday to discuss a supposed threat to the country after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that unnamed forces were planning to use an anti-graft rally to topple him.

The heads of the armed forces, the police and the intelligence agency were called to the security ministry to examine the alleged threat to the government surrounding the anti-corruption march scheduled on Wednesday, officials said.

The meeting came after Yudhoyono cryptically told a gathering of his Democratic party on Sunday that the rally was a front for a "hidden political scenario".

"I've prayed in the middle of the night with my wife and family to find out what is going on behind this slander and character assassination," he said.

"My common sense says that such political behaviour will at least in the short term shake, discredit or if possible topple SBY," he added, using his nickname to refer to himself in the third person.

Yudhoyono is under mounting pressure over corruption allegations that have besieged the administration since his landslide election victory in July on the back of promises of good governance and economic growth.

The softly-spoken ex-general has been slow to discipline the officials involved and has seemed out of touch with public anger over the endless stream of corruption scandals.

His taciturn exterior was shaken when he angrily rejected suspicions that money from a 6.7-trillion-rupiah (710-million-dollar) government bailout for a failed bank found its way into his campaign coffers.

Yudhoyono's latest claims of a secret plot to oust him from power -- he made similar comments after a terror attack in July -- have been dismissed as "paranoid" by his critics.

Anti-graft activists have also blasted suggestions that their rally is anything but a popular movement against rampant corruption. They called on Yudhoyono to stand by them rather than portray them as threats to the nation.

Coordinating Minister of Political, Security and Legal Affairs Djoko Suyanto said Yudhoyono was an astute judge of threats to his power.

"He's always on alert over things like that. A gathering involving mass people is usually easily used by freeloaders," Suyanto told reporters after the security meeting.

"What the president wanted to say is that don't let them disrupt the aim of the rally."

He did not explain who the "freeloaders" might be.

Source: channelnewsasia.com

Indonesia Police To Deploy Thousands for Anti-graft Protest

channelnewsasia.com, 9 December 2009

Indonesia will deploy thousands of police to an anti-graft protest on Wednesday after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that unnamed forces could hijack the rally to topple him, a spokesman said.

"There will be 10,000 police personnel deployed tomorrow in several spots that will be passed by demonstrators," Jakarta police spokesman Boy Rafli told AFP. Anti-riot police would be among those on hand to suppress any violence.

On the eve of the protest, Yudhoyono appealed for people to demonstrate calmly, saying his government was serious about tackling graft.

"I urge the people to celebrate the world anti-corruption day tomorrow in an orderly way... In the next five years I want the results of combating corruption to be one of the legacies of my administration," he said.

Indonesia's top security chiefs met on Monday to discuss a supposed threat to the country after Yudhoyono told a gathering of his Democratic party that the rally was a front for a "hidden political scenario".

Yudhoyono is under mounting pressure over corruption allegations that have besieged the administration since his landslide election victory in July on the back of promises of good governance and economic growth.

The softly-spoken ex-general has been slow to discipline the officials involved and has seemed out of touch with public anger over the endless stream of corruption scandals.

His taciturn exterior was shaken when he angrily rejected suspicions that money from a 6.7-trillion-rupiah (710-million-dollar) government bailout for a failed bank found its way into his campaign coffers.

Organisers of the anti-graft rally said the president was paranoid and called on him to join them rather than demonising a popular movement for justice.

Source: channelnewsasia.com

Thousands Join Anti-corruption Rally in Indonesia

channelnewsasia.com, 9 December 2009

Thousands of Indonesians rallied on Wednesday in several major cities to mark international anti-graft day, urging the government to seriously investigate a controversial bank bailout scandal.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is under mounting pressure as lawmakers probe allegations of corruption linked to a contentious 700-million-dollar government bailout for the failed local institution Bank Century last year.

He has strongly denied accusations that some of the money was channelled into his campaign for re-election in July, which he won with 60 per cent of the vote on the back of a promise to stamp out corruption.

In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, up to 5,000 students and anti-graft activists flocked to a road in the city centre, calling on the government to probe the bank bailout.

Protesters carried banners and posters reading "Investigate Bank Century case to save state money" and "SBY is incapable of ruling this country", a reference to the president's nickname.

In Jakarta, more than a thousand protesters marched to the state palace with banners urging the president to act, with one banner claiming "90 per cent of law enforcers here are rotten".

Yudhoyono appealed late Tuesday for people to demonstrate peacefully, saying his government was serious about tackling graft. He previously expressed his fears that unnamed forces could hijack the rally to topple him.

Organisers of the anti-graft rally said the president was paranoid and called on him to join them rather than demonise a popular movement.

Source: channelnewsasia.com

SBY Success Team Denies Receiving Century Funds

WASPADA online 09 December 2009

One of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)'s success teams, the "SBY for President Task Force", has officially denied receiving "even a single cent" of the controversial Bank Century funds.

"This is a formal clarification from us in view of the slanderous allegations that have seriously disturbed us," the Task Force's secretary general, Hencky Luntungan, said here on Tuesday (Dec.8).

Luntungan said the team was insulted by the slanderous statements spread by various parties that Yudhoyono's victory in the 2009 presidential election was helped by the flow of funds from Bank Century.

He said "not a single cent from other parties was received by Yudhoyono's success team except from SBY's party."

"We had our own funds for six months since the preparation, consolidation across Indonesia, until the end of the presidential election," Luntungan said.

He added that if it was eventually proven that funds from Bank Century had in reality flown into the purses of certain individuals, the matter could be legally processed.

"Remember, if the funds were received by individuals, we will support efforts to process the matter legally," Luntungan said.

Asked about the plan of a number of civil society organizations to hold a peaceful rally on World Anti corruption Day on Wednesday, Dec 9, 2009, Luntungan said his team would support it "one hundred percent."

"We will support it so long as it is not conducted in anarchic manner," said the functionary of the Indonesian National Students Movement Presidium.

He said the mass rally planned for Wednesday was part of the fair practice of democracy for people's welfare.

Source: WASPADA online

Indonesian Colonel Says Reporters Killed

NBC26.com, 8 December 2009

A former Indonesian army colonel has told a magazine that soldiers deliberately killed five Western journalists in East Timor in 1975 - contradicting the government's longstanding assertion that the deaths were accidental.

The explosive claim in the weekly Tempo magazine, published Monday, further fueled tensions between Indonesia and Australia created in September when Australian federal police launched a war crimes investigation into the deaths in the East Timorese border town of Balibo in the weeks before Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony.

It comes amid renewed public interest in the case spurred by the release this year of the Australian movie "Balibo," which depicts the events that lead to the journalists' deaths. The film was banned in Indonesia.

Gatot Purwanto told Tempo he was a lieutenant in the special forces team that overran Balibo on Oct. 16, 1975. The journalists, who have become known as the Balibo Five, were shot to keep secret the Indonesian military's presence in East Timor two months before a full-blown invasion, he said.

Tempo quoted Purwanto as saying that soldiers decided to kill the reporters - two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander - to prevent them from reporting that Indonesia was preparing to invade the breakaway territory.

"If they had been left alive, they would say it was an Indonesian invasion," Purwanto said.

Purwanto, who now runs a security firm, said the bodies were burned to hidethe evidence.

Yunus Yosfiah, who was then an army captain and later a government minister, had been waiting for instructions from Jakarta on what to do with the reporters when they were killed, Purwanto said. In 2007, an Australian coroner found that the journalists were killed on Yosfiah's orders. He has denied it and could not be contacted for comment on Purwanto's claims.

Late Monday, after a private screening of the movie, Purwanto gave Indonesian reporters a slightly different version of events - that the journalists may have been shot by plainclothes, pro-Jakarta militia who accompanied the soldiers during an attack on Balibo's Fretilin party independence fighters.

"I am not defending myself, but I can say that the shooting of the reporters was not entirely done by Indonesian soldiers," he said.

Shirley Shackleton, the widow of Greg Shackleton, one of the Australians killed, welcomed Purwanto's interview - the first senior Indonesian soldier to contradict the official version that the reporters were caught in the middle of a gunbattle and accidentally shot.

"It is a milestone. It's another nail in the coffin of lies," she told Australia's Fairfax Radio Network on Tuesday.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Tuesday that he recently told his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, that his government was "deeply interested" in the case and that the Australian police investigation should be allowed to take its course.

The "Balibo" movie depicts Indonesian soldiers shooting and stabbing the unarmed journalists. Indonesia's censorship board said the script was based on testimony of witnesses of "questionable nature." Purwanto himself said the movie was sensationalized and that only half the events depicted in Balibo were accurate.

Source: NBC26.com

The Curious Case of Indonesia's "Democracy"

Foreign Policy, 8 December 2009

Indonesians have democracy, but some still miss the old authoritarian days.

Is Indonesia's democracy really blooming? If you read the English-speaking press, you might think the answer is a resounding yes. Papers in London and New York have applauded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet picks and hailed his government as a post-authoritarian success story.

Democracy is consolidating and the economy is growing, they say, thanks to Yudhoyono's stewardship over the past five years. Why else would more than 60 percent of the electorate have voted for him in recent elections? If you read the local press, however, a very different narrative emerges.

Since the strongman Suharto stepped down 11 years ago, democracy hasn't really taken hold, nor is it widely accepted by the public. In a 2006 Indonesian Survey Institute poll, only about 70 percent of Indonesians said they even thought favorably of democracy. Two years later, this number had dropped another 10 percent, mostly due to growing disillusionment with elected officials -- more and more of whom became corrupt as economic conditions worsened. And the military, which once propped up the oppressive regime, now receives higher favorability ratings than most other public institutions.

Additionally, apathy has seeped into the voting population. The number of voters has dwindled since the 1999 presidential contest, the first free and fair election after Suharto, in which more than 90 percent of the electorate participated. Today, 30 percent don't bother to fill out a ballot. The statistics for local elections are even worse.

Voters are unhappy about economic issues. In this country of around 230 million, more than 35 million live in a state of dire poverty, but in 2008, $75 billion in wealth belonged to just 150 people. Furthermore, corruption is unimpeded, making life difficult for Indonesia's poor. The number of public and elected officials implicated in graft cases more than quintupled between 2005 and 2008, to 444, according to Indonesian Corruption Watch.

And so, the public increasingly resents its democratic institutions and their efforts, even reminiscing about the "good old days" of stability under Suharto -- as most believe economic conditions were better then. A 2008 poll by one local daily found that almost 70 percent of Indonesians thought negatively of parliament, and more than half felt that legislators passed laws which went against their interests.

Recently, some Indonesians, including prominent retired generals, have called for welfare, not freedom, to be the yardstick -- echoing earlier calls for the restoration of the executive-heavy 1945 constitution. One retired general lamented that "Our elections have moved away from a consensual democracy to a liberal, one-man-one-vote democracy," and amid decreasing living standards, that this "could potentially disrupt national unity."

So what accounts for the difference between foreign and domestic accounts of Indonesian democracy?

First, Indonesia had its democracy imposed from the top down by political elites following Suharto's abdication. Decentralized, grassroots, and organic democratic institutions, like political parties, have not had the time to take root. Thus, it might appear to outside observers that Indonesia's democracy is strong, since there has not been any serious election-related violence, demonstrations and ensuing crackdowns, or countermovements since the end of Suharto's reign. But the country's democracy is actually shallow, a fact apparent to Indonesians.

Source: foreignpolicy.com

Three Held for Indonesian Bar Fire

independent on line, 7 December 2009

Police charged three men with accidentally causing the deaths of 20 patrons in a fire at a third-floor karaoke bar in one of Indonesia's largest cities, alleging they sparked the blaze during renovations, an official said on Monday.

Charged in the Friday night fire in Medan on Sumatra island were the general manager of the bar, a building contractor and a carpenter whom police allege ignited the fire while trying to melt through a carpet with a cigarette lighter, north Sumatra police chief Maj General Badrodin Haiti said.

Each faces a potential prison sentence of five years if convicted of negligence causing death. The bodies of 11 men and nine women were recovered from the charred debris of the bar.

Six patrons remained in hospitals, two of them critically injured, Haiti said. Their injuries were caused by burns, trampling by panicked patrons and smoke inhalation, he said.

Medan city authorities found that the popular bar lacked basic safety equipment, including emergency ladders and a sprinkler system, acting Mayor Rahudman Harahap told The Jakarta Post newspaper.

"Because of such low standards, many visitors were trapped and killed," Harahap told reporters. City authorities were examining safety standards at other night spots in Medan, he said. Harahap could not immediately be contacted on Monday for comment.

Source: independent on line

Coins for Justice

GlobalVoices, 6 December 2009

Earlier today, Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who was prosecuted for writing a complaint email regarding a bad hospital service, was found guilty for defaming a private hospital by the Tangerang High Court. The court ordered her to pay a fine of Rp. 204 M (US$ 21,680) to OMNI Internasional Alam Sutera hospital.

Indonesian net users are buzzing to collect the sum in form of coins because they are outraged by the court decision and they hope the coins will overwhelm the hospital, said one activist to local newspaper Kompas.

“When justice is spared, we collect coins”, says tagline of Koin Keadilan, coins for justice, a new website dedicated to collect coin donation to pay Prita's fine.

Source: GlobalVoices

President Cancels Trip to Makassar

The Jakarta Post, 8 December 2009

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has canceled a planned visit Wednesday to Makassar to open the 52nd Nusantara Day in the South Sulawesi capital, and will instead send Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Radjasa to represent him.

Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry data center head Soenan H. Poernomo said Tuesday at a press conference in Makassar that Yudhoyono was already penciled in for another engagement elsewhere.

“We were informed of the cancellation two days ago. The President has another appointment,” Soenan said. He dismissed speculation Yudhoyono was staying in Jakarta due to security concerns over a mass rally planned for Dec. 9 to commemorate International Anticorruption Day.

“It’s not because of the rally at all, but there’s another event the President has to attend,” Soenan said. The cancellation has forced Nusantara Day organizers to call off a planned dialogue between the President and about 3,000 fishermen from the country’s 33 provinces.

Soenan said the commemoration of Nusantara Day on Wednesday would mark a move to develop the maritime paradigm that an archipelagic country like Indonesia required to promote its maritime and fishery sectors.

Despite the country’s rich fishing and maritime resources, fishermen remain among the poorest and least developed of the population.

Source: The Jakarta Post

PDI-P: Yudhoyono Shouldn't Stir Panic

The Jakarta Post, 8 December 2009

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction chairman at the House of Representatives, Tjahyo Kumolo, said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should not have publicly revealed any intelligence data he acquired about the Dec. 9 movement, stirring panic among the public.

"The president receives data from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) on a daily basis. The data must be held confidentially and cannot be publicly revealed.

“BIN people understand that it is important to keep secret data secret to avoid public panic. However, for some reason, the president decided to be the public relation of the intelligence," he told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"The president's statement about intelligence data on the Dec. 9 movement, will only make the movement grow bigger and bigger," he added.

Yudhoyono recently said that he had received sufficient data about a possible political movement to topple him using rallies, planned to be held on Dec. 9 to celebrate the world anti-corruption day.

Anti-corruption activists have expressed their regret over the president's statement, saying that he might have overreacted and panicked himself.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Another Proof of Indonesian Police's Lack of Supervision

KOMPAS.com, 7 December 2009

The abuse case of University of Indonesia's historian, J.J. Rizal, done by police perpetrators Saturday night triggers strong reactions. This time it's the Indonesian Police Watch (IPW) that urges the district police chief to evaluate the performance of all resort police chiefs.

According to IPW coordinator, Neta S. Pane, in his press release to Kompas.com, Monday, the incident under the Depok Town Square overpass, Saturday evening, around 11.45 pm, is the second brutality done by the Depok police. Previously there was the shooting at the public transport driver who was suspected of gambling.

"This case in Beji area is the second in the last month, before this the police shot a bus driver. In this case the Depok police chief is lax for not monitoring his subordinates maximally. The Jakarta polie should evaluate the other police chiefs' positions."

According to Neta, the Beji case is only one of many cases of negligence in the National Police force. "This shows a weak recruitment and training system in the National Police. The government and the National Police chief should manage this seriously."

Meanwhile, J.J. Rizal, still refuses a peaceful compromy in settling the abuse incident that had befallen him. Rizal states that so far there has been no further approach from the Beji area police chief or from the Depok police chief.

"Since last week there has been no other effort of approach or communication from them aside from the time when they tried to use one of the social figures around my neighborhood, in Depok, to try to communicate with me to work out a compromizing solution. But I would've refused anyway. This must be settled in a court of law," said Rizal when contacted by Kompas.com.

Previously, on Sunday, Rizal had brought his case to the Jakarta police. In the dossier (BAP), Rizal is suing the five police perpetrators who abused him; their initials are AT, SR, SA, MA, and SU, with the charge of mobbing and abuse.

Source: KOMPAS.com

Analysts Warn Political Impacts on the Economy

tempointeractive, 7 December 2009

Economists began to cast their warning over the possible negative impacts of domestic political turmoil on the economic projections next year as the anti-corruption protests which also target President Susilo Bambang have not shown signs of receeding.

Mirza Adityaswara head of the Economist of Bank Indonesia said on Monday (7/12) political situations in the country pose about 60 percent of influences on the economy, and predicted that first quarter growth will slip down to around 4 percent if the political stuations remain.

Mirza also said that credit growth is expected around 10 percent at the end of the year of the 15 percent target, and will grow to arund 15 percent next year of the projected 20 – 25 percent.

Another analyst with brokerage firm Samuel Sekuritas Indonesia, Lana Soelistiangningsih said President Yudhoyono's statement on a political plot against his government will throw the market into anxiety. “This could swerve the market sentiment from neutral to anxious. The statements have confirm a possiblie fragile political situation.”

Source: tempointeractive

News Focus: Observers Pessimistic About House Inquiry Committee

ANTARA News, 7 December 2009

The House Special Inquiry Committee that will investigate a controversial Rp6.7 trillion bailout provided by the government for Bank Century might not work maximally, observers say. Most of the lawmakers grouped in the 30-member inquiry committee came from political parties which have signed political contracts of support with the government. After all, the political parties are involved in cartel politics that enabled them to seek and provide mutual protection, they say.

"I doubt whether the committee would perform well and effectively because it is led by a chairman who comes from a party that has signed a political contract as a government supporter," Arbi Sanit, political observer of the University of Indonesia (UI) said on Sunday.

Pessimism is also expressed by Burhanuddin Muhtadi, researcher of the Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI). He said that political parties in Indonesia were accustomed to cartel politics.

"I am pessimistic about the fate of the committee, even as of the very beginning, because many political parties in Indonesia had been trapped the cartel politics," Muhtadi said.

The House of representatives formed the inquiry committee on Friday after hearing a report of the State Audit Board (BPK) on its investigative audit of Bank Century that there was a suspected effort to engineer additional bailout funds (PMS) for the bank.

The case came up to the surface when Bank Century almost collapsed some time ago after its assets worth Rp11 trillion were transferred and stashed overseas by major shareholder Robert Tantular.

In order to help the ailing bank, the government provided it with bailout funds amounting to Rp6.7 trillion without the approval of the House of Representatives (DPR).

Arbi Sanit said that he had doubts whether the newly formed House Inquiry Committee would perform maximally in probing into the Bank Century bailout scandal because most of the committee members were political parties which had signed contracts with the government.

The 30-member committee appointed Muhammad Idrus Marham of the Golkar Party in its meeting on Friday (Dec 4.). The Golkar Party is one of the political parties which coalesced with the ruling Democratic Party in the House.

"As an executive of the party, though there is a difference of opinion, he would not adopt a stance that is different from the government`s," Sanit said. He predicted that the voice of the parties in coalition in deciding the result of the inquiry committee, if it reached through a voting mechanism, would be inclined to support the government.

If the final results of the inquiry committee had been decided in this way, the public hope for the revelation of the real problem with the Bank Century case would not be satisfied, he said.

The same voice was also aired by LSI researcher Burhanuddin Muhtadi. He said he was pessimistic that the House Special Inquiry Committee would be able to reveal the truth with regard to the Bank Century bailout case.

"I became pessimistic about the committee since the very beginning because the political parties in Indonesia had been trapped in cartel politics," he said.

He said that even if it was chaired by lawmaker Gayus Lumbuun of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) faction, the House Inquiry Commission would still not be free from political intrigues.

"This is because each of the political parties in the House already has the ace against their political opponents," he said.

According to Muhtadi, a PDIP cadre was also implicated in a bribery case with former Bank Indonesia (BI/central bank) senior deputy governor Miranda Goeltom.

"This is a part of old cases with Indosat, the sale of a VLCC tanker, and presidential instruction (issued by then President Megawati Soekarnoputri) No. 8 / 2002 that stopped the investigation of at least ten suspects in the BI liquidity assistance case," Muhtadi said.

The presidential instruction arranged the release and discharge which stated that debtors of the National Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN) were exempted from debts.

Muhtadi said Golkar also faced the same thing where many old cases involved its cadres and had the potential to be used as a means of lobbying a political barter. The financial scandals which implicated political brokers involved many political parties.

They usually kept silent if there was a `just` distribution of money interest based on the proportion of their seats in the House of Representatives (DPR).

"Cartel politics leads lawmakers to mutually provide protection such as those in the cases of Bulogate 2 and Bank Bali sometime in the past," Muhtadi said. Thus, the only most probable achievement the House Inquiry Committee could make is to find a scapegoat or to determine that the Bank Century case is a civil case, he said.

He said that judging from the composition of the inquiry committee leadership and the interest of the House factions, there was a big possibility that the inquiry would run aground before reaching its goals.

In the meantime, a number of student activists over the weekend also expressed fear that the House inquiry into the Bank Century case could run aground. "There is an indication the inquiry will run aground before it reaches its objectives," Bambang M Fajar, chairman of the Muslim Student Association (HMI), said.

He said many members of the special inquiry committee were not the initiators of the petition. They even fought to chair the committee while they actually had given little to support the handful of legislators who had led the House inquiry initiative since the beginning.

The same concern was also expressed by Heni Lestari, presidium chairwoman of the Women Action Wing of the Indonesian Nationalist Student Movement (GMNI).

She regretted the success of certain political parties in including their cadres in the committee. "Therefore, there is no choice for us, elements of all community movements, but to launch mass rallies to guard the investigation process of the House committee," she said

Source: ANTARA News

Indonesian President Reveals Future Movement

vivaNEWS.com, 7 December 2009

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stressed that the action on December 9, 2009, would have certain motive, "emphasizing none on anti-corruption spirit," on Sunday, Dec 6. The said movement would be concerned with the plan drawn by a number of mass organizations to hold protest on Wednesday, Dec 9, as a form of celebration of the international anti-corruption day. Notable public figures such as Din Syamsuddin and the chairman of Muhammadiyah will be present in the venue.

Yudhoyono saw the demonstration plan was important. He had alluded about the outline twice. The President claimed that the movement "does not have motive which is line with corruption eradication," he said.

Din Syamsuddin denied about the issue. Other figures suggested Yudhoyono remain in control in responding over the plan. "A leader should be self-possessed," Syafi'i Ma'arif said.

During an internal meeting of Democratic Party yesterday, Dec 6, he said he "obtained quite a complete report on what and who would be the target in the coming movement of December 9."

He also stated that his administration has been subject to protests and complaints. Mr President acknowledged that his physical and mental states should endure the test. "You should be as well," said Yudhoyono before the participants of the meeting.

Source: vivaNEWS.com

Police Beat Indonesian Historian

vivaNEWS.com, 7 December 2009

An Indonesian historian from University of Indonesia (UI) was ill-treated by the police on Saturday night, Dec 5. Victim JJ Rizal said he underwent physical maltreatment by a party of five police officers. "Two of them pointed guns at me," said Rizal on Sunday, Dec 6.

The man said the case had been brought to the Jakarta Police Department. "After the scanning result over my body has been completed, I would bring the case to Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) and Kontras," said JJ Rizal.

He claimed that the chiefs of Depok and Beji Depok police departments have begged for sorry over the excessive measures. "[The Beji Depok chief] also calls far me to forget the case," said Rizal.

However, Rizal said the issue should be legally processed because the field officers did not give him time to provide explanation.

"There was ambush on me. They hit more and talked less. The more I struggled, the more they beat me," the man recalled.

When he was under interrogation, the true story was revealed. The officers at once realized that he was not the real target.

However, even though it was the police's fault, the chief of Beji Depok PD instead chewed out on him: "You should not have struggled against them. Your action caused them to beat you," he said.

Source: vivaNEWS.com

Court Instructs Prita to Pay Rp 204 Million in Damages

The Jakarta Globe, 3 December 2009

Despite the public backlash against the Tangerang District Court for finding Prita Mulyasari guilty in a civil suit filed by an upscale hospital, the Banten High Court has upheld the ruling and instructed the mother of two to pay Rp 204 million ($21,600) in damages, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

“The district court ordered Prita to pay Rp 312 million. The High Court ordered her to pay a lesser fine. I have not received a copy of the verdict. As soon as we receive it, we will appeal to the Supreme Court,” lawyer Slamet Yuwono told the Jakarta Globe, hours after he appeared at the Tangerang District Court to defend the 32-year-old Prita in a separate criminal defamation trial over the same case.

The controversial case stems from Prita’s e-mail complaint in 2008 to friends about the care she received at Omni International Hospital. The case sparked public outrage and a media frenzy when Prita was taken into custody in May after the Tangerang District Court ruled against her in the civil lawsuit, ahead of a criminal trial.

She spent three weeks in jail until the public outcry led prosecutors to release her. Though the district court threw out the original criminal case, prosecutors refiled the charges.

The Banten High Court sided with the prosecutors and ordered the Tangerang District Court to retry the criminal case, for which Prita could face six months in jail if convicted.

During Wednesday’s trial in the criminal case, Slamet argued that Prita’s e-mail only became public knowledge when the doctors she had complained about wrote letters to the editors at two national dailies.

“The e-mail was, in fact sent to just 20 people. It became widespread public knowledge only after the doctors themselves placed an open letter of complaint in two national newspapers,” Slamet said during the hearing. “The prosecution has failed to prove that it was Prita who had attracted widespread attention to the case via her e-mail complaint.”

The criminal defamation suit was filed by doctors Hengky Gosal and Grace Hilza Yarlen Nela of Omni hospital.

Prita maintains that she never violated the law and demanded the panel of judges acquit her of all charges.

Slamet also noted that instead of seizing Prita’s computer as evidence, police and prosecutors had used a copy of the e-mail complaint as evidence.

“The kind of evidence is not valid because it doesn’t represent the original e-mail,” Slamet said. “They got the copies from the doctors who brought the case to police. The copies could have been modified.”

The defense team also highlighted an attempt by prosecutors to charge Prita under the Electronic Information and Transaction Law, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in jail, thus allowing prosecutors to detain Prita ahead of her trial.

“Because of the additional charges, Prita was detained for three weeks. We want the judges to remember that,” said Slamet, explaining that initially police only used defamation articles from the Criminal Code.

“And above all that, Prita was a patient who had the right to complain about any bad treatment she may have received from the hospital. Her rights are protected by consumer laws. Her e-mail has nothing to do with breaking the law, especially as it tells the facts.”

Source: The Jakarta Globe