Promoting peace, human rights and democracy in Indonesia
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Contents:
Also: Acehnese unconcerned by threats [2 April] [full story…]
Time Magazine: Aceh Ramps Up Security Ahead of Elections [3 April] [full story…]
Ex-combatant in Aceh carries on fighting in politics [4 April] [full story…]
Another Aceh Party Official Shot Dead Days Before Polls [4 April] [full story…]
Two More Arrested in Lead-Up to Aceh Polls [7 April] [full story…]
Papuan Leaders Tell Supporters to Abstain from Vote [1 March]Also: West Papua National Coalition for Liberation call for boycott [2 April] [full story…]
Police chief in Papua warns of efforts to foil the elections [1 April] [full story…]
Thousands rally in Indonesian Papua [3 April] [full story…]
Special voting arrangements for illiterate Papuans [4 April] [full story…]
Four Shot In Indonesian Papua Election Protests: Activist [6 April] [full story…]
Indonesia Crackdown After Papuan Anti-Election Rally [6 April] [full story…]
Election Inflames Indonesia Papua Separatists [7 April] [full story…]
Prabowo's Party Tipped To Be Best of Newcomers [2 April]Indonesia Elections Have Broad National Implications [2 April]
Parliamentary elections in Indonesia, as elsewhere, are usually an ordinary affair as local politicians jockey for position among voters at the grassroots level. Normally voting revolves around homespun issues: a new school library, the local waters works or paved roads. But in the lead-up to legislative elections in Indonesia, campaigning has taken on much broader implications, providing a battleground for separatist forces in the troubled province of Papua, a testing ground for the fragile peace in Aceh and a vibrant backdrop for the presidential poll in July. [full story…]
The Thinker: Is Security Reform On the Agenda? [2 April]
One of the greater achievements in reformation has been keeping the military out of politics. During the Suharto administration, the military and police had representatives in legislatures at national, provincial and district levels. But questions are still being asked about whether the military is still determined to play a political role. There are signs that the country’s security reform has yet to be fully realized. Despite the bombardment of media campaigns from political parties with vague promises to address unemployment, poverty and so on, this campaign season has yet to touch on more pressing issues. Security sector reform, in particular, is missing, and the President’s administration has failed to deliver on its mandate to reform the military command structure, military businesses and intelligence agency regulation. [full story…]
Islamic pride fills a stadium, but Pancasila rules the polls [4 April]
As Indonesians prepare to go to the polls next week the fortunes of Islamic parties are being closely watched. The horrors of the terrorist attacks that gripped the nation from 2000 to 2005, and the rise of hardline Islamic movements in the Middle East, have raised concerns that Indonesia's moderate form of Islam and its secular ideology are under siege. Yet, despite the alarms, all the polling - and all the internal machinations within parties like PKS - suggests that Islam as a potent political force is on the wane in Indonesia or, at best, treading water. [full story…]
Also: Extremists 'infiltrating Indonesia' [4 April] [full story…]
Money politics 'more rampant now' [4 April]
Analysts say the problem of money politics has worsened this election. The main reason is that competition is extremely stiff. An estimated 1.6 million candidates - from more than 40 national and local parties - are fighting for more than 18,000 seats in national, provincial and district-level parliaments. Other factors include the longer nine- month campaigning period, as compared to less than a month in 2004, and a new electoral system that allows people to vote directly for the candidates, instead of for the political parties. [full story…]
Call for more women in Parliament [4 April]
Activists are calling for more women in parliament, but a ruling by the Constitutional Court last December has mucked up the playing field for female candidates, they say. Now, candidates with the most votes automatically get into Parliament, as long as their party has a minimum share of votes. It is a more democratic system as parties can no longer hand-pick who to send to the House. But it has also removed the clause that, for every three legislators they appoint, one has to be a woman. [full story…]
Also: Nationalist-oriented parties endorse polygamous candidates [4 April] [full story…]
PKB losing shine without charisma of the enigmatic Gus Dur [4 April]
Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid has painfully lost his grip on the National Awakening Party (PKB) to his less popular cousin Muhaimin Iskandar, following a bitter leadership rift that warranted Supreme Court intervention to end it last year. The court’s decision in favor of Muhaimin hurt Gus Dur’s pride so badly that he has refused to be associated with the PKB, the country’s seventh largest party, which has a stronghold East Java but is less popular in other islands. [full story…]
Parties lack commitment to environmental protection [4 April]
Political parties contesting in the upcoming legislative elections have not made environmental issues a priority despite the rising threat of environmental degradation. [full story…]
Poverty and the Purchased Public Sphere [4 April]
During the campaign period of the 2009 election, poverty issues are among the most prominent. All political parties proclaim themselves as truly antipoverty parties. However, there is a paradox. Among the vicious political disputes, our poor people are not merely materially lacking, but they have also lost their democratic participation. Broadly speaking, they have been undergoing a “deficit of citizenship”. The modern democracy requires, among other things, an institution called the public sphere, within which the everyday participation of all citizens is accommodated. In a country that claims itself as democratic, a central question has to be posed: has every citizen had equal opportunity to access the public sphere? The answer is “No!” [full story…]
Clouds Gather On the Eve of Elections; The Extended Forecast Calls for Gloom [4 April]
If the 1955 election is remembered as the election with the highest percentage of voter turnout in this country, the upcoming elections are certainly going to be remembered as the elections with the most abstainers. With only a few days left till the legislative elections, it is obvious that they will be a shambles. Even without the concerns of widespread and systemic cheating, the new voting method is bound to be problematic, stressful and confusing for a large proportion of the population. The huge sheet of paper that the voter must inspect before he or she places the tick mark on the preferred party or person is much bigger than any piece of paper most people normally work with. For people unaccustomed to working with large sheets of paper just opening the ballot will be a hassle. [full story…]
Also: Average Voters Speak Out [7 April] [full story…]
Economist Intelligence Unit: Poll preview [6 April]
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party is on track to consolidate its position in the Indonesian legislature at the April 9th general election. If the PD performs as well as expected, it will be able to nominate Mr Yudhoyono as its presidential candidate without seeking coalition partners. Moreover, despite the worsening economic climate, Mr Yudhoyono is already firmly on track to win re-election later this year. The president will be pressed to defend the performance of his government during his campaign, but he lacks a credible challenger. [full story…]
Major Parties Threaten to Reject Election Results [7 April]
Despite the troubled voter lists, all 38 political parties have seemingly consented to contest the legislative elections on Thursday; but major parties threatened to reject the result if the polls were found not to be free or fair, or organized professionally and independently. [full story…]
Also: Tempo editorial: Listing badly [7 April] [full story…]
Marginalized groups neglected [7 April]
Legislative candidates and political parties have missed a golden opportunity to win votes from vulnerable groups which have thus far remained untapped and forgotten, says The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). [full story…]
Poll logistics in place, says embattled election body [7 April]
With three days left before the legislative elections, the polls body claimed Monday most polling material had arrived in the most isolated districts in Papua, West Java and Maluku. [full story…]
Terror and Threats Still Rife on Aceh Campaign Trail
The Jakarta Globe
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Nurdin Hasan
Banda Aceh. Despite pledges by leaders of political parties to engage in peaceful campaigns, election preparations in Aceh Province continue to be overshadowed by acts of terror and intimidation, as well as kidnapping.
The province is where armed conflicts between government troops and members of the now disbanded Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, killed almost 20,000 people from 1976 to 2005.
All leaders of six local parties participating in the April 9 legislative elections, however, said they would not buckle under the threats.
“We’re often persecuted, but that does not mean we accuse other parties [of being behind it],” said Aceh Party spokesperson Adnan Beuransyah.
“We continue to urge Aceh Party sympathizers to abide by existing rules and not to use violence against violence,” he added.
Aceh Party is one of the local parties established by former members of secessionist movement GAM, which was disbanded following the signing of the Helsinki agreement in August 2005, putting an end to decades-old bloody conflicts in the area.
The other five are the Aceh People’s Party, or PRA; Sovereign Aceh Party, or PDA; United Aceh Party, or PBA; Safe and Prosperous Aceh Party, or PAAS; and Aceh People’s Independent Voice Party, or SIRA.
In addition to the six local parties, 37 national parties are also vying for 69 seats in the Aceh Provincial Legislative Council, or DPRD, and hundreds of seats in district and municipal legislative councils.
Since the end of 2008, Aceh has seen a series of grenade throwing incidents, most of which targeted offices or houses of Aceh Party officials.
In the wee hours of Monday, two men threw a grenade into the house of Alimuddin Jabat, chairman of Subulussalam City branch of Aceh Party. No casualties were reported, but the explosion shocked the occupants.
Abubakar Nataprawira, spokesperson of the National Police, said last week that two suspects in grenade throwing incidents in Aceh had been taken to Jakarta for further investigation. He did not give the suspects’ details, or their motives.
Adnan said violence and intimidation were perpetuated by “people who do not want peace to take root in Aceh and those who do not wish Aceh Party to win the elections.”
He dispelled fears that Aceh Party, which has targeted to win up to 80 percent of seats in both provincial and district or municipal legislative councils, was promising its supporters independence.
Ahmad Farhan Hamid, chairman of United Aceh Party, said competition in the elections was lively, thanks to participation of local parties, but is slightly marred by “self-serving parties that resort to terrorizing and intimidating other parties to achieve their goals.”
“I don’t want to name those who engage in terror and intimidation, but everyone knows who they are,” said Farhan, who is also a House of Representatives member from the National Mandate Party. “But basically, I appeal to all PBA sympathizers not to answer intimidation with intimidation. We’d be better off campaigning in a sympathetic manner.”
Muhammad Nazar, chairman of SIRA Party, said that terror and intimidation may jeopardize democracy and peace in Aceh.
“The groups that engage in terror and intimidation are destabilizing forces who do not understand democracy,” said Nazar, who is also deputy governor of Aceh. “They think that they are the only parties struggling for peace and that Aceh is theirs alone.”
Thousands of SIRA Party sympathizers were intimidated by certain groups on their way to attend the party’s campaign in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, last week.
Terror, intimidation and even beatings were also suffered by Aceh People’s Party sympathizers. The party, which was established by former student activists, has run a series of articles in local newspapers.
Meanwhile, Sovereign Aceh Party chairman Harmen Nuriqmar, said some of his party candidates have resigned from their nomination “since they can no longer stand the terror and intimidation.”
“If these [violent] actions continue, what kind of democracy are we going to build for Aceh, while we want Aceh to be a model of democracy for other regions in Indonesia,” he said.
Ghazali Abbas Adan, chairman of the Safe and Prosperous Aceh Party, said it was difficult to hold a democratic election in Aceh while voters and party cadres in rural areas were under constant threats.
“Such [acts] are rare in cities, but in the villages, they get pretty brutal. The Election Supervisory Committee does not seem to have guts in Aceh,” he said.
National parties also face a similar situation. The United Development Party, or PPP, which won 12 seats in the 2004 election, said its candidates and cadres encountered threats and intimidation as well.
Aceh Golkar Party leader, Sayed Fuad Zakaria, blames “the cadres and sympathizers of Aceh Party” for the terror and intimidation against political parties in Aceh. “Their method is well-designed,” he said. “The terrorists do not come from the region, but were sent from other areas so the locals would not
recognize them. Moreover, Panwaslu does not seem to have the power to overcome this problem.”
The chairman of the Aceh Election Supervisory Committee, or Panwaslu, Nyak Arief Fadhilah Syah, said that his agency has a hard time solving cases of terror and intimidation because no one was willing to serve as a witness.
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Acehnese unconcerned by threats
The Jakarta Post
April 2, 2009
by Alfian
East Aceh
The majority of Acehnese people appear unaffected by the increase in security fears ahead of the legislative elections, despite the province having a history of bloody conflict.
Nothing could deter Idris, a resident from Seuneubok Meureudu village in East Aceh, from enjoying his favorite dark coffee and smoking cigarettes.
"I could not have enjoyed a peaceful moment like this four years ago. I would not have even dared to speak with a stranger like you," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Seated at a warung (food and beverage stall) near the traditional market at Idi Rayeuk, Idris and his friends can now chat freely without concern for the time.
"Now, I can work until late and get back home safely even at two o'clock in the morning," the construction worker said.
Acehnese men in Idi Rayeuk returned to the coffee shops once more after the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a peace agreement in August, 2005, ending three decades of bloody conflict which reportedly claimed 15,000 lives. Idi Rayeuk and the surrounding villagers are part of
Aceh's eastern coast, which was once a stronghold for GAM.
Drinking coffee is an old tradition among Acehnese men and coffee shops double not only as rest and restaurant areas but as a forum for roundtable discussion. Everything from the general elections to local politics and presidential candidates are hot topics for those gathering at the warungs and cafes in Aceh.
At Idi Rayeuk, the tradition was shaken during the escalating conflict from 2001 to 2005, though today coffee shops and warungs are open past midnight and still cater to many customers at that hour.
"Several coffee shops were burnt down during the conflict, but now the owners have rebuilt them," ojek driver Sulaiman said.
A newfound sense of calm can also be found in the surrounding villages as well. "Sick and elderly men are the only ones who do not visit coffee shops these days," said Nurdin Muhammad, Seuneubok Meureudu's geuchik (head of village).
Recalling the past conflict, Nurdin told The Post that their village was severely impacted by the conflict, with many citizens becoming embroiled in the violence. While admitting the current political conditions ahead of the elections were becoming slightly tense, locals said this did not compare to the conflict of the past because the military, once a common enemy, had left.
Despite a recent spate of terrorist attacks and incidences of intimidation, the security and political conditions will settle follow the elections, said Seuneubok Punti resident Muhammad Ali Husein.
Out of the villagers though, election observers and legislative candidates have expressed a much greater concern for the violence that has directly targeted political leaders.
"The police must investigate these incidents thoroughly," said Nurzahri, a legislative candidate from the Aceh Party (PA).
But, law enforcers said security in the province was still manageable.
"The tension has indeed been increasing slightly, but this is still tolerable. It will not lead the province into a conflict like in the past," Aceh's police spokesman Sr. Comr. Farid A Soleh said.
The police would take action against any election violations, he said, but saw no need for reinforcements in the province.
He said the Acehnese police were running a so-called sikat rencong operation aimed at curbing intimidation during the election period. The program has been running since Feb. 15 and is expected to continue until the presidential race.
Farid said nearly 9000 Acehnese police officers had been deployed through the program.
"We have deployed about two third of our personnel. We need the remaining one third to take care of other matters," he said.
Aceh's police also received 260 support personnel from the Na-tional Police Headquarters and 1,000 soldiers from the Indonesian Army (TNI).
The Iskandar Muda military command's spokesman, Mayor Dudi Dzulfadli, said the local military had enhanced security following the series of attacks in the past three months.
"This escalating tension may have something to do with the fierce competition among election contestants."
[Comment: Aceh is the only province in Indonesia where local parties are allowed to exist. Six local parties will be participating in the elections for local assemblies, though not for the national parliament. This means that there is likely to be a higher turnout in Aceh than elsewhere. By contrast, local parties are not permitted in West Papua. TAPOL]
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Aceh Ramps Up Security Ahead of Elections
Time Magazine
April 3, 2009
Jason Tedjasukmana
With less less than a week to go before national elections, snarled logistics and accurate voter rolls could spell disaster for the more remote regions of Indonesia. But Aceh, a province of four million people on the northern tip of Sumatra, is facing security challenges as well. After a string of attacks by unidentified gunmen over the past three months, the central government is planning to send an additional 1,000 soldiers and 260 national police to join an estimated 9,000 local police officers to help stabilize the restive province. At least 16 people have been killed in shootings and grenade attacks that have heightened suspicions between former separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the military. "The authorities need to ensure security and make sure the elections will be held in an atmosphere that is conducive," says Usman Hamid, head of the human rights watchdog Kontras, based in Jakarta. "If not spoilers could undermine the process."
Aceh's hard-won peace, officiated by a 2005 agreement between GAM representatives and government officials, has allowed the Acehnese to rebuild their lives and communities after three decades of fighting and the devastation of their province in the 2004 tsunami. Some 170,000 people in the province were killed the disaster. "There is little danger in the short term of violence escalating out of control, let alone a return to armed conflict," Sidney Jones, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group (ICG), wrote in a recent report. "But the underlying causes of the tensions are not just election-related and need to be addressed if peace is to be preserved in the long term." (See pictures from Aceh after the tsunami.)
Those tensions stem mainly from the military's fear that many members of the Partai Aceh, or Aceh Party, still harbor dreams of independence. Others agree that the attacks, some targeting the offices of the Partai Aceh, the political vehicle established by separtist supporters, could be the surfacing of new internal feuds between former rebels. Others aren't as sure. "There has been some violence and harassment but I'm not sure they can be associated with politics," says Humam Hamid, a sociology professor at Syah Kuala University in Aceh."They could also be purely criminal acts, which happen everywhere." Regardless, many Acehnese are predicting victory for the Partai Aceh, one of six local parties joining 38 national parties in the legislative elections on April 9. "I think Partai Aceh will get the majority but am not sure by how much," predicts Humam. A local businessman expects it to be a landslide. "I think they could get as much as 75%," says Muni Hamid.
Concerns are growing nationwide over whether the General Elections Commission will be able to carry out and monitor the elections effectively. More than 170 million Indonesians are registered to vote in the upcoming elections that will determine the fate of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is seeking a second term and a majority in Parliament for his Democratic Party. The fate of his vice president, Jusuf Kalla, who helped broker the Aceh peace agreement signed in Helsinki in August 2005, is less clear, as his Suharto-era Golkar party is struggling to maintain the same number of seats as it won in 2004, when it finished on top.
Like the rest of Indonesia, Aceh is grappling with near double-digit unemployment, a figure that could quickly rise following the departure this month of the Aceh Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency, the public body tasked with administering billions of dollars of international aid and donations to rebuild the province after the tsunami. Tremendous progress has been made in rebuilding homes and public facilities, but some fear those gains could be lost and the peace process jeopardized if elections are not viewed as free and fair. Free and fair elections are a national concern, but some fear the Acehnese will be afraid to go out and vote if they don't feel the electoral atmosphere is safe. "I would be very worried if the Acehnese are not allowed to exercise their right to vote," adds Usman. "I cannot imagine that all of the (rebel) weapons have been demolished, and there is no guarantee that violence won't break out.
Humam dismisses the fears as alarmist. "People had similar doubts about the last elections and also about maintaining the peace," says Humam, who failed in his bid to be elected governor in provincial elections in 2006. Government officials share his optimism, calling the recent series of grenade attacks "the exception, not the rule," and assert that safety precautions have been taken. "On April 9 you will see the elections carried out freely and fairly like everywhere else in Indonesia," states a confident presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng, who recently made a visit to the province with the President. "Those against the process of peace will be seen as going against all the Acehnese people."
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Ex-combatant in Aceh carries on fighting in politics
The Jakarta Post
April 4, 2009
Alfian
NORTH ACEH
Gone are the do-or-die exchanges of fire deep in the Aceh jungles. For Misbahul Munir, the battlefield now does not require him to carry his weapon or to shed blood.
But the challenges facing him today are as tough as they were in the past, such that he barely sleeps at night or settles down at home.
Munir is bidding for a seat at the North Aceh legislature under the banner of the Aceh Party, the political vehicle of former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) combatants who fought against Jakarta’s control over the province for three decades.
“I’m fighting it out to win the election, because if my party fails, then our past struggle will be rendered meaningless,” he said recently at his home in Keude Krueng village in North Aceh regency.
Munir, 28, said he had spent the last two months on the campaign trail, talking to voters, holding rallies and organizing sports and cultural events to woo support.
The fact that North Aceh was a former GAM stronghold has not given Munir the edge he may have wanted over candidates from other parties.
That he was a former combatant did not earn him automatic endorsement from his party leaders to pursue a political career either.
“I was not chosen simply because I was a combatant. I had to pass a selection process at district and regency levels before I could gain the party’s confidence,” he said.
Munir joined the guerilla war in 1999 when he was only 19, fresh out of high school.
“My father was an Indonesian Army officer, but I took to the jungle because I saw many Aceh people shed their blood,” he recalled.
Following the peace agreement in 2005, Munir returned home and rebuilt his life by pursuing a civil engineering degree at North Aceh’s Malikussalleh University. He now runs a construction business.
He admits to having dug deep into his pocket to finance his campaign since officially being named a legislative candidate June last.
“From June until now, I’ve spent more than Rp 100 million,” he said, adding the money was spent on purchasing, among others, 150 banners, 1,000 VCDs and thousands of posters and name cards,
as well as electronic gadgets, such as a laptop computer, a video camera and an overhead projector.
But he says he enjoys the long journey he is taking to the legislature.
“What I’m doing now is actually nothing compared to my struggle in the past,” he said.
He is also fully aware of the completely different nature of the present-day struggle.
“We have laid down our arms and now fight for the Aceh people through politics under the framework of the NKRI [Unitary State of Indonesia],” he said.
As an Aceh Party candidate, Munir must also campaign for his fellow candidates, despite the rivalry between them.
“I always tell people attending party rallies to vote for the party if they don’t like me,” he said.
Teuku Syafrizal, a legislative candidate representing rival local party the Aceh People’s Independent Aspiration (SIRA) Party, said he chose to hold as many dialogues as possible with the people to win their hearts and minds.
“I talk to them to find out what their problems are. Through this continuing discussion, I expect to establish a long-term emotional bond with my constituents,” he said.
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Another Aceh Party Official Shot Dead Days Before Polls
Jakarta Globe
April 6, 2009
Nurdin Hasan
Banda Aceh. An Aceh Party official and former separatist fighter was shot dead on Saturday night, just a few days before the legislative elections, making him the party’s fifth murder victim since February.
Langsa Police Chief Marwan Syukur said on Sunday that Muhammad Jamil bin Razali, 41, also known as Teungku Leube, was shot by two gunmen at 8:10 p.m. in Lhokbanie village, Langsa city. The incident took place just hours after some 8,000 people prayed in one of Aceh’s main mosques, Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman, for a peaceful election in the province.
Muhammad Jamil was riding his motorbike home from Peureulak, East Aceh district, to Kuala Simpang, a distance of about 60 kilometers. The victim was reported to have stopped at Bireum Bayeue, the site where the police believed the two gunmen, who were also riding motorbikes, began to follow him.
“It seems that the victim had been shadowed by the gunmen since Bireum Baeyun, and after they reached a quieter and darker place, they shot him,” Marwan said. “He was shot twice, in his chest and back.”
Muhammad Jamil was secretary of the Aceh Party’s Sagoe Bireum Bayeue subdistrict board. The party was founded by former separatist fighters of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, and is expected to gain the majority of seats in the legislative elections this week.
Marwan said police did not know the motive of the shooting. No bullet casings were found at the crime scene, thus the police have yet to identify the weapon used. However, police found a bullet in the victim’s body that will be sent to the North Sumatra Police crime laboratory.
Nobody saw the shooting, Marwan said, as it occurred while people were at evening prayer services. When people found Muhammad Jamil wounded, they took him to a hospital.
A local resident, Muhammad Amin, 60, said that he and his wife had heard two gunshots. “My wife told me there was a man who had fallen from his motorbike, dying. We took him straight to Langsa Hospital.”
Former GAM spokesman Teungku Cut Kafrawi said that before the peace agreement between the government and GAM was reached in Helsinki in 2005, the victim had been active in the civilian staff of the guerillas.
“I don’t want to speculate whether or not this has some connection to the to the election, but I want the police to reveal the motives,” he said.
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Two More Arrested in Lead-Up to Aceh Polls
The Jakarta Globe
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Farouk Arnaz
Aceh Police have arrested another two men in relation to the ongoing spate of attacks targeting the Aceh Party, or PA, ahead of the upcoming elections, a police source told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.
The men, who have been transferred to the National Police headquarters in Jakarta for questioning, are understood to be Muhammad Faisal bin Nurdin, 19, and Nurdin bin Ismail, 44.
Three other men have also been arrested and are undergoing interrogation in Jakarta in relation to a series of grenade attacks in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, and to the killing of political figures from the former rebel Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, who are now represented by the Aceh Party.
The trio are Abdul Rajak bin Abdul Muthalib, 33; M Syah, alias Ayah bin Ibrahim, 35; and Irwan bin Ilyas, also known as Aneuk Geutu, 58, a police source said on condition of anonymity.
The source, however, would not discuss what organization the men were affiliated with or the motives for the attacks, only saying that they had been charged under laws restricting possession of illegal weapons and explosives.
Bachtiar Tambunan, deputy director of security and transnational affairs at the National Police, confirmed that the latest arrests were in relation to the recent grenade attacks, but refused to provide further details.
The national and provincial police are currently conducting Operation Sikat Recong in Aceh, with the aim of combating illegal firearms and explosives.
Despite pledges by leaders of political parties to engage in peaceful campaigns, election preparations in Aceh Province have been marred by acts of terror and intimidation. Police have been criticized for failing to act against those responsible.
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Papuan Leaders Tell Supporters to Abstain from Vote
Jakarta Globe
April 1, 2009
Putri Prameshwari & Christian Motte
Prominent Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda has called on all ‘citizens of West Papua’ to boycott the upcoming legislative and presidential elections because they are not Indonesians.
‘As citizens of West Papua of the Melanesian race, we refuse to participate in the April 9 elections, which are Indonesia’s celebration of democracy,’ Wenda said in a statement released to the Jakarta Globe.
‘We demand our right to choose our own fate, guaranteed by international law. We have never been able to use that right since the New York Agreement was signed on August 15, 1962. To avoid more violence by the military against the Melanesian race in West Papua, we demand a referendum based on international law, where people of the Melanesian race in West Papua can use our rights to choose our international status.’
The calls to boycott the elections are likely to garner support among Papuan youth organizations, but it remains to be seen how much broader a reaction the calls will receive.
Victor Yeimo of the West Papuan National People’s Committee said that his organization would be ready to boycott the elections if necessary.
Hofni Simbiak, a member of the Papua People’s Assembly, or MRP, said his group was concerned about a recommendation from the General Elections Commission, or KPU, that the 11 regional House seats
guaranteed to native Papuans under the Special Autonomy Law should be thrown open to all party candidates regardless of province of origin.
The MRP, Simbiak said, would boycott the election if the government decided to go along with the KPU’s suggestion.
‘Currently, the MRP is formulating a response to both the General Elections Commission and the House of Representatives in Jakarta,’ Simbiak said.
Police in Papua Province are on the highest possible alert level in preparation for possible disruptions to the upcoming election from rebel groups, Papua Police Chief Bagus Eko Danto said on Wednesday.
Bagus was responding to reports that local residents in Papua’s Supiori district had said that members of the pro-independence Free Papua Movement, or OPM, had forced them to join training on how to create chaos during the elections.
‘[Increasing the threat level] anticipates any potential problems prior to and on the election day,’ Bagus said.
Paskalis Kosay, vice chairman of the Papua Legislative Council, or DPRD, said the threats were merely part of the political dynamics of the province.
‘Demand for a referendum is normal,’ he said. ‘It’s the people’s reaction to the ineffectiveness of the Special Autonomy Law.’
In a 2001 law, the government granted special autonomy status to Papua, making the resource-rich province more independent. The province’s increased power and revenue, however, have not translated
into improvements in the living conditions of the majority of the local population, particularly ethnic Papuans.
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WEST PAPUA NATIONAL COALITION FOR LIBERATION
S T A T E M E N T
Secretariat, c/o: WPPRO, P.O. Box 1571, Port Vila, Republic of Vanuatu,
Ph.: +61 414247468, + 678 40808 or 60651, E-mail: rexruma@hotmail.com
Date: 2 April 2009 No.5/PR/09.
Indonesia begins its National elections and the situation in its two, Eastern most Provinces, Papua and West Papua of occupied West New Guinea is heating up considerably. Violence is unavoidable as the Security Forces are on high alert. This is following a number of mysterious killings that as usual had been blamed on the Military Arm of the Independence Movement, the TPN. There are also increased incidents of demonstrations defying prohibition by the Police.
The Secretary General of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation Rex Rumakiek denied the claim by the Indonesian Police and Military that OPM is responsible. This could have been the handy work of a Militia group trained by the Military and was given the same initials OPM. This bogus group was believed to be responsible for many other mysterious deaths and disappearances. In the past they designed this type of violence to justify the need for Military operations. This was after the Military Arm of the Independence Movement was persuaded by the Religious Institutions to disengage from any attack against the Security forces. OPM was part of and still respects the declaration of Papua land of Peace by the Religious Institutions and the Civil Society Organizations in 2001. Since then the TPN can only defend itself if attacked Mr. Rumakiek said.
Mr. Rumakiek further stated that there are now two fronts developing as the elections begin in earnest. On the official level the elites who continued to benefit from the failed Special Autonomy funds rally their supporters behind Political Parties considered to be potential mentors to line their pockets once more if they win. On the other hand there is a popular anti corruption and anti injustice drive and call for boycott spearheaded by the students and the youths. Mr. Rumakiek stated that the West Papuan National Coalition for Liberation supports the latter because of strong patriotic principles. West Papuans are not Indonesian therefore they have no legal obligation to vote in another country’s elections he said. Secondly, it has proven again and again that the government is not their government. If the government cannot protect the lives and welfare of the Papuan people why should they vote for it any way. Why should the, Papuan people elect a government that will continue to suppress them, Mr. Rumakiek asked. West Papua (West New Guinea) does not need Indonesian elections it needs a peaceful, democratic and transparent dialogue to resolve the issue of incorporation into Indonesia in the first place Mr. Rumakiek said.
/For more information please contact Rex Rumakiek (Secretary General), Dr. John Ondawame (Vice Chairman) or Mr. Andy Ayamiseba (Vanuatu Mission) on the following numbers, +61414247468, +67840808 or +6787751659/
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Police chief in Papua warns of efforts to foil the elections
(Summary of an extremely long article.)
Kompas
1 April 2009
Police Commissioner Bagus Ekodanto has called for attention to the efforts of some groups to ensure that the coming elections are a failure in Papua, including bocotting the elections. Besides organisations like the KNPB and the National Alliance of the People of West Papua (KANRPB), there are also armed separatist groups whose activities need to be anticipated.
To deal with these threats, the police chief said that a regulation had been enacted anticipated the possibility of rallying large crowds of people which is why, he said, he had issued a regulation imposing restrictions on such actions. [While denying Papuans the right to hold large rallies, Indonesian political parties such as GOLKAR the PDI-P and Gerindra have been holding large rallies attended by thousands and in some cases more than ten thousand people., though who knows how these people have been mobilised to attend these rallies. TAPOL]
The police chief said that this did not mean that they were going to ban large rallies but views can be presented by a representative group of people presenting the ideas without gathering people together in large numbers.
Referring to the large-scale action being planned by the International Lawyers for West Papua on 3 April, the police chief repeated that large scale actions would be prohibited.. He also said that the police had been put on high alert from 30 March, to safeguard the coming elections. '9,000 personnel, which amounts to two thirds of the size of the police force in Papua have been readied for this alert.'
He said it was necessary to avoid conflicts that might occur when the results of the election were announced, especially because of the decision that the winners would be determined on the basis of who gets the most votes and not according to their listing by the parties. Conflicts might also arise over ballot papers declared to be invalid, and protests against the results when they are announced.
He also spoke of the important role to be played by religious leaders, leader of the various tribes in safeguarding the elections. He even said that a failed election could lead to a constitutional crisis. He also urged people not to be provoked by groups which are call of people not to vote (golput).
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Thousands rally in Indonesian Papua
SMH
April 3, 2009
Thousands of people rallied in Indonesia's eastern Papua region on Friday to call for independence from Jakarta and a boycott of elections amid a police crackdown on dissent, activists said.
Police raided the offices of the Papuan Customary Council, the top representative body for indigenous Papuans in the provincial capital Jayapura, arresting 15 activists and damaging equipment, council
secretary general Leonard Imbiri told AFP.
"They trashed the offices, destroyed two computers and they burnt down a traditional hut behind the building," Imbiri said.
Vico Yeimo, the head of the West Papua National Committee, said the activists were arrested on suspicion of trying to organise a rally in the city, an earlier request for which was turned down by police.
Papua police chief Bagus Eko Danto refused to confirm the arrests or the damage to the assembly.
More than 10,000 activists took to the streets in the towns of Nabire and Wamena to call for Papuans to boycott national legislative elections next week and in solidarity with the establishment abroad
of an international pressure group called International Lawyers for West Papua, activists said.
Around 12,000 Papuans led by 50 men in traditional penis gourds and feathers marched though Nabire with no arrests, local church activist Yones Douw said.
"Our demand is that Papuans don't take part in the election because we are not part of Indonesia," he said.
Papua, which sits on the western end of New Guinea island, was officially incorporated into Indonesia in a 1969 UN-backed vote of tribal elders widely seen to have been stage-managed.
Support for independence is high among indigenous Papuas, who are Melanesians ethnically distinct from other Indonesians. The government restricts access to the area by foreign media.
© 2009 AFP
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Illiterate Papuans ensured a vote in elections
The Jakarta Post
April 4, 2009
Nethy Dharma Somba
Unlike people in more developed regions, the majority of eligible voters in Papua highland, will not tick a ballot but voice their choice of political party and legislative candidate in the upcoming legislative election because of widespread illiteracy.
On April 9 the eligible voters will enter the voting booth one by one, accompanied by a literate assistant. They will vocalize their choice of political party and legislative candidate at all levels and the assistant will then mark the corresponding ballot paper.
The assistant can be someone selected by the ad hoc election committee (KPPS) or somebody chosen by the individual voter, the only requirement being that the assistant signs a form agreeing to maintain the secrecy of the voters’ choice.
The alternative way of voting is regulated by KPU Regulation No. 3/2009 on technical assistance for the disabled, a group in which the illiterate are included.
Chairman of the Jayawijaya Neighborhood Philippus Halitopo said here on Friday that 60 percent of people living in the Papua highland — which covers the five regencies of Keerom, Jayapura, Sarmi, Memberamo Raya and the Jayapura municipality — cannot read or write and that the tribal leaders in the six regions
have agreed to the alternative method of voting to help the illiterate participate in the legislative and presidential elections.
“The agreement made on Feb. 27, 2009 has been well communicated to the General Elections Commission and its offices at all levels in the province and the election supervisory committee,”
he said.
To enable illiterate people to vote in the 2004 general elections the six regions used the local, traditional noken bag. The KPPS prepared nokens with numbers corresponding to candidates.
Voters put their ballot papers into their favored noken, the content of which was later counted by the election committee.
However, this system can no longer be applied because of the more complicated electoral system.
Benny Sweni, chairman of the provincial general elections commission (KPUD), confirmed that the alternative voting method would be used in the six regions and said that it was allowed by the law and that it adhered to the KPU’s technical ruling and guidance.
“Of the greatest importance is that the illiterate can exercise their right to vote in order to show their responsibility to the state and the eligible voters’ freedom is assured because those assisting the voters are not allowed to leak the voters’ choice to the public,” he said.
He added that the majority of people in the mountainous region have made their choice for legislative candidates as many have visited the region to campaign, adding that many voters had come down from the mountains to take part in outdoor campaign events during the campaign season.
Many people in the remote region have adopted a semi-nomad style of agriculture and move from one farmland to another one, depending on the season.
Others have resettled with permanent jobs as farmers, fishermen and civil servants.
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Four Shot In Indonesian Papua Election Protests: Activist
JAKARTA, April 6 (AFP) -- At least four people were wounded when police opened fire on a protest in Indonesia's remote Papua region on Monday, demanding independence and a boycott of elections, an activist said.
The protesters were shot when police fired into a crowd of around 200 indigenous Papuans rallying in the streets of Nabire town in West Papua province, Catholic Church activist Yones Douw told AFP.
"The people didn't react or throw anything but Brimob (paramilitary police) attacked them," Douw said, adding that the four injured were in "critical" condition in hospital.
Three other protesters were hit with rubber bullets and one woman was arrested at the rally, which followed a dawn raid on an office being used by activists in which 15 people were arrested, Douw said.
One person was also shot and hurt by police in the raid, but it was unclear if he was shot with a rubber bullet or a live round, he said.
Local police chief Rinto Jatmono refused to confirm the shootings but acknowledged the earlier arrest of
pro-independence activists.
"We arrested the 15 people in connection with subversion," Jatmono said.
Meanwhile, around 300 people rallied peacefully in Jayapura, the capital of neighbouring Papua province, to call for a boycott of national legislative elections on Thursday.
The crowd chanted "boycott the election" and called for the release of 17 activists arrested last week in a raid on the headquarters of the Papuan Customary Council, the top cultural representative body for Papuan tribes.
Pro-independence sentiment runs high in Papua, which sits on the western end of New Guinea island and is populated mainly by the Melanesian ethnic minority.
Indonesia took formal control of the region in a 1969 UN-sponsored vote by select tribal elders widely seen as a sham and the area has seen a long-running insurgency by poorly armed pro-independence guerrillas.
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Indonesia Crackdown After Papuan Anti-Election Rally
Radio Australia
Monday, April 6, 2009
Police have raided the offices of a Papuan organisation, making arrests and causing damage, after thousands of people rallied in Indonesia's eastern Papua region to call for independence from Jakarta.
The rally, on Friday, also called for a boycott of elections.
Police raided the offices of the Papuan Customary Council, the top representative body for indigenous Papuans in the provincial capital, Jayapura, arresting 15 activists and damaging equipment, council secretary general Leonard Imbiri told Agence France Presse.
"They trashed the offices, destroyed two computers and they burnt down a traditional hut behind the building," Imbiri said.
Vico Yeimo, the head of the West Papua National Committee, said the activists were arrested on suspicion of trying to organise a rally in the city, an earlier request for which was turned down by police.
Papua police chief Bagus Eko Danto refused to confirm the arrests or any damage.
More than 10,000 activists took to the streets in the towns of Nabire and Wamena to call for Papuans to boycott national legislative elections this week and in solidarity with the establishment abroad of an international pressure group called International Lawyers for West Papua, activists said.
Around 12,000 Papuans led by 50 men in traditional penis gourds and feathers marched though Nabire with no arrests, local church activist Yones Douw said.
"Our demand is that Papuans don't take part in the election because we are not part of Indonesia," he said.
Papua is at the western end of New Guinea island.
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Election Inflames Indonesia Papua Separatists
Radio Australia
April 7, 2009
Election tensions in the Indonesian province of Papua have boiled-over, with reports that police shot and injured 11 people at a pro-independence rally on Monday. Police deny any shootings took place.
The protesters were urging Papuans to boycott this week's parliamentary elections. It followed a dawn raid on the offices of the KNPB, the West Papuan National Committee, in which 15 people were arrested.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office in 2004 with a promise to settle the conflict in Papua, where a low-level insurgency has been waged for decades. But the recent election period has seen a surge in separatist violence and a heavy security presence in the region.
Presenter: Joanna McCarthy
Speaker: Tito Ambyo from Radio Australia's Indonesia service
Listen: Windows Media AMBYO: Well, there have been many conflicting accounts, but one of the accounts goes like this: yesterday at 5 am in the morning, around 500 people were holding a peaceful protest in front of the regional parliamentary office and they were raising the Morning Star flag, the Papuan independence flag. Then a couple of hours later, they were moving to a nearby market and the police started to try to negotiate with them, especially for them to lower the Morning Star flag, and the negotiation failed, and the police decided to arrest some of the protesters, which angered the protesters and they started shooting at the police with arrows and they started destroying cars, and then the police started shooting, especially after a police officer was injured, shot by an arrow in his stomach. And the chief of police in Nabire have denied
that they've shot into the crowd, but there have been reports of bullet wounds in the injured.
McCARTHY: Now the protesters are urging a boycott of this week's elections. What are their grievances about the election?
AMBYO: Well, there have been a lack of representations of Papuans in the local and national political scenes, and especially local. So one of the biggest issues that has a direct relationship with this event is how the candidates are chosen in this election, because now voters have to choose individual candidates, which means individual candidates would have to promote themselves, campaign for themselves which involve a lot of money, which local Papuans do not have, especially when they have to compete with people from outside Papua, business people from outside Papua, from Java, from Sulawesi who are seen to have and they do have more money and political clout. So there is a dissatisfaction about how they can't compete with outsiders.
McCARTHY: Now this of course comes only weeks after President Yudhoyono met with exiled Nationalist leader, Nicholas Jouwe. It doesn't appear that those talks have had any success in appeasing the separatist movement, why is that?
AMBYO: One of the problems is that after the death of Theys Eluay in 2001, one of the Papuan leaders, there hasn't been a strong leadership within the separatist movement. So even when Nicholas Jouwe came back to Indonesia and to Papua, people were celebrating and the Papuans respect him as someone who fought with them in the past. But I don't think his decisions are seen as the decision that is carrying forward the independence movement.
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Prabowo's Party Tipped To Be Best of Newcomers
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia Correspondent
Gerindra set to get 3% to 7% of votes: Pollsters
JAKARTA: A political party headed by a former general with a murky human rights record could be the biggest winner among new parties in next Thursday's general election.
The Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), headed by Suharto-loyalist Prabowo Subianto, is tipped by political analysts to get between 3 per cent and 7 per cent of the votes.
This is no small feat when Indonesia's 171 million voters have 38 political parties to choose from.
Gerindra's result will determine if Mr Prabowo gets a shot at becoming Indonesia's next President. Only parties with at least 25 per cent of the votes can nominate a candidate for the July 8 presidential election. The former general is expected to cobble together an alliance with other parties to get into position.
Mr Prabowo was head of the notorious Kopassus special forces, which allegedly tortured Indonesians. He has been trying to shake off this poor reputation by recruiting activists he kidnapped 11 years ago.
In the ongoing campaigning, Gerindra has been wooing the masses by promising to make them more prosperous, said University of Indonesia political scientist Donni Edwin.
'There is no other party that's as focused as Gerindra in paying attention to the populist issues like the cost of living,' he told The Straits Times.
Voters like Central Sulawesi shopowner Wendy Setiawan, 42, have been won over.
'Prabowo is a businessman who has a network, wide experience in international trading....I will choose Prabowo. Let there be a change,' she told Reuters recently.
Most recent polls say the three biggest political parties - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla's Golkar and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle - will get at least 47 per cent of the votes in total.
But the newer nationalist parties like former general Wiranto's Hanura will get only around 1 per cent each, according to pollster Lingkaran Survey Indonesia.
'Gerindra will likely get the biggest vote among all the new parties. The party has been spending so much,' political analyst Katjung Maridjan, of Universitas Airlangga in East Java, told The Straits Times.
The Muslim parties like the modern Prosperous Justice Party and National Awakening Party are predicted by the polls to get less than 20 per cent of the votes in total.
The medium-sized parties - consisting mainly of the Muslim-based groups - have lost some support as voters now tend to rank bread-and-butter issues above religious ones.
Mr Prabowo, on the other hand, is riding on a wave.
At rallies around the country, he has been slamming the economic policies of Dr Yudhoyono's government - in particular, its recent series of cash handouts to the poor.
Mr Prabowo has painted a better future for them. Addressing a cheering crowd of tens of thousands on Tuesday, he said: 'We have a plan, another strategy. We believe we can change the future of the Indonesian people by changing the government's flawed strategy.'
This includes boosting agricultural production and capitalising on natural resources to push economic growth into double digits and doubling the per capita income to US$4,000 (S$6,084).
Fuelled by the wealth of his brother, businessman Hasyim Djoyohadikusumo, Mr Prabowo has also unleashed a media barrage of advertisements depicting happy farmers and children in a Gerindra-led Indonesia.
Ironically, Mr Prabowo's message of change echoes Dr Yudhoyono's strategy from 2004 when he won his post as a relative newcomer. Then, he told Indonesians disappointed with Ms Megawati's lacklustre showing that he would fight the lingering corruption that had made the economy inefficient.
wahyudis@sph.com.sg
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Indonesia Elections Have Broad National Implications
World Politics Review
2 April 2009
Luke Hunt
Parliamentary elections in Indonesia, as elsewhere, are usually an ordinary affair as local politicians jockey for position among voters at the grassroots level. Normally voting revolves around homespun issues: a new school library, the local waters works or paved roads.
But in the lead-up to legislative elections in Indonesia, campaigning has taken on much broader implications, providing a battleground for separatist forces in the troubled province of Papua, a testing ground for the fragile peace in Aceh and a vibrant backdrop for the presidential poll in July.
Keith Loveard, a Jakarta-based security consultant with Concord Security said electoral-related violence in both Papua and Aceh is on the increase, and in Papua this has been accompanied by a general rise in separatist sentiment. Large demonstrations in the regional capital of Jayapura have called for boycotting the polls. Meanwhile the number of attacks by the Free Papua Organization (OPM) has risen, particularly in Puncak Jaya, Loveard said, amid an increase of non-Papuan Indonesian migrants into the area.
A massive $4.3 billion rice paddy development by the bin Laden family in the far-flung eastern province has further fueled anti-migrant sentiment. Most indigenous Papuans are Christian, and fear that an Islamization process is being directed from Jakarta to marginalize them as second class citizens. This has stoked anti-government sentiment and encouraged calls for a boycott of the poll.
Additionally, a World Bank unit has reported 16 people were killed and another 47 injured in violent clashes in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, between December and February. "Many are pointing the finger for the violence at elements of the Indonesian military, which appears to remain convinced that the Aceh Party, formed by former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, is still committed to independence," Loveard told WPR.
The Aceh Party is widely expected to be among the winners in the April 9 provincial polls, where 44 political parties are contesting seats at a district, regional and national level. That raises the threat of further violence in months to come.
"Former GAM fighters have not helped to calm the situation. They have tended to be behind a wave of crime, particularly in East Aceh, and have not integrated well into society," Loveard added.
International Crisis Group (ICG) says the Indonesian military's fears with regards to former Aceh rebels are misplaced. But a growing mistrust between the two, and an inability by the police to cope with the latest killings, has led to heightened tensions. "Getting through the election with a minimum of violence is the short-term goal," says Robert Templer, ICG Asia program director. "The longer-term objective should be to bolster the peace, but both sides will have to take concrete steps to address problems in their own ranks before any confidence-building measures will work."
Templer said the GAM leadership has repeatedly reiterated its commitment to the 2005 Helsinki agreement. Far from wanting to resume the conflict, most ex-combatants are more interested in getting what they see as their fare share of post-conflict benefits, in some cases through extortion. "But until the attacks -- including four murders in February and March of men associated with Partai Aceh -- are solved, suspicions of [Indonesian military] involvement will persist," he said.
Between Aceh and Papua lie thousands of islands and almost as many headaches for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He will nevertheless use this poll to gauge support for his Democrat Party ahead of the main political event, presidential elections slated for July 8. Analysts expect Yudhoyono's personal popularity will entice smaller parties into a broader coalition with him -- if required -- after the presidential poll, while also prompting other parties to forge alliances in order to defeat him.
Most notable among the latter is Indonesian vice president and Golka chairman Yusuf Kalla, whose ambitions extend to the top job. Golkar, which has dominated Indonesian politics for the most part since independence, is reportedly considering an alliance with the Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P), whose figurehead is former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
However, any alliances will depend on the cross-currents that emerge from next week's parliamentary poll, which will also decide what parties can field which candidates.
Traditionally local elections do not always reflect general sentiment at the national level. This was evident at the 2004 poll when Yudhoyono's Democrats got just over 10 percent of the parliamentary vote. Three months later, Yudhoyono resoundingly won the presidency with a crushing 61 percent majority.
However, a political party or a coalition of parties wishing to field a candidate in the next presidential election will have to win 25 percent of the vote at the April parliamentary poll.
"That rather complicates things," regional analyst Greg Barton of Monash University in Melbourne said recently. "It's expected that Yudhoyono's Democrat Part will do very well next month precisely because of his popularity. Then we will see a sort of mutual reinforcing, I think, of presidential popularity and the popularity of his party," Barton added.
Luke Hunt is a Hong Kong-based correspondent and a World Politics Review contributing editor.
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The Thinker: Is Security Reform On the Agenda?
The Jakarta Globe
April 2, 2009
Opinion / Columns / Article
Eko Waluyo
One of the greater achievements in reformation in the past decade has been keeping the military out of politics. During former President Suhartos administration, the military and the National Police had representatives in legislatures at national, provincial and district levels.
In this election, the issue was broached when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called senior military and police officials to the Presidential Palace and revealed his concern about a rumored campaign that would urge people to vote against him. Another presidential candidate, retired Gen. Wiranto of the Peoples Conscience Party, or Hanura, has also warned high-ranking security officials who have positions in the government not to play politics or influence the military.
These alarming messages have created some fundamental questions about whether the military is still determined to play a political role, despite the 2004 law clarifying the illegality of doing so. The presidents concern should be considered in the context of democratization; it is a signal that the countrys security reform has yet to be fully realized.
Despite the bombardment of media campaigns from political parties with vague promises to address unemployment, poverty and so on, this campaign season has yet to touch on more pressing issues. Security sector reform, in particular, is missing, and the presidents administration has failed to deliver on its mandate to reform the military command structure, military businesses and intelligence agency regulation.
Alarming messages have created questions about whether the military is determined to play a political role
The June 2008 comment by Samsir Siregar, chief of the State Intelligence Agency, regarding public criticism over the increase in oil prices, underscores the fact that the agency has not changed from Suhartos time. The same goes for the defense minister, who said at legislative hearings on a bill for a military court that any civil crime by military officers should be dealt with by a military court and military police rather than a civil court and nonmilitary police.
The decentralization process is one element of democratic reform. In Papua and Aceh, where poverty, unemployment and conflict are widespread, military statements are regular media headlines. And it even seems that some military commands have turned into illegitimate parties opposed to the local government.
There are many security sector reform issues in the regions, including how the security forces handle peaceful demonstrations in Papua Province, the continued assassinations of members of local parties in Aceh that are met with few if any investigation results and the security forces inability to protect a member of legislature in Medan when his office was stormed by a mob.
Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority nation, has successfully transformed into a democratic state under the gaze of the international community. Despite the government having ratified most of the UN covenants, there is some concern that the emergence of regional religious bylaws discriminate against women, some communities and some local cultures, tarnishing Indonesias image. The April 9 legislative elections can transform the national political agenda vis-a-vis poverty and security sector reform, but local governments have to play a role in this transformation.
Adding to the importance of Indonesias democratization and how it is perceived throughout world is the recent US decision to resume relations with the military, based on progressive military reform, rectification of past abuses and access to events in Papua. The United States has also been providing significant aid to counterterrorism programs in Indonesia.
During the US presidential election, Barack Obama told CNNs Fareed Zakaria about his childhood in Indonesia.He recalled that the generals and members of Suhartos family living in lavish mansions, and the sense that the government wasnt always working for the people.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clintons recent visit here signals that the United States wants a stronger partnership with Indonesia. This must be based on security sector reform to avoid the re-emergence of human rights atrocities as barriers to Indonesias acceptance.
Eko Waluyo is a program coordinator of Indonesian Solidarity and Mufti Makaarim al-Ahlaq is executive director of the Institute for Defense, Security and Peace Studies.
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Islamic pride fills a stadium, but Pancasila rules the polls
SMH
April 4, 2009
Tom Allard in Jakarta
THE cadres of Indonesia's main Islamist party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), came out in force this week, staging the kind of mass rally in Jakarta that the other parties could only dream of.
More than 100,000 turned up at Bung Karno Stadium on Monday, a mightily impressive turnout for a workday and by far the largest rally of any party in the nation's capital.
Chanting Allahu Akhbar - God is Great - as rock bands played and party officials spruiked their message of personal purity and anti- corruption, they gave the occasion a festival feel.
Yellow, white and black flags flew and an ondel-ondel - a giant traditional Jakarta doll directed by two men inside - roamed the expanses of the stadium field. Rather than the usual caricature based on figures from Javanese legend or modern pop culture, the ondel- ondel depicted a pious young woman, complete with hijab covering her head.
As Indonesians prepare to go to the polls next week the fortunes of Islamic parties are being closely watched.
The horrors of the terrorist attacks that gripped the nation from 2000 to 2005, and the rise of hardline Islamic movements in the Middle East, have raised concerns that Indonesia's moderate form of
Islam and its secular ideology are under siege.
A former Indonesian president, Abdurrahman Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, is among exponents of the view. "Extremist agents" backed by "fantastic amounts of petrodollars" have infiltrated every level of
Indonesian society, he contends - from mosques to educational institutions, religious councils and mass Islamic organisations. Right up to the presidential palace itself.
"Since their appearance after the fall of Soeharto, extremist movements have begun to succeed in changing the face of Indonesian Islam to become more aggressive, furious, intolerant and full of
hate," he said in the preamble to a paper published by the Libforall Foundation this week.
Yet, despite Gus Dur's alarm, all the polling - and all the internal machinations within parties like PKS - suggests that Islam as a potent political force is on the wane in Indonesia or, at best, treading water.
"There's no reason to be fearful of the rise of Islamism in Indonesia," says Greg Fealy, the Australian National University Indonesianist who monitors Islam closely.
"Overall the polling is showing that Indonesian people are overwhelmingly concerned with economic performance, who can help them put food on the table and help them improve their daily lives."
A recent survey in Kompas, the country's most widely read newspaper, found only 8 per cent of respondents said religion would have a significant influence over who they voted for; 60 per cent said it would have no impact whatsoever.
The most authoritative surveys find that, as a grouping, Islamic parties are polling about 25 per cent, compared with 38 per cent in 2004, when the Western world was at its peak in Indonesia as a
consequence of the Iraq invasion.
PKS, a movement that began as a Koranic study group on university campuses and took inspiration from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, is drawing significantly less support than the 7 per cent it achieved
in 2004, when it garnered over 40 seats in the national parliament and three cabinet positions in the government led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
An ill-conceived electoral advertising campaign that hailed the former dictator Soeharto as a national hero, and promoted the underwhelming performance of PKS ministers and members elected to provincial and district assemblies, is widely attributed to the party's apparently fading prospects.
To be sure it is PKS - which relies on young, educated urbanites for most of its support - that Gus Dur has foremost in his thinking in his polemic against Islamic hardliners taking over Indonesia. But, while it is true that a couple of its leaders studied in Saudi Arabia, Gus Dur's assertion that it is funded by wealthy Wahhabis from the Arabian peninsula is backed by scant evidence in his report, except a quote from an unnamed PKS organiser who said that Saudis had provided money to help renovate 11 mosques in a district in Central Java. Political observers in Indonesia say there is no proof of Saudi backing for PKS, and the party's chairman, Tifatul Sembiring, accused Gus Dur of "just making it up".
"We can be punished for receiving foreign money. Our law says political parties cannot receive foreign money," Mr Sembiring told the Herald.
A political analyst at the state Islamic University, Bachtiar Effendy, said proof that moderate Islam is robust in Indonesia can be found in the evolution of the PKS platform itself.
Its success in 2004 came after it formally dumped the notion of Indonesia adopting the sacred law of Islam, sharia, and becoming a caliphate, Mr Effendy said.
More recently, it has recruited non-Muslim candidates. "PKS is abandoning its Islamic colour in order to reach a bigger audience," he said.
"Indonesia's social politics are so pluralistic. Anything that goes against Pancasila [the country's secular ideology, pronounced pan-cha- sila] cannot live in Indonesia." Still, PKS politicians have been the driving force behind a highly controversial anti-pornography bill that outlaws any behaviour that
may be sexually stimulating and which appears to give civil groups the power to enforce it.
However, in classic Indonesian fashion the new law is not being enforced.
PKS also got the President to agree to introduce a regulation that prevents the "deviant" Muslim sect Ahmadiyyah from proselytising. Its officials are keen on becoming Dr Yudhoyono's junior coalition party
when the presidential elections take place on July 8.
And many of its core supporters still want sharia, a legal system based on the teachings of the Koran.
"We won't do it immediately. We will do it in stages," said Dedi Sutardi, a PKS organiser from South Jakarta.
"But it's not about chopping the hands off thieves. That perception is just Islamophobia. We will allow other religions, but we just want Muslims to be Muslims, not half Muslims."
Mr Sutardi says that would mean closing all shops during Friday prayers, requiring Muslim women to wear the hijab and introducing a "welfare community" based on the prophet Muhammad's teachings.
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Extremists 'infiltrating Indonesia'
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Salim Osman, Indonesia Correspondent
JAKARTA: Islamic extremists are infiltrating all levels of society in Indonesia, threatening its traditions of religious pluralism and tolerance, warned a new report backed by moderate Muslim leaders.
It said these extremists were influenced by Wahhabism, the more fundamentalist brand of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia and the ideology of the militant Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt.
They were members of the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the radical Muslim group, Hizbut Tahrir, in Indonesia, said the report.
With funding from Saudi Arabia, they had taken over some mosques belonging to moderate Muslim groups Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, as well as infiltrated government departments and even the government-appointed Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), it said.
MUI, the top Islamic authority in Indonesia, was described as the 'bunker of fundamentalist and subversive movements', issuing counterproductive fatwas that ban secularism, pluralism and liberalism, along with branding certain groups as deviant.
The report accused the PKS of trying to grab political power by infiltrating mainstream Islamic organisations and to win converts by building village mosques funded with Saudi money.
'Opportunistic politicians who work with extremist political parties and groups have joined the radicals in driving our nation towards a deep chasm,' wrote former president Abdurrahman Wahid, the editor of the report released on Thursday.
'They are jeopardising the future of our multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation.'
Mr Abdurrahman set up the LibForAll Foundation with American businessman C. Holland Taylor. The foundation conducted two years of research for the report, The Illusion Of An Islamic State: The Expansion Of Transnational Islamist Movements To Indonesia. It was jointly published by the Wahid Institute, the Maarif Institute and the Bhinneka Tunngal Ika, or 'Unity in Diversity', movement.
The report called on Indonesia's elite and public at large to defend their nation's tradition of religious pluralism and tolerance, and to prevent radicals from establishing a so-called 'Islamic state'.
The PKS, which is likely to form a coalition with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party after next week's elections, has denied having a hidden agenda to promote an Islamic state and 'infiltrating' mosques.
'Our members are Muslims who go to the mosques and many are naturally active in the mosques. How can you say we infiltrate these places of worship?' said PKS legislator Zulkieflimansyah, adding that his party does not receive funding from Saudi Arabia.
Hizbut Tahrir spokesman Ismail Yusanto also objected to the use of the word 'infiltration', saying it was provocative and implied 'evil intention'.
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Money politics 'more rampant now'
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia Correspondent
Stiff competition has made problem worse, say analysts
JAKARTA: Mr Agus, 37, gets to earn some extra income to help pay off his mortgage ahead of Indonesia's elections next Thursday.
This is because the facade of his East Jakarta house, located on the busy Pondok Ranggon road, is a highly sought-after advertising space for political parties and their candidates.
Mr Agus receives 100,000 rupiah (S$13) a week for putting up a 3m by 1.5m poster of candidate Benny from the People's Conscience Party. 'It (helps) pay my mortgage,' Mr Agus, a bank employee who makes 5 million rupiah a month, told The Straits Times.
The 'renting' of poster space at residential areas, which gained popularity during this election, constitutes a new form of vote-buying, critics and activists said.
In fact, the giving away of food, T-shirts and even cash during rallies has become so entrenched that the practice is now a fixture of Indonesian elections.
Earlier this week, Metro TV even broadcast footage of Mr Ade Herdiansyah, a candidate from Crescent Star Party, an Islamic party, handing out rice to households and asking them to vote for him.
Analysts said the problem of money politics has worsened this election. The main reason is that competition is extremely stiff. An estimated 1.6 million candidates - from more than 40 national and local parties - are fighting for more than 18,000 seats in national, provincial and district-level parliaments.
Analysts said other factors included the longer nine- month campaigning period, as compared to less than a month in 2004, and a new electoral system that allows people to vote directly for the candidates, instead of for the political parties.
'There are more players and more time for campaigning. Definitely more money politics. In fact, some of them have actually run out of the 'fuel' to go on,' said political science professor Iberamsjah at Universitas Indonesia.
'It's so sad to see what's happening. Some parties even dare to conspicuously hand out cash during rallies.'
Ms Tutik Indrasih, from a mid- sized party, was caught red-handed last month by officials from the Indonesian election monitoring body (Bawaslu) when she handed out money during a rally in Wonogiri, Central Java.
Bawaslu head Nur Hidayat Sardini told The Straits Times that it would take time to eradicate money politics, but he believed that his agency was doing a good job.
'We have done what needs to be done,' he said.
Since campaigning began in July last year, it has processed 134 cases in which election laws were allegedly breached, of which 37 have either been handed the guilty verdict or dismissed because of insufficient evidence.
Dr Nasir Tamara, a senior researcher at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said that had it not been for the weakening Indonesian economy amid the global financial crisis, the scale of vote-buying would have been worse.
One good thing is that voters today are more discerning, analysts said. They may keep the cash but will not necessarily give the candidate or the party their support.
Mr Yaya Sunarya, 44, a shoemaker in West Java, told The Straits Times that he would accept cash offers from all parties, but would vote for the party of his own choice.
As for Mr Agus, he will not be voting for Mr Benny. He also let on that he has received offers to put up campaign posters ahead of the July 8 presidential polls.
wahyudis@sph.com.sg
How it all adds up
50,000 rupiah (S$6.60): The asking rate for a vote from a South Sulawesi resident for a National Mandate Party candidate.
80,000 rupiah to 110,000 rupiah: The cost of a T-shirt-and-meal giveaway and other perks including a 50,000 rupiah cash handout given to anyone attending a rally.
100,000 rupiah: The weekly advertising fees for a 3m by 1.5m poster on the facade of a residential property in Jakarta.
2 billion rupiah: The estimated expenditure of every candidate vying for a national parliamentary seat.
100 rupiah: The fees for folding one giant ballot sheet. One worker can fold more than 600 sheets a day.
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Call for more women in Parliament
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Lynn Lee, Indonesia Correspondent
Women politicians and groups in Indonesia highlight benefits of female perspective in govt
JAKARTA: Ms Nursanita Nasution has been juggling community meetings and caring for her seven children the past three weeks, ahead of Indonesia's general election next Thursday.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) candidate is campaigning for a second term in the national Parliament.
A former economics lecturer, she says more women are needed in Parliament. They now have 61 - or around 11 per cent - of 550 seats. The percentage is much lower for provincial and district parliaments, according to the Asia Foundation.
'Women will bring change to Parliament where there is corruption, with power concentrated in the hands of men. They can also lobby for social issues, like better health care for women,' says Ms Nursanita, 48.
But a ruling by the Constitutional Court last December has mucked up the playing field for female candidates, she and other activists say.
Now, candidates with the most votes automatically get into Parliament, as long as their party has a minimum share of votes. It is a more democratic system as parties can no longer hand-pick who to send to the House. But it has also removed the clause that, for every three legislators they appoint, one has to be a woman.
The sole female among the court's nine judges, Ms Maria Farida Indrati, lobbied to keep the quota but was overruled. This has 'undone the message that female perspectives are valued in policy-making', says legal anthropology expert Sulistyowati Irianto.
Women have always lagged behind men in politics. The highest percentage of women in the national Parliament was during 1987 to 1992, when 11.5 per cent - 65 members - of legislators were female. Women's groups cheered when the first female President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, was elected in 2001.
For now, parties must ensure that 30 per cent of their candidates are women. Activists want more. Aceh People's Party candidate Raihana Diani, 27, says that parties should rank them higher on their internal list of preferred candidates, so that they get just as much support for their campaigns.
Last year, the Asia Foundation held workshops for 92 female candidates - most of them first-timers - on building grassroots networks, developing their platforms and using the media to publicise their message.
Smart campaigning is crucial for women, who have to dip into family savings to run their campaigns. Usually, they can only muster about 20 million rupiah (S$2,600) to 50 million rupiah, says women and children's rights group Bali Sruti.
Democratic Party candidate Aerin Nizar, 34, says she always stresses women's strengths - as wives and mothers, they have more empathy and care about details.
The candidate for South Sulawesi's provincial parliament wants the mindset that male politicians are more capable to be wiped out.
'But they are slowly changing. I think voters are more accepting of female politicians now compared to five years ago.'
lynnlee@sph.com.sg
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Nationalist-oriented parties endorse polygamous candidates
The Jakarta Post
April 4, 2009
Andra Wisnu
Nationalist-oriented parties tend to turn a blind eye to polygamy as a women’s group found in a recent study showing they endorsed legislative candidates who publicly admitted to taking more than one wife.
Indonesian Women Solidarity (SPI), a nongovernmental organization defending women’s rights, released Friday a list of 21 legislative candidates known to practice polygamy.
Candidates from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party and Vice President Jusuf Kalla’s Golkar Party were on the list.
Candidates from Muslim-based parties, including the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and United Development Party (PPP), dominated the list.
SPI coordinator Yeni Rosa Damayanti said the group would continue to update the data and make it public so voters could take it into consideration when voting.
“In fact, it was easier to get confirmation from Islamist candidates, as many of them seemed to be proud of the fact that they’re polygamists,” Yeni told a dialogue on polygamy at the Legal Aid Institute Foundation in Jakarta.
SPI released a similar list late last week, comprising only 10 names.
PKS Secretary-General Anis Matta, (on the list) said the group were conducting a smear campaign against polygamous candidates.
Anis, a member of the House of Representatives’ Commission XI on financial affairs, said the polygamy issue was a private matter and had nothing to do with the election.
Golkar Party’s Agun Gunanjar Sudarsa, who was on the extended list, said anti-Islam groups were behind the campaign against polygamous candidates.
On the telephone, Agun confirmed he had a second wife, whom he married after 17 years of childless marriage with his first wife, who consented to his second marriage.
“My first wife attended my wedding ceremony with my second wife,” he said.
Agun who is a member of House Commission II on legal affairs, added that his polygamous marriage had no bearing on his duty as a public official.
“The public understands the polygamy issue well…I don’t think it will have any effect on the election,” he said.
He laughed off the possibility that the polygamy issue would hurt his reelection bid.
Yeni believes neither polygamous candidates nor their parties would win women’s votes. in the April 9 elections.
“Polygamy is a physical abuse against women and people practicing and condoning it should not be trusted to lead a country that respects human rights,” she said.
There is no exact data on how many people are involved in olygamous marriages in Indonesia. The country has no law banning polygamy, though there is a government regulation banning civil servants and members of the police and army from practicing it.
However, at least in public dialogue, Indonesian women still view polygamy as a form of discrimination against women.
Trie Utami, a popular singer, who lived through a polygamous marriage before divorcing her former-husband, said that women simply have little room in Muslim majority Indonesia to receive fair treatment in marriage, urging men and women to think twice before going through polygamous marriages.
“Men too often use the excuse that polygamy is allowed in Islam to justify their lust,” she said during the dialogue. “Women must think ahead and imagine the unhappiness polygamy can bring. We need to consider whether we want such men as our leaders.”
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PKB losing shine without charisma of the enigmatic Gus Dur
The Jakarta Post
April 4, 2009
Pandaya
Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid has painfully lost his grip on the National Awakening Party (PKB) to his less popular cousin Muhaimin Iskandar, following a bitter leadership rift that warranted Supreme Court intervention to end it last year.
The court’s decision in favor of Muhaimin hurt Gus Dur’s pride so badly that he has refused to be associated with the PKB, the country’s seventh largest party, which has a stronghold East Java but is less popular in other islands.
Gus Dur, a former president famed for his legendary outbursts, never conceals his anger and frustration over the stunning legal loss. He says it is part of a Yudhoyono administration conspiracy to foil his bid for the presidency, something the President flatly denies.
Venting his frustration over the loss, he went as far as to call on his millions of supporters and loyalists to boycott this year’s general elections. But he later backtracked, asking them to go to the polls and vote for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), chaired by his old ally Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Very recently, he gave away ammunition to his critics when, again, he shifted his political support to Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subiyanto, a former son-in-law of Soeharto and a presidential aspirant from the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party. His opponents allege that his true motive is to trade in the support for a Cabinet post for his daughter Yenny Wahid, should Prabowo win the race.
Considered Gus Dur’s mouthpiece, Yenny appeared at a Gerindra rally in Sidoarjo, East Java, on March 17, but she persistently denies a Cabinet post is part of her agenda. She says her camp’s alliance with the PDI-P and Gerindra applies by region and not nationwide.
Gus Dur reportedly went ballistic and threatened legal action after Muhaimin mentioned his name at a campaign rally in Surabaya. Ironically, Muhaimin told the crowd how he admired Gus Dur as a charismatic leader.
The fate of the PKB in the upcoming elections is a hot topic in political discussions, with most pundits casting doubt on whether, without Gus Dur, the “Muslim-nationalist” party will be able to maintain its current 54 (or 11 percent) of House of Representative seats. Muhaimin has set a higher target for this year’s elections, up to 15 percent.
Until the 2004 elections, the PKB counted on traditional Muslims in East Java for support, just like Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) — the country’s second largest Muslim organization, which spearheaded the party’s founding. Significant support also came from traditional Muslims in Central Java.
Gus Dur, who became the PKB’s paramount leader and chaired its powerful board of patrons, hails from the East Java religious school town of Jombang, and among his admirers, he is akin to wali — the revered propagators of Islam when it was first introduced to Java between 16th and 17th centuries.
So formidable was his clout in the PKB that the party was akin to Gus Dur. His loyal supporters would hang on his every word, although some conservatives turned their backs on him because they considered his stand on key religious issues just “too liberal”. Other more conservative clerics founded their own parties, including the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU), which has never managed to pass the electoral threshold to get a House seat.
Relying on charisma, Gus Dur has passed down a legacy of poor party management one that is overly paternalistic and family-oriented.
He won’t listen to other people’s ideas, says M. Hikam, a former PKB executive who jumped ship to join the People’s Conscience (Hanura) Party as quoted by Koran Indonesia.
Muhaimin doesn’t seem confident enough to lead the PKB without Gus Dur’s backing. On various occasions, he genuinely expressed his admiration of Gus Dur and even put up the latter’s
portraits. Addressing a rally in Surabaya on March 18, he acknowledged the half-blind former president was his mentor and had molded him into who he was now.
“I think what Gus Dur is doing now is testing me, and his intention is to make me a tough NU politician,” he said.
Strangely enough, PKB leaders in the East Java regencies of Jember, Probolinggo and Bangkalan all pledged allegiance to Gus Dur and use his images at their rallies to attract crowds.
Muhaimin’s rallies have seen smaller crowds, and he has to woo people to his gatherings with door prizes ranging from motorcycles to fans and wall clocks, according to Republika online (March 18, 2009).
The lackluster rallies may well suggest that NU sympathizers have heeded Gus Dur’s call to boycott Muhaimin’s PKB.
Besides, if gubernatorial elections are good yardsticks to sound a party’s performance, then the PKB has shown worrying signs of flops. Its gubernatorial candidates in East Java, Central Java and West Java have all lost to candidates from rival parties. Time will tell — very soon.
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Parties lack commitment to environmental protection
The Jakarta Post
April 4, 2009
Desy Nurhayati
Political parties contesting in the upcoming legislative elections have not made environmental issues a priority despite the rising threat of environmental degradation.
Although all 38 parties were invited to a discussion on commitment to the environment held by the Indonesian Civil Society Forum on Thursday, only a few legislative candidates from just 10 parties attended to present their environmental platforms — and most of the programs were vague.
“I don’t know much about the party’s program on the environment. But whatever it is, I will push the programs through my colleagues, who are more knowledgeable on the issue,” Evi Fatimah, a legislative candidate from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said.
“It doesn’t matter whether I am elected or not, I will encourage my friends to take action to minimize climate change.”
She suggested the establishment of an environmental caucus among political parties.
Winda Mastuti, a legislative candidate from the Labor Party, said that once she secures a seat at the House of Representatives, she will, “struggle to prevent further environmental destruction”.
“We should be stricter in enforcing the law against environment criminals, maybe we will consider a death sentence for illegal loggers.”
“The condition of our environment is very critical while people have yet to benefit from the country’s abundant natural resources because the resources are sold to foreigners,” she added.
Melani Leimena, a candidate of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, said the party would encourage early education on environmental awareness.
Commenting on the parties’ environment programs, Executive Director of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia Mubariq Ahmad said that parties have yet to make environmental issues a priority.
“I have not heard of a party making nature conservation part of its platform. Even if any have, they might just be doing it to woo voters,” he said on the sidelines of the discussion.
Legislative candidates from the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) and the Indonesian Nahdatul Ummah Union Party (PPNUI), however, have slightly more comprehensive programs to offer.
Farida Abidin of Gerindra said a conservation program had been included as part of the party’s so-called “8 actions for people’s welfare”.
“We should go back to the Constitution, which guarantees people’s rights for natural resources,” she said.
“We will launch reforestation programs on 59 million hectares of damaged land nationwide, as well as conservation efforts on protected forests, on river banks and more stricter law enforcement on illegal logging and illegal fishing.”
Misnan Siregar of PPNUI said he would address land conversion problems in North Sumatera, as he is a candidate in one of the province’s electoral districts.
“Land conversion in the province has been very alarming. It would take immediate measures to overcome this problems.”
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Poverty and the Purchased Public Sphere
The Jakarta Post
April 4, 2009
Irsyad Zamjani
Op-Ed
During the campaign period of the 2009 election, poverty issues are among the most prominent issues. All political parties proclaim themselves as truly antipoverty parties. The issue has been repeatedly raised within a number of political advertisements in the mass media, on posters, or at mass meetings.
Debates have taken place among politicians regarding the large number of the country’s poor and the policies the government have imposed to eradicate poverty. However, there is a paradox. Among those vicious political disputes, our poor people are not merely materially lacking, but they have also lost their
democratic participation. Broadly speaking, they have been undergoing a “deficit of citizenship”.
The modern democracy requires, among other things, an institution called the public sphere, within which the everyday participation of all citizens is accommodated. In the public sphere problems are raised, discussed, and if possible are then solved. The public sphere manifests in institutions ranging from
the more formal, such as public seminars, the mass media, up to the more informal, such as bar and coffee shops. In a country that claims itself as democratic, a central question has to be posed: has every citizen had equal opportunity to access the public sphere?
The answer is “No!” Only the haves could access the public sphere. They are those who are involved in intellectual forums of public discussions and seminars. They are able to observe government performance through newspaper reports and, if they wish, write opinion letters. In their leisure time, they attend experts’ and politician’s debates on television, pick up the phone to voice their opinions, or casually pose critiques
through text messages on their cell phones.
Among those very democratic situations above, where are the poor? Rather than buying televisions or subscribing to newspapers, they even have trouble affording a meal. Instead of picking up the phone or typing a text message, to earn some cash they have to sweat all day long.
Indeed, they do not have the power to tell their troubles to politicians they have elected. Democracy, for them, is only a five-yearly ritual. Democracy is the matter of “time”, not of “space.” It is just like Christmas, it doesn’t happen every day.
In his seminal work, the Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989), Germany philosopher Jurgen Habermas has taken into account the way the public sphere transforms. In its emergence in the dusk of the 18th century, it was the bourgeois’ tool to demolish feudalism and then establish more democratic nation-states. It gave a great contribution to the advancement of liberal capitalism.
However, the 20th century saw the development of organized capitalism. In contrast to liberal, free and equal competition, organized capitalism has a tendency to monopolize markets.
Organized capitalism rather creates human needs than fulfils them. The public sphere is monopolized as well. Previously, the public sphere was the field of open public debate. Now, the public sphere has become a meadow to manufacture public opinion through the polling system. Everyone who has power and money can intrude and control public aspirations.
Bourgeoisies buy the public sphere and thus provide the dishes on the democratic menus within. Politicians and intellectuals, who are fond of popularity, embellish the mass media with their eccentric grooming. They fluently dispute, contest opinions and compete for influence and sympathy. The media debates are no more than spectacles, controlled by the mechanism of the visual media market called ratings.
When the public sphere is purchased or monopolized, democracy becomes the property of the haves. They constitute the first class citizens. The poor are no more than the second or maybe third class citizens, needed only when democratic festivities begin. The poor will be useful for democracy only when they transform to be a mass. The masses are more suitable to make merry and cheer at the five-yearly parades than to be involved in the day-to-day politics. If the masses celebrate their democracy every time and every where, the result is anarchy.
The historical clock is turned back. Citizenship becomes a luxury. For the poor, citizenship is in deficit. Nominally, they are citizens, but, substantially, they have lost the most crucial element of citizenship within a modern democratic state; i.e. participation.
They are passive people rather than active citizens. Their voices never heard during the formulation of policies determining their own fate. Besides facing the external burdens, the poor also have to deal with their own internal troubles. By themselves, they are a very vulnerable and dependent community.
Affirmative policies need to be imposed not only for those who have been discriminated against culturally, but also for those who are deprived economically. An affirmative perspective should be considered by political parties, if they are serious about being pro-poor parties.
The writer is a sociologist and researcher at the Center of Asian Studies (CENAS), Jakarta.
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Clouds Gather On the Eve of Elections; The Extended Forecast Calls for Gloom
The Jakarta Globe
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Bramantyo Prijosusilo
Opinion
If the 1955 election is remembered as the election with the highest percentage of voter turnout in this country, the upcoming elections are certainly going to be remembered as the elections with the most abstainers.
With only a few days left till the legislative elections, it is obvious that they will be a shambles. Even without the concerns of widespread and systemic cheating, the new voting method is bound to be problematic, stressful and confusing for a large proportion of the population. The huge sheet of paper that the voter must inspect before he or she places the tick mark on the preferred party or person is much bigger than any piece of paper most people normally work with. For people unaccustomed to working with large sheets of paper just opening the ballot will be a hassle.
The use of the tick mark instead of the old way of puncturing the paper with a nail will not only take longer and invite problems such as pens running dry; it will also alienate the many millions of people who do not use pens in their daily life. Many people feel intimidated by a pen and all these people will not be able to vote in comfort. Many people will spend a long time in the voting booths just fiddling with the pen and paper.
How many will just abstain from voting because of the headache the system gives them? The number is anybody’s guess, but there will be many.
How could this have come to pass? The first word that comes to mind is, of course, incompetence. With five years to get everything ready, news stories of ballot forms being counted and packed in private residences all over the country shows just how embarrassing this incompetence is. There is not one aspect of these elections that can make one say: Yes, the General Elections Commission is professional and this makes me proud to be Indonesian. Instead, everything about the elections is embarrassing; from the way the candidates advertise themselves as if they were birthday clowns to the way the organizers have made a laughing stock of our efforts to build democracy.
Is it sad or is it funny that many mental hospitals have prepared VIP rooms in anticipation of the legions of wannabe legislators losing at the ballot box and going crazy as a result? Many political aspirants have liquidized all their assets and incurred debt to fund efforts to secure a seat in national, regional and municipal legislatures.
It is obvious that for most people, a seat in the legislature is not seen as an opportunity to serve the public and the state, it is just a cushy job in which, if you are clever and lucky enough, you can rake in millions before the Corruption Eradication Commission catches you.
If you are unlucky enough to get caught, there will still be enough social sympathy for you and your family to allow you the freedom to smile to the cameras when the press takes pictures of your arrest.
So doesn’t it serve you right if you get severe mental health problems when you find that you have not been elected? Maybe it would have been better for all of us if these potential lawmakers checked in to the mental hospitals before they even ran for office. It would have saved them a lot of money and the general public would not have had to risk electing a mentally unstable and ideologically unsound candidate.
While saying that many candidates are unashamedly in it for the money, it would be unfair not to mention that many people created their own parties merely because they wanted the power.
If we look at the scores of parties competing for seats in legislatures, we can see that there are few ideological differences among them. If we were to categorize the parties by ideology, there would only be about two Islam-based parties, one nationalist party, one bureaucracy-based party and one tiny leftist party. If we look at the current television ads, we can see that most parties have no clue what they are fighting for.
One other interesting observation of these election campaigns is that most fights that have broken out during the campaigns were between supporters of the same parties. There have been virtually no mass brawls between parties, which used to characterize our election campaigns.
The animals candidates use to attract attention to their campaigns says a lot about their knowledge of the people. At a recent party rally, some local party leaders brought several water buffalo for their stars to ride on across a field toward the stage.
Most rural people here know the character of the water buffalo. In the past, sultans used to stage fights between water buffalo and tigers for entertainment. For the most part, the water buffalo would win. They are very shy but determined animals and dislike strangers, particularly ones on their backs.
So, of course, when the party brass clambered on to their backs, the beasts began to panic and run until they dropped the city slickers who tried to use them to gain some rural agricultural kudos.
Of all the party leaders who have been seen on horses on television, Prabowo Subianto is apparently the only man who can really ride a horse. Many commentators say that his human rights record should prevent him from taking high office. He has pointed out that several of the activists who he is alleged to have ordered to be kidnapped are now part of his party, but he has not mentioned anything about the activists who disappeared into thin air. The talented poet Wiji Thukul, who was widely loved, is one of those who are still missing.
His children have missed him for more than 10 years now and because of his widely appreciated talent, he is never going to disappear into oblivion. The public would greatly appreciate an explanation from Mr. Subianto as to Mr. Thukul’s whereabouts.
Bramantyo Prijosusilo is an artist, poet and organic farmer in Ngawi, East Java.
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The Jakarta Globe
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Titania Veda & Ade Mardiyati
Feature
As Election Day on Thursday draws near, time is running out for the 38 political parties competing for seats in national and local legislatures to improve their standing with voters. When the nation first began holding democratic elections in 1955, there were 28 political parties. After Suharto assumed control in 1965, he forced the parties to merge, and as a result, from 1971 to 1997, there were only three parties from which to
choose: Golkar, the United Development Party, or PPP, and the Indonesian Democratic Party, or PDI.
This year there has seen a jump in the number of political parties involved, from 24 in 2004. For many voters it has become a case of better the devil you know than the newcomer you don’t. The source of confusion for voters lies not only in the number of political parties and their candidates but also in the electoral process itself. Many voters around the country are yet to be registered. And many of those who are considering casting their ballots lack confidence in the candidates, many of whom are new.
Since the campaign season began in July, citizens have been given an earful and an eyeful of what the political parties have to offer. Now, with campaigns hushed for the mandatory cooling-off period, maybe it is time to hear from some of the nation’s voters before they speak at the polls.
Domestic servant In Kuningan, South Jakarta, a shy housemaid who preferred to remain anonymous was busy preparing dinner.
“I will vote,” she said. “Because it is required of a citizen.” She also added that she was afraid if she opted out, the authorities would make things difficult for her when she needed to deal with official documents, such as her KTP.
“It is forbidden to golput,” she said, referring to a popular term for abstaining from voting. The word golput is short for golongan putih, or the white party, alluding to individuals who choose not to go to the polls.
The 38-year-old mother of two has voted since the 1990s. She said the past elections were more spirited. “Now they’re lazy to campaign,” she said of party supporters. “Even if they’re paid, they are lazy. Once a party is elected, they forget about the little people.”
A maid for 19 years, she comes from a small village in Purwokerto, Central Java Province. Juggling housework and taking care of her children, she admits she has not been proactive when it comes to the elections. “My relatives registered for me,” she said.
Residing and working in Kuningan, she is confused as to which polling booth she should go to because her identity card states that she lives in Raden Saleh, Central Jakarta.
“I tried to register at the Kuningan polling station 10 years ago but they said I could not vote there. So I didn’t vote that election,” she said with a shrug. “The television said you could vote anywhere as long as you had a KTP. But that wasn’t the case.”
UR, police officer Dressed in his police uniform, UR said that when members of the National Police spoke to the press, they were told to provide only their initials.
The campaign rally for the Democratic Renewal Party, or PDP, that UR was policing concluded without incident and the crowd dispersed peacefully within a few hours. Policing campaigns in South Jakarta, UR said that despite the rise in political party numbers, the masses were more orderly than in previous years.
“Before trucks were used in the campaigns. Now it is mainly motorbikes or private vehicles. The bikers, especially, are more disciplined when it comes to wearing helmets,” he said with a contented smile.
The last time UR voted was in high school. Since he joined the police force 25 years ago, he has not supported a political party. “The Army and the police are not voting because we have to work professionally to ensure that the voting process goes smoothly,” he said.
Although unable to vote, UR wants to see a change in the nation, especially in terms of stability and security. “Stability affects the economy. Foreign investors are scared if politics affects stability. But if we are stable and secure, things will fall into place.”
Maria Magdalena Tritungadewi, university student On the grounds of Atma Jaya University, Maria Magdalena Tritungadewi is killing time with her friends. The 21-year-old law student said she planned to vote on April 9, but still didn’t know whether she was registered. Neither was she too sure of which party she
would be voting for. “Maybe Democratic,” Tritungadewi said, referring to the political party led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
She reasoned that while the Democratic Party had yielded few results during its five years in power, she was willing to give it another chance to prove its worth. “Perhaps given time, they will get better,” she said.
As a university student, education and the economy are at the forefront of Tritungadewi’s concerns. She wants the new government to focus on offering free education from elementary school through to high school. “My friend, who attends a private high school, pays Rp 1.3 million [$113] a month in school fees
and her registration fee was Rp 2.8 million,” Tritungadewi said. The idealist in the student hopes that underprivileged people, such as beggars and street hawkers, will be provided with aid.
“The street hawkers are often removed by the trantib,” she said, referring to the Public Order Agency or its officers, “but they keep returning, so it is no use.”
Tritungadewi suggested that the government provide pedlars with a safe haven where they could relocate.
“But not a store because then they would have to pay rent.”
Tritungadewi said that many people still did not understand the electoral process.
“The Democratic Party could win because people are confused. With Golkar in the past, people knew that Suharto was corrupt but they were so used to voting Golkar. This is not much different from that,” she said.
The legion of legislative candidates that have come out of the woodwork for the 2009 elections adds to Tritungadewi’s bafflement. “I don’t know the candidates! They are mainly celebrities,” she laughed. “And they are so used to thinking about themselves, how can they really think of the people. So it doesn’t matter who I choose. I don’t really believe in them.”
Budi “Edroy,” ojek driver Budi, nicknamed “Edroy,” sits with his fellow ojek drivers outside a football field in Blok S, South Jakarta, where a Democratic Renewal Party campaign rally was being held. Everyone in the area seems to be a PDP sympathizer; at least they are all wearing party T-shirts.
According to Budi, campaign supporters are paid Rp 25,000 for the duration of the day’s rally. “They refund us for gas money for us to get to the campaign rally location,” Budi said.
The rally held at Blok S on Friday lasted around two hours and Budi said that taking in whatever little money he could get from the political party was better than no money at all for the day.
“There are fewer customers during the campaign. Business is slow in my area,” said Budi, who works in Petamburan, Central Jakarta. “People seem to rarely go out.”
The group of 30 ojek drivers that surrounded him were all from Petamburan. They received a visit from a PDP field coordinator in the morning who asked them to attend that afternoon’s rally.
Budi is not a member of the PDP and declined to reveal which party he would be voting for on Thursday. “I will just follow my heart’s calling,” he said with a laugh.
What Budi did disclose was his desire to see an improvement in the new government. “Don’t give us false promises,” he said. The 40-year-old father of two sons hopes to be provided with the opportunity to find a job at a company and make better money. “I want the country to move forward, without corruption,” he said.
Wakiroh, street vendor The scorching sun beating down on a narrow street in Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta, added to the frustration over the noise from the passing motorbikes. Wakiroh sat inside her two-meter-square food stall fanning herself with a newspaper.
“Are you here to give me a [political] party T-shirt?” she asked.
Like many other Indonesian citizens, Wakiroh is aware that the legislative elections will be held this week.
“We were informed via a letter by the neighborhood unit,” she said.
She has already decided to vote for the Democratic Party, or PD.
“It has been proven. Things are so much easier now. I can run this business, my two children can go to school for free,” said the 43-year-old.
Wakiroh said that in the last elections, in 2004, she just voted for the party that her husband and most of her neighbors were supporting. “It wasn’t easy. There were so many parties I didn’t know, unlike before when we only had three,” she said.
Anda bin Kamon, scrap metal dealer In a small food stall in South Jakarta, Anda bin Kamon seems relaxed as he sits on a bench smoking a cigarette.
For more than 20 years, the 45-year-old has collected and sold junk — parts of old fences, window bars and other scrap metal. He has no idea of what is happening this Thursday.
“I know there have been rallies lately but I have no idea what that is all about,” the father of three said.
“ My family hasn’t told me anything if the neighborhood unit has informed us about this [election].” Anda said that the last time he voted was for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P. He said he knew from people around him that former President Megawati Sukarnoputri of the PDI-P was the best
candidate.
“It turned out the same [with the PDI-P]. I’m still just a guy with his small cart collecting and selling junk, just like before,” Anda said. “Nothing has changed.”
Anda’s only hope is that “a simple person who can help the Indonesian people” will lead the country.
If he could speak to any of the candidates in person, Anda said he would ask for free education for all Indonesian children.
“The future is theirs, not mine.”
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Economist Intelligence Unit - Business Asia Cover dated April 6, 2009
Politics: Poll preview
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party is on track to consolidate its position in the Indonesian legislature at the April 9th general election
With just a few days to go before Indonesia’s legislative elections on April 9th, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party (PD) has further extended its lead in opinion polls. If the PD performs as well as expected, it will be able to nominate Mr Yudhoyono as its presidential candidate without seeking coalition partners. Moreover, despite the worsening economic climate, Mr Yudhoyono is already firmly on track to win
re-election later this year. The president will be pressed to defend the performance of his government during his campaign, but he lacks a credible challenger.
A recent survey by a local pollster, the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), found that 24% of voters intended to vote for the PD in April, compared with 17.3% for the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) and 15.9% for Golkar, which is currently the largest party in the legislature and has been a cornerstone of Mr Yudhoyono’s first-term administration. The same poll found that 50.3% of respondents would vote for Mr Yudhoyono, compared with only 18.5% favouring the PDI-P leader, Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is Mr Yudhoyono’s closest challenger. This level of support would be enough to prevent the presidential election scheduled in July from going to a second-round run-off between the two leading candidates in September.
Significant support
The level of support currently enjoyed by the PD is significant for a number of reasons. First, parties must win 20% of the national vote to nominate their own presidential candidates. Given its current popularity, the PD will be able to nominate Mr Yudhoyono without being forced into a coalition arrangement. The alliance forged between the PD and Golkar in 2004 hampered reforms during Mr Yudhoyono’s first term in office, owing to Golkar’s conservative stance and the vested interests within its ranks. Many PD members are now entertaining the prospect of forming a second-term government without Golkar. However, should the PD’s election performance prove less impressive than its current poll numbers, the party would probably continue its alliance with Golkar.
Mr Yudhoyono’s high levels of support also suggest a wider range of options for his vice-presidential candidate, raising the likelihood that he will part company with Jusuf Kalla, the current vice-president and Golkar chairman. The president would also have a strong base of support in the legislature during his second term in office—an advantage that he consistently lacked in his first term. In the last legislative election the PD won just 10% of the seats.
Rumours that Mr Yudhoyono is considering alternative presidential candidates have placed pressure on Mr Kalla to stand as a candidate in his own right. Although the vice-president has stopped short of explicitly declaring his intentions, he has said repeatedly that he would be ready to accept the Golkar nomination, if it were offered to him. Mr Kalla does not enjoy the wide base of public support required to claim the presidency, and his best chance of prolonging his political career lies in maintaining his partnership with Mr
Yudhoyono. However, pressure from within his party is currently such that the decision may be taken out of his hands.
Outlook
The Economist Intelligence Unit expects Mr Yudhoyono to be re-elected, but he will be on the defensive in the coming months as the economy goes through a recession and unemployment rises. The president’s critics will also become more vocal on other aspects of his performance, with reform groups expressing frustration at the continued prevalence of corruption. Popular resentment of foreign involvement in the economy, particularly in the resources sector, is also on the rise. Mr Yudhoyono, a champion of foreign investors, could become a target for nationalist anger as the economy slows.
Nonetheless, there are a number of factors working in Mr Yudhoyono’s favour. Most importantly, prices for a number of goods and services have fallen in recent months, which should ease much of the resentment created by increasing costs in 2008. Recent declines in global oil prices have permitted the president to lower subsidised fuel prices three times since December 1st. The disbursement of cash handouts to poor families as compensation for higher fuel prices has also boosted his popularity.
Last but not least, Mr Yudhoyono will benefit from the absence of a strong opponent. Ms Megawati may just have sufficient support to prevent Mr Yudhoyono from winning the 50% of the popular vote that he requires to secure the presidency in the first round in July. However, the PDI-P leader remains discredited outside of her main centres of support on the islands of Java and Bali, owing to her poor performance as president in 2001-04.
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Major Parties Threaten to Reject Election Results
The Jakarta Post
April 7, 2009
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Dicky Christanto, Indra Harsaputra
and Ahmad Faisal
Despite the troubled voter lists, all 38 political parties have seemingly consented to contest the legislative elections on Thursday; but major parties threatened to reject the result if the polls were found not to be free or fair, or organized professionally and independently.
The Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) were just four of 14 parties cautiously supporting the polls, but warning they would not endorse the results if they found indications of vote rigging or other forms
of manipulation involving either the government or the General Elections Commission (KPU).
"Having different views *on the troubled voter lists* will not undermine the togetherness of all components of the nation to place and pursue the state's interests above the parties' own interests through the general elections. Therefore, the government and the KPU have an obligation to ensure the polls are free and fair, to avoid all forms of violations, including vote rigging and other vote manipulation through the IT
program," Pramono Anung Wibowo, representing the 14 parties, said after their meeting Monday.
Pramono, who is also secretary of the PDI-P, said the parties had decided to continue with the polls despite the voter list fraud that has turned into a national scandal, because they were realistic about the unfeasibility of suspending the elections and revising the voter lists in just three days.
"The parties agree to deploy their supporters as witnesses at polling stations and to closely monitor the vote count by the KPU at all levels, including the use of IT systems," he said.
According to the parties, the most crucial areas for manipulation are polling stations, vote counts at subdistrict and district levels, and the KPU in Jakarta.
Pramono added the parties had invited foreign media and international organizations to help monitor the elections, which he claimed were quite prone to manipulation, clearly visible from the East Java fiasco.
"Every party contesting the elections has a chance to win the polls, but if victory is gained through manipulation, it must be rejected," he said, adding the parties had prepared legal teams to bring any violations and manipulations to court.
He also urged the police to be proactive in investigating elections violations filed by the elections supervisory board.
Golkar secretary-general Soemarsono said the voter list fraud that was initially uncovered in Madura had turned into a national scandal, after similar cases were found throughout East Java and in almost all provinces across the country.
"It's very surprising to find the number of eligible voters in Papua is 50,000 names more than the province's actual population of 2.2 million," he said.
The parties also alleged East Java was a testing ground for nationwide "electoral engineering" by certain sides to claim a major victory in the legislative polls.
"The mushrooming of voter list fraud cases and the poor distribution and quality of polling material, including ballots, are strong indication of a systematic and massive attempt to manipulate the elections. If this happens, this year's elections will be worse than the general elections in 1999 and 2004, and both the President in his capacity as head of state and the KPU should be held responsible for the elections, which have absorbed energy and huge amounts of funds," Soemarsono said.
Home Ministry's directorate general of population administration affairs admitted minor mistakes in the potential voter lists handed over to the KPU on April 5, 2008.
Citizens with two identity cards or more are registered multiple times as eligible voters, while servicemen, including police personnel, may not vote, but are still named on the lists," director general Abdul Rasyid Saleh said when showing the potential voter lists to The Jakarta Post recently.
He added the problem was really with the permanent voter lists verified and validated by the KPU and its offices at all levels nationwide.
"If the potential voter lists had problems, the KPU should have fixed them during the three-month verification and validation period."
PAN secretary-general Zulkifli Hasan said the parties feared low voter turnout because not all eligible voters were registered with local polling bodies or named on the voter lists.
Democratic Party deputy chairman Anas Urbaningrum denied his party had or stood to benefit from the voter list scandal, because the voter lists were drawn up and had been used in local elections where several of the party's candidates had been defeated.
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Tempo Magazine
No. 32/IX
April 07-13, 2009
Editorial
The chaos in the final list of voters continues to threaten the election. Population data management needs to be sorted out.
THIS nation has had considerable experience in organizing general elections. Since 1955, there have been elections almost every five years. In this era of direct elections, there have been more then a hundred gubernatorial, regents and mayors elections, a year. But the chronic problem remains unsolved:
chaos regarding the list of voters.
The voter list is still a mess in the run-up towards the April 9 elections. The final list of voters for the election of members of the House of Representatives (DPR), the Provincial Legislative Council (DPD) and the Regional Houses of Representatives (DPRDs) was used without being rechecked by either the General Elections Commission (KPU) or the Regional General Elections Commissions (KPUD).
There seem to be many problems with the list. One example is the accuracy of the data. There are at least three reasons for such inaccuracy: the consideration of age, deaths and mobility of voters. Officials were often careless and did not register people who will turn 17 years of age—the minimum for voting—on April 9. Conversely, many dead people can be found on the list. This could be due to negligence or because they died since the voter list was finalized. The method in which the population is recorded, which is still manual, means that people who have moved could be registered in two places or not registered at all.
It has not been possible to validate the failings of the manual system, despite the fact that the voter data was carried out in stages. Last April, the KPU received the data in the form of thousands of compact discs from the Home Affairs Department. The KPU then sent the data to the KPU Committees throughout the
nation.
These committees—generally comprising people at the neighborhood level—modified the data in accordance with the latest information about people in their respective areas, then sent it back to the KPU. This was used for the provisional voter list. After receiving inputs from the public, the KPU turned the
provisional list into a final list.
This process, which cost almost half a trillion rupiah, did not produce the proper data. The performance of the KPU has been called into question because there are voters who appear on the list more than once. This came up in the case of Sampang and Bangkalan in the East Java gubernatorial elections in January.
It is suspected that there were a significant number of “cloned” voters. According to the Khofifah Indar Parawansa-Mudjiono team, representing the losing candidates, more than 100 people had the
same name and population number in one district. The same problem was found in voter lists in several areas.
What is troubling is that it has not been possible to improve the final voter list. The one chance to fix it, made possible by Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1/2009, was not properly used by the time the March 31 deadline came. There was no official reason given, but the facts on the ground show that delays on the part of the KPU and the KPUDs must have been the main cause.
But what to do? Even though the data is flawed, the elections cannot be delayed, given the vast amounts of money that have already been spent. The final chance to correct the problems with the data will be at the polling booths. The case of Bangkalan, where several children under 17 were able to vote in the East Java gubernatorial elections, must not be repeated. The committees, witnesses and monitors need to ensure that only those with the right to vote are allowed into the polling booths.
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The Jakarta Post
April 7, 2009
Legislative candidates and political parties have missed a golden opportunity to win votes from vulnerable groups which have thus far remained untapped and forgotten, a human rights group said Monday.
These marginalized groups include people with mental illnesses, transvestites, internally-displace people (IDPs), people with disabilities and migrant workers.
This issue was discussed at a small presentation organized by The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in Jakarta on Monday.
It claimed that out of the 171 million eligible voters for the upcoming legislative elections there were around 7 million transvestites, 8 million people with disabilities, 170,000 migrant workers and 18 million people with mental illnesses.
“Just imagine if they [political candidates] cared about our existence. They could have got many votes from not just us, but our families,” the vice coordinator of the Forum for the Advocacy and Human Rights of People Living with Disabilities, Heppi Sebayang, said.
Heppi claimed the disabled population in Indonesia had formed a strong community together, and that when Fauzi Bowo was running for mayor of Jakarta in 2007 he attracted their vote through programs specific to their needs.
Merlyn Sofjan, a transvestite, said legislative candidates were not aware they could net more votes from marginalized communities if only they included transvestites in their agendas.
“We also expect candidates will have special programs for us,” Merlyn said.
A member of the Mental Health Consumers Association, Lili Suwardi, said people with mental illnesses were eager to cast their vote but the government had never accommodated for their needs.
“In my experience, we have never had polling stations in mental hospitals. Perhaps the government thinks we are not competent or capable of being voters,” Lili said.
Most patients living with mental illnesses, she said, had identity cards, which meant they had a right to vote just like anybody else.
Having been ignored by legislative candidates, these marginalized communities are pessimistic the 2009 general elections will bring about any change in the future for them.
“We don’t have any expectations for these elections. We vote because we have to vote and it is our right,” Merlyn said.
“We have seen several general elections in our time, and nothing has changed. We still face discrimination,” she said. The Election Committee had launched Braille templates for blind voters, but it has since only been made available in the regional election. (naf)
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Poll logistics in place, says embattled election body
The Jakarta Post
April 7, 2009
With three days left before the legislative elections, the polls body claimed Monday most polling material had arrived in the most isolated districts in Papua, West Java and Maluku.
Boradi, deputy head of logistics at the General Elections Commission (KPU), said 98 percent of ballot boxes, polling booths and ballots had reached 2,071 polling stations across West Papua.
He added the Papua polls body had reported more then 70 percent of ballots had been handed over to local elections committees (PPS).
“Nationwide, most of the material has arrived at district polls committees [PPK], with some already at the polling stations,” he said.
The 2008 election law says all polling material must reach polling stations a day ahead of voting day at the latest.
Boradi said the KPU was no longer accepting requests to print extra ballots, except to replace ballots destroyed or lost through natural causes, such as flooding.
“We’re still getting letters from regional polls bodies [KPUDs] demanding extra ballots amounting to less than 100 sheets each. But there will be no more printing of new ballots,” he said.
Aceh’s Independent Election Commission (KIP) poll watch demanded the KPU print 2,000 ballots after a flood washed out ballots kept at the Samudra district polls committee office.
The damaged ballots included 100 sheets for the election of House of Representativesmembers, 539 for the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), 731 for the provincial legislature and 532 for municipal and regency legislatures, KIP logistics official Robby Syah Putra told reporters Monday.
“If the KPU does not replace the damaged papers, the election in the areas can be delayed,” he said.
Heavy rain over the last few days hit the north coast of Aceh and other parts of the country’s westernmost province. But the KIP had yet to receive reports of damaged election material from the other areas, Robby said.
The KPU required regional polls commissions to report their preparations for the elections and distribution of material on a daily basis for the past week.
South Sulawesi polls body chief Nusrah Azis said polling material had arrived in all districts, including the remote regencies of Pangkejene, Pangkep and Selayar.
The legislative elections will be held on Thursday, with more than 11,000 candidates contesting 560 House seats.
The KPU printed 700 million ballots for the election of House members, DPD members and regional legislative councilors.
Robby also said vote tabulation forms for the DPD elections could not be used, as some candidates’ names were misspelled. The forms had been distributed to 10,271 polling stations across Aceh.
“We can still overcome the problem by covering over the names with stickers that have the correct names. But we’ll wait for assistance from the KPU,” Robby said.
Home Minister Mardiyanto confirmed during a video conference with local administrations and regional polls bodies Monday that the legislative elections would run on schedule, as polling material had reached polling stations.