Commission member Nur Kholis said the state prosecutor who led the AGO investigation into the four cases should come to the commission to officially hand over documentation on the rights violations.
(The Jakarta Post)

The House will begin a one-month recess on April 11.(The Jakarta Post)

Source : The Jakarta Post

The House of Representatives is still split over simultaneous legislative and presidential elections, one of the main issues in ongoing deliberations over the presidential election bill.

Ferry Mursyidan Baldan of the Golkar Party, the biggest faction at the House, said Sunday the simultaneous legislative and presidential elections would be made possible only in 2014 at the earliest.

"If the elections were held simultaneously in 2009, would it mean only parties who won House seats in the 2004 election were able to nominate presidential candidates?" Ferry questioned.

"Parties contesting for legislative seats in 2009 will certainly not accept this," he said.

The 2004 presidential elections were held three months after the legislative elections to elect House, regional legislative council and Regional Representatives Council members. In the first direct presidential election, candidates were nominated by parties that secured at least 5 percent of the vote in the legislative election.

Golkar has proposed the threshold be raised to 30 percent, while the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle demanded it increase to between 15 and 20 percent.

Among supporters of the joint elections are Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who chairs Golkar.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) faction has insisted Indonesia hold simultaneous elections in 2009 in order to simplify the electoral system and save money.

PKB member Ali Masykur Musa told the House special committee, deliberating the presidential election bill last week, that the simultaneous election would also allow voters to know the presidential candidates as early as possible.

The General Elections Commission is conducting an online survey of simultaneous legislative and presidential elections.

PKB faction chairman Hermawi Taslim criticized the survey for unfairness because it asks a leading question. Respondents are asked for their opinion on separate elections, rather than simultaneous elections.

The second biggest faction, PDI-P, and the National Mandate Party (PAN) have joined in support for the PKB.

Ferry said administering joint legislative and presidential elections next year would be unfeasible, now that the House is still debating the electoral threshold for the presidential election.

"If the simultaneous elections are accepted for next year, we must agree that only parties that won a minimum of 15 percent of the vote in 2004 legislative election are eligible to nominate candidates."

Ferry added that the PKB proposal would be met with opposition from parties that did not qualify and newcomers in the 2009 election.

The United Development Party (PPP) and Democrat Party have also rejected simultaneous elections, citing unreadiness of both voters and the General Elections Commission (KPU).

"Simultaneous elections will only confuse voters because they will mix up presidential and legislative election campaigns," PPP faction chairman Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said.

Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Education Ministry said the use of indigenous languages during a pilot project for teachers instructing students in informal schools had been conducted with some success.

Dendy Sugono, the Ministry's language center director, told a forum here Monday the pilot project had included illiterate adults and had focused on reading and writing in Bahasa Indonesia.

He said the project had shown students could more easily learn to read and write in Indonesian if classroom teachings were conducted in their "mother tongue".

The illiteracy rate in Indonesia was sitting at 7.2 percent, or some 11 million people in 2007.

The government has aimed to reduce this figure by three million people in 2009, in line with the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals to eradicate illiteracy by 2015.

"We are running a pilot project in Subang, Banten, which sees adults learn Indonesian in Sundanese," Dendy said.

The forum was co-organized by the ministry, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the embassies of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The event was in line with International Mother Tongue Day, which falls every Feb. 21.

The use of indigenous languages as a mean of instruction was initiated by UNESCO, which also aims to preserve cultural and linguistic diversity in education and to face the threat of local language extinction.

Dendy said the use of local languages as a mean of instruction, however, was faced with challenges because of the limited vocabularies of those languages.

"We have 746 indigenous languages and only very few are well developed with enough vocabulary to express what we mean," he said.

Despite the difficulties, Dendy said the ministry planned to expand the program to formal schools in provinces in the future.

He said mother tongues were in danger of extinction in some areas because they failed to interest the younger generation.

"We want our students to appreciate indigenous languages and master them better," he said.

Speaking at the same forum, Sabbir Ahmed, an assistant professor at the University of Dhaka, said a Bangladesh NGO had developed a similar program that involved local languages in classroom teachings.

The program was introduced by Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which has accommodated 14,289 indigenous students.

Bangladesh has some 45 ethnic groups that speak different languages and in 2006 the country's illiteracy rate stood at 37 percent, or around 54 million people.

Ahmed said the use of indigenous languages in classroom instruction was not only intended to smooth the learning process but also to boost the self-esteem of indigenous people.

"We want indigenous children to be at ease when they express themselves in the classroom," Ahmed said.

"While they might feel inhibited toward using the national language, Bangli, they can choose to speak in their own mother tongues."

Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives' Commission X on education, sports and culture affairs has criticized the government's proposal to slash the education budget by 15 percent.

The government has proposed revising down the budget allocations for all ministries and state institutions by 15 percent this year following the global oil price hike. The skyrocketing oil price, which has been increasing since late last year and touched US$100 per barrel on Tuesday, prompted a revision to the 2008 state budget only a month after its implementation in January.

The proposal would see the Education Ministry receiving Rp 42.2 trillion (US$4.59 billion) or 11 percent of the total 2008 budget. In 2007, the ministry received Rp 44.1 trillion or 11.8 percent of the total budget.

Commission X chairman Irwan Prayitno said the government's proposal would hurt the 1945 Constitution, which required the government to allocate 20 percent of the national budget to education.

"We reject the proposal because the government is obliged by the Constitution to raise the budget allocation for the education sector," he said.

He said if there were to be any reduction in the budget, the government should exclude the education budget because of the mandatory requirement in the Constitution.

The government said the reduction was necessary because the global oil price could raise the government's subsidies for oil-based fuel and electricity to Rp 250 trillion. To meet this, the government would need to reduce other subsidies, including on education.

"The Constitutional Court has upheld the requirement of 20 percent of the budget to be spent on education in two court rulings in recent years. The government has no grounds to insist on its proposal," Irwan said.

Wayan Koster of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and member of Commission X said the cut in the education budget would impinge on a number of plans made by the Education Ministry.

He said it would affect teachers' salaries, the teachers' certification program, the nine-year compulsory study program and renovation of school buildings.

Wayan also encouraged the ministry to improve transparency in its financial accounts after the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) disclaimed the ministry's financial reports for the first semester of 2007.

The Education Ministry is to receive the largest of all budget allocations in 2008, followed by the Defense Ministry and the Public Works Ministry. The financial reports of all three ministries have been disclaimed by the agency.

Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a period of prolonged deliberation, the House of Representatives agreed late Thursday to compromise and set the vote division number (BPP) required for a candidate to win a legislative seat at 30 percent.

Roy B.B. Janis, a leader in the Renewed Democratic Party (PDP) praised the decision, saying the new BPP was an improvement on the old election law.

"The previous law failed to accommodate the interests of parties' chapter leaders because they would be placed at the bottom of the list. They had little chance of winning a House seat," said Roy at a discussion on the election bill at the House on Friday.

"With the 30 percent BPP, candidates at the bottom of the list will stand a chance," he added.

The BPP is calculated by dividing the number of votes a candidate receives by the number of legislative seats at stake in an electoral district.

The 2004 Election Law requires a candidate to have a BPP of 100 percent to secure a seat at the House. It means a candidate will only have a chance of securing a seat if he or she manages to obtain all of the vote or is ranked at the top of the party's candidate list.

Factions at the House deliberating the legislative election bill had been mostly divided between those proposing a 25 percent BPP and those proposing 35 percent.

Hadar Gumay of the Center for Electoral Reform said recently the lower the percentage of BPP, the higher the number of legislators that would be directly elected by people.

"A higher rate would mean that more legislative seats would go to candidates ranked on top or those who are the parties' loyalists," he said.

Ferry Mursyidan Baldan of the Golkar party faction told Friday's forum that the factions also agreed to enact an open proportional election system for the 2009 election.

With the agreement on mechanisms for elected legislative candidates and the election system, the factions will still be engaged in the deliberation of several other points in the election bill, including the number of House members, the size of electoral districts, vote-counting mechanisms and the threshold system.

According to Ferry, the factions are likely opt for a parliamentary threshold that would mark a shift from the 2004 electoral threshold as it would offer an opportunity for a new party to grow.

Under the 2004 electoral threshold system, any party failing to obtain 3 percent of the vote is not allowed to participate in the next election. Minor parties that failed to gather 3 percent of the vote in the 2004 election changed their names so that they would be deemed eligible to contest next year's elections.

"An electoral threshold will only produce recycled parties," said Ferry.

Moh. Chodarie, a political expert from survey group Indo Barometer, said that the parliamentary threshold would not only offer chances for new and small parties but would also allow a parliamentary simplification.

The deliberation of the bill had mostly met with deadlock as the factions insisted on their own proposals, causing the chairmen to extend the deadline for finalization of the election bill to Feb. 26 from the original date of Feb. 17.

The Asian Development Bank's (ADB) move to revise its 1995 safeguard policy drew strong criticism from Indonesian civil society organizations Tuesday.

The policy contains rules for debtors carrying out development projects funded by the ADB.

The Manila-based bank said the policy update was aimed at avoiding, minimizing or mitigating the adverse environmental impacts, social costs and marginalization of vulnerable groups that may result from the projects.

However, civil society groups said ADB's proposal lacked protection and provisions to secure the rights of indigenous people.

The new policy deliberately set a more lenient standard than the previous one, they said during a consultation forum with ADB executives.

The opposing organizations included leading environment group Walhi, the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), financial watchdog NADI and a tribal society alliance.

Seven of 28 NGOs in attendance walked out of the forum in protest.

They said the ADB had its own agenda and failed to accommodate the interests of indigenous people in the new proposal.

At a press conference after the walk-out, the NGOs identified several controversial points in the proposal.

Among these were a change in the rules to obtain consent from indigenous people for ADB development projects.

ADB proposed one change from "free prior informed consent" to "free prior informed consultation leading to broad community support".

ADB said it used the term "broad community support" under the definition coined by the World Bank.

Indonesia is among the Asian countries where the ADB has run a series of consultations with local NGOs, the government, businesses and donors to get feedback on the proposed revisions.

Walhi executive director Chalid Muhammad said the new proposal was not aimed at favoring indigenous people affected by ADB-funded projects.

"ADB is trying to make its safeguard policy more lenient to attract debtors amid harsh competition with other similar lenders. ADB simply wants to secure the interests of its shareholders," he said.

Similar challenges to the proposed revision also came from NGOs in other countries, including India, where ADB also held consultation forums.

ADB director for the environment and social safeguards division Nessim J. Ahmad, who chaired the consultation in Jakarta, told reporters his office would take into consideration all criticism.

Ahmad denied the ADB intended to weaken the objectives and rules of the existing safeguard policy.

"Instead, many aspects have been enhanced, such as the requirement for a grievance redress mechanism, which will allow affected people to voice their complaints," he said.

Since 1969, ADB has disbursed some US$21.5 billion for both governments and the private sector to finance development projects.

ADB said it had an accumulative project success rate of 63.1 percent in 2007.

Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Army has increased its arms budget by 6.4 percent to Rp 1.86 trillion (US$202 million) for 2008, in response to an urgent need to replace much of its aging weaponry.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Agustadi Sasongko announced at a hearing Monday with House of Representatives Commission I on defense, security and foreign affairs, that the Army had raised its budget to around Rp 16 trillion (US$1.73 billion), but Rp 12.73 trillion of that money would go to improving the welfare of personnel.

The Army has raised the salaries of its 298,500 soldiers by 20 percent this year.

Apart from routine expenditures, the Army will spend much on operations to maintain security in restive areas and border zones.

Agustadi said the budget would also cover maintenance for weaponry, which is estimated to cost some Rp 116.6 billion.

The weaponry capability of the Indonesian Military (TNI) has come under fire after a 46-year-old amphibious tank sank during a military exercise in the waters off the East Java town of Sidoarjo two weeks ago. The accident claimed the lives of seven marines.

The incident took place less than two months after the Navy grounded eight of its Nomad plane following an incident involving a Nomad P-833 plane, which crashed in Aceh, killing three passengers.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on the TNI to ground all of its aging war machines to prevent more accidents.

Agustadi said most of the Army's weaponry has been in use for more than 25 years, with some dating back to the 1960s.

"We acknowledge the need to renew our weaponry. However, the lack of budget has hampered us," he said.

He said the Army would need some Rp 622 trillion between 2008 and 2024 to build its Army units and replace aging weaponry.

"If we fail to meet the budget demands, it will risk weakening the Army's capability,consequently threatening our nation's sovereignty," he said.

The procurement of weaponry has also progressed slowly because some documents are stuck at the Finance Ministry due to legal matters, Agustadi added.

During the hearing, legislator Pupung Suharis of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) questioned frequent clashes between Army soldiers and police personnel, the latest being in Masohi in Central Maluku on Feb. 2.

"What triggered the conflict is actually trivial but it could turn into a massive communal conflict," Pupung said.

Agustadi said the Army would intensify formal and informal dialogue with the National Police, while improving the training for cadets to improve military professionalism.

The Army replaced its Central Maluku battalion commander, Lt. Col. Donny Hutabarat, following the attack on the Masohi Police office by a group of Army soldiers. The Army and police held a reconciliation meeting, and the TNI has launched investigations into the incident. No suspects have been named.

Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The increasing involvement of businesspeople in Indonesian politics is seen as a positive trend for the country to help address the problem of poverty.

A discussion here Saturday heard that the political role of entrepreneurs would have a positive influence to the way politicians develop the nation, the world's third biggest democracy.

Anas Urbaningrum, coordinator of Our Indonesian Caucus (KaKi), told the forum entrepreneurs could contribute their business skills and familiarize political parties with economic issues to improve prosperity.

KaKi, a non-governmental organization, hosted the discussion, "100 Years of the Nation's Awakening: Revitalizing and Reactualizing the Nation's Spirit".

Also speaking at the event were Didik Supriyanto, deputy chief editor of news portal detik.com, actress and activist Nurul Arifin and entrepreneur Haryadi Sukamdani.

Poverty remains one of the country's main problems. According to the National Statistics Bureau, 16.6 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

"Democracy will connect the issue of prosperity if political parties have the necessary skills to face the realities in society," said Anas, who is also deputy chairman of the Democratic Party.

At a separate discussion, Paramadina University rector Anis Baswedan said more and more entrepreneurs were becoming involved in politics in the reform era.

He said they could eventually come to dominate politics, a field currently controlled largely by politicians with activist backgrounds.

Baswedan said this trend was a good sign for the future of Indonesian politics because businesspeople were more result-oriented and could be better suited for finding solutions to many of the country's problems.

Activist-turned politicians, he said, focused more on ideological concepts in running the country.

Also hailing the political role of business players was Didik Supriyanto.

He said, however, the media should keep a watch on this phenomenon to prevent businesspeople from using politics to benefit their business interests.

"The media should serve as a social control to oversee the political activities of everyone involved inside," said Didik, who is a former chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).

However, he said some media companies would have trouble playing this role.

"Most television stations are owned by groups that are still part of Soeharto's New Order regime," he said.

Although it has been 10 years since the late Soeharto stepped down as president in 1998, many of his former associates still control electronic media companies and occupy strategic positions in the government.

"We can still rely on the print media for fairness, but the problem is that the print media is only accessed by 10 percent of Indonesian citizens while television stations are accessible to 80 percent," Didik said.

He said the media also had limited access to government information, which prevented it from serving its control function.

"Much information is categorized as state secrets although it is not," he said.

Hotel owner Haryadi Sukamdani said the political world was not really a convenient place for entrepreneurs, because money politics was common and businesspeople could fall victim.

"Businesspeople will become targets of extortion if they enter this world," said the president director of PT Hotel Sahid Jaya. "However, I think their involvement will give color to the political world."