INFID, April 28, 2004
INFID's Short News Overview No. VI/14: 22-28 April 2005
INFID News
Staff Announcement
The European Liaison Officer of INFID, Dr. Klaus H. Schreiner, will leave his present
position in INFID by the end of this month. Schreiner has taken up this position in
October 2000. He will move on to Indonesia to take up a position as the country
representative of Caritas International (German Branch). He will be based in Medan in
North Sumatra. Until May 4, 2005 he can be reached at his email-address
k.schreiner@infid.be, after this date he may be reached at <kh.schreiner@email.de>
or at <klaus.schreiner@caritas.de>.
For the time being the Liaison Office will be maintained and kept operational by the
Assistant Liaison Officer, Frans P. Purwoko. All inquiries and communication related
to the work of INFID in Europe can be directed to him at .
General News
World Bank: Investment key to Growth
Indonesian economic growth should reach 5.5 percent in 2005 and hit 6.0 percent
next year, but the challenge will be maintaining that momentum, the World Bank said
on April 28.
"This growth is expected to be driven by economic and investment momentum,
together with a supportive external economic environment," the Bank said in its
twice-yearly report on East Asian economies. It said increases in investment and
productivity will be necessary to keep growth nourished at around 6 percent.
For the past few years consumption, supported by rapid growth in consumer credit,
were the biggest drivers of growth in Indonesia, the bank said.
Annual growth in Indonesia last year reached 5.1 percent and the government has
estimated it would be between 5.5 and 6.0 percent this year, making it the only Asian
economy where growth would exceed last year's pace.
The World Bank said real investment growth will need to average 14 percent and total
factor productivity -- a rough measure of efficiency -- will have to be 2.3 percent to 3
percent to keep growth stimulated, the bank added. It noted that a fuel price hike on
March 1 would put upward pressure on prices in coming months as it feeds into
transportation costs.
Still, the bank made no comment on the possibility of the government raising interest
rates despite a gradual increase in consumer price inflation in January and February.
While Indonesia was one of the countries hardest hit by the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami,
damage mainly to the remote Aceh province will have little bearing on overall growth,
the World Bank said.
The World Bank said Indonesia's tsunami damage to assets was about $2.9 billion
and the impact on future cash flows is around $1.5 billion.
"The direct impact of the tsunami is estimated to lower the national GDP growth rate
by 0.1 to 0.4 percentage points in 2005," the bank said, adding, "However, the final
impact would depend on offsetting impact of reconstruction activities."
East Asia Update: http://www.infid.be/wb_update_april2005.htm.
Source: Reuters 27/04
TNI Chief will allow active officers to run
TNI (armed forces) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has again said that he will allow
active TNI members to be nominated to run in regional elections. If they were not given
permission to do this he said, he would be violating the law.
"By not given permission, I would be contravening the law which does not prohibit
(active TNI officers from being nominated as regional government heads)", Sutarto told
journalists following the TNI's Combined Annual Report Meeting with Singapore's
armed forces chief at the Hotel Hilton in Jakarta on April 27.
Sutarto said that the TNI couldn't nominate a person to become a regional head
saying that a political party can only do it. He explained however, that "We adhere to
the legislation which gives the right to active TNI [officers] to participate in the
nomination process. [But] they must [first] be released from structural duties and be
non-active temporarily".
If there is a perception that a TNI officers' right to be nominated as a regional head
undermines democracy he said, what must revised first is the legislation. He
explained however that if the legislation is not changed political parties do not
necessarily have to nominate active TNI officers.
According to Sutarto, this is the best option because in any case the TNI cannot offer
candidates to political parties.
Source: TI 27/04 translated by James Balowski
TNI Picks Indicted General As Spokesman
Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto named on April25 former East
Timor military commander Brig. Gen. FX Suhartono Suratman its acting spokesman,
pending a definite reshuffle that is likely to take place in the near future.
He would replace Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin who has been promoted as the
Ministry of Defense's secretary-general.
U.N. prosecutors in East Timor indicted Suratman in 2003 for "crimes against
humanity, murder, deportation and persecution," a spokesman for the country's
Serious Crimes Unit said on April 26.
Suratman, who was a local military commander at the time of the violence, is one of
about 50 Indonesians indicted by prosecutors in East Timor. Jakarta refuses to hand
over any suspects.
The 54-year-old soldier was also among 18 Indonesian military and government
officials tried in 2003 at a special human rights court in Jakarta for his role in the
violence. Twelve of them were acquitted, including Suratman, and five had their
sentences overturned on appeal. One appeal is still pending.
Rights groups have criticized the military's decision to allow senior officers to remain
on active duty if they refuse to cooperate with probes into the violence.
Appointments like Suratman's "send a message to others in the Indonesian military
that they are above the law and that impunity is tolerated," said New York-based
Human Rights Watch.
Sources: AP 26/04, JP 26/04
Govt to issue decree on poverty alleviation
The government will soon issue a presidential decree on poverty alleviation currently
being prepared by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), Sri Mulyani
said on April 27.
"The draft of the decree has already been finalized...we will just discuss it at a
Cabinet meeting," Bappenas chairperson Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on the sidelines
of a conference on poverty alleviation.
Sri Mulyani said that Bappenas had included a national strategy for poverty alleviation
in the 2005-2009 development planning. She explained that priority would be given to
the provision of basic needs, including infrastructure, sanitation, environment and
gender equality. Sri Mulyani said that starting this year the government had put
emphasis on education and health to help alleviate poverty.
Therefore she shared Vice President Jusuf Kalla's confidence that within the next
three years there would no longer be damaged schools nor community health centers
without doctors and medicines.
Source: Antara 27/04
NGOs Skeptical of Aceh Fund Transparency
Ridaya La Ode Ngkowe, manager of ICW's Aceh Monitoring Program, said his
organization had found many indications that the government would not be able to
maintain transparency and financial accountability in managing the reconstruction
funds.
"The reconstruction work is not as easy as it sounds... From the administrative point
of view, the human resources' capacity and from past experience, a large amount of
the funds will likely leak into pockets of corrupt officials, either in the provinces or in
Jakarta.
"The phrases 'good governance', 'civil society' and 'Islamic-style housing areas', as
mentioned in the blueprint for Aceh's rebuilding, are too easy for anyone to utter. But
it's very difficult to implement them due to rampant corruption in the bureaucracy and
government agencies," Ridaya said.
He said that most people lacked confidence that the government could manage such
huge amounts of reconstruction funds because the Aceh bureaucracy was proven to
be corrupt, as evidenced by Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh who was recently
convicted of graft.
Ridaya pointed out that the reconstruction blueprint was very good, but most
Acehnese people and non-governmental organizations did not know where it came
from, how it was formulated and who was involved in the drafting.
According to Ridaya, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chief Anwar Nasution laughed
at the government's accountability report on the use of Rp 1.2 trillion for emergency
relief operations in Aceh immediately after it was ravaged by the Dec. 26 earthquake
and tsunami.
Of the Rp 1.2 trillion in funds, Riyada said, the government spent Rp 400 billion,
however chief welfare minister Alwi Shihab failed to submit a detailed report on how
the funds were actually used.
"Based on our assessment, 60 percent of the funds leaked into the pockets of corrupt
officials in Aceh and Jakarta," Ridaya added.
Source: JP 28/04
KPU Deputy Secretary Named Suspect in Bribery Case
General Elections Commission acting secretary-general Susongko Sahardjo was
named as a second suspect on April 26 in an anti-corruption probe into the panel. The
announcement followed the arrest two weeks ago of panel member Mulyana Kusuma,
who is himself a former anti-graft activist. At least one other person is expected to be
named as a suspect in the investigation by the country's Corruption Eradication
Commission into alleged financial irregularities in logistics procurements for last
year's general election. The case involves billions of rupiah.
After questioning Susongko for more than four hours, prosecutors arrested him and
sent him to the Salemba Penitentiary.
Susongko reportedly accompanied Mulyana to a meeting with an officer of the
Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) assigned to audit the KPU in Central Jakarta at the
Hotel Borabadur last month.
Putting Evidence of Corruption into Economic Perspective:
http://www.infid.be/corruption_evidence.htm.
Source: ST 27/04
Munir Case
Despite requests from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the former secretary of
the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Nurhadi Djazuli said on April 27 that he would
not comply with a summons from the government-sanctioned fact-finding team that is
tasked to investigate the poisoning death of human rights campaigner Munir Said
Thalib.
"Regardless of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's political commitment to a
thorough investigation into the case, the fact-finding team has no authority to question
Pak Nurhadi because according to Presidential Decree No. 111/2004, its main tasks
are to help the police examine the case freely, accurately and completely and not to
conduct its own investigation," Nurhadi's lawyer Sudjono said.
Nurhadi was BIN secretary when Munir died aboard a Garuda flight from Jakarta to the
Netherlands on Sept. 7, 2004.
Questions over activist's death in the air: http://www.infid.be/munir_questions.htm.
Munir's death probe: How far can it go: http://www.infid.be/munir_how_far.htm.
Source: JP 28/04
Regional News
Aceh
Foreign peacekeepers won't be part of any international monitoring of Indonesia's
tsunami-devastated Aceh province after a possible peace deal between the
government and rebels, Jakarta said on April 27.
The European Union said on April 26 the mediator for ongoing peace talks, former
Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, had raised the possibility of deploying
peacekeeping troops in Aceh to manage any deal to end three decades of fighting.
After three rounds of talks in Finland that began in January following the devastation of
the Asian tsunami, Indonesia and the separatist Free Aceh Movement said in a
statement earlier this month they would welcome involvement from regional
organisations such as the European Union (EU) in monitoring a peace agreement.
However, Indonesian Information Minister Sofyan Djalil, a key member of Indonesia's
negotiating team, said on Wednesday a foreign peacekeeping troop deployment in
Aceh was not an option.
"The general understanding is that if a peace deal is reached, an external monitoring
team will become possible but not a foreign peacekeeping force," he said.
"If there is a deal, it needs to be monitored. The monitors can be civilians or from the
military. But remember, the deal has not been reached yet," said Djalil, who is
Acehnese.
Any proposal for foreign peacekeepers would be a hard sell to Indonesia's military and
some nationalist politicians after such a deployment ended in independence for East
Timor in 1999.
Source: Reuters 26/04
Links
HRWG Statements
Statements of Indonesia's NGO Coalition for International Human Rights Advocacy on
the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights 61st Session are now
available at http://www.infid.be/unhchr_61stsession.htm.
Abbreviations
AP Associated Press
JP The Jakarta Post
ST Strait Times
TI Tempo Interaktif
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