October 20, 2015 edition
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Sidelines
October 28
Sidelines
Nations are born and grow with a kind of forgetting. Nations are born and endure with a store of memories.
Ernest Rnan, in a public lecture he gave in Paris in 1882, concluded that "forgetting...is an essential factor in the creation of a nation." People of different origins, who perhaps even killed each other in the past, shed those memories; the strength of the desire to come together as one drives them to forget.
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Interview
Two months have passed since the onset of the haze over Sumatra and Kalimantan. Even intermittent rains have failed to get rid of the haze. In Riau and Jambi, it continues to cause the death of many who suffered from respiratory diseases.
The government is not being idle. Police is dealing with dozens of companies suspected of setting the forest on fire, and they face penalties ranging from warnings to a revocation of their licenses. The offer of assistance from Singapore was finally accepted because the haze emergency had become impossible to manage alone. Other countries have also offered their help.
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Horizons
When a woman came up to him after an event in Surabaya last April, Iwan Sunito, 49, never expected her to say that her son was one of his biggest fans. Iwan asked to meet her son, so along came this 12-year-old clad in black, his 8-year-old brother traipsing behind him. "Pak Sunito, when I grow up I want to be a property developer like you," the boy said.
Iwan was somewhat taken aback that a school boy from his hometown knew him as the CEO of one of the biggest real estate companies in Australia, the Crown Group. He asked the boy why he wanted to have a career in property and received a simple answer; because property prices would always go up and never come down. "I was even more surprised when he asked me to be his mentor," exclaimed Iwan, a father of three.
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Environment
The move is a turning point in a years-long quarrel over the government's failure to revoke a 2013 spatial plan submitted by the Aceh government, one that both activists and the home affairs ministry have declared illegal.
The proposed spatial plan fails to list the Leuser Ecosystemthe last place on earth where rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans freely roamas a national strategic area for environmental conservation, allegedly contravening Law No. 26/2007 on spatial planning.
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Letter From
But admittedly, most of the cases are found in emerging democracies, such as in Indonesia and Mexico, where a global conference on 'Money in Politics' was recently held, to share information and experiences on money politics, and identify common problems and issues that can be used as reference for local applications.
Organized by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and hosted by the Mexican Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the National Electoral Institute, the conference brought together some 200 participants, comprising an interestingmix of policy makers, political party officials, parliamentarians, law enforcement agents dealing with organized crime and high-level corruption, relevant NGOs and media representatives.As described by one participant, it provided for a stimulating, multi-stakeholder conversation.
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International
SINCE proclaimed Queen of Denmark in 1972, Margrethe II has never been to Indonesia. Her first inkling of Indonesia came after her mother, Queen Ingrid, had visited Bali. "My mother came home with a selection of batik," said Queen Margrethe at Fredensborg Palace, north of Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday. This was why Queen Margrethe II was eager to visit Indonesia. The state visit will be her first in the 65 years of the two countries' bilateral relationship.
In Jakarta, she will visit a number of places. Including a batik handicraft center in Yogyakarta. This 75-year-old royalty loves artwork. She held painting exhibitions a number of times. Her illustration works were printed in Danish editions of The Lord of the Rings. To Yandhrie Arvian from Tempo and three journalists from other media, Queen Margrethe spoke about her planned visit to Jakarta next week. The Prince Consort, Queen Margrethe's husband, accompanied her in the interview.
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Travel
Occupying more than 225,000 square kilometers of West Papua Province, the BHS encompasses not only Raja Ampat's world-renowned reefs, but also the extraordinary undersea wilderness near Kaimana, called Triton Bay, as well as Indonesia's largest marine park, Cenderawasih Bay. Within the BHS, marine scientists have recorded a record-shattering 1756 distinct fish species, over 75 percent of the world's known hard corals and over 50 percent of the known soft corals. A network of twelve Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) keep reefs safe from commercial trawlers and destructive practices like dynamite fishing.
Beyond the MPAs, an unprecedented partnership between BHS coastal communities, local, regional and national authorities, and regional and international NGOs seek to balance the needs of the Seascape's human population while effectively protecting its rich natural resources. The BHS exemplifies the priorities of the six-nation Coral Triangle Initiative, and is being promoted as a national model for Indonesia's future marine resource management. Indeed, a movement to protect manta rays and sharks had its roots in Raja Ampat, which became the Coral Triangle's first shark and ray sanctuary. The movementspread throughout Indonesia. In 2014, the Indonesian Ministry of Fisheries declared a nation-wide manta sanctuary, the world's largest, for both species of manta rays.
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Opinion
Who knows what was in the mind of Constitutional Court Chief Justice Arief Hidayat when he asked the police to investigate allegations of falsification of signatures by advocates working in the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI). After all, the hearing to review the Police Law and the Road Transport and Public Transport Law that began two weeks ago was already underway.
It is unlikely that Arief would have misunderstood the police and the YLBHI were on opposite sides of the dispute. Asking the police to check the authenticity of signatures of the judicial review plaintiffs showed bias, something that should be far from the minds or the actions of fair-minded judges.
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Indicator
Since the beginning, the public felt something was off in the arrest of Bambang Widjojanto in Depok, West Java, on January 23.
Bambang, then a Deputy Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), was arrested and interrogated by investigators of the National Police Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) regarding his role in a 2010 regional election dispute in Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan. Police accused Bambang of ordering a witness to give a false testimony while he was serving as an attorney in the case at the Constitutional Court.
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Letters
Traces of the CIA
I had the opportunity to read Tempo on the airplane during a trip out of town about Nothing but The Truth, albeit only a small part of it. I was drawn to this sentence: "In this issue, we feature the mysterious involvement of foreign intelligence in the darkest chapter of Indonesian history."
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News Capsule
National Defense Program Negated
The ministry of defense has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with several ministries for a national defense training program. However, the program, which will be implemented in all the nation's regencies and municipalities, has drawn sharp criticism from Deputy House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Fadli Zon. "Why the urgency? What is there to defend when we can't even manage the smoke (haze)?" Fadli said last Tuesday, adding that the government should focus on economic issues.
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National
A meeting held on the 46th floor of the Bakrie Tower in Kuningan, South Jakarta, last Monday gave Golkar Party leaders a chance to make their pitch. Ade Komarudin, chair of the Golkar faction at the House of Representatives (DPR), was given the task of explaining the party's draft of a National Amnesty Bill to assembled party heads.
The bill had yet to undergo scrutiny at the DPR. According to Gerindra Party Secretary-General Ahmad Muzani, furthermore, those present were unpersuaded by the presentation. "The bill offers undue leeway, generous tax amnesties and will be hotly debated by the public," Ahmad noted. Ade Komarudin declined to comment.
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Law
Without warning, five men barged into the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) on Wednesday evening two weeks ago. "The men told staff members they were members of the police," YLBHI administrator Jeremiah Limbong said.
The plainclothes group, he said, were looking for the lawyer handling the judicial review of the Police Law, as well as the Traffic and Road Transport Laws. Earlier that morning, the fifth hearing in a judicial review hearing for these five matters had been held at the Constitutional Court.
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Economy
October is the time when most Indonesian companies strategize their next year's business plan. Unfortunately, this month's planning exercise will be tougher to call, compared to past years. This year, the trend of economic indicators, notably growth, interest and the rupiah, which a company uses to project its revenue, has been especially hard to pin down. The rupiah has dropped nearly 10 percent to a low of Rp14,700 per US dollar, before strengthening to the Rp13,500 level, last week.
Last week's announcement of the government's fourth set of economic packages, no doubt, has helped lift the pressure off the rupiah. But one must note that the USD weakened substantially against most major currencies, due to weak economic data and rising expectations of a further delay in the US Federal Reserve's USD interest rate hike, which was scheduled by the year-end.
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Tempo Talks
Improving Connectivity, Boosting Cooperation
This year, Indonesia and India mark 75 years of diplomatic relations. However, the ties between the two nations have existed much longer, predating the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia and the Republic of India. These connections span social, cultural, religious, economic, and trade aspects. But do those close ties of the past have any bearing on the present relationship? Why is there no direct flight between the capitals of the two countries?
Indian Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Sandeep Chakravorty, shares his views on this matter at TEMPO TALKS.
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