December 1, 2015 edition
Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama repeatedly excused himself to go to the bathroom, his way of keeping his temper in check during a grueling, hours-long interrogation by the Supreme Audit Agency's (BPK) investigation team.
The BPK had questions regarding the Jakarta government's 2014 purchase of land for the Sumber Waras Hospital in West Jakarta. "Whenever I started to get angry, I chose to go to the toilet rather than create another problem," Ahok said on Thursday last week.
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November 17, 2015 edition
Demand that the government accept responsibility for the 1965 atrocities is being revived. "They burned my body with cigarettes," Tintin Rahayu told the courtroom at Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague, the Netherlands, before pausing to compose herself. "In the interrogation room, I was beaten, and at camp in the military headquarters in Cebongan, (Sleman, Yogyakarta), I was trampled on." As Tintin began to sob, the courtroom fell silent.
Tintin was one of many witnesses to testify at the International Peoples' Tribunal 1965 in the Netherlands last week. Organizers said the event aimed to expose the gross human rights violations that occurred following the events of September 30, 1965, as well as highlight the implications for victims of violence.
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November 10, 2015 edition
THE seven-page circular was supposed to be an affirmation of the procedure for handling hate speech cases already regulated under existing laws. But the reaction to the document signed by National Police Chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti on October 8 has since been telling a different story.
Until last week, a number of academics, rights activists as well as freedom of expression advocates continued to question Circular No. SE/6/X/2015. "I didn't expect there could be such a response," said Badrodin on Thursday last week.
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November 3, 2015 edition
One clause sticks out among the hundreds of others in the draft presidential regulation on the organizational structure of the Indonesian National Military (TNI). Only after scrutinizing the draft did a defense commission member of the House of Representatives (DPR), Tubagus Hasanuddin, see it. "There seems to be a new twist in the law," Hasanuddin said on Thursday last week.
The clause is at the end of Article 7 of the draft regulation. Comprising three paragraphs, the article contains sentences and punctuation marks that essentially duplicate Article 7 of Law No. 34/2004 on the TNI. "It's an opening for the military to go beyond its principal duties without supervision," Hasanuddin added.
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October 27, 2015 edition
Renaldi Bandaso did not talk long with the four men he was there to meet at Baji Pamai restaurant in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, last week. Arriving empty-handed, Renadli, a personal assistant to House of Representatives (DPR) member Dewie Yasin Limpo, left the restaurant carrying a white plastic bag.
As Renaldi exited, he was met by several Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) officers. Neither he nor the four men had time to make an escape.
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October 20, 2015 edition
Five student activists arrived at the Jakarta Police's Service Centerlate in the evening Tuesday last week. They were there to report a suspected abuse of power in the Constitutional Court's recent decision on the selection of judges for first-instance courts. "We observed impropriety in the decision-making session," said Secretary-General of the Jakarta Law Students Movement (GMHJ), Lintar Fauzi, on Wednesday last week.
Farhan Ali, Victor Santoso Tandiasa, and Alfian Akbar Balianan joined Linhar as reporting parties. They questioned the court's ruling handed down a fortnight ago which granted a request by the Indonesian Judges Association (Ikahi) to examine the first-instance court judges.
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October 13, 2015 edition