2) Young Footballers from Papua
Promoted to Europe
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1) view point : Labora standoff makes mockery of our law enforcement
Pandaya, Jakarta | Opinion | Sun, February 15 2015, 8:23 AM -
But the legal scandal over the release and the failure to reincarcerate Labora Sitorus, a police chief brigadier convicted of laundering Rp 1.5 trillion in West Papua, is just too enormous to be covered up.
Labora, 54, now lives as a free man at his mansion in Sorong — almost a year after wardens allowed him to leave the prison for medical treatment and six months after his name was put on the list of most-wanted fugitives.
The whole episode of his fooling the long arm of the law is a perfect comedy about how Indonesian law enforcers do their job in a country long sneered at as a “corruption haven”.
In early 2013, the Sorong District Court sentenced Labora to two years in prison and fined him Rp 50 million for illegal logging and hoarding fuel. The local High Court rejected his appeal and added a further six years to his term. In September last year, the Supreme Court in Jakarta also found him guilty of money laundering, lengthened his term to 15 years and inflated his fine to Rp 5 billion.
Yet since the verdict, Labora has served barely any time at all, the prison chief warden permitting him to undergo medical treatment at the Navy Hospital in Sorong in March 2014.
Prosecutors were shocked, or pretended to be shocked, to be told that Labora was no longer in prison: Sorong chief warden Maliki Hasan released Labora because the convict’s detention period had expired on Oct. 24 with the Supreme Court yet to announce its verdict.
Then Labora was declared a fugitive. The subsequent surprise came when it turned out that Labora had not gone anywhere. In fact he remained at his 40-hectare home that also houses a timber-processing plant run by umbrella firm PT Rotua, which employs hundreds of people.
His generosity has earned him comparisons to Robin Hood. On Monday, an estimated 1,000 employees and local residents rallied at the Sorong Legislative Council in his defense, demanding that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo form a team to investigate the “conspiracy” behind Labora’s case.
He is interestingly frank about his case. He gives interviews to all media, to make public his claim that he shared his financial fortunes with his backers, including senior police officers in Papua and Jakarta.
Last week, he accused the police, the prosecutor’s office and the correctional institution of “public deception” by declaring him a fugitive while the fact was that they knew he had not gone anywhere.
He insisted that he had done nothing wrong and refused to go back to jail. He said he had been “victimized” by senior police officers in Sorong and Jakarta.
“The Indonesian government uses the law of the jungle,” he complained.
As for the letter of clearance, he maintained it was delivered to his home by prison officials and that if it was unlawful, it was the chief warden who ought to be punished. He promised to spill the beans to the court, provided that he was covered by the Witness and Victim Protection Agency.
When Labora’s whereabouts became known and the public asked why he was not promptly arrested as a fugitive, police and prosecutors simply passed the buck between themselves.
West Papua Police chief Brig. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw and Attorney General M. Prasetyo in Jakarta have repeatedly called on Labora to voluntarily surrender because the legal process over his case had been completed. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, meanwhile, sensed something fishy about the Sorong chief warden’s clearance for Labora and has promised an investigation.
Waterpauw, who pledged 630 officers to recapture Labora six months ago, has repeatedly said that the police were refraining from using force because Labora was fiercely defended by hundreds of his workers willing to sacrifice their lives for their boss.
“If you were in my shoes, would you risk bloodshed?” he asked.
Labora has revealed that his superiors often treated him like an ATM. From one of his accounts, he claimed that he once gave Raja Ampat police precinct chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Taufik Irfan Rp 600 million in cash to be transferred to Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian. Tito has denied the accusation.
In one media interview, he accused police officers of seizing his timber and auctioning it for Rp 24.7 billion, leaving him only Rp 6.5 billion.
Labora openly challenges state authority. It is a shame that the government is unable to quickly and transparently settle the issue. Besides sending Labora back to prison, the authorities should also investigate senior officers and other bureaucrats who may have collaborated with him.
Waterpauw’s and other officials’ concerns about bloodshed laughable. Where are all the crowd-control skills and equipment bought with taxpayers’ money?
The government’s soft stand on Labora is but one of the growing signs of the Jokowi regime’s weak commitment to stopping the rot.
The author is a staff writerat The Jakarta Post.
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2) Young Footballers from Papua Promoted to Europe
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Association of Former Persipura Player (AMPP) is collaborating with Reliv Christa FC Holandia Indonesia to select 30 young football players to be promoted for professional football players in Europe. AMPP have started the selection of 17 to 19-year-old players on Monday, January 9.
According to AMPP Deputy Chairman Nico Dimo, there were 500 young players participated in the selection and 165 of them have passed.
“Next week will be the final phase of the selection to choose 30 players to be sent to the Netherlands,” Nico said as quoted by Antara on Saturday, February 14.
Nico said that AMPP aims to promote development of football in Papua through the collaboration with AFA Sport Management Netherland.
“AFA Sport Management is one of football organizations recognized by KNVB (Netherlands’ Football Federation) and FIFA,” Nico added.
Still according to Nico, the selected players will be involved in a 6-month intensive training at the base of Ajax Amsterdam. There is a chance for the player to be signed in one-year contract by one of European clubs if they are able to attract the clubs.
“Everyday, young players of Papua will be training. On Fridays and Saturdays, there will be trial matches against European elite clubs such as Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, and Barcelona.”
ANTARA | GABRIEL WAHYU TITIYOGA
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