Saturday, October 31, 2015

1) THIRD CONFERENCE OF PAPUAN CUSTOMARY COUNCIL SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 2


2) 25 PNG RESIDENTS ENTER SOTA DAILY
3) INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT INTRODUCES MODERN AGRICULTURE PRACTICES IN PAPUA

————————————————-
1) THIRD CONFERENCE OF PAPUAN CUSTOMARY COUNCIL SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 2
Biak, Jubi – The third conference of the Papuan Customary Council will be held on November 2, at Petrus Kafiar Building, in Samofa district, Biak Numfor, Papua, said a committee member of Byak indigenous council.
Yohanis Ronsumbre, a committee member of Byak Indigenous Council, said the schedule was determined after the chairman of Byak Indigenous Council, Yan Piet Yarangga, met the Papua Police on Tuesday, October 27 in Jayapura for permission.
“The conference will be definitely held in Biak because I have got permission. We believe this conference will run well and all participants of the seven indigenous territories in Papua will take part in this conference. Currently, our preparation is reaching 80 to 90 percent, “said Ronsumbre when contacted Jubi on Thursday (29/10/2015).
“Two areas that we have chosen to host conference are Lapago and Saireri. However, if Saireri, Biak is not ready Saireri, it can be held in Lapago, “said Bonay when delivering his speech at the opening plenary meeting of V DAB recently in Biak.
Earlier, chairman of Byak Traditional Council, Mananwir Beba Yan Piet Yarangga said Saireri is ready to host the third conference. He hoped that all Byak peoples support it, because the event will be bringing forth solutions in the perspective of development and solutions for development actors in Papua, including the government. (Marten Boseren)
————————————————————————————-
2) 25 PNG RESIDENTS ENTER SOTA DAILY
Merauke, Jubi – Up to 25 citizens of Papua New Guinea entered the border region of Indonesia every day to shop and visit relatives, Sota police chief, Inspector Ma’aruf, said.
Ma’aruf said on Thursday (29/10/2015) that when the PNG citizens enter the border, they must show cross-border documents to officers of Immigration agency in Sota.
“Our duty is only to supervise their addresses,” he said.
He added, They come to Sota by bike or on foot and usually stay for two or three days.
Police chief ensured that there is not marijuana smuggler so far because when border crossers entered in Sota, they are always checked first by the soldiers at the border. “Since I served in Sota, no PNG citizen arrested for carrying marijuana,” he said.
He added that there are also Indonesian people who go PNG, mainly because they have family there.
Sota district chief, Michael Walinaulik some time ago said, usually people who come in Sota generally buy basic needs since it is difficult to get in their own region. (Frans L Kobun)

—————————————————————-
3) INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT INTRODUCES MODERN AGRICULTURE PRACTICES IN PAPUA
Jayapura, Jubi/OpenGovAsia – Over the years, mass urbanisation has taken place in Indonesia, leading many to pack their bags and trek to centres like Jakarta.
Agricultural resources are valuable to our entire planet as they give us the air we breathe, the food we eat, the nutrients we need, and are often used to produce medical antidotes. That is why they are so important to maintain and protect.
Over the years, mass urbanisation has taken place in Indonesia, leading many to pack their bags and trek to centres like Jakarta. It has been said that this migration takes place due to unbalanced development and lack of security.
Since agricultural resources are a main staple of these rural areas, there must be enough land and crop production to meet this demand. This need can be met by modernising agricultural processes.
As M. Ikhsan Shiddieqy, Researcher at Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development, Ministry of Agriculture has shared through his research, “Agricultural modernization leads to the enhancement of crop production. The increase of agricultural production means there will be increase of the farmer’s income as well. This will make farmers feel more confident in facing their future. The government can make this happen with, for example, utilization of energized well-irrigation and fertilizer distribution.”
Indonesia aims to increase its agricultural production through the use of advanced technology. In order to meet the growing demand, they must introduce modern agricultural tools and technologies to farmers.
While in Merauke, a regency in the Papua province, President Joko Widodo stated, “The government will mobilise support to farmers and businessmen until the target of 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land that can provide harvest three times a year is achieved.”
The Government plans to introduce machines which will be used for planting through harvesting. This is the first known instance of using machinery in crop production and management.
Through this plan, the Government is prompting regional authorities to help the farmers in transitioning to using these technologies.
President Jokowi says this development should take 2 years to implement. Effects on irrigation and using underground water will be monitored closely as well.
This plan follows the 3 year vision for Indonesia to be self-sufficient in producing rice, corn, and soybeans. This target was set by President Jokowi for the Ministry of Agriculture to reach. (Jacqueline Kelleher)
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, October 30, 2015

1) GOVERNMENT, BUSINESSES HOLD SWAY OVER INDIGENOUS INSTITUTIONS


2) West Papua Election Officials at Odds Over Candidate Pair
3) Freedom of Expression Under Fire in Indonesia
———————————————————————————————
1) GOVERNMENT, BUSINESSES HOLD SWAY OVER INDIGENOUS INSTITUTIONS
Okt 29, 2015Human Right0
Jayapura, Jubi – State agencies and businesses are powerful institutions and control the smallest institutions in the country, such as religious and traditional institutions, causing many problems, University of Indonesia (UI) sociologist Thamrin Amal Tomagola said.
“Haze that has blanketed several regions in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua is due to negligence of business and state institutions,” he said during a seminar titled ‘Portrait of Press Freedom in Papua’ held in Jayapura city, on Wednesday (10/28/2015).
In his presentation “Issues and Challenges of Freedom of the Press’, Tomagola said nowadays major media outlets in Indonesia are dominated by capital owners, allowing them to interfere in editorial content.
He further said media needs to be independent in order to provide quality and accurate information to the public.
He continued the task of the press is to educate the whole Indonesian nation, not to fool the public.
“The press should respect religious values and customs,” said sociologist who is from Halmahera, Maluku.
Press council chairman, Prof. Bagir Manan said, the limit of others’ freedom is the freedom of others. In the context of freedom of the press, the limit is journalistic ethics and then professionalism is integrity demands. “Integrity is relating to morals,” he added.
Chairman of the Law Commission of the Press Council, Yoseph Adi Prasetyo said, it requires data to measure press freedom index. These indicators, at least, can provide a complete picture.
“So when asked about the freedom of the press, we can show based on data,” he said. (Timo Marten)
————————————————————————————-
2) West Papua Election Officials at Odds Over Candidate Pair
By : Yustinus Paat | on 1:17 PM October 30, 2015
Denpasar, Bali. Election officials in the West Papua district of Kaimana could face the boot for not allowing a candidate pair to run, even though the two passed a vetting by the local Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu).
According to the Bawaslu, Matias Maimura and Ismail Sirefa should be allowed to run on Dec. 9, in the nation's first simultaneous, nationwide regional elections.
But the local branch of the  General Election Commission (KPUD) apparently is unwilling to give the pair the green light, national-level KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik has said.
"If the Kaimana KPUD keeps this disrespectful stance, we will fire the officials of the KPUD,” Husni said in Bali on Thursday.
If that were to happen, the KPU would take control and let Matias and Ismail run, he explained, adding that legal steps against the local officials might also follow.
———————————————————————————-

3) Freedom of Expression Under Fire in Indonesia
By Vannessa Hearman October 30, 2015

I first read about the cancellation of a panel I was speaking on at the Ubud Writers and Readers festival in a news story. That day had been tense as panel organizers from the Herb Feith Foundation warned me that our panels could be cancelled due to police pressure on the festival. I was to host a panel of young activists writing on Bali and the legacy of the 1965 massacre.
I have researched and written about the events of 1965 for almost 10 years. Born in Indonesia, I myself had no knowledge about the killings until I started university in 1991 in Australia.  In a way, this quest for knowledge has spurred me on to research and write about this past in conjunction with researchers based in Indonesia.
On September 30, 1965, a group of soldiers and officers calling itself the Thirtieth September Movement kidnapped and killed seven high ranking army men, including the Armed Forces Chief Ahmad Yani, in Jakarta. The army blamed this event on the Indonesian Communist Party, the PKI, and under Major General Suharto led a violent suppression campaign against the Left. This massacre claimed half a million lives, including an estimated 80,000 or 5 percent of the population in Bali.
Under Suharto’s New Order regime, discussion of the massacre was banned. Books by leftist author Pramoedya Ananta Toer were banned. Those caught circulating the books were imprisoned. A 1966 parliamentary decree bans Marxism-Leninism, the PKI, and other leftist organizations. This decree, which then-President and Islamic cleric Abdurrahman Wahid discussed repealing in 2000, has been selectively used to censor discussions about the violence, in the guise of prohibiting the spread of communism.
It has never been easy to discuss, but since 1998 books, memoirs, and seminars about 1965 have by and large escaped censorship. This is remarkable when compared to the New Order regime. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the killings, however, and perhaps that is what makes 2015 unique in terms of the heightened attempts to censor discussion about 1965.  Ironically the rise in censorship occurs under the presidency of Joko Widodo, whose election campaign mobilized the largest number of civil society activists and volunteers. We are yet to hear the president express his views on the bans.
The Ubud festival ban occurred during a troubling fortnight in which Lentera, an Indonesian language magazine published at the Christian university in Central Java, was also banned for discussing 1965. A Swedish citizen of Indonesian background, 77-year-old Tom Iljas, was deported on October 16 for visiting his father’s grave in West Sumatra. Iljas was accused of trying to make a film about the massacre.
This year there have been public events and seminars in Australia, the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Indonesia itself on 1965. The Frankfurt Book Fair profiled authors such as Laksmi Pamuntjak and Leila Chudori, whose recent works have 1965 as their centerpiece. The authorities’ fear seems to have spiked recently as a result of the increasing spotlight on 1965. There is evidence, though, that censorship no longer works as it did under the New Order.
The student magazine, Lentera (Lantern) ran an edition titled “Salatiga Red City” which discussed the anti-communist pogroms in the area, including the location of the killings and the impact on the university. Three students from the magazine were interrogated on October 16 and copies of the magazine were destroyed. Thanks to social media however, the magazine has been shared repeatedly on the internet in PDF format, to the extent that its Dropbox link ceased working and they resorted to Google Drive. The students also published a statement maintaining their right to publish little known facts about the slaughter in the area.
Iljas, meanwhile, was arrested on October 10 for allegedly filming without a permit. Authorities were concerned — Iljas’ father’s grave happens to be a mass grave with others, as his father was a victim of the 1965 purges. Iljas was a leftist who chose exile over returning to New Order Indonesia. Within hours of his arrest, Iljas’ case was shared throughout social media, though that did not stop his deportation.
A statement protesting all three cases, including Ubud, was circulated via Twitter and Facebook on October 24. Within a day, more than 150 people from all over the world had signed on. Censorship is becoming more difficult these days. The Monash University Press books to be discussed at the Ubud festival are available in English translation as free electronic books.
The police intimidation of the festival has turned the international spotlight to the massacres. The Ubud Writers’ Festival should have defended its freedom of programming, and in turn the democratic space opened up since the fall of the Suharto regime and our ability to speak at the festival. We need to continue to speak out against the violent or intimidatory suppression of freedom of expression in Indonesia. However thanks to social media and growing transnational activism on this past, Jokowi’s administration cannot bury 1965 as the Suharto regime had.
Dr. Vannessa Hearman is lecturer in Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney.
Posted by at No comments:

1) Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?


2) PRESS FREEDOM IN PAPUA MUST PREVAIL : CHAIRMAN OF THE INDONESIAN PRESS COUNCIL
3) JAYAPURA IMMIGRATION OFFICE FINDS VISA MISUSE
4) NO DECISION ON PAPUA – PNG FLIGHT CONNECTIVITY
—————————————————————————



1) Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?
George Monbiot
Friday 30 October 2015 18.00 AEDT


 A great tract of Earth is on fire and threatened species are being driven out of their habitats. This is a crime against humanity and nature


I’ve often wondered how the media would respond when eco-apocalypsestruck. I pictured the news programmes producing brief, sensational reports, while failing to explain why it was happening or how it might be stopped. Then they would ask their financial correspondents how the disaster affected share prices, before turning to the sport. As you can probably tell, I don’t have an ocean of faith in the industry for which I work. What I did not expect was that they would ignore it. A great tract of Earth is on fire. It looks as you might imagine hell to be. The air has turned ochre: visibility in some cities has been reduced to 30 metres. Children are being prepared for evacuation in warships; already some have choked to death. Species are going up in smoke at an untold rate. It is almost certainly the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century – so far.
And the media? It’s talking about the dress the Duchess of Cambridge wore to the James Bond premiere, Donald Trump’s idiocy du jour and who got eliminated from the Halloween episode of Dancing with the Stars. The great debate of the week, dominating the news across much of the world? Sausages: are they really so bad for your health?
What I’m discussing is a barbecue on a different scale. Fire is raging across the 5,000km length of Indonesia. It is surely, on any objective assessment, more important than anything else taking place today. And it shouldn’t require a columnist, writing in the middle of a newspaper, to say so. It should be on everyone’s front page. It is hard to convey the scale of this inferno, but here’s a comparison that might help: it is currently producing more carbon dioxide than the US economy. And in three weeks the fires have released more CO2 than the annual emissions of Germany.
But that doesn’t really capture it. This catastrophe cannot be measured only in parts per million. The fires are destroying treasures as precious and irreplaceable as the archaeological remains being levelled by Isis. Orangutans, clouded leopards, sun bears, gibbons, the Sumatran rhinoceros and Sumatran tiger, these are among the threatened species being driven from much of their range by the flames. But there are thousands, perhaps millions, more.
One of the burning provinces is West Papua, a nation that has been illegally occupied by Indonesia since 1963. I spent six months there when I was 24, investigating some of the factors that have led to this disaster. At the time it was a wonderland, rich with endemic species in every swamp and valley. Who knows how many of those have vanished in the past few weeks? This week I have pored and wept over photos of places I loved that have now been reduced to ash.
Nor do the greenhouse gas emissions capture the impact on the people of these lands. After the last great conflagration, in 1997, there was a missing cohort in Indonesia of 15,000 children under the age of three, attributed to air pollution. This, it seems, is worse. The surgical masks being distributed across the nation will do almost nothing to protect those living in a sunless smog. Members of parliament in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) have had to wear face masksduring debates. The chamber is so foggy that they must have difficulty recognising one another.
It’s not just the trees that are burning. It is the land itself. Much of the forest sits on great domes of peat. When the fires penetrate the earth, they smoulder for weeks, sometimes months, releasing clouds of methane, carbon monoxide, ozone and exotic gases such as ammonium cyanide. The plumes extend for hundreds of miles, causing diplomatic conflicts with neighbouring countries.
Why is this happening? Indonesia’s forests have been fragmented for decades by timber and farming companies. Canals have been cut through the peat to drain and dry it. Plantation companies move in to destroy what remains of the forest to plant monocultures of pulpwood, timber and palm oil. The easiest way to clear the land is to torch it. Every year, this causes disasters. But in an extreme El Niño year like this one, we have a perfect formula for environmental catastrophe.
The president, Joko Widodo, is – or wants to be – a democrat. But he presides over a nation in which fascism and corruption flourish. As Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary The Act of Killing shows, leaders of the death squads that helped murder a million people during Suharto’s terror in the 1960s, with the approval of the west, have since prospered through other forms of organised crime, including illegal deforestation.
They are supported by a paramilitary organisation with three million members, called Pancasila Youth. With its orange camo-print uniforms, scarlet berets, sentimental gatherings and schmaltzy music, it looks like a fascist militia as imagined by JG Ballard. There has been no truth, no reconciliation; the mass killers are still treated as heroes and feted on television. In some places, especially West Papua, the political murders continue.
Those who commit crimes against humanity don’t hesitate to commit crimes against nature. Though Joko Widodo seems to want to stop the burning, his reach is limited. His government’s policies are contradictory: among them are new subsidies for palm oil production that make further burning almost inevitable. Some plantation companies, prompted by their customers, have promised to stop destroying the rainforest. Government officials have responded angrily, arguing that such restraint impedes the country’s development. That smoke blotting out the nation, which has already cost it some $30bn? That, apparently, is development.
Our leverage is weak, but there are some things we can do. Some companies using palm oil have made visible efforts to reform their supply chains; but others seem to move more slowly and opaquely. Starbucks, PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz are examples. Don’t buy their products until you see results.
On Monday, Widodo was in Washington, meeting Barack Obama. Obama, the official communiqué recorded, “welcomed President Widodo’s recent policy actions to combat and prevent forest fires”. The eco-apocalypse taking place as they conferred, which makes a mockery of these commitments, wasn’t mentioned.
Governments ignore issues when the media ignores them. And the media ignores them because … well, there’s a question with a thousand answers, many of which involve power. But one reason is the complete failure of perspective in a de-skilled industry dominated by corporate press releases, photo ops and fashion shoots, where everyone seems to be waiting for everyone else to take a lead. The media makes a collective non-decision to treat this catastrophe as a non-issue, and we all carry on as if it’s not happening.
At the climate summit in Paris in December the media, trapped within the intergovernmental bubble of abstract diplomacy and manufactured drama, will cover the negotiations almost without reference to what is happening elsewhere. The talks will be removed to a realm with which we have no moral contact. And, when the circus moves on, the silence will resume. Is there any other industry that serves its customers so badly?
A fully linked version of this article can be found at monbiot.com

——————————————————————-
2) PRESS FREEDOM IN PAPUA MUST PREVAIL : CHAIRMAN OF THE INDONESIAN PRESS COUNCIL
Okt 29, 2015Uncategorized0
Jayapura, Jubi – The freedom of the press in Papua province is a stepping stone so that the relationship between Jakarta and Papua can always be resolved based on facts.
“When the name was Irian Jaya, people were not allowed to use the term of Papua, even if it was written in media. It raised a problem; the freedom of the press in Papua was automatically to obey Jakarta. Papua was like a stepping stone,” said Abdul Munib in his paper “The Problems in Papua and Papuans: Issues Escape from Media Coverage”.
The Chairman of the Indonesian Press Council, Bagir Manan claimed about three months ago the council has issued an official statement to urge the freedom of the press for journalists in Papua. According to him, later in the meeting with the Commission I of the House of Representatives, legislators asked the considerations behind it.
“I said there are several considerations. At first, the independence of press is a choice. Since the era of reform, our country has emphasized the independence of press, it was proven by the Press Law No. 40/1999 that applied to the entire regions in this country,” Manan told reporters after the Seminar on The Freedom of the Press Protrait in Province Papua in Jayapura on Wednesday (28/10/2015).
Secondly, the Press Council believes that the Government, Military and Police have capability to handle the press if they were misconducted. “The third, covering or restricting the freedom of the press in Papua would reveal the hidden issues. And fourth, using technology to prevent the access of journalist is useless, because in technically they were not here, but they could get information about what was going on here,” he said.
He said, as a part of the freedom of the press, the openness is exactly to simplify the problem resolutions. Based on this fact, the council asked the freedom of the press in Papua, both for domestic and foreign journalists. “It’s the basis of our statement. It would not change,” he said. (Abeth You/rom)
————————————————————————
3) JAYAPURA IMMIGRATION OFFICE FINDS VISA MISUSE
Jayapura, Jubi – The Jayapura Immigration Office said it had found cases of visa misuse by foreign citizens during raids in four locations in Jayapura Municipality and Jayapura Regency last week.
The head of Jayapura Immigration Office, Gardu Tampubolon, who led the operation at Pondok Pesantren Serambi Madinah, Jayapura Selatan sub-district of Jayapura Municipality, said his men discovered 16 students from Papua New Guinea studying at the pesantren (Islamic boarding school) but had visitor visas.
“They should have applied for a student visa. While at the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), we discovered a foreign citizen who works as mechanic while on a visitor visa. But, the airline stated the culprit has not yet signed a contract. He must change his visa,” Tampubolon said on Wednesday (28/10/2015).
He explained the MAF is hiring 112 foreign nationals. In addition to MAF, the immigration officers also visited the Associated Mission Aviation (AMA) in Sentani, Jayapura Regency that employs approximately 25 foreigners who nine are the pilots.
“At PLTU Holtekamp, Muara Tami Sub-district of Jayapura Municipality, we met a Chinese national. But we didn’t find any violation conducted by MAF or PLTU Holtekamp,” he said.
Further Tampubolon remind the companies or those who employ the foreign citizens to provide legal documents for their employees. The Jayapura Immigration Office will not hesitate to take action against those who conduct violations.
“Foreign citizen who is proven on visa violation would be subjected to the Article 122 of the Immigration Law No. 6/2011. The penalty is Rp 500 million. The process will be done in the Court,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Head of Supervision and Enforcement Department of Jayapura Immigration, Rahmat Arya said the surveillance conducted by his department instead of subject the foreigners with accusing; it is to reduce the misuse of visa and refer to the instruction of the Directorate General of Immigration. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
————————————————
4) NO DECISION ON PAPUA – PNG FLIGHT CONNECTIVITY


Jayapura, Jubi – The head of Papua Transportation Office, Yusuf Yambe Yabdi, said there has been no response form the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation about a permit for a flight linking Papua and Papua New Guinea.
“The Provincial Government has sent a letter to the Minister of Transportation but the decision has not been set,” Yambe Yabdi said in Jayapura on Wednesday (28/10/2015).
He furhter said, the Governor Lukas Enembe is looking forward to a Papua-PNG flight route because both countries have good cooperation, especially in the economic partnership. “The governor instructed the letter must directly deliver to the minister and subject to the Directorate General of Air Transportation,” he said.
When asked whether the airlines were settled, Yusuf said, it is the Directorate General of Air Transportation to decide where will they offer the airlines who are interested. “That’s the point. The approval would be followed after the airlines’ interest. However, any relevant administration arrangments have been prepared,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Head of Papua Border and Foreign Partneship, Suzanna Wanggai in the 12th Border Liason Meeting (BLM) involved the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Government of Papua New Guinea agreed to endorse the land, sea and air connectivity.
“So through this meeting both countries agreed to discuss about the connectivity to the northern and southern sectors. Hopefully this flight connectivity could be realized immediately,” said Wanggai. (Alexander Loen/rom)
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, October 29, 2015

1) PAPUANS WILL SURVIVE WITHOUT FREEPORT, SAYS PAPUA GOVERNOR


2) Editorial: Ubud goes global,  again
3) Trial of Nekemen postponed because of cofusion about police witnesses
——————————————————————————-http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/?p=6517
1) PAPUANS WILL SURVIVE WITHOUT FREEPORT, SAYS PAPUA GOVERNOR
 Okt 29, 2015Headlines, Indigenous Peoples Of Papua0
Jayapura, Jubi/BenarNews – During his visit the United States this week to attract more investment, President Joko Widodo, his ministers and officials in the field of economy were scheduled to officially meet with executives of US companies.
However, Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno L.P. Marsudi denied the president would meet representatives from Freeport, which has an interest in obtaining a contract extension after 2021.
“Rumors in media that the president had a schedule to have breakfast with Freeport are not true,” said Retno was quoted in Solopos.
The US Company that operates the world’s largest gold mine and third largest copper mine in Papua, is enforcing the Indonesian Government to extend their Contract of Work while refer to the Indonesian regulation the extension could be approve two years prior the last contract was terminated. However, before his departure to the US, Jokowi gave a signal to Freeport could obtain the extension after the end of contract, it means in 2019.
No Intention to Develop PapuaIn between the crowded debates and controversy about the contract extension for PT. Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) in Mimika, the voices from Papua are rarely heard.
But for Papuans, this issue of contract extension is not only a matter of time. The Papua Governor Lukas Enembe was doubt the intention of PTFI to develop Papua.
“We submitted 17 points of Government’s Proposal consist of 11 points of Papua Government and 6 points of the Central Government in order to renegotiate with Freeport, including the Freeport’s involvement to build infrastructure in Papua, the increment of royalty and tax payment to the Provincial Government, share divestment, environmental issue and prioritizing Papuans to be employees. That’s our priorities,” Enembe told BeritaBenar on 17 October 2015.
He accused Freeport to have no intention to Papua’s development. He took Timika City as an example, that until now the city is lacking of feasible infrastructures. “Freeport has been operating since 1967, but what about Timika and how’s Papuan condition right now? Infrastructures in Timika are still underdeveloped. The number of indigenous Papuan workers in Freeport is not equal with the number of non-Papuan workers. If it continues like this, Freeport is better leaving. Without it, Papuans will still survive,” said the Governor Enembe.
The local authority estimates there are only 30 percent of the company’s employees are Papuans, while the rest are recruited from outside of Papua.
Further Enembe refers to the attitude of PTFI that according to him hindering the water surface tax payment. Each year, Freeport should pay 360 billion rupiahs for the water surface tax, but the fact is up to now PTFI only paid approximately 1.5 billion for each year.
“Freeport took many advantages of the government’s rotation every five years, and violated the commitment made between the government and Freeport. And the government just ignored this fact. But it is clear, Freeport has to pay 360 billion rupiahs each year,” he said.
The Governor Enembe said the Provincial Government also support the policy taken by the Mimika Regional Government charging PTFI to pay a penalty amounted USD 3.6 billion or Rp 481 trillion to the indigenous tribes living in the surrounded mining area.
“It’s the people’s demand because Freeport has exploited the mountain and its materials since being operated, but never given the in kind benefits to the local community,” said Enembe.
It’s a Political Treaty, Not Business Agreement
Musa Sombuk, Lecturer at Papua State University and doctoral candidate at Australia National Community thought the tax issue, profit sharing, and other issues that endured for years as consequences of PTFI’s contract of work is a “political agreement” rather an economic agreement between the company and the Indonesian Government.
“At first time doing operation, it was clear that Indonesia need a cash. Now, the Freeport’s contract is not transparent, unequal and the profit sharing is not fair. Freeport also did any means in order to gain land ownership,” said Sombuk.
When confirmed by BeritaBenar, PTFI spokesperson Riza Pratama declined to give comments on the renegotiation process with the Central Government, but he denied PTFI did the cunning ways in obtaining the land. He said the customary community at the PTFI mining area has gave their permission and tenure rights since PTFI started their operation for the first time. According to Reza, the company also has paid the penalty and is continuing the development program for indigenous communities at the surrounded the mining area.
Sombuk, who admitted his involvement in the audit of PTFI in 1997, said the company is not only taking the copper and gold, but also the tailing –sand waste containing the iron ore, that could reach 30 billion tons. Several grams of tailing, according to him, could result 1 gram of 23 carat gold. “Now there’s 30 billion tons of tailing and it must be gold-contained. Where will the gold from tailing go?” said Sombuk.
“Just imagine, Freeport should use the dump truck to dispose the tailing, but they just drain it to the Ajikwa River that slightly bearing the risk and impact to the people’s health and environment,” said Sombuk.
According to Sombuk, PTFI could survive until now because it gained support and facilities from the government, both regional and provincial. The vague regulation and the attitude of both government and company for not being transparent making the law enforcement is risk with the corrupt practice.
“We never know whether the local permits have any cost consequences. If it has, such as the charge on waste draining in Ajikwa River, we don’t know to whom it should pay and how much?” asked Sombuk. (Victor Mambor/rom)
——————————————————
2) Editorial: Ubud goes global,  again
The Jakarta Post | Editorial | Thu, October 29 2015, 8:44 AM - 
The renowned artist village of Ubud is in the global spotlight again this week. Five years ago we had Julia Roberts to thank for making the hill resort in Bali famous through Eat, Pray, Love, the hit movie that drew tourists to the island in search of love. 

This time we have the Indonesian censors to thank, after they put pressure on the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival to cancel several programs related to the tragedy that happened in Indonesia in 1965. 

The festival will go ahead from Thursday to Sunday, and still offer more than 200 events, allowing people to savor the best in Indonesian and international literature, and the opportunity for them to rub shoulders with their favorite authors as they move around Ubud from one event to another.

The Indonesian censors are back after a 17-year hiatus as the government appeared to become overly sensitive to any public discussion about the massacre of over half a million people during a backlash against communists in the country 50 years ago. 

The festival organizers said they had to cancel all programs related to the tragedy or face the likelihood that the entire festival, already in its 11th year, would be shut down.

The decision caused national and international outrage, just as people had assumed that Indonesia was claiming its place as the third-largest democracy in the world. 

The censors have given the festival additional international publicity. Not that Ubud really needs it. The festival is already a major item on the annual global literature agenda. 

While we condemn the censors, we should also thank them, not only for reminding the world about the festival but most importantly for reminding us that there are evil forces out there who will never be content with people enjoying their freedom of expression. We should never take our freedom for granted.

If anyone should condemn the censors in the harshest terms, it should be President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, whose campaign promises included protection of freedom of expression. The widespread outrage at the censors broke out on the eve of his first US trip as president. 

Jokowi, already under a lot of pressure for his failure to contain the horrendous air pollution from raging forest and peatland fires that is now regarded as the biggest environmental disaster of the 21st century, cut short his visit to the US after receiving reports of the situation deteriorating further. 

He did not need another issue that would further embarrass him. News about Ubud dominated the headlines as he left Indonesia for Washington, DC, on the weekend.

The censors may have dented the festival a little, but the 1965 tragedy, and the return of censorship practices in Indonesia, will likely be one of the major issues discussed in Ubud. 

They will not feature in the official program, but you cannot stop writers from writing, and you certainly cannot stop people from talking.
———————————————————————————————-
3) Trial of Nekemen postponed because of cofusion about police witnesses
Statement by the Executive-Director of the LP3BH
27 October 2015

   The trial of Alexander Nekenem  and his colleagues continued today at the district court in Manokwari when the testimony of several
witnesses was due to be heard. Twelve witnesses, all students at the Universitas Papua, were to appear as well as two police officers from 
the police command of
Manikwari, Zakarias Siriyey, S. So  (chief of intelligence  at the Manokwari Police Command and Heru Sundawan (Kaur Sabhara ??? ) who
were due to testify against the suspects.

    The members  of the defence team arrived at the court at 9am. We waited in front of the court for some time but the team of
prosecutors, Irna Indira S, SH from the Attorney General's office
failed to turn up; they didn’t bring the detainees to court.    We waited there until 11.45 when a member of the defence team,
Simon Banundi, received an SMS from the attorney general’s office saying that the session  would take place  much later than planned
because  the two witnesses from the police mentioned above  were still being briefed or given guidance from the West Papua Police Office.

    For us, the question was what kind of guidance  would the police office be giving the two police witnesses?  This is because  the
material of the case and the interrogations in relation to the case should according to the regulations of the court come from the people
at the attorney general's office and not from the police. It was then that It became clear to us that the case was being politicised by
other people who were not  officially involved in the case, such as the judges, the attorneys as stipulated in Law 8/1981 on Criminal
Justice (KUHAP).

   The briefing given by the West Papua police to the aforementioned officers went on for quite a long time. At 13.45 local time, the
attorney general’s office  got back in touch with the defendant  to tell him that the hearings would be postponed because it was already
late in the afternoon.

   Then  what happened soon after 14.30, was that about forty members of Brimob, West Papua Police Force arrived on six motorbikes, as well
as a barakuda vehicle, a bus and a black vehicle escorting Alexander Nekemen and three of his colleagues to the Manokwari court room.

    The session was then opened by the chairman of the panel of judges who asked the prosecutors to produce the witnesses who would
have the opportunity to present the witnesses. But then the prosecutor said that the witnesses would not be able to appear in court  which
meant that the proceedings would have to be  postponed for another week, at which time the witnesses would be summoned to appear.in
court.

   The chairman of the panel of judges then said that the case would be postponed for a week and would resume on 2 November, when the
witnesses against the defendant would be brought before the court .
Peace
Yan Christian Warinussy, Executive-Director of the LP3BH, Institute of
Research, Analysis and Development for Legal Aid.
Translated by Carmel Budiardjo, Recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, 1995
————————————————————
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)