2) COMPARING INDONESIA’S TREATMENT OF WEST PAPUA WITH MYANMAR’S ROHINGYA, A JOURNALIST FACES DEFAMATION PROBE
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1) Government Building IDR4,7 Trillion Dam in Papua
Monday, 11 September 2017 | 16:45 WIB
JAKARTA, NETRALNEWS.COM - The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) has said that the government is currently rehabilitating irrigation areas including the construction of the Baliem Dam with a capacity of 200 million m3. The dam has potential power plant of 50 Mega Watt (MW).
The construction of the Baliem dam is estimated to cost around IDR4.7 trillion, while another one in preparation, the Digoel Dam, has a capacity of 230 million m3.
Minister PUPR Basuki Hadimuljono said, Baliem Dam in Papua became one of the designs, studies and fundings in cooperation with the South Korean government. The dam construction process is expected to be completed in a maximum of four years.
"Meanwhile, irrigation rehabilitation is conducted in a labor-intensive manner involving water use of farmer associations (P3A)," he said, Monday (9/11/2017), in an official statement.
Hadimuljono said that the food, water and energy sectors will be the center commad of national development in the future, as well as the spearhead of competition between countries.
Related to the management of water resources (SDA), Hadimuljono revealed that the current draft of the SDA Law has just been included in the House of Representatives Prolegnas and it is expected to be completed within four months.
According to him, the SDA Law does not belong to a certain group, but it belongs to all the people of Indonesia. "I hope the Association of Hydraulic Engineering Experts Indonesia (HATHI) can supervise and provide input so that the values of Pancasila become the spirit in the SDA Law to create justice for the people of Indonesia, so there is no more dispute in the regulation," he added.
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2) COMPARING INDONESIA’S TREATMENT OF WEST PAPUA WITH MYANMAR’S ROHINGYA, A JOURNALIST FACES DEFAMATION PROBE
Sep 16, 2017
Activists showing their support for Dandhy Dwi Laksono through the hashtag #KamiBersamaDandhy – SAFEnet
Jakarta, Jubi – Indonesian police in East Java are investigating a veteran journalist for comparing former President Megawati Sukarnoputri to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi in a Facebook post.
On September 3, 2017, journalist and documentary filmmaker Dandhy Dwi Laksono wrote on Facebook that Megawati and Suu Kyi are alike in many ways, noting that both are former opposition leaders who now head the ruling parties in their respective countries. Dandhy added that if Myanmar’s government is being criticized for its treatment of ethnic Rohingya, the Indonesian government should similarly be held liable for suppressing the independence movement on the Indonesian island of West Papua.
He further compared Suu Kyi’s silence on the persecution of the Rohingya to Megawati’s role as party leader of the government, which has recently intensified the crackdown on West Papuan independence activists.
Rohingya people born and living in Myanmar are not recognized as citizens by the Myanmar government. In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya civilians have been displaced from their homes due to clearing operations of the Myanmar military in response to attacks by a pro-Rohingya insurgent group in northwest Myanmar. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, who are mostly Muslim, are crossing into Bangladesh to escape the fighting.
West Papua is a province of Indonesia with a vocal independence movement that has called for the creation of a separate state since the 1960s. Human rights groups have documented many cases of abuse committed by Indonesian state forces against activists, journalists, and other individuals suspected of supporting the independence movement.
Dandhy posted his comments on Facebook following a big rally was organized by Muslim groups in Indonesia, condemning the Myanmar government for its treatment of Rohingya refugees.
The youth arm of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) filed a defamation complaint against Dandhy on September 6:
“On the whole, (Dandhy’s) opinion was clearly intended to take advantage of the Rohingya incidents in Myanmar in order to insult and spread hatred of Megawati Soekarnoputri as the chairwoman of PDI-P and Joko Widodo as the president who is backed by PDI-P.”
He is now under investigation by the police cyber crime unit. If he is prosecuted for and convicted of defamation, Dandhy could face up to four years in prison.
Reacting to the complaint, Dandhy wrote that it is a minor issue compared to the injustices suffered by Papuan activists and Rohingya refugees.
The complaint is the latest case of how the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law is being used to silence dissent in the country.
According to Indonesian digital rights group SAFEnet, at least 35 activists have been charged with online defamation since its enactment in 2008. Aside from Dandhy’s case, the group has documented six defamation charges involving activists and journalists in 2017.
Activists were quick to launch a campaign expressing support to Dandhy. They asserted that Dandhy was simply expressing an opinion which should be considered legitimate criticism and not a criminal act.
SAFEnet is encouraging Indonesian netizens to submit reports and testimonies about how the ITE Law is being abused to silence activists like Dandhy and suppress online free speech in general.
Instead of preventing the public from commenting on Megawati, a local investigative portal suggested that Dandhy’s case could in fact trigger greater interest in the former president’s legacy as a leader, including some of the issues that led to her defeat in the polls.
The hashtag #KamiBersamaDandhy (We Stand with Dandhy) was used on various social media platforms to call for support for the veteran journalist.(*)
Source: globalvoices.org
Editor: Zely Ariane
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