2) Hotel Occupancy in Papua Decreases 50 Percent During Ramadan
3) Gasoline prices hit IDR 20 thousand per litre in Papua
4) The village fund absorption is still below 23 percent
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1) Questions over new Indonesian terror law's implications for Papua
From Dateline Pacific, 3:04 pm today
A human rights advocate says it may be possible that armed Papuan groups could be implicated in Indonesia's new anti-terror laws.
Indonesia's parliament last week passed tough new anti-terrorism measures following this month's suicide bombings in Surabaya.
The laws allow police to detain suspects for longer and prosecute those linked to militant groups.
Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Indonesia says the government started to revise its counterterrorism law in 2016 after Islamic State-linked bomb attacks in Jakarta.
TRANSCRIPT
ANDREAS HARSONO: But the draft law remained idle until the Surabaya attacks in May 2018, when three Islamic State families of suicide bombers, attacked three Christian churches and the police headquarters, using their own children, as young as eight years old, in the attacks. It shocked the public in Indonesia. It was probably the first suicide attack in the world where father and mother bombers detonating their own children. President Jokowi went to Surabaya, saying that he will issue a presidential decree on counter-terrorism if the parliament does not finish the bill. The media coverage and the public shock put a lot of pressures on the parliament to deliberate the bill, spending less than a week to pass it.
JOHNNY BLADES: Are there concerns among the public or rights groups over particular aspects of the new laws?
AH: In 2017, rights groups were worried to see the draft included a part called the "Guantanamo Article," in a reference to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the US government has arbitrarily detained hundreds of people since 2002, virtually all without charge. It also included an article that could deprive a convicted terrorist of his or her Indonesian nationality. Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, protested those articles. The Indonesian parliament finally scraped those two controversial articles. But Article 6 of the law still criminalizes violence or threats of violence against "the environment" without providing any definition or clarification as to the meaning of "the environment." It also opens a possibility that the Indonesian military is to be involved in counter-terrorism operations. It might create some confusion with the police's law enforcement work. It's especially problematic in intelligence gathering. The military involvement might be justified if Indonesian terrorists could stage an attack like what the jihadists had down in Marawi, the Philippines.
JB: How might the laws affect Papua?
AH: If we look at the definition of terrorism in the Counter-Terrorism Law, it's unlikely to include various armed groups in Papua to be a part of terrorism. In Papua, most violence from these indigenous groups are launched against police and military officers. A terrorism act is per definition targeted against with mass destructions and creating fear. The Papuans obviously do not do that. But this law does not provide definition of what it claims to be other targets of terrorism such as environment, public accommodations or international facilities. It might open possibilities that the armed groups in Papua could be defined as "terrorist groups" because of these other targets.
JB: So, could the evolving definition of "terrorist" implicate more groups in Papua?
AH: The counter-terrorism law is very clear that it's targeted against groups only with arms which include explosives, chemical, biological, micro-organism, nuclear, or radioactive component. It does not include political groups, such as the various Papua separatist groups, which campaign for independence using non-violence method. The law obviously also does not include traditional arms like machete, arrows and bows.
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2) Hotel Occupancy in Papua Decreases 50 Percent During Ramadan
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta- The board of Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) of Papua Province revealed the hotel occupancy rate during Ramadan 1439H decreased by 50 percent.
"Before Ramadan, the average occupancy reached 70 percent, but during Ramadan, it became 50 percent because many of government activities were postponed," said Chairman of PHRI Papua Sahri Hasan in Jayapura, Sunday, May 27.
He explained the decrease is not necessarily followed by a decrease in income. Because, at the moment of Ramadan, many parties, both government, state-owned enterprises, and private, hold the break-fasting together at the hotel.
According to him, the hotel occupancy rate will improve after Ramadan because government activities are believed to return to normal. He claimed the decrease is not only occurred in Papua but almost throughout Indonesia.
It always happens every Ramadan and the hotel parties anticipate by making promos of break-fasting together, and special for this year, there will be the 2018 World Cup momentum. Sahril added that every moment of the World Cup organizing is usually always used by the hotel management to create a watching together event because the demand is quite a lot and it can increase the revenue.
He reminded the hotel management who want to hold a watching together event to ask for the permission to the parties who hold the commercial license and also to the security apparatus.
ANTARA
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3) Gasoline prices hit IDR 20 thousand per litre in Papua
Yahukimo, Jubi– Yahukimo solidarity team for development and tribal chiefs are going to investigate the fuel distribution from Timika to the gas depot (APMS) in Yahukimo due to a crisis of fuel in Yahukimo.
Team leader Napius Yalak explains the depot only operates for three to four days a month and the fuel stocks run out immediately when it opens. So he suspects a culprit plays around with the supplies.
“I conveyed to the relevant agency that people in Yahukimo cannot have gasoline and diesel as it should. What is the problem? Is it financial constraints or deliberately saving?” told him last week in Dekai.
According to him, fuel can also be bought in some gas retails. However, it is expensive. “My car is almost running out of gas, but I have pay IDR 20 thousand for a litre.”
He thought the high price of gasoline is very detrimental for low-income communities, so it needs serious attention. “We will take firm action on this matter because this is detrimental for people’s finance. We will also ask for compensation on this.”
Meanwhile, Head of APMS Dekai Lamalaha said they have restricted fuel for 35 kilolitres each for motorbikes, cars or even those who come with jerry-cans, but the number of demand is high, so the fuel availability is not sufficient.
“We are overwhelmed. Moreover, 80% of the vehicles are without the police numbers. So it is difficult to ensure whether the local people got their quota or not. If we mark the vehicle, they will erase it. If we paint it, they scold us,” he explained. Another obstacle, continued Lamahala, is the length of time needed to get the fuel supplies.
“It takes 12 days to ship the fuel to Dekai from Makassar. Then it needs a day to dock and four days to load the fuel and next two days to unload the fuel from the ship. Hopefully, the fuel price in Dekai remains stable this month,” he said.
“The gasoline that goes to Dekai takes 12 days because the big ship is on the way from Makassar. Next, break a day and load four days ago until here unload two more days. Hopefully this month the fuel price in Dekai may be stable, “he said. (*)
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4) The village fund absorption is still below 23 percent
Jayapura, Jubi –As per May 24th, the distribution and absorption rates of the village fund in 2018 has increased to 29,9 percent or Rp 294,504 billion from Rp 984,842 billion.
The Head of Regional Office of the Directorate General of Treasury (DJPb) Syarwan said only five districts in Papua reached a hundred percent. Two of them have currently completed the second phase of disbursement in 2018.
“Mamberamo Raya and Lanny Jaya already passed the second stage and completed the first stage in 2017,” he told to Jubi on Thursday (24/5/2018).
He regretted that some districts which did not use or distribute the funding to the account of the head of villages in their areas. “There are three stages of disbursement; it only needs the local regulation to liquid the funding,” he said.
Furthermore, he said the government should upload its report to the Online Application Monitoring System of State Treasury and Budget (OMSPAN).
Meanwhile, the Head of the Regional Treasury and Financial Asset Agency Adolf Siahaya said Jayapura Municipality had a Budget for Village Expenditure (APBKam), which need the regulation of previous SPJ (report) and approved APBKam. “Until now, the APBKam has not approved, so it could not disburse yet,” he said.
He also admitted the disbursement of the village fund for Jayapura Municipality in 2017 was late. “Indeed, the disbursement is quite late because the disbursement of Phase II should be in December 2017. Besides DPMK (Village and Community Empowerment Office) is doing field monitoring,” he said.
The Chairman of Commission III of the Papua House of Representatives, Carolus Bolly, asserted that each regional head is responsible for maximising the absorption of the village fund. “It is their authority to encourage the absorption of a fund in their districts,” he said. (*)
Reporter: Sindung Sukoco
Editor: Pipit Maizier
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