Thursday, April 25, 2019

1) Two soldiers injured in renewed violence from Papuan rebels


2) Sogavare on West Papua
3) Women of Teluk Bintuni and their mangroves
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1) Two soldiers injured in renewed violence from Papuan rebels
Rebel fighters in West Papua's Central Highlands shot and wounded two Indonesian soldiers on Wednesday.
1:00 pm today 



West Papua Liberation Army unit, led by Egianus Kogoya. Derakma, Nduga regency. Photo: Supplied
It's the latest violence in troubled Nduga regency, where a war has killed dozens on both sides since December.
Indonesia's military says a helicopter was unloading 10 soldiers and supplies at a compound in Nduga when rebels sprang an ambush.
A military spokesperson, Colonel Mohammad Aidi, said two soldiers suffered gunshot wounds in the hit-and-run attack on Wednesday morning .
He said they were in a stable condition at nearby Timika General Hospital.
Claiming responsibility for the attack, the West Papua Liberation Army said it killed three soldiers and injured three others.
The rebel group, which is frequently at odds with the military over incident reports, claimed to have killed another two soldiers on Tuesday in a separate attack in Nduga.
Colonel Aidi said the military forces tried to retaliate during Wednesday's attack but that the rebels had attacked suddenly before disappearing into a forest.


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2) Sogavare on West Papua

25 April 2019  Author  Editor

NEWLY elected Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, once a staunch advocator for West Papua independence says he’ll be taking friendlier approach to the issue.
He was responding to a question on his government’s foreign policy on West Papua during his first press conference on Wednesday.

This was just after he received a call from the Indonesia’s Embassy in Port Moresby congratulating him on his victory.

Sogavare told reporters that his government will actively engage more with Indonesia on the issues surrounding human rights violation in West Papua.

“The Indonesia’s Embassy in Port Moresby just called me and said they are looking forward for a friendly dialogue and consultations on the issues of West Papua as friendly neighbours,” Sogavare said.

He clarified that at the early stage the stand that he took as the prime minister and also as the Chair of the Melanesia Spearhead Group (MSG) was because it was the position MSG took all along.

“Well nothing stops individual Melanesian States to have their own foreign policy on West Papua issues but it will be really nice if we take it as a collective body to fighting against human rights violation,” Sogavare said.

But he added that it is a sad story when 600,000 Melanesians died, all because their rights were suppressed.

 He further added that as a coalition government he will certainly discuss this issue with their partners and come up with a friendly way to address the issues of our Melanesian brothers in West Papua.

By ANDREW FANASIA

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3) Women of Teluk Bintuni and their mangroves

Thu, April 25, 2019   /   08:39 am

Jerry Adiguna
slideshow

Teluk Bintuni regency in West Papua has a mangrove forest covering more than 200,000 hectares with a high degree of biodiversity. This portrait series showcases how women in Teluk Bintuni and nature are living side by side in harmony. Apart from taking care of their families, the women are also engaged in various group activities to safeguard their natural environment and promote the local community’s conservation- and customs-oriented economy.
The biodiversity in Teluk Bintuni is among the best in the world, after Raja Ampat in the same province, constituting 10 percent of Indonesia’s mangrove forests.
In the 1980s, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) proposed that the regency’s mangrove forest be made a nature reserve, which was followed up by the Conservation International (CI) and later by the regency administration.
When it was converted into a nature reserve Teluk Bintuni became a national strategic zone, like Raja Ampat.
One of the local government’s priorities involves improving conservation-based development programs because of the mangrove’s important role in carbon trading.
Empowering the community to support conservation programs has also become an important strategy, along with other efforts, such as the organization of the World Mangrove Festival in November.
— The Jakarta Post was invited by Econusa Foundation and NGO Panah Papua to visit Bintuni Bay, West Papua.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget


ANZAC Day 2019, when  Australians and New Zealanders remember those who fought and lost their lives for their country.  It is hoped that people will also give a thought to those Indigenous people who died in Australia's frontier wars and also to  remember those who are still not free in our region.
Lest we forget the people of Nduga 
The human rights organization “Front Line Defenders”  (FLD) released a report concerning the Indonesian security force operation in the Nduga region.  According to the report the Indonesian security forces have caused thousands of people to flee their homes for safety to neighbouring districts.  In its report, FLD has estimated that up to 32,000 people have fled the Nduga regency because of the military operations in the area.  Internal refugees consist of 4,276 in Mapenduma District. 4,369 in Mugi District.  5,056 in Jigi District. 5,021 in Yal District. 3,775 in Mbulmu Yalma District.  4,238 Kagayem District.  2,982 in the Nirkuri District. 4,001 in the Inikgal District. 2,021 in the Mbua District and 1,704 in the Dal District. 




A small bit of history

A number of supporters of West Papua in Sydney had fathers who served in the Merauke.
John Collins, pictured speaking at rally in Hyde Park Sydney in 2006 in support of the 43 West Papuan Asylum seekers. He served in Merauke in the war. He did the two sketches below while there. An  Xmas card and one of the main street in Merauke in 1944.



















































 




And a connection to West Papuan supporters in Sydney

Names below on the Honour Roll for peace at Addison Rd Community Centre, Marrickville.
John Collins, Dr Norman Lee, who was Jeffersons father. Jefferson  spoke at some of the WP  rallies. and Anne's father Alan Noonan who also was in Merauke.
 

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1) Elections in Papua smooth, despite ongoing violence


2) West Papua treason trial adjourned until Thursday
3) Indonesia’s Surprisingly Quiet Election
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1) Elections in Papua smooth, despite ongoing violence
12:27 pm today

Indonesia's military says elections held last week in Papua went smoothly, despite threats of more violence from rebels.

It comes after claims from the West Papua Liberation Army that it prevented voting from taking place in 32 districts across restive Nduga regency.
A spokesperson for the military, Colonel Muhammad Aidi, said there were several gunfire exchanges in Timika district but they did not affect voting.
Voting in Indonesia's massive one-day election last Wednesday was delayed until Thursday in several parts of Papua.
Final results have not been released but initial polling by observers showed around 136,000 votes counted in Papua favouring the incumbent president Joko Widodo.
Rebel groups and Papuan independence advocates had promised a wide-reaching election boycott -- the United Liberation Movement for West Papua last week claimed a low 40 percent turnout in Papua - but it was unclear how effective this was.
Days before polling, the Liberation Army claimed to have killed two Indonesian soldiers in Nduga amid a military build up which brought hundreds of troops to the region for election security.
Colonel Aidi has denied that any soliders were killed.

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2) West Papua treason trial adjourned until Thursday
3:26 pm today 
The trial of three West Papuans charged with treason has been adjourned until tomorrow.
Prosecutors in Timika's district court were due to call on witnesses on Tuesday to give evidence against Yanto Awerkion, Sem Asso and Edo Dogopia.
But a lawyer for the men, Veronica Koman, said the prosecution failed to bring the witnesses to the hearing, which the judges had called for.
The defendants are also scheduled to be questioned during the proceedings.
Meanwhile, a civil lawsuit Ms Koman has filed against Indonesian police for its occupation of a Papuan independence group's headquarters continues today in Timika.
Ms Koman is seeking $US80,000 in damages sustained to the West Papua National Committee's (KNPB) Timika secretariat when police forcibly took control last December.

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3) Indonesia’s Surprisingly Quiet Election
By Nithin Coca April 23, 2019
In an era of increased electoral polarization and agitation, what are the lessons of Indonesia’s tame campaign?
Quiet. Boring. Stable. Just two years after a dramatic race ousted a minority governor, Indonesia’s concurrent presidential and parliamentary elections were downright tame, a stark contrast to dramatic, highly contested – and sometimes vicious – elections that took place last month in Thailand and are ongoing in India. Nor was it anything like the fake news and hate-filled elections in the United States and the Philippines in recent years.
“The election was peaceful,” says Patrick Ziegenhain, a Jakarta-based scholar and currently a visiting professor at Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia. “No tension, no mass demonstrations, no huge campaign activities. It was more peaceful than previous elections in 2017 and 2014.”
Despite a long campaigning period, several debates, and numerous news stories, polls only shifted marginally over the past year. Pollster quick counts show incumbent Joko “Jokowi” Widodo leading by about 8-10 percentage points – larger than his margin in 2014. Campaigning was mostly normal and rallies were peaceful. Even disinformation played a marginal role, with a poll from Saiful Mujani released before the election showing that few hoaxes were resonating with Indonesian voters. 
While opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto seems bent on contesting the results, most of the country has responded with a yawn. Only about 1,000 people showed up at his South Jakarta home for a post-election speech, timed to take place after Friday prayers, a paltry figure for a city of 10 million. In public discourse, he is looking more and more like a sore loser, and there are even rumors that his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, is distancing himself from Prabowo, as many note his conspicuous absence or lack of enthusiasm at post-election events.
So why was Indonesia’s election so tame, compared to both the 2017 Jakarta governor’s race, when incumbent Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama “Ahok” was defeated in a campaign where fake news, viral memes, and derogatory religious and ethnic rhetoric played a key role, and even the 2014 presidential race? In an era where countries around the world are seeing increased polarization and agitation around campaigns, are there lessons from Indonesia’s campaign? Part of it was the ability to learn from past experiences, both domestically and abroad, and be prepared.
“Overall there was far more preparation and security for this election than for the 2017 Jakarta Governor’s race,” said Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. Beyond the passing of controversial laws that allowed for the banning of groups like the Hizbut Tahrir, which helped organize the 2017 anti-Ahok movement. The government also set up a fake news monitoring center to tackle misinformation, going as far as to arrest the creators of hoaxes, including one alleging that tampered ballotswere coming in from China pre-selected for Jokowi, and the housewife creators of a video alleging that the incumbent would make gay marriage legal.
Credit should also be given to Jokowi, who has proven himself an adept campaigner. While he hasn’t kept all of his 2014 promises, including, notably, his pledges to address human rights, he has made real progress on expanding the country’s social welfare system, investing in infrastructure, and growing the economy. He has also been able to maintain his image as a clean everyman, and still takes impromptu public visits to markets, and recently rode a crowded train to and from work like any other commuter. 
Many see his choice of Ma’ruf Amin, albeit with significant outside pressure, as a key factor in defusing the potential for an Islamic-based opposition candidacy. However, the initial polls show that his presence may have not had such a large impact, as Jokowi performed worse than 2014 in more conservative Muslim-majority provinces like Aceh, West Sumatra, and South Sumatra. 
It may also be time to reassess the conventional wisdom of the Jakarta governor’s race. At the time, some saw it as a sign that Indonesia was turning toward conservative Islam. Others noted that the race likely had to do as much with Ahok’s Chinese ethnicity, and his unique personality and proneness for speaking his mind, than religion. It is looking increasingly likely that the anti-Ahok mobilizations were a unique moment, not the signs of a deeper trend.
In fact, there is a tendency to overly focus on religion, and in particular Islam, when analyzing Indonesian politics. Even in this election, which lacked 2017 style mass mobilizations, religion has already been deemed the deciding factor by many international media outlets. Look at the post-election headlines at the New York Times(“Faith Politics on the Rise as Indonesian Islam Takes a Hard-Line Path”) or Reuters (“In Indonesia’s election, the winner is Widodo – and Islam”). 
The reality is more complicated. Even in the conservative provinces that Jokowi lost, religion may not have been decisive. According to one source, Jokowi’s advisers saw lower commodity prices for palm oil and rice as likely factors in his lower vote figures in agriculture-dominated provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan. In Indonesia, the economy – as in most democracies – can trump religion at the polls. Moreover Prabowo, the supposedly Islamist candidate, often mentioned the fact that his maternal family is Christian, as are two of his siblings. Jokowi’s pandering to Islam did not stop him from participating in Hindu festivities while campaigning in Bali.
The big question is if Jokowi will be any different during his second term than he was in his first. Comparing his record to Prabowo’s – a former general with a widely documented record of human rights abuses – only makes him good in comparison.
“Jokowi is, marginally, a more effective guardian of Indonesian democracy than Prabowo,” said Kurlantzick. But his record gives him, and others, pause. “There is the use of dubious laws to stifle free speech, the crackdown on some of his opponents… and he has not expressed much interest in really stopping the growing crackdown on minorities.”
Few expect Jokowi, even without the shackles of having to prepare for re-election, to change much. He went out of his way, since 2014, to build ties with entrenched powers like the military, appointing traditional power-brokers such as former generals Wiranto and Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan to his cabinet, giving them power over critical portfolios. 
“Jokowi will continue like the last five years, people will complain about human rights in Papua, or that the LGBT community is not being accepted, or of discrimination against minorities,” said Ziegenhain. “This cannot be turned around in the next five years.”
It is a lost opportunity for a young democracy. Hope for real reform may have to wait until 2024, when Jokowi’s successor will be elected. As of right now, that race looks wide open. Jokowi does not have a designated successor, as Ma’ruf Amin will be 80 then, likely too old to run. The same can be said of Prabowo, who has now lost three elections as a presidential or vice presidential candidate and will be 72 in 2024. Many expect Sandiaga to take the mantle as leader of Prabowo’s Gerindra party and become the leader of the opposition. While Sandiaga has issues, including allegations of corruption, and was the running mate of the tandem that used religion to take down Ahok in 2017, he’s a fairly mainstream, pro-business politician, far from a polarizing Rodrigo Duterte, Donald Trump, or Narendra Modi figure. Whether another, outsider candidate emerges seemingly from nowhere, as Jokowi did in 2014, remains to be seen.
It is telling that an election that changed little and was noteworthy for its stability and continuity is seen as global success. Compare 2019 to the situation a little over 20 years ago, when Indonesia was undergoing a financial crisis and emerging from the three-decades long Suharto dictatorship, and the progress looks remarkable, in some ways astounding that democracy has survived. But take a more narrow lens and it’s less clear how much the country has improved when it comes to openness, transparency, and inclusivity under Jokowi or his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. 
“It will take time for democracy in Indonesia to grow, but it’s better under Jokowi than Prabowo,” said Ziegenhain. 
The most that can be said is that Indonesia has not seen its democracy deteriorate to the extent that Thailand, the Philippines, or India have. More of the same, or stability, is now seen as a mark or progress. 
Nithin Coca is a freelance writer and journalist who focuses on cultural, economic, and environmental issues in developing countries. Follow him on Twitter @excinit.
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Monday, April 22, 2019

1) Papuan organisers of public prayer event charged with treason


2) Indonesia and Australia: destined but disparate democracies

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1) Papuan organisers of public prayer event charged with treason
5:44 am today 


Three West Papuans will today appear in an Indonesian court on treason charges.
Yanto Awerkion, Sem Asso and Edo Dogopia were detained by police in January after they planned to hold a public prayer meeting.
The men were among six members of the West Papua National Committee, or KNPB, arrested when police and military took over its local secretariat last year.
A lawyer for the men, Veronica Koman, said the charges are "ridiculous".
"Why are people praying then charged with treason? It just doesn't make any sense. Under Indonesian law, supposedly, treason can be considered as treason if there's violence, if there's weapons involved. This [was] a totally peaceful event," Veronica Koman said.
Veronica Koman says judges at Timika's district court have demanded that prosecutors call on expert witnesses.
She said the prosecutors were also told off for failing to bring witnesses to at least two previous treason cases involving Papuans, in a move which could signal legal change in Indonesia's handling of similar cases.
Ms Koman said it was broadly in line with a judgement from Indonesia's Constitutional Court early last year which found in part that treason law was problematic in its implementation by law enforcement officers.
One of the defendants, Mr Awerkion, completed a ten-month jail sentence with time served in July last year after being sentenced for treason because of his involvement with a petition calling for West Papuan independence from Indonesia.
Ms Koman has also filed a civil lawsuit against Indonesian police for more than $US70,000 in damages sustained to the KNPB Timika secretariat sustained when police forcibly took control last December.

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2) Indonesia and Australia: destined but disparate democracies
23 Apr 2019|
‘Relations with Indonesia have provided the crucible of modern Australian foreign policy.’ —Bruce Grant, 1972
The great Australian scribe, Bruce Grant, penned that thought about Indonesia–Australia tests and trials in the year of a seminal election for Australia.
Elections are again with us—this time for both Indonesia and Australia. These two most different neighbours now share democracy as well as geography. As ever, the contrasts are far greater than the similarities.
The title of Grant’s 1972 study of Oz foreign policy, The crisis of loyalty, echoes today amid an international bonfire of certainties. And the three-part Indonesia–Australia frame that Grant described still fits.
Precise foreign policy tests: ‘Indonesia has brought home to Australians the concreteness of foreign policy problems … Australia was presented with issues in which it had a specific and acknowledged interest. So there has been a non-proxy, direct and pragmatic flavour about Australian thinking and acting, in official and professional circles, on Indonesia.’
Strategic geography: Indonesia ‘acted as a “locum” for the abstract threats which Australians sensed in their bones. Indonesia gave substance to what has long been called in Australia “the threat from the north”. It brought into focus the vague and undifferentiated fears about “Asians” which Australians have traditionally held. As voyeurs, rather than participants, Australians have nurtured weird ideas about the peoples of Asia … So Indonesia was not only a test of our professionals and decision-makers; it presented an emotional challenge to come to terms with a turbulent and perhaps threatening part of the world.’
The ‘idea’ of Indonesia: The size and potential of Indonesia have intellectual and psychological influence. ‘On the one hand, Australia has learned to respect Indonesian nationalism. It wants Indonesia to be a successful nation, stable and prosperous. Australia has no designs on Indonesian territory and it has no wish to see Indonesia dismembered. On the other hand, Australia does not want Indonesia to become dominant in South-East Asia.’
Remember Grant’s Indonesia–Australia appreciation was penned nearly 50 years ago, near the start of Suharto’s long rule and before Indonesia invaded East Timor. Deep thinking and good writing can have a long shelf life. Australia now is participant, not voyeur, but the rest of Grant’s description is as fresh as today’s election headlines.
As an example of the next foreign policy test, Australia and Indonesia last month signed a free trade agreement. That deal awaits ratification on the other side of the twin elections.
On the larger and longer term destinies of strategic geography and Indonesia’s potential, consider that this giant neighbour is on track ‘to pass Australia in economic size in the 2020s and eventually in military capabilities by the 2040s’.
The economic/military projection is from Kevin Rudd. In his memoirs, Rudd joins Paul Keating to become the second former prime minister to argue that Australia should join ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Rudd follows Keating in stating that the fundamental importance of Indonesia to Australia is at the heart of the argument for Oz membership of ASEAN. (My ASPI paper on why Australia should seek that membership is here.)
Rudd raised the idea of Australia entering ASEAN during his second, short stint as prime minister in 2013, when visiting Indonesia for the annual leaders’ dialogue. He records the response from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.
I will always remember SBY and Marty, looking up from their meal, staring at me, smiling broadly, and saying, ‘Pak Kevin, we might be ready for you. I’m not sure that the rest of the ASEANs are ready for you, at least at this stage.’ We all laughed. But there was a method in my madness.
The vision, as Rudd writes, is to multilateralise Australia’s relationship with Indonesia while the neighbours are of similar economic size and no fundamental problems exist.
If by mid-century, the tables were radically reversed in the power relativities between the two countries, and if in the meantime the relationship between Canberra and Jakarta remained entirely bilateralised, the future health of the relationship would depend entirely on the prevailing political dynamics of each country at the time. By contrast, if both countries by then had become members of ASEAN, where bilateral relationships between member states have always been tempered by the collaborative practices, habits and culture of a wider regional institution, it would enhance the long-term stability of the Canberra–Jakarta relationship. There is a continuing complacency in Australia about how the dynamics of the Indonesia relationship will change as Indonesia becomes more powerful in its own right. The time to act in seeking to institutionalise this critical relationship within the wider framework of ASEAN is now.
Australia entering ASEAN would change and enlarge the conception of Southeast Asia. Equally, it’d change and enlarge Australia.
Having Australia and Indonesia as the great twin democracies in ASEAN would give new dimensions to this destined but disparate relationship—still the crucible of modern Oz foreign policy.

Graeme Dobell is ASPI’s journalist fellow. Image courtesy of Simon Birmingham on Twitter.
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Friday, April 19, 2019

1) Timotius and Freeport



2) Boycott of 2019 Indonesian Election Successful: 
3) Papua governor calls for patience with election results

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https://www.insideindonesia.org

1) Timotius and Freeport 

Written by JEREMY MULHOLLAND & ABDUL FICKAR HADJAR

Published: Apr 17, 2019

Jeremy Mulholland and Abdul Fickar Hadjar


                                      Timotius Kambu / Tempo


In Indonesia’s most protracted labour dispute in modern history, ethnic Papuan mechanical engineer Timotius Kambu, after suffering an unfair dismissal by Freeport Indonesia, has fought resolutely to reclaim his rights and dignity for almost 20 years. In 2001 Freeport fired Timotius on the pretext of a temporary employment contract even though he was a permanent worker at Freeport.
The David and Goliath dispute has passed through industrial relations and judicial processes, all the way up to the Supreme Court, but also included mediation by Indonesia’s National Parliament (DPR), Labour Ministry and Ombudsman. Without a lawyer and facing the legal division of one of the world’s largest mining companies, Timotius taught himself the intricacies of Indonesian law and achieved irrefutable legal success. A landmark ruling at Jayapura Industrial Relations Tribunal on 16 June 2005- which became final and binding on 19 August 2005 and reinforced by Supreme Court decisions 3/2006 and 33/2013- determined that Freeport Indonesia was guilty of the illegal dismissal of Timotius Kambu. As a result, by Indonesian law Freeport Indonesia had reached a legal ‘dead-end’ and since then has been obligated to pay all unpaid wages to and re-employ Timotius Kambu. Since then, however, Freeport Indonesia has defied those legal decisions and left a trail of non-compliance and obfuscation.
Meticulous fact-checking of Freeport Indonesia’s official statements has revealed that their Vice President of Corporate Communications Riza Pratama issued a set of misleading and irrelevant claims about the legal history of this case (Tempo, 26 June 2017 and 10 July 2017) (for elaboration see here). It is pertinent to ask why Freeport Indonesia chose not to simply pay Timotius, in alignment with their own Collective Labour Agreement, and later the various legal decisions, rather than going through years of litigation? The likely reason is that Freeport Indonesia does not want to appear susceptible to legal defeat and/or set a precedent. In the words of distinguished former Indonesian parliamentarian and Papuan community leader Ruben Gobay, ‘Freeport Indonesia leaders fear the Timotius case will open the flood gates and inspire other workers involved in labour disputes with Freeport Indonesia – such as Freeport labour union leader Sudiro – to follow in the footsteps of Timotius’s heroic struggle.’

A pattern of resistance

At the beginning of the Joko Widodo presidency in late 2014 and in 2015, Freeport’s non-compliance in the Timotius case culminated in Indonesia’s Ombudsman stepping in to closely monitor the case and the legality of the new Labour Minister’s actions. Based on a 27 July 2015 directive from Jayapura’s Industrial Relations Court, the Labour Minister Hanif Dhakiri and his staff were responsible for calculating the amount Freeport Indonesia should pay to settle the dispute. In the context of disagreements between the Ministry and Freeport over the method and scope of the calculation process, Freeport was forced to recalculate their financial obligations to Timotius for April 2001 to September 2015. The unintended consequence of this recalculation was that Freeport had at last officially acknowledged Timotius Kambu’s status as a permanent worker.
Although Freeport attempted to underestimate the size of their financial obligations without disclosing their calculation methods, the director general of labour development and supervision A Mudji Handaya stipulated that Freeport Indonesia owed Timotius Rp.12 billion (A$1.2 million), an amount never challenged by Freeport Indonesia in Jakarta’s State Administrative Court.
In this context, Freeport resisted making payments, attempting to subvert the implementation of mandated financial obligations. For example, in 2010, thanks to an informal alliance with Supreme Court Chief Justice Harifin Tumpa (2009-2012) whose combined authority over and expertise in civil law was used to manipulate the cassation process and compensation-based verdicts, Freeport won a controversial Supreme Court ruling (857, 2010), which nullified the 10 July 2007 Jayapura Industrial Relations Court order (or penetapan).
There are two ways of looking at the legal ramifications of that 2010 Supreme Court ruling. On the one hand, with the 2007 court order out of the way, Freeport had achieved its strategic objective of terminating the mandated auction of Freeport assets (seized by the Indonesian government), which should have yielded funds to pay Timotius’s wages. On the other hand, the 2013 Supreme Court Legal Opinion clearly stipulated that the 2010 ruling had not superseded or undermined the validity of the 2006 Supreme Court Reconsideration or the 2005 ruling from Jayapura Industrial Relations Tribunal.
Ironically, an unintended consequence of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling was that it enabled a resumption of the calculation process relating to Freeport’s financial obligations. Consequently, Freeport’s obligations – including unpaid wages, pension and family benefits – have blown out to at least Rp.240 billion and Freeport’s non-compliance has pushed the labour dispute into the criminal justice system.

Criminal charges

This David and Goliath struggle becomes even more imbalanced in the context of a 'corrupt politico-business environment'. Prior to 2016, in relation to Freeport Indonesia's non-compliance with the Jayapura’s Industrial Relations Tribunal verdict or Supreme Court rulings 3/2006 and 33/2013, Freeport Indonesia's leaders apparently experienced legal and political difficulties – but most of their cases were either terminated, or remain unresolved.
For example, Clementino Lamury (executive committee member) was the first decision-maker to be named a suspect in a defamation case reported at the South Jakarta Police Station. Strangely, he secured an ‘Order for Termination of Investigation’ signed by Jayapura’s deputy police commissioner Ridho Purba. Subsequently, Freeport Indonesia's president director at the time Rozik Boedioro Soetjipto (former Minister of Public Works) was named a suspect in an industrial-relations based criminal case at the National Police Headquarters. Without any termination of the investigation against him, Rozik's status continues to remain unchanged.

In general, legal problems faced by Freeport Indonesia's leadership team have suspiciously vanished. There was however one well-known scalp in this labour dispute. Freeport Indonesia's executive vice president Sinta Sirait was reprimanded officially by the Labour Minister Muhaimin Iskandar and forced to resign from her position at Freeport Indonesia on 1 March 2013.
In 2016 Timotius Kambu’s case against Freeport Indonesia made headway once again with the enactment of the Supreme Court’s Regulation on Case-Handling Procedures of Corporate Crimes (13/2016). The Corporate Crimes Regulation is intended to not only help facilitate investigations and prosecutions against corrupt companies but also bolsters legal certainty for workers who pursue companies engaged in wage theft and money laundering. As the Timotius case initially occurred before the establishment of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and was not associated with ‘state losses’ and ‘political corruption’, KPK leaders encouraged Timotius to file corruption allegations against Freeport Indonesia with the National Police.
On 25 January 2017 Timotius reported Freeport Indonesia's leadership, including its president director, to the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Division based in Jakarta. The criminal allegations are as follows: Freeport Indonesia’s leadership team is accused of committing a corporate crime in the form of wage misappropriation. The sudden resignation of Freeport Indonesia president director and former Indonesian Air Force Chief of Staff Chappy Hakim was probably the culmination of criminal cases initiated by Timotius Kambu and also parliamentarian Mukhtar Tompo.
In September 2017, police summonses of different members of Freeport Indonesia leadership team piled up. In addition to Chappy Hakim, Clayton Allen Wenas (alias Tony Wenas), Jonathan Rumainum, Clementino Lamury, Benny Johannes and Riza Pratama were all eventually investigated and interviewed by Jakarta’s Police by October-November 2017.
Although the police were ready in late 2017 for a preliminary hearing to let the case proceed and corruption suspects be named, to this day they have stopped short of this hearing. For two years there has largely been an absence of progress even though it is an extremely straightforward case and substantial legal evidence has been collected. With growing media exposure and academic scrutiny, Timotius Kambu’s formal complaint to Indonesia’s Ombudsman on 20 December 2018 resulted in the examination of the police’s handling of the case for potential maladministration. On 7 February 2019, the Ombudsman demanded that police immediately conduct a preliminary hearing – alas by April 2019 police inaction not only persists, but has deteriorated further with police investigators cutting-off all communication with Timotius Kambu and also proposing to transfer the case to Papua even though being acutely aware that the case’s location is Jakarta.

Golden eggs and entrenched bias

The big question is why has a criminal case of this stature focusing on Freeport Indonesia come to a complete standstill. Research by Indonesia’s National Police Academy (PTIK) and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) found that corrupt practices are institutionally entrenched, especially at the apex of Indonesia’s elite politics and big business. In this labour dispute, potential criminal penalties relating to inaction on 2006 and 2013 Supreme Court rulings has given rise to opportunities for senior police to treat the case simply as a ‘goose that lays golden eggs’. Hidden biases in the law enforcement process behind this criminal case, and the warping of those processes, largely explain why justice has remained elusive for Timotius Kambu, as he seeks to claim what he’s owed by Freeport Indonesia.
This article is a revised version of an opinion piece published in Indonesian by Tempo magazine on 14 January 2019.
Jeremy Mulholland  (jeremypm@hotmail.com) is executive director of Investindo International and researcher in international marketing and Indonesian political economy at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. 
Abdul Fickar Hadjar is criminal law expert from the Faculty of Law, Trisakti University, Jakarta.
Inside Indonesia 135: Jan-Mar 2019
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2) Boycott of 2019 Indonesian Election Successful: 
60% of West Papuans didn’t vote
April 18, 2019 in News

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) estimates that 60% of voters have boycotted the 2019 Indonesian elections in West Papua. While voting did not take place in many polling stations on Wednesday 17 April as the ballots had not been delivered, it is the boycott by voters that has reduced participation to record lows. 
Benny Wenda, Chair of the ULMWP said
“This is the first time in our history that 60% have boycotted the Indonesian elections in West Papua. It’s a great achievement, and the second time that the West Papuan people have not joined the Indonesian presidential elections.” 
“The boycott is growing – more people boycotted this year’s elections than the previous 2014 Indonesian elections. There is growing confidence in West Papua that we will be an independent state.”
“People around the world should hear the voice of the West Papuans in our call for self-determination. The West Papuan people have already voted – 1.8 million signed a petition to the United Nations for an international supervised vote for self-determination”
The call to boycott the Indonesian elections was made on March 26, 2019. In a statement, the ULMWP also called for people to rally on April 5 for a referendum. The date of the Rally for Referendum call – April 5 – marked the anniversary of the establishment of the Nieuw Guinea Raad (the West Papua National Parliament). On April 5, 1961, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the international community formally recognised West Papua’s right to self-determination and eventual statehood.


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3) Papua governor calls for patience with election results
12:11 pm today 

Papua's governor, Lukas Enembe, says people should wait for the official vote count in Indonesia's elections before claiming victory.
Both presidential candidates, Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, have claimed election wins, but several polls back the incumbent Mr Widodo.
Official results will be released by May 22.
Mr Enembe told state news agency Antara that spreading fake news about the vote will trigger chaos and should not be allowed.
The latest polling by one observer group showed just 26,000 votes in Papua, with several districts yet to be counted.
Delays in the arrival of ballot boxes on Wednesday's one-day vote meant voting for many Papuans took place on Thursday.
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