Indonesia Mourns the Passing of a Beloved Leader

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JAKARTA, Dec 31 (IPS) - The news about fourth Indonesian president and cleric Abdurrahman Wahid being admitted to the hospital last week merited only a passing mention in the national media. It was overshadowed by reports on the country's tumultuous political situation, such as allegations that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was involved in a banking scandal and the controversies hounding the country's corruption eradication agency.

Wahid, affectionately called Gus Dur, had survived a number of strokes and had been suffering from diabetes, near blindness and kidney problem for years. Thus, many people thought it was just a minor medical problem, from which he would soon bounce back to dispense his usual dose of wit and wisdom on the latest events.

On Wednesday news broke that Wahid had passed away after undergoing a dental operation. The 69-year-old former president is survived by wife Shinta Nuriyah and four daughters.

The entire nation received the news of his death with a mixture of shock and grief. No sooner than word spread that one of the most respected and colorful figures in Indonesia had died than legions of mourners began to flock to his residence in South Jakarta. Impromptu prayer gatherings among citizens of varied faiths, not just Muslims, were held across the country.

"He was a Muslim, but he became a blessing to all faiths," Jakarta Archbishop Julius Darmaatmadja, S.J., was quoted by the local press as saying, referring to the man who had symbolised Indonesian’s tradition of religious tolerance and political reform.

Wahid ruled Indonesia, between October 1999 and July 2001, at a time when the Muslim-dominated country had just emerged from three decades of dictatorship.

In Surabaya, East Java, people from all walks of life lit candles and put flowers on the downtown street in a spontaneous show of grief for their beloved leader.

"He had opened up freedom of speech for us (citizens of) Chinese descent and eliminated the differences (based on) religion, ethnicity, race," said Liem Tiong Soek, in between sobs, who described him further "as a great thinker, president and cleric. "He’s such a big loss."

Eulogies, prayers and expressions of gratitude also inundated social network sites Facebook and Twitter. Religious and ethnic minorities thanked him for being their "strongest defender." Journalists reminisced his quirky ways, informal leadership, incredible humor and open-mindedness -- which had often sparked anger among less-than-moderate Muslims.

Abdurrahman Wahid was born to a prominent and politically active cleric family. Paternal grandfather Hasyim Asy’ari was the founder of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which Wahid later chaired and reformed. His father Wahid Hasyim was the country's first minister of religious affairs.

He studied in a Muslim school in hometown Jombang in East Java before receiving a scholarship to study at al-Azhar University in Cairo, after which he continued his study in Baghdad. Returning home, he worked as a journalist, social commentator and academic. He was widely perceived as a man of deep knowledge, not just about religion and politics, but also about culture, film, music and sports.

Wahid had his initiation into politics when he campaigned for the Islamic-based United Development Party. As a leader of the 30 million-strong NU, he consistently maintained that government should be secular and that faith was a personal matter.

Following the downfall of Indonesian dictator Soeharto and the establishment of Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB), Wahid announced he was running for presidency in 1999. Megawati's Indonesian Democratic of Party emerged as the winner of the South-east Asian country's parliamentary elections in June 1999. However, politicians, particularly conservative Muslims unwilling to have a woman president, joined together and formed 'Central Axis', urging the People's Consultative Assembly to elect Wahid. He then picked Megawati Sukarnoputri as his deputy.

When he assumed office, he dissolve two ineffective ministries that had long been the vehicle of the New Order (a term that had come to be associated with the Suharto regime). He curbed military influence in the government; revoked discriminative laws against Chinese Indonesians, enabling them to practice their culture and religion; he allowed publications to flourish on previously taboo subjects such as Marxism, communism and socialism; and released political prisoners.

His controversial political maneuvers - sacking military officers and ordering investigations into their alleged involvements in human rights violations - as well as erratic and unfocused leadership, which included excessive traveling abroad and lack of emphasis on economic recovery, however, earned him widespread criticisms from his enemies, particularly in the military.

When his own coalition parties began to turn against him, and amid allegations of corruption, his presidency finally collapsed. He was impeached by the parliament in July 2001 and replaced by Megawati.

In the following years he was in political isolation, and his party PKB was marred by internal disputes. But he remained an influential figure in politics. Considered his most important legacy was his advocacy for secular politics and religious tolerance/moderate Islam in an otherwise heterogeneous society.

This is especially important at this time, when many parties worry that the country has veered too much toward religious conservatism. There are also moves to limit freedom of speech and expression as well as intellectual freedom. The banning of several books this week by the Attorney General's Office, particularly those dealing with issues of communism and religion, has raised deep concerns among rights groups, calling it a violation of the Constitution.

This is a step backward from Wahid's vision of a country that recognises and celebrates diversity and prides itself on religious tolerance.

Indonesia has more reasons to mourn his passing.

Posted by hera at 10:26 PM | Permalinks | Comments

DEVELOPMENT: Indonesia Still Struggling with Disaster Management

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JAKARTA, Dec 6, 2009 (IPS) - Despite being hit by powerful earthquakes this year, Indonesia is still reeling from the lack of an effective disaster management system that could prevent extensive loss of life and damage to property.

At least this is the view of certain individuals and groups who are struggling to cope with the impacts of the earthquakes that have jolted Indonesia this year and claimed the lives of scores of people besides causing millions worth of damage to property.

Irfantoni Herlambang gets anxious at the slightest vibration in his office, located on the 17th floor of a 31-story building in central Jakarta business district. There is hardly any mitigation scheme that would secure the people should another quake hit the country, he rued. During this year’s earthquakes, for instance, many people appeared dazed and confused, not knowing what to do or where to go.

"Some said that we should hide under the table, others thought we should go downstairs while a few were running around like a headless chicken," said a staff of an American donor agency, who declined to be named.

"In many cases, the casualties (from earthquakes) were caused not so much by earthquakes as by buildings not being sturdy enough, causing them to collapse," said Cecep Subarya, noted earthquake expert from the National Coordination Agency for Surveys and Mapping (BAKOSURTANAL), which studies and collects geographical data, sees the need for the provincial administrations to include disaster risk into their urban planning. "In areas that are prone to earthquake, the buildings should be constructed differently to be able to withstand earthquakes."

This yea, a series earthquakes have rattled the country—a 7.5-magnitude quake on Sept. 2 in Tasikmalaya, West Java, and a 7.9-magnitude quake in Padang capital and Padang Pariaman regency on Sept. 30. The former resulted in some 79 casualties and displaced 285,808 people; the West Sumatra quake killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed thousands of buildings. On Oct. 16 another earthquake shook the Indonesian capital.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire that is prone to frequent seismic activity. In December 2004, a 9.3-magnitude quake jolted Aceh in northern Indonesia, triggering a huge tsunami that killed about 125,000 people and affected at least ten countries, including Indonesia.

Stronger-magnitude earthquakes are expected in the South-east Asian country of an estimated 230 million people, seismologists have warned. The worst is yet to come, they say.

Herlambang is not alone in his predicament. Many Indonesians are scared of the prospects of another earthquake. His American colleague, Bryony Jones, said she was quite appalled that the management of the building where their office was located had not given its occupants orientation on the building’s security measures. There were no earthquake drills either.

This became evident when she saw people huddled together just outside the building, seemingly unaware that falling shards of glass from broken windows could hurt them severely, it not fatally, "especially during aftershocks," which can be more dangerous, according to Jones, who is no stranger to earthquakes, being a native of quake-prone California.

"Lots of people re-entered the building shortly after (an earthquake) to continue working, without any announcement (or precautionary warnings) regarding their safety from the building (management). Had this happened in San Francisco, most definitely people would not be allowed to enter the building immediately," she said. "I think most Indonesians are used to this sort of natural disaster," Jones added.

Despite Indonesia being prone to disaster, particularly earthquakes, there appear to be no systematic and carefully thought out efforts toward disaster prevention education for the people.

West Java, for example, is prone to landslides, since the area is porous and fragile, said Subarya. Yet, modest houses were built below the hills and around the landslide-prone area. "The construction of buildings should consider disaster risks. It does not have to be expensive. It just needs sturdier frame," he said, adding that this should form part of a disaster management scheme. Criticisms are also rife over the quality of disaster response and rehabilitation as well as reconstruction programmes, given numerous reports of uneven aid distribution, lack of cooperation and coordination among responsible government agencies.

Sunaryo Adhiatmoko of Al-Azhar Foundation, a non-governmental organisation focusing on education and charity, said there seems to be confusion in relief distribution and what kind of aid should be given to disaster victims.

"The food distributed, for example, has always been instant noodles. First, there’s usually hardly any clean water to cook it. Secondly, it is not healthy. Poor people are often not reached either, and in some cases, aids pile up in rich people’s houses," he said.

The government, he said, must identify first what the people actually need. Government data must also be verified at the grassroots level, added Adhiatmoko, whose foundation is building 300 quake-proof houses in West Sumatra.

"Dealing with earthquake is not the same as dealing with tsunami and floods. During earthquake, people lose houses, not their jobs, so the important thing is rebuilding their homes and giving them motivation and helping them find a way out (of their situation)," he said.

Two months after the West Java was hit by an earthquake, he said there were still inadequate facilities to house the affected individuals. Houses had yet to be built while some people were still living inside tents or with relatives or friends, and school children were still holding classes inside makeshift tents.

Syamsul Maarif, head of the National Agency for Disaster Management, explained that houses of affected people had yet to be built because the House of Representatives had just approved the budget to rebuild houses and infrastructure. This allocation came up to a total of 1.7 trillion rupiahs (180 million U.S. dollars) for West Java and seven trillion rupiahs (744 million U.S. dollars) for West Sumatra.

"Please be patient. It is not an easy job," he pleaded. "We also need people’s cooperation in this (effort) instead of expecting the government to do all the job." The government, he said, has employed teams of experts in West Java and West Sumatra to educate people on disaster risk and response as well as teach them how to build sturdier houses.

Hening Parlan, executive director of Humanitarian Forum Indonesia, which is made up of NGOs dealing with disaster management, said if the government was still struggling with a viable disaster management and recovery programme, it was only because it had never been a priority.

She pointed out that Indonesia did not have a disaster management law until 2007, three years after the Asian tsunami hit. Prior to that, the disaster management programme was being handled by the National Coordination Board for Disaster Management, whose tasks were limited to emergency response. Under its programme, there was no urgency to conduct risk reduction activities.

"Given that it was only in 2007 that we had the law, it is understandable that a good disaster management programme has yet to be in place. But organisationally and regulation-wise, there has actually been an improvement," Parlan said.

BAKOSURTANAL’s Subarya said that since the 2004 tsunami, the government has built a sophisticated early warning system for earthquake and tsunami throughout the country. "The system can decide the depth and magnitude of an earthquake in less than three minutes, as well as observe a tidal wave in ports nationwide," he said.

Yet some of the disaster equipment acquired after the law was passed have either been stolen or are not working, he said. He blamed this on "poverty (and) "lack of experts available to operate them," respectively.

Lack of disaster information among the people can only be attributed to the lack of an effective disaster management programme. "When the siren wails warnings about an earthquake or tsunami, many people still do not know what to do," he said.

Posted by hera at 8:10 PM | Permalinks | Comments

Future Looks Bleak for Laid-Off Indonesian Workers

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WEST JAVA, Indonesia - Ida Farida, 33, never imagined she would lose the job that she had held for 10 years.

In November 2008, she felt as if a bomb dropped when her company, Omedata Electronics, in Bandung, West Java, announced that it was closing down its computer parts factory, where she had worked as a machine operator. Having been hit by the global financial crisis, the firm had to let go of 1,301 employees, including Farida.

"It was really shocking, especially because my husband had no stable job," she said.

Although Farida's salary was just slightly above the monthly minimum wage of 939,000 rupiah (US$ 100), it was quite enough to take care of her family's needs, since they did not have to pay rent for their house - a tiny tenement owned by her in-laws and located in a crowded alley in southern Bandung, close to the factory.

Farida's job had provided a safety net for her family - her three-year-old daughter and husband Rudi - who has been out of a permanent job since 1998, when the textile factory he was working for closed down as a result of the 1997 financial crisis that affected the Asian region. Unable to land another permanent employment, Rudi has been taking on odd jobs that pay little and are for the most part unstable. On worse days, he comes home with nothing in his pockets.

A year since the layoff, Farida has yet to find another job. Her severance pay of 26 million rupiah (US$ 2,773) is steadily running out. The computer rental shop in which she invested a portion of her severance pay has turned out to be losing venture.

"People rarely come to play video games anymore," she said, sighing. "People around here are also affected by the layoff, as most of them are factory workers."

Many of her former colleagues are also finding it extremely difficult to get another job. "Maybe because most of us are over 30 years old and only high school graduates," Farida explained.

The global financial recession that struck last year following the collapse of the US's financial giant Lehman Brothers triggered a chain of reaction that included depressed demand for Asian goods and services from the developed world.

But unlike other countries, Indonesia was relatively unscathed by the crisis, since its economy relies mostly on the domestic market instead of exports. Still, the crisis has trimmed demand and slumped prices of Indonesia's export products, including textiles, coal, palm oil, rubber and fabricated goods, which push companies to make adjustments by reducing the size of their workforce.

According to the Indonesian Employers Association at least 222,500 workers were dismissed as of March 2009. Those in the garment, plantations and forestry industries have been the hardest hit, since Indonesia is the world's biggest palm oil producer and the world's second biggest rubber maker.

The Indonesian Labor Union Confederation has warned that some 300,000 migrant workers would return to Indonesia after their contracts run out this year, as host countries are still feeling the pinch of the crisis.

To help industries particularly hit by the economic slowdown and prevent them from resorting to massive layoffs, the government has set aside a 73.3-trillion rupiah (7.8 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package. This is on top of other mitigating measures such as the conduct of vocational and entrepreneurial skills training as well as efforts to provide green jobs, which refer to those types of work that contribute substantially to protecting or restoring the environment, including those in agriculture.

The Labor Union Confederation said that the stimulus program could more effectively help cushion the impact of the financial crisis if applied in the rural areas to create the needed infrastructure and boost their economies.


Amid the growing wave of employee dismissals, seeming dissatisfaction with existing measures to ensure workers keep their jobs has prompted some sectors to question even the International Labor Organization (ILO), specifically on the extent to which it is helping workers. The manpower and transmigration ministry said ILO's role could be improved.

ILO country representative in Indonesia, Alan Boulton, played down the criticism, saying that the country needed to improve its social security system to protect workers from layoffs.

"Companies need to find alternative ways to reduce labor costs without losing their skilled workforce. This can be done through shorter working hours, giving more training to workers and instituting a coordinated disbursement of the government's fiscal stimulus," he said.

Until more effective solutions are in place, or the state of the economy improves significantly, many laid-off workers may not expect to get new jobs or get their old ones back.

Asep Suryana, 38, is hopeful, though, that the company that sacked him and tens of other workers four months ago would give restore to them their jobs. "The union is still approaching the management so that we can rejoin the company," said Suryana, who worked for nine years as a mechanic at Metro Parcel Service, a transportation firm in Bandung.

Today, he works as a construction worker just to make end meet. He fears that chances are slim that he will be able to go back to his old company, but he remains hopeful.

"I need to get my job back," declared Suryana, whose only son is entering junior high school soon. "We need a lot of money for his education. I don’t want him to end up like me, working menial jobs," Suryana said.

Farida wants another job, but not so much for her as for her husband, saying she prefers to stay home and look after their daughter.

"Do you know any job opening for him?" she asked in a desperate tone.

Posted by hera at 4:14 AM | Permalinks | Comments

For Indonesian Pilgrims, the Path to Mecca is Paved With Problems

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The heat was excruciating as the first batch of hajj pilgrims entered the transit dormitory in East Jakarta a day before their flight to Saudi Arabia on Oct. 23. But the pilgrims, mostly of retirement age, welcomed the heat, joking that it would prepare them for the harsh desert climate in Mecca.

They were generally joyful, some having waited decades for their turn to go on the hajj, whose participants are limited by both money and a yearly quota from the Saudi Arabian government.

“We have saved up our money for years, and our four children also chipped in. We signed up for the pilgrimage in 2007 and finally got our turn to go this year,” said Ratna Farida, 61, a retired teacher from Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta. Together with her husband Asri Munir, 70, they purchased the regular hajj package for Rp 35 million ($3,675) each.

A total of 207,000 Indonesians will do the hajj pilgrimage this year, around the same as in 2008. They are divided into 470 groups bound for Jeddah, where most spend a month performing the hajj ritual, with the last group expected home in late November.

First-timers Ratna and Asri said they were content with the organization and service as they prepared to embark, but others who were going for a second time said they were confused by the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ management of the pilgrimage.

Yani Yahya, 61, said new regulations requiring pilgrims to have an official international passport, rather than a one-time-only special hajj passport, had forced her to make repeated trips to her local immigration office to process paperwork.

“There is no information available either, unless you’re very proactive. Back in 2003, all we had to do was sit at home and wait for the instructions and passport to arrive,” said Yani, a widow traveling by herself.

Another veteran pilgrim, Ahmad Golyobi, 58, was also upset, saying that procedures such as the registration process were lengthy and bureaucratic.

“Also, the ministry organizers distributed the book of prayers, which is not available freely, only after we finished the manasik (hajj rehearsal). There were 14 meetings for the manasik and they only gave us [the book] when it was already finished,” he said.

“How can we memorize all the prayers if there is no book? The government cannot even manage a very simple thing like that,” Ahmad said.

But both Yani and Ahmad, as with many pilgrims, accept the flaws as a test from God, saying that the spiritual journey is a lesson in shedding one’s ego.

Others are not so forgiving.

Complaints, Complaints
For years, the hajj management has been a lightning rod for criticism, mostly that it’s unprofessional, not transparent and prone to corruption. Every year, Indonesia sends hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, and problems invariably arise, mostly relating to housing, transportation and catering.

Many pilgrims are placed in lodgings far away from places of worship, and often waste hours waiting around for transportation. The catering also leaves a lot to be desired. One pilgrim said that when she went in 2005, the meals were the same every day: rice and string beans.

During the hajj between December 2006 and January 2007, the pilgrims’ rituals were disrupted when a local caterer stopped delivering meals after officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs tried to bargain down the catering bill. More than 3,000 pilgrims were forced to live off dates and instant noodles for several days. Some of them fainted due to inadequate food intake.

Dissatisfied customers compare the treatment of Indonesian pilgrims to those from Malaysia, who pay a similar amount for the hajj package but receive much better service. They are placed in better lodgings close to worship sites, receive better meals and transportation and even get a refund if the cost of the hajj ends up being cheaper than what they initially paid.

New problems for pilgrims have emerged this year, including delays in passports, being forced to pay for free-of-charge vaccines and luggage and more housing issues.

It has been discovered that around 260 out of 407 lodging sites booked for pilgrims have, as of Nov. 1, been unable to pass a new Saudi Arabian safety audit concerning the lack of emergency stairwells. As a result, 6,000 pilgrims risk being forced to lodge in houses even further away from places of worship.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs down plays the problems.

“Don’t worry, we’ll sort this out. Every pilgrim will be placed in decent housing. If the places are far away and cheaper, we will return the margin,” said Abdul Ghafur Djawahir, director of administration for the hajj.

Legislator Said Abdullah, a member of the House of Representatives Commission VIII overseeing religious affairs, said the new Saudi housing regulation was announced in June 2008, but the Ministry of Religious Affairs failed to react.

“The government doesn’t plan well. They never think of a Plan B,” said Said, a harsh critic of hajj management.

Then there’s the allegations of corruption. In July, Indonesia Corruption Watch released a report saying the ministry may have inflated the actual cost of the 2009 pilgrimage by around $700 per person. It submitted the report to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which in early November sent a three-person team to Saudi Arabia to monitor hajj management.

The KPK has already identified a number of irregularities, including unexpected fees and higher lodging costs.

The ministry denies the accusations by ICW, saying its calculations are different than theirs.

“Besides, people aren’t aware of the many indirect costs for the hajj, such as airport tax, the salaries of staff serving the pilgrims, and so on,” Ghafur claimed.

“And while flights are cheaper … [closer and higher quality] accommodation means that the costs for each pilgrim had to be increased.”

Nonetheless, there’s no denying that the ministry has been beset by irregularities. In 2006, former Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Hussein Al Munawar and hajj director general Taufiq Kamil were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for embezzling more than Rp 75 billion in pilgrimage funds between 2001 and 2004. Both have since been paroled.

Also in 2006, ICW reported the Religious Affairs Ministry to the KPK for allegedly misusing money from a hajj fund, including for travel allowances for members of House Commission VIII for law and legislation, and transport allowances for a House working committee. The group had previously reported the ministry to the KPK for discrepancies involving payments to then-minister Maftuh Basyuni.

Ade Irawan of ICW said the allegations against Basyuni were similar to those that landed Munawar in prison, and that the KPK was still investigating its reports.

What Needs to Be Fixed?
Ghafur said it was not easy organizing 200,000 pilgrims every year, sorting out lodging and transportation and competing with other countries to get the most convenient housing.

“Although we are the largest pilgrim group in the world, we don’t get any privileges. If we did, then other countries would also ask for them,” he said.

He went on to blame the Saudi government for frequently changing hajj regulations, such as airport service fees, the new passport requirement and most recently housing safety regulations.

Lawmaker Abdul Kadir Karding, the head of House Commission VIII, said the government seemed to lack diplomatic skills in lobbying the Saudi government about hajj-related problems, despite seemingly to have a strong bargaining position.

“Why isn’t there more permanent housing, like renting for 10 years, for example, which should decrease the housing problems pilgrims experience almost every year?” Karding said.

Then there was the transparency issue. Abdullah said the handling of hajj payments was unfair, such as the requirement that pilgrims pay a Rp 20 million deposit to be placed on the waiting list. This money can sit in an interest-bearing bank account for up to five years while the pilgrim awaits his turn.

“There are trillions of rupiah, and 80 percent of the interest earned is used to pay government staff who handle the pilgrimage, to pay for their uniforms, salary and so on. Why should the pilgrims also pay for those costs?” Abdullah said. “When we ask the ministry about this, they never give us a clear answer,” he said, adding that the House was not given sufficient access to monitor the hajj management.

Firdaus Ilyas, ICW’s coordinator for central data and analysis, said the Religious Affairs Ministry leaves itself at the mercy of its business partners for the hajj, such as Garuda Indonesia Airlines, which is the sole carrier of Indonesian pilgrims.

“In terms of accommodation and catering, the chain of business that needs to be dealt with is long, making the whole process expensive. The ministry lacks professionalism and a good system,” he said.

He added that the Law on Hajj Pilgrimage Management was too technical and did not clearly outline pilgrims’ rights.

Said wanted to see the central government establish an independent and professional hajj financial institution, rather than leaving it to a ministry.

“Since the Saudi government only wants to deal with governments, then the government can focus on handling the diplomacy, while everything else can be processed by the institution.”

Meanwhile, Sudaryatmo, a member of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, questioned why the central government was even involved in organizing and managing the hajj given that Indonesia isn’t an Islamic country.

“They shouldn’t be pushing the doctrine that the pilgrimage is a time to shed one’s ego and that pilgrims must be patient. It makes consumers reluctant to complain, for fear it will reduce the value of their religious service,” he said.

Posted by hera at 6:36 PM | Permalinks | Comments

Will Jakarta's MRT Arrive?

http://thejakartaglobe.com/jammedjakarta/will-jakartas-mrt-arrive/337367

Bangkok has one. So does New Delhi. Even Manila has a light rail system and Mexico City is building one, too. So why doesn't Jakarta, a Group of 20 nation and emerging global player, have a mass rapid transit (MRT) system?

With a population of 12 million residents and day workers, as well as abominable traffic problems, the city still is hobbling along with what experts call "traditional" forms of public transportation: buses, commuter trains, public minivans, swarms of motorcycle taxis and other small vehicles.

Preparations are under way for the construction of an MRT system that will run both above and below ground. Public financing appears to be in place and if all goes well, Jakarta could join other big cities in finally developing a coherent approach to transportation.

It can't happen soon enough, with the city in dire need of change. Experts estimate that traffic in Greater Jakarta causes economic losses of about $1 billion per year, nearly the price to build a new MRT system. They also say that total gridlock is possible by 2014 if nothing is done.

Past Stumbles

An attempt was made in 2004 to build a privately owned and operated monorail — it was limited in scope, but at least it was something. But when the financing failed to materialize it ground to a halt and the venture is now mired in a conflict between the city and the private company behind the proposal. The dormant pillars left behind in Central Jakarta are lasting monuments to its failure.

Sutanto Soehodo, a Jakarta deputy governor on transportation issues, said the idea of building an MRT system has been under discussion for the past 25 years. In the early 1990s, he said, the Jakarta administration and stakeholders such as the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology and the Ministry of Transportation included an MRT system as a future planning priority.

But once central government officials were told about the estimated cost, enthusiasm faded quickly.

"It was considered too expensive and the return would have been too small, because it was a public service obligation," Sutanto said.

The central government tried to find foreign loans at the time, Sutanto said, but donors considered the cost for a subway system or skytrain to be too high.

Even worse, transportation experts suspected that something sinister was behind the country's inability to secure loans. "This country is a huge market for automotive producers, like Japan. So, I'm guessing they have been reluctant to give us loans to build an MRT system because they don't want to lose the market,” Sutanto said.

Milatia Kusuma Mu'min, country director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, said the country has long been a dumping ground for vehicle producers. "The Dutch colonial [administration] did good by establishing a rail-based transportation system in Jakarta and other major cities," Milatia said. “But then as the Indonesian government looked for infrastructure grants in the 1970s, the system was turned into a road-based one, as requested by rich countries who gave the loans.”

A number of railroads were paved over, she said, and there hasn't been much development or many improvements to rail infrastructure for decades.

Demand for more effective and efficient public transportation has increased over the past several years, however, prompting both the central and Jakarta governments to start thinking more seriously about what to do.

"However, there have only been piecemeal projects and studies. Only five years ago, a master plan was made," said Bambang Susantono, deputy minister for infrastructure and regional development at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy.

"It’s not just a financial problem — it also has to do with the absence of political will. The economic losses [from traffic] are intangible, so the transportation issue does not become a priority," said Bambang, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Transportation Society.

Better Late Than Never?

With respect to the analogy about closing the barn door after the horses escape, the current Jakarta administration finally seems determined to begin construction of an MRT system, going both above and below ground, in 2011, with plans to have it operational by 2016.

M Akbar, head of road traffic engineering at the Jakarta Transportation Agency, said the MRT system would be based on the Macro Transportation Pattern plan, which was first created in 1994.

"It is a set of strategic guidelines to improve public transportation, restrict private vehicles and build roads," Akbar said.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency, which released a baseline study on an Integrated Transportation Master Plan (SITRAMP) in 2004, has also provided loans for the MRT project.

Negotiations, however, have been tough and became deadlocked in 2007, due to the absence of laws authorizing the construction of an MRT system and because the Japanese government wanted 75 percent of construction materials and components for the project to come from Japan.

The problems were finally resolved last year, enabling the Jakarta administration to set up PT Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta, a city-owned company that will oversee the planning, development and operation of the MRT system.

Eddi Santosa, corporate planning director at MRT Jakarta, said that JICA has agreed to provide about 120 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in loans, to be disbursed in four phases between 2008 and 2014. The loans have only 0.2 percent interest, with a 10-year grace period for payments and a 30-year payback timetable. "The central and Jakarta governments will share the burden of paying back the loans," Eddi said.

The agreement requires that 35 percent of construction materials be imported from Japan. The majority of consultants and 51 percent of the contractors also must be Japanese.

Aside from the loans, financing for the MRT system will also come from the central government and the Jakarta administration. The state will put up $260 million and the city will pitch in Rp 1.5 trillion (about $159 million).

Despite public skepticism, the project is already in the preparation and design phase, the latter of which is being handled by the Ministry of Transportation.

"Basic design [planning] will start [this month], and by 2011 or earlier, the construction is projected to begin," Eddi said. "The MRT system is scheduled to open in 2016."

That will be the first phase, serving 12 stations along a 14.5km route from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta, just south of the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle. The first eight stations will be elevated on 10.5-kilometers of track, while the remaining four will be underground.

Each train will have six cars, arrive at stations every 5.5 minutes and carry about 350,000 passengers daily. Fares will range from Rp 4,000 to Rp 10,000 for a one-way trip.

"We’ve learned from the MRT in New Delhi, due to the similarity in urban planning, passenger density and its success," Eddi said. "Their MRT runs on a 65km route and carries 900,000 passengers daily."

A second phase, after the first is complete, would extend the track north to Kota Tua, and another line running east-west is planned for after that.

Building the MRT will create even more traffic as it is being built. But the city Transportation Agency's Akbar said that the city government had anticipated this and planned to widen affected roads, such as Jalan Fatmawati and Jalan TB Simatupang in South Jakarta, beginning by the end of this year.

"We will also shift the traffic routes once construction begins, and operate a TransJakarta bus from Kebayoran Lama through Blok M and Sudirman, with hopes that people will transfer to this bus," Akbar said, referring to the city’s busway system.

Eddi said MRT Jakarta had considered every possible technical issue and contingency, including anticipating floods, fires and earthquakes. The company is also studying a second line that would stretch from Dukuh Atas northward to Kota. No date has been set to begin that project.

While an MRT system will make Jakarta more livable, it will not magically make traffic vanish, just as it hasn't in other major cities around the world.

"The MRT is not aimed at eliminating traffic jams, but it will increase mobility and improve the quality of life," Eddi said. "It will not have a significant impact unless it is integrated with other modes of public transportation."

Milatia from the ITDP said that the MRT system would connect to busway and commuter trains, as well short-distance transport “feeders,” such as taxis, bajajs and minivans. "The entire transportation system must be integrated and revitalized before the MRT operates," she said.

What About the Monorail?

Now that it appears the MRT project may finally see the light of day, questions still remain about the aborted monorail system, whose abandoned pillars are eyesores along roads in areas such as Senayan and Kuningan.

Sutanto, the deputy governor, said the monorail project was only given a passing mention in the Macro Transportation Pattern plan, due to overlapping routes with the MRT system and the fact that monorails by definition function more as status symbols for cities rather than serious transport solutions.

"In 2004, a privately financed initiative offered to develop it and only asked for the concession. The Jakarta administration at that time welcomed the initiative because it was in the public interest," Sutanto said, referring to former Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.

In return, the operator would have received a minimum revenue guarantee, meaning that if passenger numbers were under 16'000 people per day, the central and Jakarta governments would have subsidized the difference.

But the company, PT Jakarta Monorail, failed to secure financing from Dubai Islamic Bank, and after building the pillars, it officially abandoned the project in March 2008 due to legal and financial problems. The project is now being audited by the State Development Finance Comptroller to determine how much the city government will reimburse the company. The company is asking for $60 million to cover its losses, but the state auditing agency says it should only receive one-third of that amount.

Jakarta Monorail's president director, Sukmawati Syukur, denied that the company failed to secure financing, and instead blamed the Jakarta administration for failing to purchase private land to clear space for construction.

"We’d already signed an agreement with Dubai Islamic Bank. But the city government failed to meet its obligation, which was to clear the land, so the bank refused to disburse the funds," said Sukmawati, a relative of former Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

The city government, she said, also incorrectly referred to Presidential Decree No. 67/2005 on public-private partnerships, which requires tendered bids. "But we proposed the initiative in 2004, so [the decree] did not count," Sukmawati said.

She said the Jakarta administration had agreed when the contract was signed in 2004 to reimburse Jakarta Monorail if the project was not completed.

The administration denies that there ever was a reimbursement agreement, but Sutanto said the city government was trying to show goodwill by compensating some of the company's loss. "The monorail route was along roads that did not require the clearing of land. The pillars were erected, so there were no issues related to the clearing of land," he said, angrily. "We have given a shortfall ridership guarantee and we don't have any legal obligations because the project was started under their initiative. We don't even have to pay anything, but we still offered to settle the problem and continue the development. Just show some respect and don’t ask for such a large amount of money."

If the two sides eventually do reach a settlement, Sutanto said, the city will retender the project so the monorail line can still be built.

The plan is for the monorail to connect major shopping centers and buildings in Kuningan and Senayan. It would not serve commuters.

The case appears set to go before the National Arbitration Agency. Hopefully, the more ambitious MRT system won’t face similar headaches.

Posted by hera at 3:59 PM | Permalinks | Comments

Tobacco Seducing More Young People

http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/tobacco-seducing-more-young-people/278129

From 1950s heartthrob James Dean to Winona Ryder's chain smoking in “Reality Bites,” to Will Smith lighting up a cigar every time he kills an alien in “Independence Day,” Hollywood never ceases to glamorize smoking. In the past several years, however, thanks to health campaigns, such glamorization has been curbed on television and in the movies.

In Indonesia, though, not only are there no restrictions on heroes and heroines smoking on screen, the country is also one of only two that still allows cigarette advertising. The other is Zimbabwe, which like Indonesia is one of the largest tobacco exporters in the world.

As a result, global cigarette companies, whose sales have experienced a slump in the West, are pushing marketing campaigns in developing Asian countries like Indonesia. Just take a look at the television or walk the streets: cigarette commercials and gigantic cigarette billboards are everywhere.

“The worst thing is, the aggressive marketing is targeted toward youth,” said Widyastuti Soerojo, from the Indonesian Public Health Association's Tobacco Control Support Center.

The message has not changed: smoking is cool, manly or sexy, and is associated with success and money. And it works. Smoking prevalence among young people has increased, according to the Public Health Association.

An Early Start

Tobacco companies are even targeting children, sponsoring school events and giving out free packs of cigarettes to students.

Indonesia has 63 million smokers, and the World Health Organization's Global Youth Tobacco Survey of 2006 reported that more than 1 in 10 students aged 13 to 15 smoked cigarettes. The same survey also reported that 6 in 10 students were passive smokers, while a survey the year before by the Ministry of Health said a staggering 43 million children were exposed to smoke from the people around them. A number of studies also show that the age most Indonesians start smoking is as young as 10 years old.

Ade Priatna, a 16-year-old junior high school dropout in North Jakarta, admitted that the images from advertising, television and movies had influenced him and his peers to smoke.

"Peer pressure is also a factor. We'd call each other sissy if we didn't smoke," Ade said.

Taking Action

In a bid to prevent children from smoking, the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak) has requested the Supreme Court to issue a legal directive confirming that cigarettes contain addictive substances. Should the court do so, the central government would automatically be required to ban the sales of cigarettes to children and pregnant women.

The commission has also filed a judicial review against a 2002 law on broadcasting, on the grounds that cigarette advertising is increasingly targeting children.

Tobacco companies continue to regularly sponsor sports events and pop concerts in Indonesia, despite being banned from doing so in other countries such as the United States. Some foreign artists have even had to take a personal stand against the sponsorship.

Last year, singer-songwriter Alicia Keys asked Philip Morris International to pull down its promotional material at her show in Jakarta, or else she would refuse to perform. Keys acted after being alerted by the Washington, DC-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. She apologized, saying she was unaware of Philip Morris's sponsorship.

Addicted to the Industry

The government has taken only restrained steps to limit smoking and done nothing to ban advertising, claiming that millions of people are dependent on the tobacco industry, from farming and production to sales of cigarettes. The tobacco industry also paid more than $4.5 billion in taxes last year, or about 10 percent of the country's total revenue.

Many experts, however, have warned that the social and economic costs of tobacco far outweigh the financial benefits. The WHO estimates that 400,000 Indonesians die from smoking-related diseases each year.

"People are sick more often and are not being productive," said David Stanford, an advocacy consultant for the Indonesian Consumers Foundation.

He said statements from senior government officials that tobacco control, such as increased taxes, would kill the industry and the livelihoods of millions of people was just a myth. "Tobacco taxation actually increases government revenues, curbing the social impact and preventing health hazards," Stanford said.

Referring to a 2005 study by the Health Ministry's Research and Development Body, Widyastuti said the economic losses due to tobacco consumption in Indonesia were actually higher than the total tobacco tax revenues.

The survey revealed that tobacco use was attributed to about 400,000 deaths a year from 11 prominent smoking-related diseases. The total direct costs of spending on cigarettes and health care for smoking-related diseases was Rp 105.4 trillion ($10.22 billion), while total indirect costs due to loss of worker productivity was Rp 61.6 trillion.

The combined total of Rp 167 trillion, Widyastuti said, was about five times higher than the government's excise tax revenues. "It all boils down to addiction. The only solution is regulation to increase cigarette prices," she said.

Labels: health, social affairs, Tobacco

Posted by hera at 3:45 AM | Permalinks | Comments

The Cost of Smoking: How the Farmers Are Left Fuming

http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/the-cost-of-smoking-how-the-farmers-are-left-fuming/277951

Bojonegoro, East Java. The clock struck an hour past noon; the field was sweltering hot, without the hint of a breeze. But the tobacco farmers from Samberan village, a three-hour drive from the East Java capital of Surabaya, still went out to work the second shift that day.

The month of April is when the farmers start the five-month-long process of farming tobacco.

“It’s much easier to take care of a baby than to handle a tobacco plant,” said Iskak, who has been growing tobacco for more than 30 years and owns less than a hectare of land.

Tobacco is high maintenance, he said, and it takes several processes to get it to harvest, from land tilling to nurturing seedlings for a month before they take root. The plant requires just the right amount of water and is highly sensitive to the weather, especially rainfall patterns. Climate change has created headaches for the farmers, causing some of their crops to fail and degrading the quality of the surviving plants.

Then there’s the numerous attacks by pests in the past few years. “It used to be only caterpillars, but now there are fleas as well,” said Kadi, another farmer. “And insecticide just doesn’t work.”

On top of these troubles, after decades of growing and supplying tobacco to cigarette producers in Bojonegoro, including Gudang Garam, Dji Sam Soe, Wismilak and 369, the farmers seem little better off.

Insufficient Incomes

Government officials and tobacco companies argue that millions of people are dependent on the industry for their livelihood, but research shows that the farmers’ incomes are far below the national average and many of them, stuck in a cycle of poverty, seem eager to switch crops.

Tobacco use has increased almost sixfold from 35 billion cigarettes consumed in 1971 to 202 billion in 2004. However, land for tobacco cultivation only increased from 170,000 hectares in 1971 to 200,000 hectares in 2004.

Less than half of the 466 farmers in this village of 2,000 people own their land; the rest are peasants, earning Rp 30,000 ($2.85) or less a day. Many farmers are still living in homes with dirt floors.

Even those who own land say they wind up with meager profits. Farmers need to have at least Rp 18 million to plant a hectare of tobacco, Iskak said, with the money sometimes obtained by taking out a loan.

“A hectare of land produces about 1.5 tons, and if the quality is good, it’s sold for about Rp 13,500 a kilogram, or a total of Rp 20 million,” he said. “That only leaves us Rp 2 million profit, or Rp 400,000 a month.”

Big producers like Gudang Garam hold sway in villages like Samberan, leasing the farmers the land, lending them fertilizers and seeds, and deducting money from their crop payments.

But farmers say they have no say in the selling price and are at the mercy of the companies in other ways. Last year, Gudang Garam declined to buy the entire harvest of tobacco in Samberan, saying the quality was not good enough. The farmers were then forced to sell their tobacco for only Rp 3,000 to Rp 4,000 a kilogram, far below the market price, to traders who apparently resold the supply to the tobacco factories in the area, also below market price.

Last year’s losses forced Abdul Somad, a middleman between the farmers and the factories, to quit. He had received fertilizer and seeds from Gudang Garam to distribute to the farmers and later collected the harvested tobacco, receiving a commission from the company.

“I collected tobacco produced by 60 farmers, covering 25 hectares. Last year was tough because the company didn’t want to buy tobacco, leaving me with millions of rupiah in losses,” he said, adding that he would rather find a new job.

Not Worth the Risks

Farmers in other regions face the same situation, according to recent research by the Demographic Institute at the University of Indonesia’s School of Economics. Indonesia has 198,000 hectares of tobacco plantations, the vast majority in East Java, Central Java and West Nusa Tenggara, where the research was conducted.

The study shows that most farmers have worked for an average 16.82 years, farming 7.14 hours a day, but only earn Rp 413,374 a month — less than half the national minimum wage of Rp 883,693 a month. Women and children also work on the plantations and receive smaller wages.

Most of the farmers, regardless of whether they own their land, stay in modest houses with either dirt or cement floors.

“Such a low income is not worth it compared to the risks taken by farmers, like climate change, pests and price decreases,” said researcher Abdillah Ahsan. “Buyers also decide the prices and quality of tobacco and there is no standard set on them.”

There are about 40 grades of tobacco, according to the research, but no set determining standard, so it’s up to buyers to decide. In many cases, he said, they manipulate farmers by saying the tobacco they sell is of the lowest grade.

Farmers also complain, Abdillah said, that the price of fertilizers, insecticides and seeds are rising but the price of harvested tobacco remains stagnant. The maximum price is Rp 25,000 a kilogram.

Widening Wealth Gap

The farmers’ lack of fortune is in strong contrast to those of the cigarette giants. PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna reported Rp 9.10 trillion in sales in the first quarter of 2009, while Gudang Garam had Rp 7.65 trillion in sales.

Cigarette czars Michael Hartono and brother Budi Hartono, producers of Djarum, are the richest men in Indonesia with a collective wealth of $1.7 billion, earning them a place on Forbes magazine’s global billionaires list for 2009.

The Indonesian Clove Cigarette Producers Association and Gudang Garam could not be reached for comment.

Tulus Abadi, from the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, said new regulations on tobacco farming were urgent given how it’s practically controlled by the cigarette industry without any intervention by the government.

“Tobacco farmers have only been used as politicking tools and [ammunition] against tobacco critics,” he said. “The cigarette industry always manipulates the number of farmers.”

Figures from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2005 showed that there were 683,000 tobacco farmers, 258,000 people working in the cigarette factories and some one million more involved in distribution and trade.

But Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said that at least 12 million people depended on the cigarette industry for their livelihoods, and cited this as the reason why it was difficult for Indonesia to sign the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which provides a framework for controlling tobacco production and sale. State revenues from the tobacco industry totaled Rp 52 trillion in 2006, making it Indonesia’s largest taxpayer.

Indonesia joined 167 other countries in signing the treaty in 2004, but remains one of only four nations that have failed to ratify it. Without ratifying the treaty, there are no limits on tobacco production, while farmers remain powerless and have no bargaining power in setting tobacco prices.

“Cigarette producers can stock up tobacco for two years, unlike farmers. When asked to pay a higher price, they say they won’t buy the tobacco and that importing it is much cheaper,” Tulus said.

About 35 percent of Indonesia’s tobacco supply is imported, mainly from Zimbabwe.

Difficult Switch

The Demographic Institute’s research shows that about 65 percent of tobacco farmers want to find other jobs or businesses, even when they own their own land.

In Samberan, some farmers have already tried planting other crops. Last year, Bojonegoro district launched a project for farmers to plant melons and corn. The harvest was good but no marketing strategy was in place, so they couldn’t sell their produce at premium prices. Some melons and corn were never sold and rotted.

“There is also a problem with a lack of infrastructure, particularly water. So when the dry season comes, we can only plant tobacco,” Iskak said, adding that fertilizer was also scarce because most supplies were going to newly established plantations in the area.

The farmers’ dependency on cigarette factories remains high. Many women work as cigarette rollers, earning Rp 20,000 a day.

“If the cigarette factories are closed, for example, the economy of this village will subside and the unemployment rate will soar as tens of thousands of people in this district work at the factory,” said Azis Zainul Abidin, a teacher in Samberan who helped with the Demographic Institute’s research. “But farming [other crops] can be empowering; it can replace the cigarette factory in the economy.”

Abdillah urged the government to issue policies that can improve farmers’ welfare, for example, by providing alternative jobs. These, he said, can be combined with an increase in the tobacco excise tax and the additional state revenue can be allocated to help farmers switch to other crops.

Labels: social affairs, Tobacco

Posted by hera at 3:40 AM | Permalinks | Comments