E N G L I S H

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OUTREACH HEALTH WARRIORS

NOVEMBER 19-25, 2012 INDONESIA’S NEWS WEEKLYISSN: 1411 - 6065WWW.TEMPO.CORP30,000

END OF A PIPE DREAM

LAW CLEMENCY FOR A DRUG QUEEN

1313/NOVEMBER 19-25, 2012

E N G L I S H

00013

9 771411 606501

OUTREACH HEALTH WARRIORS

NOVEMBER 19-25, 2012 INDONESIA’S NEWS WEEKLYISSN: 1411 - 6065WWW.TEMPO.CORP30,000

END OF A PIPE DREAM

LAW CLEMENCY FOR A DRUG QUEEN

Cover: Kendra Paramita

ESTABLISHED in July 2002, the oil and gas regulator BP Migas met its end when the Constitutional Court ruled it to be unconstitutional, ordering its immediate dissolution last week. Six hundred employees and jittery contractors of BP Migas are left in the lurch. Who are the losers and the winners in this seemingly smoke-and-mirrors political play?

END OF A PIPE DREAM

Outreach

Health Warriors

PUBLIC health centers—better known as puskesmas—spearhead the delivery of health services in Indonesia. Often, however, they provide sub-standard services, neglecting to address even the most basic of health problems. But people in Kekeri village in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara and in Biaro, Agam in West Sumatra, decided to take matters into their own hands. Today, the two puskesmas provide much better health services than ever before. On the occasion of National Health Day, Tempo English profi les these two village health centers.

Law

Clemency for a Drug Queen

THE clemency President Yudhoyono granted to drug dealer Meirika Franola alias Ola, who was sentenced to death, has prompted questions. Even as she basked in the presidential reprieve that saved her life, Ola was found to be dealing drugs from behind bars. Contrary to the palace’s contention that she was just a courier, the police have proof she is actually a major dealer.

24

Prelude

Capital Events 10

Cartoon 10

Indicator 7

Letters 6Picture Window 8

Opinion

Column 22

Opinion 11

Sidelines 78

National

National 14

Memoir

Memoir 58

Economy

Economy 44

SMEs 52

International

International 57

Photo Essay 54

Science &

Technology

Books 23

Envirobriefs 70

Arts

Arts 71

Profi le

Interview 74

On the Record 72

Scene & Heard 68

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LETTERS

Clarifi cation on Jhonny’s PromiseAS Commission XI leader at the House of Representatives (DPR) and

also head of the Merpati Working Committee in Commission XI, I found myself somewhat discomforted by two paragraphs contained in an arti-cle on the extortions of state-owned enterprises by legislators, published in the November 11, 2012, issue of Tempo magazine, page 30. The two paragraphs are as follows:

The former president commissioner of Merpati then explained how he was asked to pay a fee of Rp13 billion at a limited meeting in the offi ce of the leader of the Finance Commission at the end of last September. Accompa-nied by some directors, Rudy was asked to confi rm that he would fulfi ll Jhon-ny’s promise. “Zulkifl imansyah led the meeting.” Rudy said he threw his hands up when it came to bribery. “Even an in-law of the president was put in jail,” he said.

A Tempo source in that commission confi rmed Rudy’s story. He said that Finance Commission vice-chairman Zulkifl imansyah asked about a fee be-cause one of his members asked that it be paid after the news that some com-missioners had already been given fees. “Pak Rudy didn’t dare give any-thing,” they said on Tuesday last week.

We would like to clarify some facts regarding the two paragraphs above.

1. It is true that a closed meeting was held in the Finance Commission leader’s offi ce. The meeting occurred on October 1, not at the end of Sep-tember. It is indeed true that I led that meeting.

2. During that meeting, as far as we know, the only discussion was about the business plan of Merpati’s new management and whether it has any correlation to the previous business plan. Because, after all, the 2012 state capital investment is still related to the old business plan from Merpati’s previous management. The new management answered clear-ly that there is no connection between the new management’s business plan and that of the previous management’s. They hold no responsibility over anything that is related to the old management.

3. In that meeting, there was never any talk or discussion about a Rp13 billion tribute. I did not ask for that fee, nor was I urged by the members to do so.

4. I ask for explanation from Merpati’s new CEO Rudy Setyopurno-

Chief Editor Wahyu MuryadiDeputy Chief Editor Yuli IsmartonoExecutive Editor Hermien Y. KledenSenior Editor Richard Bennett Editor Lucas EdwardReporter Sadika HamidEditorial Staff SyarifaniAdvertising Section Melly Rasyid (Head)Translators Aris Prawira, Brady Buddviar, Farlan William, Jafar Karim, Jennifer Lindsay (Sidelines), Josh Mitchell, Kendisan Kusumaatmadja, Judistira Moeis Pontoh, Laura Rotinsulu, Marianus Kleden, Marjorie Suanda, Mohamad Hamid, Nataya Ermanti, Oik Yusuf Araya, Sakia Kyu, Tamalia Alisjahbana, Tatu Maulani

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E N G L I S H

Also follow the polling at www.yahoo.co.id

Next Week’s PollsDo you think that Rhoma Irama is suitable to run in

the 2014 presidential election? We look forward to your comments and answers at www.tempo.co

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 7

Waiting for Ethics Council Action

mo regarding that particular article of Tempo. Through the Black-Berry Messenger instant messaging service, he replied, “I said that when you led the meeting there was no discussion about the Rp13 billion tribute. I explained to Pak Dahlan that Pak Zul who led the meeting prevented the question from being directed towards Jhonny’s commitment instead, and Pak Zul declared that the case is closed. That is my explanation, sir. Best Regards.” In another BBM message, Merpati CEO said, “I will explain later to the DPR’s Ethics Council, but not to the media because I am avoiding the me-dia, sir. Regards.”

Therefore, I would like to clarify that the closed meeting con-tained no discussion about a Rp13-billion tribute. I did not request a fee to be distributed to members of House Commission XI.

DR ZULKIEFLIMANSYAH

House of Representatives’ Commission XI Deputy Chief

Be Careful with CitilinkFROM many days earlier, I had already booked the plane tick-

et to return home to Java. I chose a fl ight on Wednesday night, No-vember 14, because it was an ideal time for me as I would have fi n-ished work and was about to have a long weekend.

Before 7pm, I had arrived at Lombok International Airport to check-in because my fl ight, 663PK-GGP, was scheduled for depar-ture at 8:30pm. To my surprise, I learned that the plane had al-ready taken off . The offi cer said that the plane departed at 5:40pm. Eight other people were also left behind. I was deeply disappoint-ed as I was unable to immediately see my child and sick wife.

That night, the district manager tried to fi nd us another plane from a diff erent airline, while we were lodged in a hotel closest to the airport. We fi nally managed to board a Batavia aircraft sched-uled for departure the following day at 7am.

I would like to tell every Citilink passenger to be careful, so that what happened to me will not be repeated in the future.

MUKHLIS WIBOWOKarangkidul 611, South Magelang

Magelang

Unsatisfi ed by JNEON Monday, October 15, 2012, I decided to use JNE’s YES (One-

day Delivery) premium package to Makassar with receipt number TGRF800001826112. Against my expectation, the package failed to arrive at its destination the next day.

I protested to JNE. They said that I could get my money refund-ed at the agent who carried out the delivery. The agent, however, refused to do so, saying that I must fi rst confi rm the matter to the larger agent. JNE’s apparent attempt to escape responsibility is in-consistent with its advertisement: “YES, One-Day Delivery with Money Back Guarantee.”

EKA AYUKebayoran Center Blok A 11-15

Jl. Kebayoran Baru, Mayestik, Jakarta

THE hot potato, thrown by State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, is now with the House of Representatives (DPR) . Dahlan’s report that some members from the House allegedly requested kickbacks from managing directors of state-owned enterprises is fi nally at the top of the ‘actionable’ pile on the DPR Ethics Council’s table.

Ethics Council Chairman M. Prakosa, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, assures that the council will process Dahlan’s report. A number of state-owned enterprises, which allegedly were being extorted by DPR politicians, are soon to be called. PT Merpati and PT Garam say they are ready. So far only Ismed Hasan Putro, CEO of PT RNI, has been examined by the council.

Yet even then some House members ridiculed the process. They claimed that Dahlan’s report is not accompanied by strong evidence. “There is no proof, only information that Dahlan received from state-owned enterprises’ directors,” said Prakosa.

Maybe because of such “a priori” attitude and the public’s belief that DPR members are not serious in eradicating corruption, most Tempo.co and Yahoo! Indonesia readers conclude that Dahlan’s report will reach a dead end.

More than 90 percent of respondents from both sites do not believe that that the Ethics Council will take stern action against DPR members who allegedly requested kickbacks from state-owned enterprises.

INDICATOR

Do you believe, that the Ethics Council of the House

of Representatives (DPR) will take fi rm action

against House members proven of extorting money

from State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)?

(November 7-14, 2012)

Yes6%(463)

Total: 7,520 (100%) Total: 1,528 (100%)

Unsure 3%(201)

No 91%

(6,586)

No 95.68% (1,462)

Yes 3.08% (47)

Unsure 1.24% (19)

PICTURE WINDOW

WANTON DESTRUCTION.

The Forestry Ministry last week destroyed hundreds of mounted and stuffed animals that had been in the hands

of private collectors. Among the 258 animals were 48 endangered species, including of 15 Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae), 2 honey bears (Helarctos

malayanus), 22 birds of paradise (Paradiseidae) and 48 deer antlers. The burning at Manggala Wanabakti is meant to

discourage and prevent the illegal trading of wild animals.

PHOTO: TEMPO/DASRIL ROSZANDI

10 | | OCTOBER 25, 2012

email to tickets@heavyboogie.com. For more detail please call 62-21- 572 5559.

SEMINAR Permata Bank and Erasmus Huis proud-

ly present Via PanAm—Kadir van Lohuizen photo seminar on November 19, 7pm-9pm, at Auditorium Erasmus Huis, Jalan H.R. Ra-suna Said Kav. S-3, Jakarta. For more de-tail please call 085692021655, email info@pannafoto.org or log on to erasmushuis-in.nlmission.org

MOVIE Bennie Stout, November 24, 1:30pm-4pm,

at Auditorium Erasmus Huis, Jl. H.R. Rasu-na Said Kav. S-3, Kuningan, Jakarta. For more detail please call 62-21 524 1069 or log on to erasmushuis-in.nlmission.org ●

CARTOON

CAPITAL EVENTS

CAR

TOO

N: P

RIYA

NTO

S

DANCE PERFORMANCEAndara Firman Moeis Dance presents

Memo-Lusion on November 23-24, 8pm-10pm, at Salihara, Jl. Salihara No. 16, Ke-bagusan, South Jakarta. For more detail please call 62-21-7891202 or log on to sali-hara.org

MUSIC PERFORMANCE

❭❭ Kom Art Fest 2012: The Beatles Jif-fyjive! on November 24, 7pm-12pm, at Roll-ing Stone Cafe, Jl. Am-pera Raya No. 16, Ci-landak Timur, South Jakarta. For more de-tail log on to www.loveindonesia.com

❭❭ The 35th Jazz Goes To Campus on Novem-ber 25, 11am-11pm, at Universitas Indone-sia, Jl. Kampus UI, Pondok Cina, Depok. For more detail log on to jgtcfestival.com

❭❭ Adidas together with Breathe and Stop present Laced Up Tour 2012 on Novem-ber 23, 9pm, at Equinox, Senayan Square complex, Jl. Asia Afrika No. 8, Central Ja-karta. Ticket: Rp150,000. For reservation,

*Who’s behind Franola?

THE Constitutional Court must not go by its suspicions alone, when ruling in a case. Neither should it be emotional, even if those asking for a judicial review

are prominent individuals and dozens of Is-lamic organizations, including Muhammadi-yah and Nahdlatul Ulama. They asked for a re-view and demanded the dissolution of the up-stream oil and gas regulator, BP Migas.

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud Md. seems to have ignored the principle of ap-plying caution when he announced the disso-lution of BP Migas. This magazine is in agree-ment with constitutional justice Harjono, who put forward a dissenting opinion, contradict-ing the majority of the judges. The guardians of the constitution appear to have shown in-suffi cient caution over one absolutely essen-tial component of a hearing: the legal stand-ing of the plaintiff . The individuals and orga-nizations asking for the judicial review do not have a direct interest in the fundamentals of the case, and therefore their request should have been dismissed.

The court annulled several articles of Law No. 22/2001 on Oil and Natural Gas. The provisions on which the establishment of BP Mi-gas were based, were seen as opening the way to the liberalization of oil and gas management. The legal considerations, seemingly anti-foreigner in sentiment, are very strange because this law was a product of the reform era, whose key fi gures are well-known na-tionalists. The president at the time was Megawati Soekarnopu-tri, the speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly was Amien Rais, and the House of Representatives (DPR) was then led by Ak-bar Tandjung. Interestingly, two of the Constitutional Court judges now in favor of dissolving BP Migas were members of the DPR that enacted the Oil and Gas Law.

There is no way of avoiding foreign companies in this nation’s oil and gas business sector. Exploration on a massive scale is needed to increase oil and natural gas reserves. The off shore drilling needed requires a huge investment of at least US$20 million per well. Each well in shallow waters costs at least US$2 million. Only foreign com-panies have the means to raise these amounts of capital.

It is also strange that the court felt that BP Migas had the poten-tial to be ineffi cient and that its working practices enabled abuses of authority. Following this train of logic, it is diffi cult to fi nd any state body that is constitutional and has no potential for abuse or inef-fi ciency. This is why an oversight system is needed, which unfor-

tunately BP Migas did not have. But this prob-lem could have been solved with a revision to the Oil and Gas Law to establish a superviso-ry agency.

A public body not mentioned in the con-stitution is not necessarily unconstitution-al. There was nothing wrong constitutionally with establishing BP Migas. The state interest in the organization was protected by two insti-tutions directly elected by the people, name-ly the president and the DPR. The degree of state involvement in BP Migas was very high because its chairman was appointed and dis-missed by the president, in consultation with the DPR.

It is not impossible that there were abus-es or even corruption in the body that man-aged projects valued at around Rp300 tril-lion. If the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) sus-pected manipulation of the working contracts to the tune of US$1.7 billion (conversely, BP Mi-

gas claimed the BPK declared it to be in order without exception), then it was only necessary to investigate these alleged abuses. The charge by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) concern-ing potential state losses of Rp152 trillion also need to be proven. If this did happen, those responsible should be prosecuted, without having to throw the baby out with the bath water.

The Constitutional Court has made its decision, and its rulings are fi nal. The government needs to implement it immediately. The work unit under the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the tempo-rary replacement for BP Migas, must fi ll the vacuum. Legal certain-ty of contracts needs to be maintained to prevent negative impacts on investment. The oil and gas sector is very sensitive. Besides need-ing massive investment and high technology, it is a long-term busi-ness venture. It is understandable if people are now worried: if the mighty BP Migas can be dissolved, what about contracts?

In the long term, the new body or state-owned enterprise that will represent and implement the governance function must be better, be more transparent and more accountable. The organization must be strong, and be staff ed with professionals of unquestionable integ-rity. The proceeds from oil and gas must not in colloquial language, “merely move from the tiger’s mouth to the crocodile’s mouth.”

The government has its work cut out, following the demise of BP Migas. It must improve the declining numbers for oil lifting and at the same time guarantee maximum revenues from oil and gas to bring about prosperity for the people.

● FULL STORY PAGE 34

END OF A PIPE DREAM

OpinionTEMPO, NOVEMBER 19-25, 2012

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 11

Opinion

THE arguments over whether clemency should have been granted to Meirika Franola, alias Ola, continue, to the yawns of all concerned, because something is still very unclear. Clemency is the prerogative of the president.

That is clear. When clemency is being considered, the president can ask for advice from the Supreme Court and other legal institu-tions, which is clear too. The fact is that when it was asked its opin-ion about granting clemency to Ola, the Supreme Court voiced its opposition. That was crystal clear.

What remains unclear is what the president took into consider-ation when he granted Ola clemency. If it is seen as confi dential, and the president is willing to take full responsibility for it, that would be acceptable. But one thing must be clear and transpar-ent to the public: were the considerations related to the conduct of the person asking for clemency, or to a new presidential policy that views the death penalty as a breach of the constitution?

This unanswered question has given rise to suspicions. Some beleive that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono granted Ola clemency because he sees her as merely a courier, not a drugs mastermind or traffi cker. But it turned out that Ola, who was granted clemency on September 26, 2012, was able to control the drug trade from inside jail. This came to light following the arrest of a drug smuggler in Bandung, who claimed Ola was the brains behind the smuggling of crystal methamphetamine from India into Indonesia.

If the reason Yudhoyono granted Ola clemency had nothing to do with whether or not she was a courier or a drugs mastermind, but entirely because the president opposes the death penalty, that would be a diff erent problem. The president would then have to grant clemency to every person on death row throughout the coun-

try, without exception, whether they have been convicted of drugs off enses, terrorism or anything else. The public must be informed of this new presidential policy, and perhaps it would need a new law. Of course there must be a debate to decide whether our legal system should still employ the death penalty.

In the Ola case, the revocation of this clemency—which the pal-ace has said is a possibility—should not happen. In addition to being unethical, “swallowing your own spit” as the saying goes, would give the impression of inconsistency. We must remember it con-cerns the life of a person. If there is no legal certainty, and this be-comes a precedent, clemency could be revoked if there was pres-sure. Where would the president’s authority be if that happened?

The best option is to put Ola on trial for the most recent case, af-ter the clemency was granted, namely the charge that she was be-hind the smuggling of crystal methamphetamine into Bandung. If she is found guilty, she would face the harshest punishment still in force: death. This should be easy to apply given that she repeated her earlier crime, ruining the lives of young people. There are oth-er articles the public prosecutors know only too well and on top of these would be the most serious crime: squandering the clemency granted by the president.

If Ola was sentenced to death a second time, matters would be much clearer. If the president granted clemency again, it would mean he had “other intentions” other than ending the death pen-alty. If clemency was refused, the execution would go ahead. A fi rm stance is needed from the president and his aides to eradicate drugs, a problem that is growing worse in this nation.

This would be far more important than worrying about whether the drug mafi a has penetrated the Palace or not.

● FULL STORY PAGE 24

TRYING to solve Jakarta’s traffi c congestion problems by building new toll roads is like trying to stop a leak by buying a bucket. No matter how many kilometers of roads are built—toll or otherwise—it would not be enough to accommodate

the new cars coming into the city. Congestion will occur as long as the problem of rising demand for cars in the city is not addressed.

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, who has yet to approve the con-struction of these six city toll roads, should take a stand and op-pose them, as he said he would a few months ago during his elec-

tion campaign. But so far, he has not offi cially notifi ed the Ministry of Public Works of his plan to reject it.

As Jokowi said, the construction of new toll roads would only benefi t owners of private cars and add to the city’s traffi c burden. New toll roads would encourage more cars to enter the city. This opinion is shared by the signatories to a petition launched by the Ruang Jakarta (Rujak) Center for Urban Studies and Change.org op-posing the building of the roads.

If the wrong logic is used, people might conclude that new roads

MISPLACED MERCY Meirika Franola, a convicted drug dealer, was granted clemency. Controversy arose when Yudhoyono, who granted the clemency, was not transparent.

NO MORE TOLL ROADS!The funds allocated for the construction of six toll roads could be used to improve the public transportation system.

12 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

would reduce traffi c congestion. They assume that cars current-ly blocking the old roads would be taken out of circulation. But a glance at the alarming data on Jakarta’s traffi c shows this to be mis-taken. At present, during the day, there are 2.5 million cars in Ja-karta—a total that does not include the almost 1 million commodity vehicles and buses. If the average car is 2.5 meters long, 2.5 million vehicles need 6.25 million meters. If buses and trucks are added, the requirement is 9 million meters. However the total length of Ja-karta’s roads (toll and ordinary) is only 6.7 million meters.

Fortunately not every vehicle is on the road at the same time, and many roads have more than one lane. But even with this state of af-fairs, cars in Jakarta average only 15-20 kilometers per hour. The building of less than 70 kilometers of new toll roads will not solve this problem. With 200,000 additional cars every year, as has been the case for the last few years, there will always be traffi c congestion.

If the government is serious about tackling traffi c problems, it

should prioritize improvements to the public transportation sys-tem. One cause of gridlock is Jakarta’s poor public transportation. The city’s buses are uncomfortable, they run late and they are un-safe, prompting middle-class car owners to go in their own vehi-cles. Therefore the Rp42 trillion allocated for the six toll roads could be used instead to improve the public transportation system.

A dual-line monorail network and coaches capable of carrying 390,000 people per day would cost Rp3.6 trillion. With the funds set aside for the toll roads, we could build nine additional lines. This would mean that more than 2 million people could be provided with transportation every day. The funds could also be used to build the Lebak Bulus-Dukuh Atas subway line, which would cost Rp17 tril-lion—a fi gure that Jokowi says could be reduced even further.

Jokowi has no choice. He must realize his own campaign call: “Move people, not cars!”

● FULL STORY PAGE 20

WEST Java looks like a venue preparing for a fi lm fes-tival. Advertising hoardings, banners and posters of celebrities are all over Indonesia’s most populous province, despite the fact that the real ‘festival’ or the

upcoming gubernatorial election is not happening until February. Most importantly, it has nothing to do with the movies. But all the parties are competing to highlight their stars of the silver screen.

Ahmad Heryawan, the incumbent, is running with Deddy Miz-war, who played the leading role in the 2007 fi lm Nagabonar. Dede Yusuf, the incumbent deputy governor, starred in Catatan si Boy (1987), while the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) candidate Rieke Diah Pitaloka, acted in Berbagi Suami (2006), whose new running mate is someone quite diff erent, anticorrup-tion activist Teten Masduki.

It is easy to guess what goes on in the minds of political party chiefs when they recruit movie stars. The opinion polls have become the ‘gods’ of this political contest. By recruiting movie stars, the parties do not have to work too hard to make their candidates popular, an onerous and expensive exercise. The public already know these ac-tors, even if they know nothing of their politics. And this ‘recipe’ has now been used by Ahmad Heryawan, who has led West Java for al-most fi ve years. He will recruit Deddy Mizwar as his running mate.

However, West Java’s main problem is not a shortage of mov-ie stars, but corruption and poverty, together with a breakdown of inter-religious harmony. The number of poor people stands at 4.5 million, or 10.09 percent. This is worse than Bangka-Belitung, Banten or North Maluku. And the province is the site of disharmo-ny and rights violation, where violence is often directed at religious groups. According to the Public Advocacy and Studies Board, in the fi rst four months of this year, there were nine cases of violence,

the highest number in Indonesia.The most worrying problem of all is corruption. Indonesia Cor-

ruption Watch data for this year shows that at least 13 cases have re-sulted in West Java offi cials being tried. Moreover, the Indonesian Forum for Transparency has recorded 363 cases of violence that have cost the state a total of Rp32.5 billion—as noted in a release from the BPK or Supreme Audit Agency, at the start of this year.

Because so many regional bureaucrats have ended up in court, perhaps the spectacle of offi cials on trial is now giving the soaps a run for their money. Three offi cials were suspended after being charged with corruption: Subang Regent Eep Hidayat, Bekasi Dep-uty Mayor Mochtar Mohamad, and Bogor Deputy Mayor Achmad Ru’yat. Garut Regent Agus Supriadi was sentenced to 10 years after he was found guilty of embezzling regional budget funds from 2004 to 2007. West Bandung Regent Abubakar was declared a suspect in 2009 in a case involving the disbursement of the government bud-get. Ciamis Deputy Regent Dedi Sobandi was jailed for two years and six months in 2005 for embezzling House budget funds. And even Danni Setiawan, Ahmad Heryawan’s predecessor, was jailed for embezzling funds allocated to the fi re department.

The short cut to election victory by using celebrities would mean something if these candidates had the competencies needed to ad-dress the problems of West Java. Unfortunately there have been so few signs of any such capabilities from these entertainers. If one of them is elected—because of popularity—it would mean an end to hopes for progress in West Java. Enthusiasm and sincerity might make up for defi ciencies in competency. But the election of the West Java governor that is costing Rp1 trillion, should tell us that the democratic process in this nation is far from healthy.

● FULL STORY PAGE 14

Celebrities are contesting the election for governor of West Java. Our democracy is not yet healthy.

IMAGE RESOLUTION

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 13

14 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

NATIONAL

AFTER announcing their candidacy in the election for West Java Governor and Deputy Governor on November 8, Rieke Diah Pitaloka and Teten Masduki de-

cided to wear white shirts. Rieke said white was a symbol of purity, which was also their slogan, in an attempt create a province free of corruption.

But they discovered they did not have the monopoly on white shirts. Two days later, fellow contenders Ahmad Heryawan and Deddy Mizwar also dressed in white when they declared their candidacy. Irianto M.S. Syafi udin and Tatang Farhanul Hakim was up next in wearing white shirts when they registered at the West Java General Elec-tions Commission (KPUD) in Bandung one day after. “In the end, at Jokowi’s sugges-tion, we wore plaid shirts when we went to the KPU,” said Rieke, a member of the House of Representatives (DPR) House T

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FIGHTING FOR POWER OVER PASUNDAN

Commission IX.Jokowi is Joko Widodo, Solo’s former

mayor who won the Jakarta gubernatorial elections last September. During his cam-paign, the Jokowi-Basuki Tjahaja Purnama running mates were well-known for their signature black-and-red plaid shirts. Then, two days after the announcement, Rieke and Teten were summoned by the the Indo-nesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), chairperson, Megawati Soekarnoputri, to her home on Jalan Teuku Umar, Jakarta.

Jokowi was waiting there. After discuss-ing options on the elections, Jokowi ad-vised Rieke and Teten to have a brand that voters could easily identify them with. “Just wear plaid again. There are still a lot left-

Rieke Diah Pitaloka and Teten Masduki submitting required documents to the West Java KPU, November 10.

Five pairs of candidates vying for the West Java governorship will battle in the elections next February, each of them hoping to get the “Jokowi effect” of the recent Jakarta gubernatorial polls.

WEST JAVA ELECTION

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 15

NATIONAL

16 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

over from the previous campaign,” he said. Rieke agreed at the practical suggestion. “Besides, we want to continue Jokowi’s spirit about change,” she said. “The plaid enthusiasm.”

Charges that she is riding on Jokowi’s success does not bother Rieke. “I need a role model,” she said. Besides, after trav-elling around to a few towns near Jakar-ta, she realized that there were still many Jokowi-Basuki volunteers. They include factory workers in Bekasi, also employees in offi ces in Depok and Bogor, who contrib-uted and bought the Jokowi black-and-red plaid shirts. “They are the potential voters we need to work on,” stated Rieke.

As a result, Rieke stays in Bandung more often now. During the long weekend last week, she was seen going back and forth to the West Java PDI-P headquarters. Rieke, the woman who played Oneng in the sitcom Bajaj Bajuri, is enthusiastically planning a winning strategy. She has three months be-fore the upcoming February elections.

Rieke’s party gave her a very limited time to run her campaign. Two years ago, she was asked by the West Java PDI-P chief , Rudy Harsa Tanaya, to run as a candidate for West Java’s deputy governor during an internal party selection. Those interested in running were to be selected during a PDI-P convention in Surabaya last October 12-14. Rudy himself applied to become a can-didate for governor.

Some regents also applied, including the one from Kuningan, Aang Hamid Suganda; Sumedang regent, Don Murdono; and even Subang regent, Eep Hidayat, who was once embroiled in a graft case. After submitting her application, Rieke started to make her-self publicly known by putting up posters in some regencies. Before the campaign in-tensfi ed, she posted pictures of herself, and a strong message on rejecting the plan to in-crease the price of fuel. It was a big issue last July. “But I was still planning to run ff or the deputy governor job,” she said.

The PDI-P hired a survey institution to determine the most popular names from the party and Rieke’s always appeared at the top of the list. Since then, Rieke was en-couraged to apply as a gubernatorial candi-date. Tubagus Hasanuddin, Rudy’s succes-sor, then got Teten as candidate of Rieke’s deputy. At the time, Megawati implicitly agreed to support Rieke who had quietly lobbied the PDI-P elite and elders. “West Ja-

va’s governor should be a woman,” Hasan-uddin said, quoting Megawati.

Nevertheless, a battle inside PDI-P to de-cide who should run, took place. Yusuf Ma-can Eff endi, popularly known as Dede Yu-suf, a candidate supported by the Democrat Party, met up a few times with Taufi q Kie-mas, Megawati’s husband and chairman of the party’s Advisory Council. Dede had in-tended to form a coalition with PDI-P.

He was willing to be paired with a regent whose name was included in the list of PDI-P’s candidates. Aang Suganda went so far as to make an open statement that all the regents would support Dede. As a result, Dede was optimistic that he could form a partnership with a PDI-P candidate. How-ever, after examining the results of the sur-

vey, the PDI-P elite decided they would feel more at ease going their own way. With 17 seats in the West Java Regional Represen-tatives Council (DPRD), the party would be able to support a candidate of their own, without having to coalesce with another party.

Teten was also scrutinized in the selec-tion process by the PDI-P seniors. “But it only took half an hour for Kang Teten. My interview took three hours,” said Rieke. A week before the announcement, Rieke and Teten were asked to meet Megawati. Rieke later reported that Mega supported their candidacy. “I know you two don’t have any money. Try and think of ways to raise some,” said Mega, as explained by Rieke.

To cut costs, Rieke and Teten quickly as-

WEST JAVA ELECTION

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 17

signed themselves to diff erent tasks. Rieke was to focus on acquiring voters through the party. She already has the “capital” to do so. Eight out of 18 regencies, plus the nine townships in West Java are already headed by PDI-P cadres. Meanwhile, Teten will reach out to activists. Teten’s anti-cor-ruption movement network and his role as the Secretary General of Transparency In-ternational Indonesia would make it easier to communicate with non-government or-ganizations.

Their strategy was to be carried out by a campaign team led by Tubagus Hasanud-

din. “We will take on the same strategy we used to help Jokowi-Ahok win,” stated the retired major general, the former military secretary of President Megawati.

However, because there are six times as many more voters in West Java as in Jakar-ta, it will not only be the party’s elite going out and getting the votes. “Everyone who has a PDI-P card must participate,” he said. The campaignteam also included the par-ty’s elite, as well as regents and executives of the local PDI-P chapters.

Hasanudding is not worried about Rieke and Teten’s lack of experience in gov-erning, which would have lessened their chances of winning. He explained that ac-cording to the PDI-P survey results, peo-ple wanted a governor who was clean and able to bring West Java out of its stigma as the most corrupt province. “That’s why they are the perfect pair. As for bureaucrat-ic management, we can rope in the help of experts and academics,” he said.

Rieke-Teten is not the only team to emu-late Jokowi’s popular moves and clean im-age. Ahmad Heryawan, the incumbent candidate from the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS), had selected actor Deddy Miz-war as his vote-getter. Deddy has also em-ployed the services of Eep Saefulloh Fatah, the Polmark Indonesia director, the politi-cal consultant who also aided Jokowi in his campaign.

Deddy’s candidacy is followed by three other famous actors. “Aher is smart, Ded-dy is currently one of the top commercial stars,” said Iwan Sulandjana, West Java Democrat Party chief.

The Democrat party is supporting Dede Yusuf, who was backed by the National Mandate Party (PAN) during the 2008 elec-tions. He has since switched to the Dem-ocrat Party after he decided to run in the West Java elections. According to Iwan, an internal Democrat survey revealed that Dede could win 57 percent of the votes in the 2013 elections.

So, during a high council meeting led by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Octo-ber 5, he set aside the other Democrat can-didates: Iwan Sulandjana, House of Rep-resentatives (DPR) member Daday Huda-ya, Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada, dangdut singer Teddy Suratmadji, and the Rector of Langlangbuana University, Brigadier Gen-eral Nana Rukmana.

Dede was then free to choose his own

candidate for deputy governor. Already well known as a big screen actor, he chose to look elsewhere to fi nd his running mate. His main priority was to fi nd a bonafi de bu-reaucrat. According to Saan Mustopa, dep-uty secretary general of the Democrat Par-ty, Dede had three discussions with Yud-hoyono in choosing his deputy. Two names popped up: Edi Darnadi, the West Java PAN Party and Regional Secretary, Lex Lasma-na.

Although they have enough seats in the West Java parliament, 28 in all, the Demo-crat party had always welcomed the op-portunity for coalitions with other parties. Saan reasoned that West Java province was too vast to manage alone. Hence the Nation-al Mandate Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), and recently, the Great Indo-nesian Movement Party (Gerindra), who failed to form an alliance with the PDI-P, de-clared would merge into a coalition. Some

Dede Yusuf and Lex Laksamana at the West Java KPU.

Rieke-Teten is not the only candidates to emulate Jokowi’s popular moves and clean image. Ahmad Heryawan, the incumbent candidate from the Justice and Prosperity Party, has selected actor Deddy Mizwar as his vote-getter. Deddy has also employed the services of Eep Saefulloh Fatah, the Director of Polmark Indonesia, the political consultant who aided Jokowi in his campaign.

NATIONAL

18 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

regents, considered successful, have been proposed as Dede’s partner—most of them from the PDI-P.

They include Sumedang regent Don Mur-dono and Kuningan regent Aang Suganda. As a result, there was a time when an at-tempt to unite the Democrat and PDI-P par-ties was ripe for discussion. Taufi q Kiemas even agreed to support Dede as candidate with a deputy from PDI-P. Yet Dede must still undergo a round of elimination in his party fi rst. After examining results of the survey, Rieke’s name rocketed to the top. causing the PDI-P elite to decide to run on their own.

Therefore, the names Lex and Edi, ac-cording to Iwan Sulandjana, was the main reason why the two largest parties in West Java to failed to coalesce. After seeing PDI-P’s candidate, it seemed odd forming an al-liance with them, said Iwan. “With Rieke? An actor with an actor? It would have been too complicated. Plus, Aang is Dede’s un-

cle, which is also not good,” said Iwan.Dede then chose Lex after getting a rec-

ommendation from PAN chairman, Hatta Rajasa, who also happens to be Yudhoyo-no’s in-law. Lex and Hatta have a close rela-tionship because they are both active mem-bers of the Bandung Institute of Technol-ogy (ITB) Alumni Organization. Dede also admitted to Democrat Party elites that he felt more comfortable working with Lex, because their families had become close. As an inexperienced deputy governor, Dede had much to learn about bureaucra-cy from Lex.

The Democrat High Council also took this into consideration when they agreed with Dede’s decision. Lex was to handle West Ja-va’s bureaucracy because he has served in the province’s administrative offi ce since 1977. He has served as regional secretary since 2006 and is also well-informed on government programs under Dede Yusuf’s vice-governorship. “Pak Lex is not well-

known, but he is more than qualifi ed on bu-reaucratic matters,” said Dede.

Saan thinks a coalition in West Java, a huge province, would be an inevitable ne-cessity. Dede’s celebrity can add to the Democrat votes, which booked 30 percent of the votes in the 2009 elections. They feel they have enough “capital.” Aside from the PDI-P cadres, most regents in West Java are Democrats. Party strongholds include Bekasi, Karawang, Bandung Rawa, Suka-bumi, Cianjur and Garut.

In the next three months, one out of the fi ve teams will be the new leaders of the Pa-sundan area.

● BAGJA HIDAYAT, WIDIARSI AGUSTINA, AHMAD FIKRI,

ANWAR SISWADI (BANDUNG) TE

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Dikdik and Cecep registering as West Java governor and deputy-governor candidates.

WEST JAVA ELECTION

NATIONAL

20 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

THIS is why Didi, an employ-ee at a private bank in Jalan Thamrin, and Anisa, who has a career in the heart of the business district in Kuningan,

hope that the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project will soon materialize. Their dream did come close to becoming a reality once, but that was before it was decided to halt this project, which costs nearly a trillion ru-piah per kilometer. The new governor of Ja-karta, Joko Widodo, says he still doubts the business calculations of the megaproject he inherited from Fauzi Bowo. It is felt that this project, built on a loan agreement from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, is too costly. The governor hopes that in De-cember he will be able to resume the proj-ect. At the end of this year, the MRT project will be put up for bidding, for the construc-tion of the fi rst stage of the 15-kilometer stretch from Lebak Bulus to the HI Round-about. Until then, deliberation meetings are the only scheduled activity.

“But don’t take too long,” said Anisa, “Don’t make people wait a long time with-out any explanation.” She rightly expects much, because that stretch of road present-ly takes two hours to travel. With the MRT, there is promise of just a 30-minute trip. An additional 8.1 kilometers reaching to Kam-pung Bandan in North Jakarta—the next phase of construction—will only take an ad-ditional 22 minutes. “It won’t matter if it’s full, as long as we can reach the destination

on time,” Didi added.According to Arief Heryanto, Director

of Railroad Infrastructure for the Direc-tor General of Railroads at the Ministry of Transportation, this kind of train can reach the speed of 120 kilometers per hour. How-ever, as the stations will not be more than a kilometer apart, the train will only reach 50 kilometers per hour.

At that speed, Arief added, the waiting period or headway between trains will be just fi ve minutes. “In the fi rst stage there will be 16 MRT trains operating from 5am to midnight, and each train will have six cars,” he said.

The MRT in Jakarta will use electricity

and communications-based train control (CBTC) technology. Its heart will be a con-trol tower in Lebak Bulus.

With this technology, the distance be-tween MRTs can be regulated. For instance, if they are too close, the trailing train will slow down on its own. In fact, when some-thing is wrong with a part of the track or a train, the MRT will stop automatically. “The concept is like the one in France, which is fully automatic but still supervised by an engineer,” said Arief. ● SYAILENDRA

The concept is a fully automatic railway to serve a target 400,000 passengers a day. Didi and Anisa share the dream of not “growing old on the streets.” For these two residents of South Tangerang, not having to head to work in the wee hours of the morning just to avoid traffi c delays would be a luxury.

THE PROMISE OF MRT IN JAKARTA

Computer graphic illustrations of MRT lines and stations.

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NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 21

CALCULATING TICKET PRICE

HADI Sritjahjo Legowo, Head of Planning at the Ministry of Transportation, said that MRT tickets in Jakarta could sell for Rp150 per kilometer. This price is in addition to the platform entry fee of Rp3,000. Each commuter

who travels from Lebak Bulus will have to pay Rp5,100 to reach the Dukuh Atas Sta-tion. If he goes to Kampung Bandan, the total cost will be Rp6,300.

The calculations for the cost of riding the MRT was made based on the basic engi-neering design two years ago. The price of tickets could change based on details in the engineering design and the company awarded the project.

According to Hadi, the Ministry of Transportation has predicted an increased in-come of 1.5 percent among the middle class in 2020. “At that time, it is hoped that passenger demand will exceed 378,000 people per day and 20,000 per hour dur-ing busy hours,” he said.

The targeted number of passengers could be even higher if the electronic road pricing scheme is applied to roadways along the same route. The Ministry of Trans-portation has already scoped out the area in question, covering Blok M, Semanggi, Manggarai, Dukuh Atas, Monas, Harmoni, and Kota.

“With the assumption of 309,594 four-wheeled vehicles and 478,669 two-wheeled vehicles which pass that way during peak hours, there will be an addition-al non-ticket revenue of Rp1.06 trillion in 2020,” said Hadi. ● SYAILENDRA

CLOSED TICKETING SYSTEM AND ELECTRONIC CARD THERE will ticket scanners.Passengers will have to scantheir tickets to exit the station.

Lebak Bulus

Fatmawati

Cipete Raya

Haji NawiBlok A

Blok M

Sisingamaraja Senayan

IstoraBendungan Hilir

Setiabudi

Dukuh AtasThe HI Roundabout

Lebak Bulus-HI Roundabout15.2 kilometersSeven stations above ground

SarinahMonas

HarmoniSawah BesarMangga Besar

Glodok

KotaKampung Bandan

Six stations 15 meters below main roads

HI Roundabout- Kampung Bandan8.1 kilometers

STATION Measures 4 x 170 meters and has space designated for retail shops. There are four doors for passengers to enter and exit the trains. The MRT and platform doors open simultaneously.

above ground

underground

CORRIDOR I

CORRIDOR II

TRAIN Speed: 50 kilometers per hour. Each train has six cars. Each car is 2.95 meters wide and 14.5 meters long. It has 42 seats with a total capacity of 160 passengers.

TEXT: SYAILENDRA

Column

AGING AND THE WORKING POPULATION

THE aging of the population is related to numerous factors, namely declining number of births, improve-ment in health care, medical technology, lifestyle, education and welfare.

Reduced number of births yields smaller number of young people. At the same time the number of elderly people keeps growing, due to the large size of the pre-family-planning genera-tion that grows older. Elderly people live longer and among them women outnumber men. All countries, Indonesia included, are confronted with the paradox of demographic trends: the rising number of senior citizens and the decline of young people.

By the mid 21st century there will be four times more elder-ly people aged 60 years and older living in Indonesia (75 mil-lion) compared with the condition in 2010 (18 million). More-over, the average life expectancy will further lengthen from 69.8 years in 2010 to 77.6 years in 2050.

Who is aff ected by population aging? The consequences of population aging are not limited to the growing number of el-derly group only. Aging is also aff ecting the working popula-tion. Increasing number of elderly persons are involved in var-ious jobs like in agriculture, schools, private companies and government organizations. Companies are facing consequenc-es of losing the employees who have reached the retirement age. Other senior employees will be laid off and replaced by the younger ones because seniority is related to higher salary.

Will replacement of senior employees by younger ones or fresh graduates (lacking in work experience and knowledge of the business culture) be the right solution to the problem of ag-ing? Policy makers and company leaders need to be aware of population aging and prepared to deal with its consequences, such as the possibility of extending the retirement age and re-utilizing the skills and expertise of senior staff or employees.

Growing number of the elderly persons causes a rising bur-den for the working population. The workforce will have to sup-port larger number of elderly such as paying the pension and care for the aged. In 2010, each 100 Indonesians of the working population had to take care of 12 aged persons. In 2050, they will have the responsibility to care for 43 senior citizens. The concern about the care for the elderly is no longer a problem of the future, as at present there are already 18 million elderly people, most of them live in the rural areas.

Population aging in Europe is more advanced than in Indo-nesia. The European Policy Centre noted that the EU will meet a shrinking labor force as from 2015 and need large number of diff erent professionals. For example, by 2020 between one and two million health care workers are needed. The Dutch rail-ways announced the urgent need of thousands workers (i.e. conductors, engine drives and fi tters) due to the aging of its per-

sonnel. (The current number of employees is around 26,000). How will the shortage of manpower in developed countries

be met? Employment agencies and companies are searching beyond borders, alluring skilled and (highly) trained persons from developing countries. Could nationals from these coun-tries resist the temptations? The migration of trained and expe-rienced nurses from Southeast Asia to Europe and Hong Kong is well noted. Indonesian nurses meet the professional qualifi ca-tions required by The Netherlands. At the same time there are shortages of nurses in regions outside Java. Tacitly we accept this skill drain. The importance of immigrants for the receiv-ing country is illustrated by a recent article in an English week-ly stating that among the 500 largest American companies 40 percent were set up by immigrants or their children.

Emerging nations, including Indonesia, should be aware that lack of manpower will become visible in the near future. By then these shortages cannot be met by merely recruiting workforce from other countries, because those countries will also be struggling with similar consequences of declining fer-tility and population aging. All countries should brace them-selves and appreciate their potential manpower by providing suitable training at well qualifi ed educational institutions and continuing education/training for employees for maintaining the achievement standards. At the same time the authorities should guarantee jobs corresponding to the qualifi cation of po-tential workers lest emigration might take place.

Are elderly people merely a burden to the society? The an-swer is no. The elderly are the source of knowledge, skill, expe-rience and wisdom. With the improvement in health status and extension of life expectancy elderly people can provide lon-ger contribution to the society. Besides, geriatric care provides (new) job opportunities for the working population. Care for the elderly stimulates the development of new technologies in medical care and tools/appliances, such as hearing aids, walk-ing sticks/devices, motorized wheelchair, appliances to pre-vent accidents among the elderly, therefore reducing the med-ical/hospitalization costs and improving the communications and mobility of the elderly. The supporting devices and tools can improve the quality of life of the elderly, prolong their inde-pendence and strengthen their self confi dence.

The future size and composition of Indonesia’s population and its consequences are the result of the demographic heri-tage of the past and the current population development. A de-clining number of the population, diminishing supply of work-force and rising aging of the population and subpopulations come into view and need to be addressed.

*NETHERLANDS-BASED ECONOMIST-DEMOGRAPHER AND CONSULTANT.

**NETHERLANDS-BASED, PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATOR AND GENDER SPECIALIST.

SANTO KOESOEBJONO* AND SOLITA SARWONO**

22 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

BOOKS

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 23

WHEN I pick up a new book to read I fi rst look for the pictures and have a quick peek at the index. So when

I picked up this book I did the same. From my initial speedy fl ick through there was apparently no photograph of Dr Joan Hard-jono, no index and worse of all for me the book fell open at a page that had all these statistical formulae that for me even today triggers nightmares harking back to uni-versity days—the terrors of statistics, quan-tum mechanics and calculus.

Then I pondered it is pretty diffi cult to review 12 individual essays in honour of a person I know really nothing about and do them all justice let alone the subject matter of the essays. So last week I invited myself up to Bandung for a cup of coff ee with Dr Hardjono and was, as well, kindly invited to stay for lunch.

Radiating warmth and care: Dr Joan Hardjono at her home in Jalan Riau, Ban-dung celebrating her 75th birthday in No-vember 2011 with family and friends (cour-tesy of her daughter Ratih Hardjono).

On my arrival I was warmly greeted by Joan in her modest old Dutch colonial home in the centre of Bandung and our conversa-

tion for the next three hours or so ranged from rural poverty to the problems of demo-graphic change with an aging population, the younger generation, income inequali-ty, shortcomings of education and environ-mental destruction. Her mind is sharp as a tack and her love for Indonesia is abundant-ly clear as well as her strong concern about overcoming these aforesaid problems. Her Australian accent still remains detectable af-ter almost 60 years here as well maintaining her laconic sense of humour.

I marvel at her endurance and fortitude bringing up her family during the ear-ly 1960s which were fraught with political chaos with raging infl ation. The most or-dinary items of household needs were just not available then. Most would have fl ed Indonesia if given half a chance but Joan stayed and contributed signifi cantly to In-donesia in her role as a wife, mother to four children, teacher to many and an in-dependent researcher. Then to cap it off in

history of the evolution of Indonesia’s for-estry law; and Ann Booth’s on “The Perfor-mance of the Indonesian Agricultural Sec-tor: Twelve Questions and Some Tentative Answers”—Chapter 4.

There are a couple of interesting and good essays on rural labor by Indonesian academics, obviously some of Joan’s for-mer students and research associates. In part, these address the worldwide problem of globalization and the current issue today in Indonesia of outsourcing; and recent de-partmental policies on labor which seem to be pro-employer rather than pro-employ-ee and run counter to the Indonesian Con-stitution.

There is also an essay with a detailed analysis of the outcomes of targetted pro-grams subsequent to the economic crisis in 1998-99—the Jaringan Pengaman Sosial (the social safety net) and another on SMEs (small to medium enterprises)

By the way, there is actually a photograph of Joan Hardjono in the book just behind the frontispiece and there is an eight page index at the end. Apparently my initial shock of those evil formulae paralyzed my brain and fi ngers from searching further.

● TIM SCOTT

BOOKS

A WORTHY PERSON TO BE HONORED

“LAND, LIVELIHOOD, THE ECONOMY AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN INDONESIA—ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF JOAN HARDJONO”EDITEDANNE BOOTH, CHRIS MANNINGAND THEE KIAN WIEPUBLISHED YAYASAN PUSTAKA OBOR INDONESIA,JAKARTA 2012

her 50s, some 20 years ago, did a doctorate on rural change and population growth in West Java. Joan Hardjono is some remark-able dame!

Turning to this book in Joan’s honour, the fi rst chapter by Anne Booth and Thee Kian Wie briefl y outlines Joan’s arrival in Indo-nesia and her life here. Most of the subse-quent essays are by her former colleagues and her students about Joan’s abiding in-terests to this day. These contributors are mainly Indonesian along with some well known foreign academics.

There is one exception, an essay by Co-lin Brown on the Bandung Conference in 1955 and Indonesian foreign policy. What this has to do with overall subject at hand I do not know? Perhaps it could have been massaged into something like “The Pover-ty of Politics—what Sukarno promised and failed.”

Most essays are well referenced which provides a very useful data base for any fur-ther reading or research.

For me, who is marginally involved in the resources industry, the most interesting es-says, were obviously essays by Rudi Reso-sudarma et al on “Forest Land Use Dynam-ics in Indonesia”—Chapter 3 with a clear

LAW

24 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

CLEMENCY FOR OLA

PRESIDENT Susilo Bambang Yudhoyo-no’s entourage air-plane had just land-ed at Halim Perdan-akusuma Air Force Base two weeks ago, when a Palace offi cial

asked journalists on board to stay behind. “State Secretary Sudi Silalahi will be hold-ing a press conference,” the offi cial said.

Initially, the journalists thought that Sudi would be outlining the results of the Bali Democracy Forum, an event attend-ed by Yudhoyono, a few heads of state and

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has commuted the death sentence of inmate Meirika Franola, doing time for drug dealing. Recommendations to reject the clemency were ignored.

world democracy leaders. But Sudi wanted to discuss something else: his ressponse to a statement by Constitutional Court Chief Justice, Mahfud MD, regarding a clemen-cy granted to inmate Meirika “Ola” Frano-la, who is currently doing time for a drug-related case.

“I am troubled and I am extremely of-fended by Mahfud’s remarks,” Sudi said, in a trembling voice.

The day before, Mahfud made a big deal over the clemency to Ola. He said the Presi-dent’s decision to commute Ola’s death sen-tence to life imprisonment was careless, given that the Supreme Court had not rec-

ommended the clemency. Mahfud even alleged that the narcotics mafi a may have gained access to the institutions advising the President. “It is a despicable allegation and it disgraces both the name and institu-tion of the presidency,” said Sudi.

Ola was sentenced to death by both the trial and appellate courts. Her eff orts for a fi nal review of the case were unsuccessful

CLEMENCY FOR A DRUG QUEEN

Meirika Franola alias Ola listening to her death sentence being read at the Tangerang District Court, August 11, 2000. T

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THE clemency granted by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to death row inmate Meirika Franola, a.k.a. Ola, a.k.a. Tania, is considered to be laden with irregularities. Most of those asked for input recommended the petition for clemency be rejected.

Conditions for Clemency● The perpetrator of crime has

a sentence to a minimum of

two years and the decision

has been declared fi nal and

legally binding.

● The Warden of the Prison

certifi es the convict for

good behavior during time in

prison.

● The convict signs a letter of

statement to never again

repeat the criminal act.

● The petition for clemency

is submitted at the earliest

one year from the date the

decision has been declared

legally binding.

Crooked Road to Clemency

Noon: The Jakarta Metro Police Department arrests Ola at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport parking lot. An hour earlier, the police had arrested her two cousins, Rani Andriani and Deni Setia Maharwan, on board a Cathay Pacifi c airplane. They were bound for London, carrying with them 3.5 kilograms of heroin and 3 kilograms of cocaine. Both claimed they were under orders from Ola.Afternoon: Ola claims the drugs were supplied by her husband, Tajudin Ganiyu Adeleye. That same day, police capture Tajudin in a rented house in Cipete, in South Jakarta. Resisting arrest, the Nigerian is killed in a shootout with the police.

January 12, 2000

Ola is tried at the Tangerang District Court.

A panel of judges headed by Judge Asep Iwan Iriawan sentences Ola the death penalty. She is imprisoned in the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary.

Ola’s appeal is denied. The West Java High Court endorses the death sentence.

The Difference between SBY, Megawati and SuhartoCOMPARED to his predecessors, President SBY has granted the most number of clemencies.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Era: 19 pardons 16 Indonesian citizens and three foreign nationals (one of them, to Schapelle Leigh Corby).

Megawati’s Era: 1 clemency grant to Agus Isrok, an Indonesian citizen.

Soeharto’s Era:7 foreigners.

May 24, 2000 August 22, 2000 October 17, 2000

Because of her conduct as a repeat drug traffi cker, says minister Djoko Suyanto, the President is mulling over annulling Ola’s clemency.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Mahfud MD, questions Ola’s grant for clemency. He states suspicion that a drug mafi a has infl uence within the palace walls.

The Secretary of State voices protest and says he feels insulted by Mahfud MD’s allegations that a drug mafi a has penetrated palace circles.

November 6, 2012November 8, 2012November 9, 2012

SCRIPT: ANTON A

SOURCES: INTERVIEWS, STATE SECRETARIAT,

BNN, ATTORNEY GENERAL, KEMENHUMHAMHow to Achieve Clemency ALL petitions for clemency to the President fi rst go to the Offi ce of the Secretary of State. From this offi ce, the petition for clemency is deliberated before being presented to the President for decision.

1The convict completes the requirements for clemency. The application is fi led directly to the

President or through the warden of the prison (Ola’s petition was fi led directly to the President).

2A copy of the petition for clemency is sent to the Supreme Court through the district court and the

warden of the prison.

3The Supreme Court sends a letter of consideration to the President through the State Secretariat.

4Based on the President’s directives, the offi ce of the State Secretariat seeks input from assistances in

the Cabinet.

5Offi ce of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights presents the profi le of the convict.

6Materials supporting the petition for clemency are processed by the Offi ce of the State Secretary.

7Based on the processed materials, the President decides to refuse or grant clemency.

Inputs Disregarded● In its considerations to the President, the Supreme Court recommends

Ola’s petition for clemency be rejected for being a proven key player in an international drug syndicate.

However, when granting the clemency, the President stated considering Ola a mere courier.

● Ministers Djoko Suyanto and Patrialis Akbar suggest Ola’s petition for clemency be rejected considering drug-related crimes as heinous and punishable by death, with such punishment not violating human rights and the 1945 Constitution.However, in the clemency for Ola, the death penalty is stated as violating human rights.

● According to her lawyer, Ola was declared certifi ed for good conduct by the prison head.

However, in his letter to the President, minister Patrialis said that Ola could not be declared for good conduct in prison.

● No consideration was given for inputs from the National Narcotics Agency, which had information Ola was still dealing drugs from within the prison walls.

Subsequently, the Nur Aisyah case prove the information to be true.

CLEMENCY FOR OLA

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 27

The Supreme Court rejects Ola’s appeal.

The Supreme Court again endorses the death penalty.

Through Farhat Abbas and Associates, Ola fi les a petition for clemency to the President. The petition is also signed by the warden of the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary, Nurbaeti Etty. According to Ola’s lawyer, Rachmat Jaya, Etty issues a Certifi cate of Good Behavior as part of the requirement to petition clemency.

The Supreme Court sends a letter advising the President to reject Ola’s petition for clemency.

Through the Secretary of State, the President sends a letter to the coordinating minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko

Suyanto, minister of Justice and Human Rights Patrialis Akbar, and Attorney General Basrief Arief requesting inputs. In the letter signed by Sudi, one of the points states that a life sentence for Ola is more acceptable.

Minister Djoko Suyanto sends off a written consideration to the President stating there is insuffi cient reason for the President to grant a petition for clemency.

April 18, 2001 April 29, 2002 August 30, 2010 December 23, 2010 March 24, 2011

Minister Patrialis Akbar writes to the President advising he reject the petition for clemency.

Attorney General Basrief Arief writes to the President agreeing to the clemency grant for Ola, changing the death sentence to life imprisonment.

Under Presidential Decree No. 35 G/2011, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono grants the petition for clemency, commuting her death sentence to life imprisonment.

The National Narcotics Agency arrests drug courier Nur Aisyah, at Hussein Sastranegara airport, Bandung. She is carrying 775 grams of methamphetamine from India. Nur claims to be at the behest of Ola.

April 1, 2011April 29, 2011May 30, 2011September 26, 2011October 4, 2012

when her death sentence was declared fi -nal and conclusive on April 29, 2002. How-ever, on September 26 last year, President Yudhoyono signed the letter of clemency for Ola.

Almost a year passed before the presi-dential clemency caused a stir. The contro-versy only emerged following the arrest of a drug smuggler in Bandung, who told in-vestigators that she was carrying 775 grams of crystal methamphetamine from India, at the instruction of Ola, behind bars.

● ● ●

THE clock showed 7:30pm when Nur Ai-syah, also known as Dian, arrived at Husein Sastranegara Airport in Bandung, on Octo-ber 3. The woman in her 40s had just com-pleted a long journey. Starting out from New Delhi, India, she transited in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before entering Indone-sia on an AirAsia fl ight.

There were no increased baggage inspec-tion that night. However, an immigration offi cial thought that Dian’s travel route was unusual. Dian, whose passport listed her address as Bireun, Aceh, was returning to Indonesia via Bandung. The offi cial asked Dian where she was going. As it was her fi rst time in Bandung she was unable to answer satisfactorily.

His suspicions aroused, the offi cial es-corted Dian and her luggage to an X-ray ex-amination station. At the bottom of Dian’s black and gray backpack, the offi cial found

a suspicious object, packed in a brown en-velope and wrapped in gray plastic. Its contents, after it was opened, revealed 775 grams of crystal methamphetamine. “They would have fetched Rp 1.16 billion,” said Kusdirwan, chief of the West Java Of-fi ce of Customs and Excise, to journalists in announcing Dian’s arrest.

The head of the National Narcotics Board’s (BNN) West JavaControl Division),

Pol.Deputy Chief Commissioner Zairusi, declared that Dian admitted receiving the package of crystal methamphetamine from a Nigerian citizen at a hotel in New Delhi. On examining Dian’s cell phone, investigators found evidence of a woman who had been in contact with her. However, the identity of that woman was still unknown.

On further investigation revealed a vi-tal clue, which led to Dian telling investiga-tors the name of the woman who had orga-nized her trip. A check against the BNN’s database, showed that the woman men-tioned by Dian strongly pointed towards Ola. “Ola’s name emerged from the Cus-toms and Excise arrest,” said BNN Depu-ty for Control, Inspector General Benny Mamoto, to Tempo last week. “So it wasn’t that we were deliberately targeting her be-cause we did’t agree with the clemency de-cision.”

Not wanting to waste time, just before midnight of October 15, a BNN team visited the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary, the place where Ola has been held since 2000. Alongside Benny, in the group was chair-man of the National Anti-Narcotics Move-ment (Granat), Henry Yosodiningrat.

According to Henry, at the prison he and Benny enquired about Ola’s daily activities. All the prison wardens were united in list-ing her activities as batik making and fl ow-er arranging. When Benny asked for evi-dence of Ola’s work, the wardens produced her batik.

Almost a year passed before the commuting of Ola’s death sentence caused a stir. The controversy arose after the arrest of a drug smuggler in Bandung. To investigators, the woman, who was carrying 775 grams of crystal methamphetamine from India, admitted that she was acting under the order of Ola, from behind bars.T

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An important fi nd of the BNN that night was the cell phone used by Ola in prison. According to prison rules, inmates were banned from owning cellular phones, “ex-cept if an inmate colludes with offi cials,” said Benny. He said that equipped with cell phones, drug bosses were able to control their networks from behind bars. So, that very night, Ola was placed in an isolation cell at the BNN building in East Jakarta.

● ● ●

THE clemency to Ola has not only been questioned by fi gures such as Constitu-tional Court Judge Mahfud, but also Dhar-mawati Dareho, a former corruption in-mate who spent a year with Ola in prison, who raised questions about the clemency. According to Dharmawati, Ola’s conduct in prison was far from being classifi ed as “good behavior,” a necessary criteria to qualify for a clemency.

To Tempo, Dharmawati said that Ola had been planning to get a clemency for a long time. Once, in front of a congregation in prayer at the prison church, Dharmawati said she heard Ola declare, “Praise God for Ibu Ayin, who helped reduce my sentence.” The Ayin Ola referred to was Artalyta Sury-

ti, Ola complained in front of her fellow in-mates. “They’re crazy. I’ve already given Rp2 billion. They’re still asking for Rp3 bil-lion. Even though it’s not easy to fi nd the money,” Ola, boasting that she would con-tinue to submit her request for clemen-cy and further ask that her sentence be re-duced to 15 years. At that time, Dharmawa-ti and the inmates who were not in the same gang as Ola merely scoff ed. “But hey, it turned out that clemency was indeed granted to her,” said Dharmawati.

Ayin’s lawyer, Teuku Nasrullah, said his client had never talked about Ola. Nasrul-lah did not want to verify Dharmawati’s sto-ry with Ayin because Ayin is currently tak-ing care of her mother in hospital. “I don’t want to increase the burden on Bu Ayin,” said Nasrullah.

Farhat Abbas, Ola’s lawyer, acknowledg-es that he knows Ayin and once met her in prison. However, Farhat denied that they discussed Ola’s request for clemency. “I met her about another matter,” he said. Farhat denied receiving billions of rupi-ah as stated by Ola. As a lawyer, he is paid a standard fee. “The money comes from con-tributions by Ola’s family and friends, not from Ayin,” he said.

Artalyta Suryani alias Ayin in her cell at the Tangerang Prison,January 13, 2011.

...Ola complained in front of her fellow inmates. “They’re crazy. I’ve already given Rp2 billion. They’re still asking for Rp3 billion. Even though it’s not easy to fi nd the money.” Ola, she said, also boasted that she would continue to ask for clemency until her sentence was reduced to 15 years.

ani, an inmate serving her sentence for trying to bribe prosecutor Urip Gunawan. Ayin was transferred to Tangerang because she was found to have a luxury room at the Pondok Bambu Female Detention Center.

On another occasion, said Dharmawa-

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What they said on the clemency for Ola

“Granting the clemency was careless. I suspect whoever was providing the President with advice possibly had a mafi a (behind them).”

—CHAIRMAN OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT MAHFUD MD.

“I strongly object to and feel insulted by Mahfud’s accusations that the drug mafi a has penetratedpalace circles. The clemency was clear-cut. “

—STATE SECRETARY SUDI SILALAHI

“The Attorney General made the recommendation as stated in the clemency grant. So I must also bear the responsibility.”

—ATTORNEY GENERAL BASRIEF ARIEF

“Various considerations were presented to me. The responsibility is mine. I may not put the blame on the ministers.”

—PRESIDENT SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO

A colleague who works in the same of-fi ces as Farhat, Rachmat Fajar, has a diff er-ent story about Ola’s legal fees. According to Rachmat, they are yet to receive a cent from Ola. She promised to pay Rp500 mil-lion if her request for clemency was grant-ed. “If it goes public like this, we could get nothing,” said Rachmat.

Regarding the submission on the condi-tions for clemency, Farhat insists that Ola had received an offi cial statement of good conduct from the prison warden. “We sub-mitted 4-5 letters,” said Rachmat. When asked to produce the submissions, Rach-mat promised that he would look for them.

He only handed over a copy of the decision and the clemency request without the sub-missions. On the back of the fi le was the sig-nature of the warden, Etty Nurbaiti.

● ● ●

FARHAT submitted Ola’s request for clemency to the President on August 30, 2010. He also sent a copy of the request to the Tangerang District Court, to be passed on to the Supreme Court.

On December 23, 2010, the Supreme Court sent a recommendation letter to the President. The head of the Legal and Pub-lic Relations Bureau at the Supreme Court,

Ridwan Mansur, stated that the Court did not fi nd enough evidence to grant the re-quest for clemency. Therefore, the Court recommended that the request for clemen-cy be denied.

On March 24, 2011, the President, through a letter from the Secretary Sudi Si-lalahi, sent a letter to three of his assistants: Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security, Djoko Suyanto; Minister for Law and Human Rights Patrialis Akbar; and, At-torney General Basrief Arief. In it, the Pres-ident asked for their views. One point that the letter emphasized was that a life sen-tence for Ola would be more acceptable.

On April 1, 2011, Djoko Suyanto replied to the President’s letter. According to Djoko, death sentences for extraordinary crimes were still constitutional. Djoko also stated that there were not enough reason to grant clemency.

Then, on April 29, 2011, it was the turn of Minister Patrialis to reply. He outlined evi-dence that contradicted the claims of Ola’s lawyers. While in prison, he said, Ola had not behaved well. Patrialis advised the President to reject the request for clemen-cy.

A diff erent response came from Attorney General Basrief Arief on May 30, 2011. Bas-rief explained that the trend in many coun-tries was to revoke death sentences. Apart from that, clemency is the prerogative of the president. Therefore, Basrief said that Ola’s request for clemency could be grant-ed.

Having received diff ering submissions, in the end President Yudhoyono made the fi -nal decision. He commuted Ola’s death sen-tence to life imprisonment. One of his con-siderations was that Ola was merely a couri-er, something that turned out to be totally wrong. Ola is no ordinary inmate. From be-hind bars, she has been able to control her narcotics business.

At the closing of the Bali Democracy Fo-rum, President Yudhoyono said that he took responsibility for Ola’s clemency. If Ola was proved to have been distributing narcotics again, remarked the President, he was ready to reconsider his decision. Therefore, “I want the legal process to be as swift as possible,” Yudhoyono said.

However, retracting clemency that has been prematurely issued is not that easy. Legal experts believe that such a step would set a bad precedent and erode legal certainty.

● JAJANG JAMALUDIN, SANDY INDRA,

PRIHANDOKO, RINI KUSTIANI, AYU CIPTA (TANGERANG),

ERICK P. HADI (BANDUNG) TE

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BOSS OF MELATI BLOCKShe may be in prison but with her three cell phones, Ola has been able to carry on with her drug dealings on the outside. When she is upset, she beats up her minions.

TO the 300-something inmates of the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary, Meirika Franola, a.k.a. Ola, a.k.a. Tania is no or-dinary jailbird. Her nickname

in prison shows exactly who and what she is. “She is called the ‘General’,” Dharmawa-ti Dareho, who served time in Tangerang penitentiary, told Tempo last Wednesday. Her other nickname is “Mama Ola.”

Unlike other inmates, Ola is able to go in and out of her cell whenever she feels like it. When she is bored with her dank quarters, the mother of two usually moves to the air-conditioned prison clinic.

Dharmawati was incarcerated in Jan-uary 2010 for a graft case connected with the Transportation Ministry. Sentenced to two years and six months, she was fi rst sent to the Pondok Bambu House of Detention in East Jakarta. When the case of Artaly-

ta Suryani’s cell of luxury came to light in the media, Dharmawati was transferred to Tangerang penitentiary together with Ar-talyta, a.k.a. Ayin. Dharmawati spent only a year in the women’s prison as she was granted conditional discharge in Decem-ber 2010. She currently makes a living out of renting rooms.

When Dharmawati was tranferred to Tangerang, Ola had already been there for 10 years. She has been incarcerated there since the Tangerang District Court sen-tenced her to death on August 22, 2000. The panel of judges chaired by Asep Iwan Iriawan found her guilty of drug distribu-tion and dealing.

The woman from Cianjur, West Java, was arrested by Jakarta Police offi cers at the Soekarno-Hatta airport parking lot in Tangerang in January 2000. An hour ear-lier, in the same place, the police had ar-

rested Ola’s two cousins: Rani Andriani and Deni Setia Maharwan. The two were al-ready on board a London-bound Cathay Pa-cifi c aircraft. They both had 3.5 kilograms of heroin and three kilograms of cocaine. They told the police they were carrying their cargo at Ola’s bidding.

The police immediately interrogated Ola, who acknowledged that the illegal sub-stances had been supplied by her husband Nigerian Tajudin Ganiyu, a.k.a. Tony. That very same day, the police ambushed him at his house in Bogor. Tony died during a gun-fi ght with the police. In Ola’s house, the po-lice found 3.6 kilograms of cocaine.

When the case was tried at the Tange-rang District Court, Ola’s role was dis-closed: The woman, born on November 23, 1970, was acting as a drug traffi cker for an international syndicate. “That was why she was always going abroad,” said Asep, the

Meirika Franola a.k.a Ola

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judge who tried Ola’s case. Ola, said Asep, was also the party who prepared all the necessary documents for her couriers to go in and out of various countries.

At the trial, Ola insisted that she was merely a pawn used by her husband. “If I had dared to refuse, I would be tortured,” she said at the time. Asep and his two fel-low judges did not readily believe her. A death penalty was pronounced. “If she re-ally was forced into doing the deed, why did she continue doing them repeatedly?” queried Asep.

Ola protested the death penalty. But her appeals were in vain. The death penalty re-mained. Together with lawyer Farhat Ab-bas, Ola fi led for clemency to the president. This time her endeavor bore fruit. On Sep-tember 26, 2011, the president granted her clemency and reduced her verdict to a life sentence.

A Tangerang penitentiary inmate told Tempo that ever since she was admitted there, Ola easily became the “boss.” The wardens treated her with deference. “I found out later that many of her minions were also imprisoned here,” said the in-mate.

According to the source, Ola had hun-dreds of followers in the penitentiary. “When she was infuriated, she simply beats people up,” said the inmate, who is in pris-on for murder. As an example, she once saw Ola stomping on one of her minions while bellowing out loud. On the other hand, she said, when in a good mood, Ola unhesitat-

ingly gives out food to all the prison’s in-mates. “All the prisoners know from where Ola gets her earnings,” she said.

Ola also throws parties to celebrate her birthday. That is when she usually gets food brought in from outside. “She never eats the prison food. Most of her food is from outside,” she said.

The penitentiary gives Ola many special privileges, said the inmate. While the oth-er inmates have to share their four-square-meter cell with two others, Ola gets to occu-py a same-sized cell in the Melati Block all by herself. Ola goes around with three cell phones. “I once saw her using her phone right in front of the prison warden,” said the young woman.

According to the Tempo source, from be-hind the bars of the Tangerang penitentia-ry, Ola commands her network of people in other prisons to conduct her drug trans-actions. Ola does not hesitate to talk open-ly about her drug business to inmates close to her, she said.

The source acknowledged having eaves-dropped on Ola just as she was contact-ing a man from Nigeria to provide her with supplies. The inmate came to know about the details because Ola later talked openly about it. She said she also heard Ola sever-al times contacting her overseas drug ring. “She speaks fl uent English,” she said.

Ola knows how to deftly cover up her tracks within the prison walls. During sud-

den inspections or when high ranking of-fi cers pay a visit, Ola always pretends to keep busy by making batik and creating decorative fl owers. According to the Tem-po source, when the offi cials ask to see her handiwork, a prison warden would readi-ly run to go fetch a piece of “Ola’s batik” to show, handiwork that defi nitely was never of Ola’s making.

Ola is also well-known as a gossipmon-ger. One of her favorite gossip mate is Ayin. To this fellow gossipmonger, Ola claimed to having had an aff air with the former vocal-ist of a band, also embroiled in a drug case, at the time detained in the Salemba House of Detention, Central Jakarta. Dharmawa-ti told Tempo she had also heard the sto-ry. “But whether it’s true or not, I have no idea,” she said.

But, however cunning Ola has been in covering up all her activities in prison, it nothing lasts for ever. On October 4, the National Narcotics Board (BNN) caught a drug courier, Nur Aisyah, at Husein Sas-tranegara Airport in Bandung. To the BNN, Nur claimed she was under the command of Ola. To further investigate the case, Ola was hauled off mid-October to the BNN de-tention house and kept there.

Ola’s lawyer, Rakhmat Jaya, rejected claims that his client controlled a drug business from inside prison. Straight ev-idence, said Rakhmat, was the fact that the head of the Tangerang Women’s Peni-tentiary had signed a certifi cate for Ola’s good conduct, a document required to seek clemency. “Ola has always abided by pris-on rules,” he said.

When she was met by Tempo in Cianjur, Ola’s younger sister Endik Fitriadi claimed surprise at hearing her sister was still deal-ing drugs behind bars. She said, after her imprisonment in Tangerang, the family had never again communicated with Ola.

Penitentiary Director General Sihabud-din acknowledged that Ola once commit-ted an off ense inside the Tangerang prison. However, he did not know the details, ex-cept that the off ense was not so severe as to get her into the ‘F Register’ category. One of the off enses under this category is car-rying communication devices within pris-on walls. According to the warden’s report, said Sihabuddin, for the past decade, Ola is recorded to have been on her best behavior and good conduct.

“But after being granted clemency, it seems she has reverted back to her old ways.”

● ANTON APRIANTO (JAKARTA),

AYU CIPTA (TANGERANG), DEDEN ABDUL AZIZ (CIANJUR)

Dharmawati Dareho

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PRISON does not seem to stop the activities of drug dealers. Accord-ing to Police Insp. Gen. Benny J. Mamoto, deputy chief of Narcot-

ics Eradication at the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), most dealers keep trading even behind bars. “This happens as long as they hold communication tools, they are protected by people in power and they are someone’s ATM card,” Benny told Tem-po reporters, Sandy Indra Pratama, Anton Aprianto and Jajang Jamaludin, last week.

Meirika Franola reportedly was dealing

in drugs again not long after she got her

clemency from the president. Worse, it was

later discovered she was still controlling her

drug network. Was this a coincidence?

During coordinating meetings to deter-mine whether an inmate serving time for drug-related cases deserves clemency or not, the BNN representative is sure to re-ject any proposal. But let me clarify here that we did not target Ola because she got her clemency. Ola’s name emerged from a drug courier who was caught by the Cus-toms offi ce in Bandung. That was a routine arrest, originating from a raid. When he was questioned, he mentioned Ola’s name. That has to be made clear.

How did you make sure Ola ran her

network from prison?

Here’s the general picture. Almost all drug inmates continue to deal in prison. So my conclusion is that only drug dealing is the crime that cannot be stopped even be-hind bars. Other kinds of criminals would fi nd it diffi cult to resume their crime, like corruptors for instance. What can he do behind bars? The same goes for thieves. It’s diff erent with drug criminals. They can

BENNY J. MAMOTO: DEALERS KEEP ON TRADING BEHIND BARS

stay actively trading as long as they can communicate with the outside world, they have someone protecting them and they become ATM machines to many people.

So in jail, Ola has her own phone?

Benny nodsAren’t telephones banned in prison?

Yes. When we once mentioned there were telephones in prison, many people denied it, that it was manufactured. But we have the data on how many phones we confi scated from prison.

If that is the case, there are indications

Ola got help. But from whom?

On that score, we need to investigate deeper.

And Ola is an ATM to many people?

If you have information like that, you can ask them directly.

Almost a month after questioning Ola,

what important information have you

dragged out of her?

It wouldn’t be good to expose that now.From behind bars, dealers can control

their networks. What kind of transactions?

The transactions happen outside, by other people. From prison, dealers just di-rect them to bring or pick up drugs from place to place, to whom the money should be transferred.

Can transactions between dealers in

different prisons happen?

Dealers in prison usually have diff erent markets outside. Via their communication tools, dealers can conduct transactions. All they need to do is contact them and say, “hey you still got the goods? How much? Please send to so and so, okay?” or for a sale, “look, I got some stuff , the price is this much. You want it?” That’s all they do. The money and the goods will then fl ow.

So, how will you cut them off from their

networks?

In prison, there is a registration book F, which inmates sign when they are in for se-rious off enses. The penalty can be isola-tion. And something that is feared by in-mates, their name in the F register can cause them to lose chances at remissions or clemency. So, owners of cellphones, drug users, or worse drug dealers, are committing serious crimes. If the law en-forcers do their jobs properly and fi rmly, the ‘F book’ could do the trick. ●

From prison, dealers just direct them to bring or pick up drugs from place to place, to whom the money should be transferred. T

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ADDICTED JUDGES

THE government plans to revise Law No. 13/2003 on Manpower. Minister of Industry Mohamad Suleman Hidayat said that some

of the clauses will be improved, including the stipulation on severance and termina-tion. “The revisions will be done over short-term and long-term periods,” he said after a coordination meeting with several minis-ters in the offi ce of the Coordinating Minis-ter for the Economy in Jakarta.

In recent weeks, workers have been stag-ing rallies to demand the improvement of their welfare. In addition to wage increas-es, they are asking for outsourcing to be abolished.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said the government had not decided to abolish outsourcing contracts. Such contracts are already regulated in the Labor Law.

Hatta did promise, however, that the government would bridge the meetings be-tween businessmen, represented by the As-

sociation of Indonesian Employers, trade unions and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration. “There will be a ministeri-al decision on outsourcing,” Hatta said.

In response to demands for wage increas-es, according to Hatta, the mechanism for determining wages will be left in the hands of the provincial wage councils. The pro-posed amounts will be calculated against the basic living necessities that are estab-lished by the Ministry of Manpower.

Mamoru Akiyama, Deputy Director of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia, fi nds that there are too many loopholes in Indonesia’s Labor Law. “In Indonesia there are too many gray areas,” he said.

For example, Labor Law allows outsourc-ing. However, various labor groups reject outsourcing practices.

Akiyama emphasized that outsourc-ing is needed in several areas of work. His company uses outsourced employees, al-though they amount to only 600 out of a to-tal of 7,000 workers. “It is allowed, and we

do so in accordance with the law.”Problems with workers, according to

CEO of PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing In-donesia, Masahiro Nonami, are nothing out of the ordinary. Almost all Toyota em-ployees in diff erent parts of the world also demand the same things.

In countries hit by a crisis, rallies are usu-ally staged to reject employment termina-tions. In developing countries, such as In-donesia, workers demand higher wages, social benefi ts, among other things. “Japan experienced the same thing in the 1970s. It is not unusual,” he said. Although not both-ered by labor protests, Nonami asked the government to crack down on protests that end in violence.

Hatta said the government will not pre-vent workers from expressing their opin-ions, as long as they do so in a peaceful man-ner. National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pra-dopo said the police would crack down on workers who damage and block factories.

There are concerns, according to Hi-dayat, that worker rallies would impede the rate of investments in Indonesia. It would be unfortunate because in the last fi ve years Indonesia has become an investment desti-nation. “In the near future labor problems can hopefully be solved,” he said.

● PINGIT ARIA, ANANDA TERESIA,

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REVISED LABOR LAWThe government has not abolished outsourcing.

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LABOR RALLY-Hundreds of workers in Semarang staged a rally in front of the City Hall demanding higher wages.

COVER STORY BP MIGAS

34 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

COVER STORY

LOSING THE UPSTREAM BATTLE

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 35

ests and was not pro-people. They high-lighted the many oilfi elds controlled by for-eign companies, and the sale of the govern-ment’s share of oil, which did not always end up in the hands of Pertamina.

Their claims made no headway. The judg-es at the Constitutional Court, which at that time was led by Jimly Asshiddiqie, decid-ed against this group’s request in a session held on December 21, 2004. However, ma-neuvers to reject this new system to man-age natural wealth went on unabated.

A similar request was fi led this year by 12 public organizations, most of which are Islamic organizations. They stepped for-ward, along with 30 people, including such fi gures as Hasyim Muzadi, Komaruddin Hi-dayat, Marwan Batubara, Fahmi Idris, Sala-huddin Wahid, Laode Ida, Henry Yosodin-ingrat and A.M. Fatwa. Among the petition-ers were also the Parking Attendants, Push-cart Vendors, Businesspeople and Employ-ee Solidarity organizations.

They felt that the Oil and Gas Law opened the door to liberalization because it was strongly infl uenced by foreign parties, and it had many corrupt practices which cost the state tens of trillions of rupiah. This was done in various ways, including by manip-ulation of cost recovery claims by oil and gas contractors, diff erences in the calcula-tion of various taxes, and bribery behind the appointment of gas sales agents.

This second request led to results. Nine constitutional judges led by Moh. Mahfud Md. decided in favor of their request. Only one constitutional judge, Harjono, held a dissenting opinion, because he felt that the petitioners had no clear legal standing.

He also disagreed with the logic and evi-dence used to state that the existence of BP Migas contradicted the constitution and as such, had to be dissolved. The losses stem-ming from corruption and abuse of pow-er as the petitioners claimed have not yet been proven against BP Migas. “The very mistaken point is the ruling based on the phrase ‘that which has the potential to vio-late the constitution can be decided by the court as a case of constitutionality’.”

Raden Priyono also said he could not un-derstand this ruling of the Constitutional Court. “It’s said the court can only review a law once. How could it happen again for the Oil and Gas Law?” This BP Migas chairman, who replaced Kardaya in 2008, complained loudly when Tempo met him last week.

● ● ●

IT WAS 10:30am on Tuesday last week when employees at the offi ce of BP Migas T

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THE BP MIGAS OIL AND GAS REGULATORY BODY HAS BEEN DISSOLVED FOR FAVORING FOREIGN INTERESTS AND BEING RIFE WITH CORRUPTION. THE SHIFTING OF ITS AUTHORITY WILL NOT GREATLY CHANGE THE SITUATION.

vation about what was going on and what would happen next.

“As soon as BP Migas was disbanded, the energy industry was shaken up, espe-cially the oil and gas sector,” said Karda-ya. “Many people called from overseas, be-cause it was immediately reported on inter-national television networks.”

Established by the government on July 16, 2002, BP Migas was authorized to guide and oversee Contractor Cooperation Con-tracts (KKKS) in the implementation of the exploration, exploitation, and marketing of Indonesian oil and gas. The formation of this body came after Law Number 22/2001 on Oil and Natural Gas was enacted. It be-gan carrying out the function previous-ly handled by Pertamina (the state-run oil company), according to a previous legisla-tion, Law No.8/1971.

In accordance with that new law, Pertam-ina became PT Pertamina (Persero). It also had to forego its dual role as both a player and regulator in the oil and gas business, as this was seen as the cause of rampant cor-ruption and the easy acquisition of oilfi eld concessions by the company.

The role of regulator and supervisor in the upstream sector was turned over to BP Migas. Management of downstream ac-tivity was taken over by BPH Migas (down-stream oil and natural gas regulatory agen-cy), which was formed in 2004.

Not everyone accepted the shifting of this authority. Soon afterwards a number of in-stitutions and individuals got together and fi led a judicial review of Law No. 22/2001 with the Constitutional Court.

One of the applicants was the Pertam-ina Workers Union, which claimed that the new legislation favored foreign inter-

ON Tuesday after-noon last week, Kardaya Warni-ka was driving his car from T.B. Sima-tupang in South Ja-karta, to Semanggi in Central Jakarta,

when his cellular phone rang. The call made this head of the upstream oil and nat-ural gas regulatory agency (BP Migas) dur-ing the 2005-2008 term turn his car in the direction of Kuningan, South Jakarta. That is where the caller, an oil and gas investor from Australia, was waiting.

It turned out that the investor was pan-icking. The investor said that, an hour ear-lier, a meeting with BP Migas offi cials to dis-cuss their planned investment of US$600 million was suddenly stopped. This was connected with the dramatic announce-ment going on over at Medan Merdeka Ba-rat, where the Constitutional Court (MK) ruled that the very existence of BP Migas was unconstitutional.

Not fully understanding what was going on, that investor asked the senior BP Mi-gas offi cials present when the next meeting could be held. However, those being asked were just as confused, and could give no clear answer. “They said they didn’t know. It looked like all of the BP Migas employees were in a panic,” said Kardaya, quoting the investor to Tempo in Jakarta, on Thursday last week.

Kardaya said that this was not the only businessperson asking for an explanation about the dissolution of BP Migas. Oth-er businesspeople, both foreign and lo-cal, also asked this retired director-gener-al of renewable energy and energy conser-

COVER STORY BP MIGAS

36 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

in Wisma Mulia, South Jakarta, heard the news about the Constitutional Court rul-ing. At that time, their leader, Priyono, was at a hearing in Commission VII at the House of Representatives (DPR).

They were immediately gripped with fear. Some workers began to cry, imagining what would happen with their careers. Others griped, talking about what had to be done in response to this ‘death penalty’ against the institution where they were employed.

An hour late, the deputy chairman of BP Migas, Johannes Widjonarko, went around and met with over 600 permanent employ-ees and another 600 or so operational sup-port personnel at his offi ce. He left his of-fi ce on the 40th fl oor and went to each of the 20 fl oors below, the headquarters of BP Migas. He calmed his subordinates by say-ing that he and the other executives were making sure that the workers’ rights would not be ignored.

After returning from the DPR, Priyo-no asked all the employees to gather. In a meeting room with a capacity of 1,000 peo-ple, he placated the fears which had spread throughout their organization. That night he went to the offi ce of the Energy and Min-eral Resources Minister, Jero Wacik.

“The meeting ended at 2am. I only had one message for the minister, that the fu-ture and rights of my workers would be considered,” said Priyono. “I never imag-ined the Constitutional Court would make such a ruling.”

He also took issue with the court’s ver-dict, which did not give any room or time for the transition of the duties of BP Migas

after it was declared unconstitutional. The ruling, which took immediate eff ect, he said, also resulted in a vacuum for the task of regulating and supervising this business. “We have already signed 353 contracts, and now they are illegal. The losses can come to US$70 billion,” he said.

Further confusion may occur due to the forced cessation of ongoing processes and 20 business development plans (POD) which were to be signed at the end of De-cember. One of these was the development of the third train at the BP Tangguh gas fi eld, which some time ago was approved by Pres-ident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Lon-don. “Someone must be responsible for the execution,” said Priyono.

BP Migas deputy of operational control, Gde Pradnyana estimated that state losses will reach Rp1 trillion per day as a result of this decision. “Annual revenue in the oil and gas sector is Rp365 trillion. So there is an av-erage loss of Rp1 trillion per day,” he said.

Mahfud disagreed with this half-threat-ening statement. He emphasized that the available legal option after this verdict was very clear, namely that the duties and func-tions of BP Migas will be taken up by the government. “Whether or not there is a transition, in the end it goes to the govern-ment, until such time as a new law is made. And even that is only if the legislative body wants to make a new one,” he said.

Mahfud also disagreed with the estimat-ed loss of Rp1 trillion per day as mentioned by Gde Pradnyana. “That is not true,” he said. “The court determined that ongoing contracts can still remain in eff ect. The only

thing is that the legal position of BP Migas has moved to the government. So where is the problem?” he asked.

“There is no reason to extend [the op-eration of] BP Migas.” Mahfud declined to comment about speculations that his rul-ing was an eff ort to seek popularity related to reports of his plan to run as president in 2014.

Certainty was soon provided by Pres-ident Yudhoyono, who issued Presiden-tial Regulation 95, on the Transition/Im-plementation of the Duties and Functions of Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activity. “In principle, we determined that the ex-istence of the former BP Migas will be un-der the Energy and Mineral Resources Min-ister Jero Wacik during the transition peri-od,” said Yudhoyono, at a press conference in the presidential offi ce, last week.

“All of the ongoing operational work in the form of joint-ventures between BP Mi-gas and the business world will continue, as it should,” he said. “This is defi nite, and is no cause for apprehension, confusion, or uncertainty.”

The next day Energy and Mineral Resourc-es Deputy Minister Rudi Rubiandini gave as-surances on the future of BP Migas employ-ees. Standing before hundreds of workers gathered on the ninth fl oor of the City Plaza building, he read the government decision which changed their status to a temporary upstream oil and gas business activity work unit, under the Ministry of Energy.

“All of the offi cials and employees of BP Migas are provided salaries, positional benefi ts, and other facilities according to the stipulations which were in eff ect before the transition,” said Rudi. His words were met with the applause of the workers in at-tendance.

All of the administrative matters have been prepared. However, he said, “Sorry, but in the meantime the BP Migas logo is gone.” Priyono’s position in the transitional body was not mentioned in the announce-ment that afternoon. It seems that he is the only one who lost his position and his pow-er after that surprise ruling was handed down on that that ‘Black Tuesday.’ ● Y. TOMI ARYANTO, JOBPIE S., AGOENG W., BERNADETTE

CHRISTINA, ROSALINA, ARYANI K.

President Yudhoyono making a statement on the Constitutional Court’s decision on BP Migas at the Presidential Offi ce, Jakarta, November 14.

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KUNTORO Mangkusubroto re-sisted the pressure from the House of Representatives (DPR). As Mining and Energy Minis-

ter in the cabinet of President B.J. Habi-bie in 1999, Kuntoro decided to cancel the proposed law rather than give in to the de-mands of legislators in the DPR. At that time, Indonesia had just begun its era of government reforms or reformasi. The president backed him up.

“So the administration did not submit a Bill on Oil and Gas to the DPR,” Karda-ya Warnika told Tempo, on Thursday last week. Kuntoro, according to him, went against the wishes of the DPR, which want-ed the parliament involved in the selection of BP Migas’s (upstream oil and natural gas regulator). He was adamant that the body which would take over some of Pertami-na’s (the state-run oil company) authority in overseeing oil and gas contracts with pri-vate parties would not be co-opted for po-litical interests.

Kardaya, who led BP Migas from 2005-2008 recounted how the president’s of-

WEAK FROM THE START

fi ce at that time attempted to submit a bill which regulated, among other things, BP Migas. Kardaya was well-aware of the de-tails of the deliberation, because of his po-sition as head of the draft team and head of the techno-economics department at the oil and gas directorate-general of the Min-ing and Energy Ministry from 1994 to 1999.

This bill was a revision of the initial draft, which was once aborted by the executive branch in 1995. “Pertamina president di-rector at the time, Faisal Abda’oe rejected that draft, and Pak Harto (Suharto) also re-jected it,” he said. Faisal disagreed because the new body would regulate the sale of fu-els, which at that time was handled by Per-tamina. The new bill would separate the upstream from the downstream activities.

When the Oil and Gas Bill failed to be ad-opted during Kuntoro’s time, Pertamina retained a dominant role. That state-run oil company was the regulator, contractor,

and oversight for oil and gas management. In other words they handled all upstream and downstream activities. Deliberations with the DPR only began in earnest in 2001, during the administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

“However, the DPR became involved in the selection of the BP Migas leadership,” said Kardaya. He was then still chairman of the formulator team and an expert staff on economics and fi nance to the Energy and Mineral Resources minister. In deliber-ations at the DPR, guidelines were agreed upon: BP Migas would not be under the ex-ecutive branch or Pertamina, and would not be a profi t-making organization.

Government involvement was avoided because of its unprofessional image. At the same time, Pertamina was seen as carrying a heavy burden and being diffi cult to con-trol. Moreover, at that time Pertamina’s oil production was dropping. “Pertamina be-came an overseer and forgot about explo-ration,” Kardaya added. During the search for a new entity, University of Indonesia ac-ademics suggested making it a state-owned legal entity (BHMN). This body would be non-profi t and be responsible to the presi-dent. “A BHMN is closer to the state than a BUMN (state-owned enterprise—SOE),” said Kardaya. Law No. 22/2001 on Oil and Nat-ural Gas was enacted, along with Govern-ment Regulation No. 42/2002 on BP Migas.

Later, the legal status of BP Migas became a problem. Last week, the Constitutional Court dissolved BP Migas, ruling that its ex-istence was unconstitutional. The ruling re-ferred to Article 33 of the Indonesian Con-stitution, in which a BHMN cannot control the country’s natural resources.

BP Migas was suspected of signing explo-ration contracts with private parties with-out benefi ting anything from the trans-actions. The private sector ended up with the money from Indonesia’s natural riches. “Founding Father Moh. Hatta once said that a state-owned company could carry out this function,” said Ryad Chairil, an ob-server of oil and gas law, last week.

In 2001, according to Ryad, a strong de-bate about BP Migas emerged. He suggest-ed that Pertamina handle this function after making internal improvements and turn-ing over the regulatory function to the exec-utive branch. Ultimately, the decision was to form a BHMN. In practice, BP Migas was only to handle upstream activities, but the contracts with private parties covered both upstream and downstream. “That was how the state lost funds in this sector,” he said.

● JOBPIE SUGIHARTO

BP Migas offi ce in Jalan Gatot Subroto, Jakarta.

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EFFORTS TO CREATE AN OIL AND GAS REGULATORY BODY BEGAN WAY BACK IN 1995, BUT ONE HURDLE AFTER ANOTHER PREVENTED IT FROM HAPPENING UNTIL 2004.

COVER STORY BP MIGAS

38 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

RADEN Priyono was attending a hearing at the House of Represen-tatives (DPR) when the

Constitutional Court pulled the plug on the upstream oil and gas regulator (BP Migas). He claimed to be shocked at the ruling, be-cause he never expected his in-stitution to be dissolved without any warning.

He became director of BP Mi-gas by winning 45 of the 52 votes of the DPR’s Energy Commis-sion, beating out Hadi Purnomo and Evita Legowo. A few times, he dared to challenge then-Ener-gy & Mineral Resources Minister, Darwin Zahedy Saleh. The joke going around was that in order to sideline Priyono, BP Migas had to be eliminated.

Priyono, who once led the min-istry’s oil and gas unit, could do little about the Constitution-al Court ruling on BP Migas. He himself had diffi culty accepting it. “We question this move. Who is behind it?” he told Tempo at his offi ce in South Jakarta, last week.

What do you think about the

Constitutional Court ruling that

was a result of a lawsuit by a num-

ber of religious organizations?

To me this is the big question. If those who protested were the Oil Engineers As-sociation or a professional association re-lated to the oil industry, I would under-stand it. But the ones who asked for the ju-dicial review were Islamic organizations. Yet I checked with the hadis or hadith (a col-lection of Prophet Mohamad’s sayings) and nothing is mentioned there about BP Mi-gas. So, what is their link to BP Migas? We keep asking, who is behind this protest? Their scope is so distant from the business we manage. BP Migas was abolished with-out my participation. I was never formally invited to explain anything at the Constitu-

tional Court.Perhaps BP Migas was seen to be too lib-

eral and pro-foreign interest?

How can we be called liberal? BP Migas operates under a legal basis. Its name alone means executive board, which means it cannot make its own policies. It is regulat-ed by the government. As for siding with foreign contractors, who invited them in? It was during the time of Pak Kurtubi that all those foreigners came. We just got the end part of it.

So, 70 percent of contracts are shared

with foreign parties?

Yes, because he (Kurtubi) invited them

here. Please note that. It was during the era of Pertamina. In the time of BP Migas, foreign companies in Indonesia are still in the exploration phase, none are produc-ing yet. So, take the issue up with Pak Kur-tubi, ask him why he invited foreign com-panies to invest here. Why didn’t Pertam-ina exploit its own fi elds at Arun, Balikpa-pan and South Sumatra? Why did they fall

into foreign hands? They were all owned by Pertamina. Pak Kurtu-bi should be the one to account for it to the younger generation.

Among the petitioners who de-

manded the dissolution of BP Mi-

gas, some of them took part in

drafting the 2001 Oil and Gas

Law.

Yes, this is the funny part. Srimulat (a group of tradition-al comedians—Ed.) is dead, but it seems they have been replaced. In fact, many of them are more amusing than Srimulat. Any-where Pak Kurtubi did battle, I was always ready by his side, to ensure he had the right data. He wasn’t able to see the facts on the ground.

One issue that has often been

raised is the sale of gas to China

for a very cheap price?

Please make sure that this was the decision of Ibu Mega-wati, who did the right thing at that time. And we made a prof-it at that time. Thankfully, we are now renegotiating. As for price, we must be aware that was the price set at the time.

Critics claim the cost recov-

ery was always going up, even

though the oil production kept go-

ing down.

That is not true, because they only compare it to oil produc-

tion. Look at the rising gas production. This is data that has been misconstrued.

Who do you think is behind the court’s rul-

ing? Is it because you are often at odds with

Minister Jero Wacik?

Not at all. Pak Jero Wacik and I are good friends. That rumor was spread intention-ally, so people won’t see others. Just check with the market.

Was it Pertamina?

It could be. They are the ones who have an interest in the oil and gas production, whether as an importer of crude or a trad-er of gas. Basically, they are the one to have a stake in it. ●

R. PRIYONO:

WHO IS BEHIND THE DISSOLUTION?

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Forget any image of Pertamina that you have in the past as one of the bad SOEs in Indonesia. Believe it or not, the state-owned national

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But apparently Pertamina’s achievement does not end there. Pertamina recently won the Soegeng Sarjadi Award on Good Go-vernance Market Category. Cross-regional accomplishments were achieved by Perta-mina by receiving four awards from Cor-porate Governance Asia magazine, one of them as The Best of Asia 2012. The award is given to companies deemed to have a high commitment to improve their company’s transparency.

All of those could be achieved because Pertamina has long started their trans-formation and began practicing good corporate governance. Pertamina initi-ated positive steps since 2003 by begin-ning to develop GCG softstructure judged most appropriate, as well as forming a special team which serves to prepare the implementation of GCG in the company. ”Afterwards, with the full support of the board of directors and commissioners, Pertamina began implementing GCG in 2006,” said Mindaryoko, Compliance Ma-nager of Pertamina.

The application of GCG was directly sup-ported by statements and willingness by the entire board of directors and commission-ers to participate in the implementation of good corporate governance principles in the company, namely the principles of transpar-ency, accountability, responsibility, indepen-dency, and fairness.

Since 2006, a series of GCG related policies were made, disseminated, and enforced. Policies ranging from Pertamina Charter

Integrity Pact Code of Corporate Gover-nance, Code of Conduct, Board Manual, to the guidelines for the management of gratuity, gift and entertainment to prevent bribery and corruption. Simultaneously, GCG management function was formed under Corporate Secretary. This GCG management function was then changed to the Compliance function in 2009, which handles the GCG, business ethics as well as anti-fraud and anti-corruption.

One of the basic principles of GCG imple-mentation in Pertamina is the control of gratuity, as a preventive action against brib-ery and corruption within Pertamina. All Pertamina employees, must refuse gratuity from third parties, either gifts, souvenirs, nor entertainment. And vice versa, they are prohibited from giving any gratuity to a

third party. Each month, the board of di-rectors and all employees are required to report gratuity, gift and entertainment they received, rejected or gave, through the Compliance Online System. They are also required to report their adherence to the Code of Conduct, submit the statement of free from conflict of interest, payment of personal taxes (income tax, motor vehicle tax, land and building tax) and report the wealth of state officials (In Bahasa Indone-sia known as LHKPN) through Compliance Online System.

Reports are made by filling out the form available on the Pertamina intra-net, which is integrated in the Compliance Online Sys-tem operated since 2011. It is that easy. Fur-thermore, the Compliance function at Per-tamina will analyze whether the employee

Good Governance: The Pertamina WayHaving to be successful in their transformation by seriously run-ning Good Corporate Governance (GCG), Pertamina is now even a benchmark for SOEs and other companies in the implementation of GCG.

August 2010 cooperation between KPK and Pertamina in Implementing Gratuity Management Unit (Unit Pengendalian Gratifi kasi) in Pertamina.

has completed the adherence reports on compliance and GCG program, including analyzing the gratuity, gift and entertain-ment reports. Rewards and consequences are then enforced based on the report. This is the preventive action against corruption which is given first rank in the Study of An-ti-Corruption Initiative by KPK in 2011. ”We were considered as a role model by KPK in terms of the application of controlling gra-tuity in the SOEs,” said Mindaryoko.

Not only that, Pertamina has also signed MoU with KPK and PPATK related to the prevention efforts and eradication of corruption and money laundering. Hence, no wonder if other SOEs and companies such as Jasamarga, Bank BNI, Garuda Indonesia, Pe-lindo II, Badak NGL, and others, are benchmarking to Pertamina in carrying out their the GCG.

In addition, the imple-mentation of GCG in Pertamina is also strengthened by the Whistle Blowing Sys-tem (WBS) which has been operated since August 2008. WBS is a medium for all stakeholders of Pertamina to make com-plaints about un-ethical behavior in Perta-mina. For example, the corruption, bribery, conflict of interest, theft, fraud, or violations of the laws and rules of the company. Re-ports can be made anonymously, secretly,

and independently, through a variety of chan-nels such as by phone, fax, SMS, e-mail, web-site and mailbox.

In the future, Pertamina will continually improve the implementation of GCG. The measurement of GCG is done by carrying out assessment. And the results to date are getting better. Based on the assessment conducted by assessor, in 2004, the GCG rating of Pertamina was only 55.73 percent.

But, in 2007, Pertamina’s GCG rating skyrocketed up to 74 percent. Then in 2011 the score went up again. ”From the 88 per-cent target rating, appar-ently we can achieve 91.85 percent in 2011,” said Mindaryoko.

And no less importantly, Pertamina’s GCG also received foreign recogni-tion. In addition to suc-cessfully obtain prizes and awards related to GCG, Pertamina’s ac-

countability was also recognized by inde-pendent parties overseas. Evidently, Perta-mina has successfully issued global bonds in 2011. As we know that, the company that issued global bonds must first meet inter-national standards of accountability and transparency. Therefore, forget about the image that you have on Pertamina’s past as one of the bad SOEs in Indonesia.

�ADV

Pertamina’s GCG Principles

Since 2003, Pertamina has begun to seek the implementation of Good Corporate Governance (GCG). The goal is to apply the principles of corporate governance equivalent to public com-pany and build a healthy business en-vironment with business partners and other stakeholders, in order to achieve the vision of becoming a world-class national energy company. Following are the basic principles of Pertamina’s GCG:

1. Transparency: Openness in imple-menting the decision making pro-cess and transparency in disclos-ing relevant material information regarding the company.

2. Accountability: The clarity of func-tionality, implementation, and ac-countability of the company’s or-gans in order to have an eff ective company management.

3. Responsibility: Conformity in managing the company pursu-ant to the laws and principles of a healthy corporation.

4. Independency: The state where the company is professionally managed, without confl ict of in-terest and infl uence or pressure from any party that is not in accor-dance with the laws and principles of a healthy corporation.

5. Fairness: Justice and equality in fulfi lling the rights of stakeholders arising under agreements and the laws.

MindaryokoCompliance Manager of Pertamina

May 2011 Clinic of Compliance Online System as implementation of employee compliance program in Pertamina.

42 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

WHO BENEFITS FROM BREAKUP?

“All this time, oil and natural gas production in Indonesia has lagged far behind neighboring countries. One reason for this is the bureaucracy. The dissolution of BP Migas should have increased investment in oil and gas. On top of that, the management of this sector should be transparent, but it has never been. This is so the country can economize and eliminate corruption,” said Marwan Batubara, executive director of Indonesian Resources Studies, one of the parties which fi led for a judicial review of the Law on Oil and Gas.

OIL A ND GAS IN V ESTMENT

OIL A ND GAS IN V ESTMENT DESTIN ATIONS R A NK INGS*

83 84 85 91 92

115 121 127

MalaysiaThailand

BruneiPhilippines

VietnamMyanmar

Timor-LesteIndonesia

SOURCE: GLOBAL PETROLEUM SURVEY 2012 (FRASER INSTITUTE, CANADA)*RESPONDENTS: SPECIALISTS, MANAGERS, DIRECTORS, AND COMMISSIONERS OF OIL COMPANIES WORLDWIDE. *QUESTIONS COVERED FISCAL FACILITIES, TAX REGIMENTS, LEGAL UNCERTAINTY, COSTS, AND CORRUPTION AND LICENSING.**SOUTHEAST ASIAN REGION.

Train 3 of the Tangguh Block» Estimated investment of US$12 billion.» Obtained principal authorization from BP Migas in October.» Various conditions in the principal authorization are being

deliberated and are to be spelled out in a development plan. » If approval of the development plan is delayed, the plan to formulate

front-end engineering and design at the end of this year could be pushed back. This is also true for the production target for the end of 2018.

» BP has begun to worry about their authorization status which was issued by BP Migas.

“There is a misperception, as if with the dissolution of BP Migas, contracts will be neglected and the state will lose Rp1 trillion each day. That is not true. This is because the Constitutional Court determined that ongoing contracts will remain in effect according to the agreements. The only thing is, the legal position which has been invested in BP Migas is now the responsibility of the government. So where is the problem? There is none, right?”

—MAHFUD MD., CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

“The lifting process is not disturbed. The transition from BP Migas to ESDM (Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources) does not disturb handover and shipping activities in Dumai and Lawe-lawe. Over the past two days we have not seen any infl uence from this transition process on approvals for some Chevron PODs (development plans).”

—DONY INDRAWAN, MANAGER OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS FOR

CHEVRON INDONESIA

DE V ELOPMENT OF NE W FIELDS IN DA NGER

+/- 20 plans of development (POD) should be signed at the end of this year. The most alarming example

BP Migas has said that the country and the oil and gas industry stands to benefi t. Just how will this happen?

ONE CASE: Chevron Pacifi c Indonesia in Dumai, Riau.» On Thursday last week, a

tanker docked in the Dumai Port.

» Lifting could not be done without approval, usually granted by BP Migas.

» Shipping approval is needed for insurance liabilities and other needs.

» State revenue from Chevron alone reaches Rp240 billion.

Gross oil and gas revenueUS$70 billion/year

Cost recovery of 25-29 percent

US$17.5-20.3 billion/year

Contractor revenues of 20-25 percent

US$14-17.5 billion/year

Net government revenue of 46-55 percent

US$32.5-38.5 billionor

Rp308.7-365.7 trillion/year

POTENTI A L STATE RE V ENUE LOSSES (BP Migas version)

Rp1 trillion/dayHow was this calculated?

LIF TING AC TI V IT Y ENDA NGERED

SOURCE: BP MIGAS

COVER STORY BP MIGAS

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 43

THE fi nal six pages of the Consti-tutional Court’s ruling on up-stream oil and gas regulator BP Migas have become a big issue. It

was judge Harjono who fi rst took issue with it. In the dissenting opinion he conveyed regarding the judicial review of Law No. 22/ 2001, Harjono said that the court did not provide a strong argument on the legal sta-tus of the claimants. “Only those who have a direct interest [in the case] can fi le a claim in court,” he said.

Harjono also had a diff erent view of the le-gal basis of BP Migas. He said this body was legitimate, even though it is not mentioned in the Indonesian Constitution. Moreover, there were no stipulations which forbid the formation of government entities within that law.

Just like Harjono, the director of BP Mi-gas, Raden Priyono also questioned the right of the claimants to fi le for a judicial re-view. “If those protesting were the Associ-ation of Petroleum Engineers or a profes-sional association connected with oil and trade, that would be appropriate.”

Most of the 12 petitioners were Islamic organizations, including Muhammadiyah, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, Persatuan Umat Islam, and Al-Irsyad al-Islamiyah. Anoth-er organization on board was the Parking Attendants Solidarity. There were also 30 other individual claimants who are close to the Islamic organizations. These included

THE POWER OF PRAYER

Hasyim Muzadi, Komaruddin Hidayat, and A.M. Fatwa. “Who is behind this protest? Their competencies are far removed from the business we manage,” complained Pri-yono.

Zainal Arifi n Mochtar, an expert in state administrative law at Gadjah Mada Uni-versity, has a diff erent opinion. Accord-ing to Zainal, despite not being directly in-volved in the oil and gas sector, the law al-lows all kinds of applicants to convey their objections to a particular law. According to the Law on the Constitutional Court, any-

one who suff ers a loss has the right to fi le a claim. There are two interpretations on the ‘party who suff ers a loss’: factual and po-tential.

From 2003 to 2009, in practice the court tended to use the second interpreta-tion. This, said Zainal, refers to the taxpay-er principle: whoever pays taxes and feels a law is not good may fi le for a material re-view. “They do not need any legal stand-ing,” he said. “Anyone may review a law. This is because when a law goes into eff ect, it binds everyone.”

Muhammadiyah was one of the claim-ants. According to Syaiful Bakhri, lawyer for the petitioners, the claim fi led by these religious organizations is the result of the mandate of the 46th Muhammadiyah Con-gress held in Yogyakarta on July 3, 2010. One of the issues entrusted as a result of that meeting: central offi cials were asked to review laws and legislation which were not pro-people.

Based on the demands of congress, Mu-hammadiyah’s Legal Council held a series of discussions, and invited former Finance Minister Kwik Kian Gie and former Coordi-nating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ram-li—two fi gures who also joined to fi le for a judicial review, to take part. Their discus-sions concluded that the Oil and Gas Law was not pro-people.

According to a Tempo source, in the mid-dle of last year a former deputy chief of planning at BP Migas once came to Hasy-im Muzadi, who was given 35 pages of doc-uments containing a list of problems at BP Migas.

Hasyim took those documents to the chairman of Muhammadiyah, Din Syam-suddin. They shared the same interest. Now the Muhammadiyah Legal Council had additional ammunition. Joint meet-ings were held. The former BP Migas depu-ty chief was invited to make a presentation. The results of this discussion were used as a basis for the judicial review to the Constitu-tional Court.

Speaking to Tempo, Syaiful denied this story. “Pak Hasyim did not bring any doc-uments,” he said. “The two times he came, he only said a prayer.”

● MUCHAMAD NAFI

Mahfud Md. (left), Achmad Sodiki, Din Syamsuddin, and Hasyim Muzadi after an audience on the Oil and Gas Law at the Constitutional Court building, Jakarta, March 29.

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Most of the 12 petitioners were Islamic organizations, including Muhammadiyah, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, Persatuan Umat Islam, and Al-Irsyad al-Islamiyah. Another organization on board was the Parking Attendants Solidarity.

THE REASONS FOR A JUDICIAL REVIEW OF THE OIL AND GAS LAW ARE BEING QUESTIONED. A FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF THE NOW DEFUNCT BP MIGAS SUPPLIED THE DATA.

ECONOMY

44 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

INNER-TOLL ROAD PROJECTS

ALL last week, Governor Joko Widodo’s tone of voice turned sour each time he spoke about a six-section in-ner-toll road proposed for

construction in Jakarta. It is very obvious that he is not entirely enthusiastic with the Rp41 trillion road project,

According to Jokowi, as he is better known, the project is incompatible with the city government’s mass transportation pol-icy. “It only serves the interest of car own-ers,” he said at the end of a public housing meeting with offi cials of the public works ministry on Wednesday last week. “Traffi c congestion can only be solved with good policy, not with more infrastructure.”

Jokowi’s hard stance is a surprise to many. Toll road regulatory agency (BPJT) chief Achmad Gani Gazali is not sure wheth-er another approval is needed from Wido-do. The project was initially at the behest of the Jakarta City government itself. “Never has such a thing like this happened before,” he said.

The idea for an inner-city toll road was cooked up in 2004. Deputy Public Works Minister Hermanto Dardak said the city government had off ered to initiate the proj-ect to his ministry. Jakarta’s horrendous traffi c jams were the basis for the initiative.

A study on integrated transportation by the Japan International Cooperation Agen-cy (JICA) showed that average speed of traf-fi c in Jakarta was less than 20 kilometers per hour, and was expected to get slower in the years to come. The rate for road con-struction by the government, said Dardak, had not kept pace with economic growth.

A 2010 estimate by JICA and the Nation-al Development Planning Agency put eco-nomic losses resulting from traffi c conges-tion in Jakarta at Rp65 trillion a year. Loss-es of up to Rp28.1 trillion were incurred by vehicle operational costs, and another Rp36.9 trillion by lost travel time. In some

parts of the city, only 40 percent of traffi c could move, with the rest stalled by conges-tion.

In 2007, Public Works Minister Joko Kir-manto approved the city government’s pro-posal with certain conditions, such as cross subsidies to be provided for public trans-portation. After City Hall agreed, fi nally in 2010 the ministry approved the project.

The proposed toll road project consists of six sections, i.e. the 9.6-kilometers Kemay-oran-Kampung Melayu road, the 11.4 -kilo-meters Kampung Duri-Kampung Melayu road, the 22.9-kilometers Sunter-Rawabua-ya-Batu Ceper road, the 25.73-kilometers Sunter-Pulo Gebang-Tambelang road, the 9.5-kilometers Pasar Minggu-Casablanca road, and the 8.27-kilometers Ulujami-Ta-nah Abang road, for a total length of some 70 kilometers.

TOLL ROADS

A LA JOKOWI Governor Joko Widodo is not enthusiastic with the proposed construction of six inner-toll roads in Jakarta. Concessionaires are ready to adjust.

Jakarta inner-city toll road.

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Rp41.17 trillionThe Jakarta Inner-Toll Road Projects

Investment

69.77 kilometersLength

HOLDER OF CONCESSION● Jakarta Toll Road Development ● a consortium comprising Jakarta Propertindo ● Pembangunan Jaya ● Jaya Konstruksi ● Pembangunan Jaya Tol● Jaya Ancol ● Jaya Real Properti ● Wijaya Karya

● PP ● Adhi Karya ● CMNP

STAGE I 1 2

Start of construction: June 2013 | With an

investment of Rp17.13 trillion | Length of

section 29.67 kilometers | Date of completion:

December 2016.

Semanan Sunter

Bekasi Raya

Duri Pulo

Kampung Melayu

Kemayoran

Ulujami

Tanah Abang

Pasar Minggu

Casablanca

1 2

34

5

6

1 2

STAGE II 1 2

Start of construction: 2016 | With an

investment of Rp8.1 trillion, plus Rp4.9 trillion. Length of section: 22.25 kilometers | Date of

completion: 2018.

3 4

STAGE III 1 2

Start of construction: June 2018 | With

an investment of Rp11.37 trillion | Length

of section 17.86 kilometers | Date of

completion: 2020

5 6

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 45

The new roads will be overpasses linking all fi ve city municipalities, connected to the Jasa Marga-operated outer ring toll roads.

■ ■ ■

OF 30 contenders taking part in the pre-qualifi cation bid in September last year, only two, Nusantara Infrastructure and Ja-karta Tollroad Development (JTD)—a con-sortium comprising state, region- and pri-vately-owned companies—put in the re-quired documents. In November 2011, the BPJT announced JTD passed the pre-qual-ifi cation stage, disqualifying Nusantara In-frastrucure for inadequate equity. BPJT chief Achmad Gani Gazali said a successful bidder should have at least 30 percent cap-ital, around Rp12 trillion in equity, and the remaining capitalization can come from bank loans.

ect could be cut down from Rp43 tril-lion to Rp41.17 trillion, with road length to-taling 69.77 kilometers. On September 26, 2012 the public works ministry offi cially named JTD holder of the road concession.

The company was given three months until December 26, 2012 to set up a busi-ness entity, submit planning documents, draw up a frame of reference for environ-mental impact analysis, and sign a road management agreement.

JTD CEO Frans Sunito said his company will meet all the requirements within the prescribed time. “We will abide by the gov-ernment policy and make the necessary ad-justments,” he said.

Sunito, who is former CEO of Jasa Mar-ga, said his company has no problem in fi -nancing the project. Indonesian banks, he added, were ready to help. Several infra-structure projects, such as the Cikampek-Palimanan Toll Road, for example, were fi -nanced by Indonesian banks.

Gani said construction of the Jakarta toll road would be carried out in three stages considering the fi nancing factor. A contract is expected to be signed early next year for work on the construction of the project to begin in mid-2013.

According to Gani, the road would be built in three lanes, one for a busway and with places to stop that would not hamper traffi c fl ow, from which passengers could exit to artery roads below the overpass. Stretches between each stop would be fi ve kilometers. Public transport using the roads would serve long haul traffi c.

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purna-ma welcomed construction of special lanes for public transport on the toll road. “This would make it a toll-road with pluses, and would be very advantageous,” he told Tem-po’s Tri Artining Putri.

Up until Wednesday last week, Jokowi was still reviewing the project. He said he had listened to the plans by the public works ministry to have special lanes for public transportation, even though he still could not grasp the whole concept. “That’s why I still had to ask, was this for a toll road or for an elevated bus route?”

Jokowi is still discussing with the city transport offi ce plans to reevaluate the so-called three-in-one program in some parts of the city, a plan to limit vehicles of a cer-tain age, and plans to limit vehicles based on their license number plates. “Everything will be considered from both their social and economic aspects,” he said.

● RETNO SULISTYOWATI, DIMAS SIREGAR

“Since only one bidder remained, we de-cided to re-bid for the project,” Gani told Tempo last week. Five companies joined the second bidding in November last year, including Welspun India Limited, China Toll Road Corporation, Shang Yong, and Ja-karta Express Link. Three withdrew, leav-ing Welspun and JTD in the race. Welspun was later disqualifi ed for not meeting the equity requirements. Again, JTD came out the single bidder.

“We then asked for permission from the public works ministry to discontinue bid-ding and name Jakarta Tollroad Develop-ment the successful bidder, with negotia-tion,” Gani said. Negotiations started be-tween the BPJT and JTD on value of project, stages of construction, rate of interest and rate of returns.

It was agreed that the value of the proj-

ECONOMY

46 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

PLANS to develop six inner-city toll roads are being met with re-sistance by residents. Some peti-tions are being circulated in cy-

berspace. One of them is by environmental activist Firdaus Cahyadi. As of Thursday af-ternoon of last week, he has gained support from 2,984 Jakartans.

The petition was e-mailed to Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, Deputy Minister Hermanto Dardak, and Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo. “This project goes against the grain of mass transit,” Firdaus said on November 15.

The Rp41.7-trillion project, in Firdaus’ opinion, will only indulge Jakarta’s upper middle class, particularly owners of pri-vate cars. It is the automotive industry and the property business who will reap huge profi ts if the project proceeds.

If all goes according to plan, the fi rst pil-lars will be installed early next year. The project is included in the Regional Regu-lation on Jakarta Spatial Planning for 2011-2030 and is one of the 17 measures in ad-

INNER-CITY TOLL ROADS VS MASS TRANSPORTSome residents, environmental activists and transportation observers reject the six inner-city toll road projects. They are cheaper than building streets.

dressing traffi c jams in Jakarta, as instruct-ed by Vice President Boediono.

Based on a study by Pembangunan Jaya in 2005, congestions occurred because the increase in the number of motor vehi-cles was not followed by a corresponding increase in the number of roads. To cope with the growth, additional roads need to be built. Two years after the study, the Pub-lic Works Ministry approved the project.

Yet many people doubt this project will be a long-term cure for the problem. Be-sides Firdaus, Indonesian Transportation Society head Tri Tjahjono Jakarta categor-ically rejected it. “Solution? Mass transpor-tation,” he said.

Spatial observer Marco Kusumawi-jaya, another petitioner who rejects inner-city toll roads, focuses on the impacts on health. Citing data from the Committee for the Abolishment of Leaded Gasoline, Mar-co said that health costs due to air pollution in Jakarta reach Rp38 trillion per year.

Deputy minister Hermanto Dardak guar-antees that pollution can be reduced by

adding trees along the roads and installing barrier technology. To meet demands for public transport, one lane of the toll road will be devoted for buses complete with bus-stops. “Who says we’re not in favor of public transport?” he asked.

Hermanto believes that the six toll roads can increase the average speed of vehicles from last year’s mere seven kilometers per hour. “This can be a solution while waiting for the MRT to be built.”

Agreeing with Hermanto, Jakarta depu-ty governor for Transportation, Soetanto Soehodo, said the project would increase the current road-car ratio of 6.3 percent. The ideal is 11 percent.

Road construction usually spends large amounts on land acquisition. On the oth-er hand, green open spaces need to be add-ed. The six toll roads will actually be built on existing roads, thus eliminating land ac-quisition costs.

As the owner of 78 percent of the shares of regionally owned enterprises, the Ja-karta government will also make a profi t. The concessionaire-holding consortium, Jakarta Toll Development, need only pro-vide 30 percent of the project costs. The rest can be borrowed from banks. Soetanto also guarantees that mass transport proj-ects are going ahead. “The tender for MRT is in process and 100 new TransJakarta bus-es are coming soon,” he said.

The Association of Indonesian Automo-tive Industries (Gaikindo) dismissed the idea that they would profi t from the toll project. Based on data released by the as-sociation, until October car sales reached 923,000 units, 40-50 percent of which were sold in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tange-rang, and Bekasi.

But Gaikindo rejects the notion that vehi-cle sales cause traffi c congestion in Jakarta. “It is caused by inhumane public trans-port,” said Gaikindo vice chairman Jongkie Sugiarto.

Property businessmen have diff erent opinions about whether or not they would enjoy huge profi ts from the inner-city toll roads. Deputy head of Commercial Prop-erty, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, Ikang Fawzi, confi rmed that the value of property would soar if it was located by the toll road. However, Chairman of Real Estate Indonesia, Setyo Maharso, said that the ex-isting houses would incur losses. “Pollu-tion will be high,” he said.

● AMANDRA MUSTIKA MEGARANI

Toll road attendant at the Cimanggis toll gate, Jakarta.

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INNER-TOLL ROAD PROJECTS

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 47

ECONOMY

BAD news keep coming out of the Bumi Plc website. The heat has been turned on at the London stock exchange, as a result of a

dispute between the two major sharehold-ers: the Bakrie Group and Nathaniel Roth-schild. The business company they formed together, Recapital Group, is in danger of breaking up.

The Bakrie Group sent a proposal indi-cating it was ready to let go 23.8 percent of its shares in exchange for shares in Bumi Resources and Berau Coal, which is con-trolled by Bumi Plc. They were also willing to add more money. If this proposal is ap-proved, the transaction is estimated to be in the value of US$1.2 billion. According to rumors, Rothschild was ready to sell the two mines, which is estimated to hold 3.2 million tons of coal reserves.

Last week, the Communications and In-vestor Relations chief at Bumi Plc, Nick von Schirnding was in Jakarta. He was con-cerned at the loss of the crown assets if Bak-rie’s proposal was approved by the share-holders. “We are ready with a number of al-ternatives,” von Schirnding told Tempo re-porters Agoeng Wijaya and Gustidha Budi-artie.

The value of Bumi Plc shares keeps fall-

ing. Is there a chance conditions will get

better?

It depends on our business performance. These are diffi cult times, especially when the price of coal is falling. But we have a sce-nario. We have to fi nd out where we can cut costs. If we can do this, and we have the re-sults of the valuation on Bakrie’s propos-al and the investigation results of Bumi Re-sources, that is very possible.

Hasn’t the value been affected by the dis-

pute between Bakrie and Rothschild?

Correct, but it’s clear the main problem is the price of coal, which keeps going down. Our strategy is to protect the phenomenal and fantastic Bumi Plc.

What is the status of the Bakrie Group

proposal?

We appointed the Rothschild Group to evaluate the proposal and they will make recommendations to the board of direc-tors. This is not linked to Nathaniel Roth-schild, whose father resigned 30 years ago. The Rothschild Group is one of two banks in the UK which can evaluate companies. This is a French company.

What about Rothschild’s offer?

I would like to clarify. The propsosal was not sent to the board of directors but to an independent director. And actually, it was

NICK VON SCHIRNDING:WITHOUT BAKRIE,BUMI IS FINISHED

not a proposal, not an off er to buy Bumi Plc shares. It was just an alternative.

What is the alternative?

I cannot say because it is still confi den-tial. They are discussing it among the inde-pendent directors, then they bring it to the board of directors.

When will the valuation by the Rothschild

Group on the Bakrie proposal be completed?

Possibly in early December.What about the independent investiga-

tion by Bumi Plc on Bumi Resources and Be-

rau?

The results will be out by mid-December.Two weeks ago, Bumi Resources also said

it was doing an independent audit. What is

the objective?

The investigation by Bumi Plc was done because there were some suspicious doc-uments (on fund irregularities in Bumi Resources-Ed.). These are two diff erent things.

When will Bumi Plc respond to Bakrie’s of-

fer?

After we get the results of the investiga-

tion and valuation of the Bakrie proposal, the board of directors will look at it, then make recommendations to the sharehold-ers. Twenty days later, there will be a share-holders meeting to determine the next move.

Bumi Resources and Berau Coal have

been the crown jewels of Bumi Plc. If Bak-

rie’s offer is accepted, will it be the end of

Bumi Plc?

If the off er is accepted, we will get new funds. All Bakrie assets will go to Bakrie. We are ready to look at all options. With this cash, we can seek new assets, new and stronger partners over here. And we still have Pak Samin Tan with his BORN (Bor-neo Lumpung Energy-Ed.). So it won’t be diffi cult. It will be logical investment.

Are there other assets that can compare

with Bumi Resources and Berau?

There are many other attractive coal mines. We cannot mention them but we need to look at those opportunities. We like that idea. ●

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ECONOMY

48 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

HUNDREDS of 40-foot con-tainers piled up in blocks B and C of the yard owned by PT Terminal Petikemas Surabaya at Tanjung Perak

Port, Wednesday last week. Cranes could be seen busily moving containers from block to block. Trailer trucks hustled and bustled in the 49-hectare terminal area.

Since early November, containers had been steadily piling up in the century-old port. As of last week, 623 containers were parked in the holding yard. According to Muchammad Solech, a Terminal Petike-mas spokesman, all of the 634 power sup-ply sockets in the yard except for 11 units were all being used. “The containers all need power for their cooling systems,” he told Tempo.

The containers of 20 to 25-ton capacity are held up at the port because their own-ers do not have the required recommen-dations for horticultural product imports (RIPH) from the Agriculture Ministry, and import approvals (PI) from the Ministry of Trade. Both of the new requirements have been operational since October 28, im-posed by the Ministries of Agriculture and Trade with the aim of protecting domestic horticultural commodities.

The decree on import restriction has been in process since November two years ago through Law No.13 on Horticulture. From there, various rulings were made, even though the two ministries revised them repeatedly. The new rules began by restricting entry of import commodities.

The government has decided that horti-cultural products, except those from the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, are banned from entering through Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta. The four countries re-ceive special treatment because they are al-ready holding a country recognition agree-ment, meaning their horticultural cultiva-tion systems have passed tests and are ac-cepted as pest-free.

This rule was later revised with the allow-ance of 47 commodities from all countries

to enter through Tanjung Priok. They most-ly come from China and Thailand, and in-clude durian, longans, pineapples, carrots, bean sprouts, potatoes and cabbages.

In September, the Ministries of Trade and of Agriculture issued the relevant regu-lations, requiring approval documents for horticultural imports. In order to secure the approvals, importers were obliged to possess RIPH from the Ministry of Agricul-ture.

The RIPH serves as a mechanism for the government to divvy up its quotas among importers to control the infl ux of fruit and vegetable imports, totaling Rp308 billion per month. This amount is predicted to in-crease because fruit consumption so far is only 40 kilograms per capita, much lower than than the FAO annual standard of 65,75 kilograms per capita.

Each recommendation permits one com-pany and one commodity from one origi-nating country. Quotas will be redistribut-ed every three months. In this initial peri-od, current quota allocations are eff ective until December 23.

Quota allocations are determined by the RIPH team formed by Agriculture Minister Suswono. Mahfuddin, Director of Domestic Marketing of the Agriculture Ministry con-currently an RIPH team member, said quo-tas would not be given for domestic com-modities just entering their harvest pe-riods at home. Quotas for commodi-ties allowed refer to import quan-tities per quarter of last year.

The formula for quota divi-sion, according to Mahfudin, is by reducing total imports in the previous year by at least 20 percent. The result is divided by the number of applicant importers. “It’s all in the spirit of protecting local products,” he added.

Joint data from the Indonesian Horti-cultural Importers Association (Gisimin-do) indicate the numbers of fruit and veg-etable imports come to 3,000 to 5,000 40-foot containers per month. Bob Budi Budi-

man, Deputy Chairman of Gisimindo, said with the regulations, many members of his group had to work hard to complete their documents. “My employees are working

overtime,” he noted. Bob added hun-dreds of his members’ containers

are currently suspended in Tan-jung Priok and Tanjung Perak.

The same complaint came from Kafi Kurnia, chairman of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable

Exporters and Importers Asso-ciation. He said 183 containers

of his members being held at vari-ous ports. They comprised three con-

tainers at Belawan, 60 containers at Tan-jung Priok, and 120 others at Tanjung Per-ak. “It’s estimated that the numbers denied entry are much more than what has been reported,” he said.

Bob attributed the hundreds of contain- TE

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BATTERED BY QUOTASThe government has again cancelled quota division and import approval requirements for fresh fruits and vegetables. Steep competion seems to be a major factor.

Containers of imported horticultural products at Tanjung Perak Port, Surabaya, last Friday.

Bob Budi Budiman (below).

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 49

ers currently in limbo to the government’s unpreparedness in implementing their own regulations. Consequently, contain-er and parking space rental costs are going sky-high. By his calculation, operational costs for a container comes to Rp2 million a day.

Other losses are attributed to potential decay. The numerous containers entering Tanjung Perak are not off set by necessary infrastructure, i.e. adequate power con-nections. Electricity is needed for refrig-erators. “Even with refrigeration, certain import commodities can go bad, let alone without it,” he pointed out. Both Bob and Kafi have not yet calculated the losses re-sulting from decayed fresh produce. “We cannot do the calculations yet, because the goods are being detained.”

■ ■ ■

REPORTS about the large number of con-tainers piling up at ports have made several offi cials in the Ministries of Agriculture and Trade become nervous. They fear the sit-uation will cause prices to soar in the mar-ket. Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan readi-

ly threw in the towel. The requirement for importers to secure import approvals was cancelled on Monday last week.

Agriculture Minister Suswono respond-ed by issuing a follow-up letter two days after Gita withdrew the rule. The letter al-lowed importers to take their containers without the required documents. This rul-ing was granted for commodities that ar-rived before November 28. Nonetheless, the two ministries insisted that importers must handle RIPH and import approvals until December 31.

The background for the cancellations was the result of diff erent procedures in the two ministries. Last week, the RIPH deliv-ered by importers to the Trade Ministry to-taled 1,873 documents. This caused Deddy Saleh, Director General of Foreign Trade of the Trade Ministry to blow his top. “I could get fl attened out signing thousands of RIPH papers. A single set of RIPH alone needs four of my signature,” he said.

Deddy pointed to the diff erent systems between his institution and those from the Agriculture Ministry. In his view, a single company should be able to get one single

approval fi le, instead of dozens of sheets. “I know one company that has 95 RIPH pa-pers.” For all his complaining, Deddy said he has issued 1,700 recommendations for import approvals.

Importers under the aegis of Bob and Kafi are ecstatic at the annulment. The two groups claiming to dominate horticultural importers were unhappy with the quotas originally issued by the Agriculture Min-istry in the previous period. “The quotas were not based on proper reasoning,” said Kafi . They had heard about the cancellation of the requirements two weeks ago.

With the new conditions, both associa-tions will again compete to gain a lot more quotas in early next year. Without men-tioning quota numbers, Bob’s group claims to have earned the most. The claim was ac-knowledged by Kafi . “Yes, they’ve got a big-ger share,” he affi rmed. Bob as well as Kafi asserted they know how to acquire larg-er quotas. The means? “We have a mighty ‘god’,” said Bob, referring to the name of an infl uential fi gure behind the minister.

● AKBAR TRI KURNIAWAN, ROSALINA (JAKARTA),

DAVID PRIYASIDHARTA (SURABAYA)

ECONOMY

50 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

ASURANSI JIWA INHEALTH INDONESIA

THE government is still deciding the fate of Asuransi Jiwa inHealth Indo-nesia, a subsidiary of Asuransi Ke-sehatan (Health Insurance) or Ask-es. After Askes becomes the Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (So-cial Welfare Executive Board) or BPJS, Asuransi Jiwa inHealth Indo-

nesia can no longer remain under this state-owned insur-ance company. There are several options for inHealth. This company can become a state-owned company or become a subsidiary of a state-owned enterprise, or it can become a private company or it can be dissolved. Since its establishment in 2009, inHealth has per-formed quite well, with 1.5 million clients. According to Rosa Christiana Ginting, CEO of Asuransi Jiwa inHealth Indonesia, her company grossed Rp192 billion in 2009. A year later its revenues rose to Rp798 billion and Rp1 trillion in 2011.

In a recent interview, Rosa told Tempo reporters Ab-dul Malik and Ananda W. Putri about inHealth’s work plan and the market potential of insurance in Indone-sia.

CEO, ASURANSI JIWA INHEALTH INDONESIA, ROSA CHRISTIANA GINTING:

“PEOPLE HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE IN FOREIGN INSURANCE COMPANIES.”

Askes, the holding company of Asuransi

Jiwa inHealth Indonesia, will soon become

the Social Welfare Executive Board or BPJS.

What’s will become of inHealth?

At present Askes controls our shares. Af-ter becoming BPJS, Askes must not have subsidiaries. We have conducted a study, and (the result is) the most feasible option is to become a subsidiary of a state-owned enterprise (SOEs). True, this choice needs to be studied further. The other option is for inHealth to become a state-owned com-pany.

What preparations are necessary to be-

come a state-owned company?

It makes no diff erence to us. There are positive as well as negative sides in becom-ing a state-owned fi rm. However, we want other state-owned companies to work in cooperation with inHealth for [the benefi t of] workers’ insurance. Today, a number of state-owned companies handle their em-ployee’s health insurance on their own. If the insurance is managed by us, they will be able to focus better on their business.

How many state-owned companies have

become inHealth’s clients?

Probably about 100 SOEs, including their subsidiaries. We will concentrate [on this work]. No rush. If we’re greedy, we might crash.

InHealth’s profi ts last year amounted

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 51

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amount with Askes?

We did, almost the entire sum. We set aside a small amount to strengthen our capital. Coincidentally, this year we had an additional capital of Rp700 billion from the shareholders.

Any plans for expansion?

We would like to expand our business to support insurance, as agents supporting the core insurance business. We don’t plan to stray beyond the insurance business.

What are the company’s objectives next

year?

Last year until late 2011, we made a gross total of Rp1 trillion or so. This year’s target rose to 30 percent. We’re optimistic that this target is achievable, since we do have a “managed care” product which other in-surances don’t have.

What products are offered by ‘managed

care’?

Most insurance companies apply the in-demnity system, that is, paying a certain amount [of money] for the health costs. With “managed care,” we don’t fi x a cer-tain amount of money. Rather, we take care of the procedure. Health costs vary greatly, depending on the types of disease. If the amount of money is fi xed, the clients can’t get themselves protected.

For the “managed care” program, is the

premium any higher?

It depends on the costs being incurred. We do provide a family doctor. When you are sick, you should fi rst consult the fam-ily physician. The physician will tell you whether or not it’s necessary to see a spe-cialist. As for medicine, what we look for is quality. The insurance company does not choose the medicine; this is a job for ex-perts. We also demand medicine for a spe-cial price. These are the things being of-fered by the managed care service for effi -ciency’s sake, unlike the indemnity thing, which is not effi cient.

Meaning that next year’s income will

come more from the managed care service?

Indeed, the managed care is expected to generate more income. In the third quar-ter of 2012, our income already reached Rp950 billion. These days, in addition to managed care, we do still off er indemnity, since many clients still want it.

Who are the inHealth’s targets at pres-

ent?

We’re still focusing on corporations, not targeting individuals yet.

If it’s capable of growing by as much as 30

percent, can it be predicted that inHealth’s

growth next year will be even higher?

Yes, we do aim for higher growth. After fi ve years, it will probably be smooth sail-ing. Since early in 2009, our income was

Rp192 million, Rp798 billion in 2010, and Rp1 trillion in 2011. So, the composition of our growth is indeed 30 percent.

How do you cope with the tight competi-

tion, especially with foreign insurance com-

panies that are aggressively expanding

themselves into Indonesia?

We should indeed take a stance toward this. It turns out that the insurance indus-try in Indonesia is still dominated by for-eigners. Those thriving on and enjoying the public trust are in fact the foreign com-panies. The people have more trust in for-eign insurance companies. True, their name, their system and their human re-sources are good, and that they’ve got tre-mendous capital. If seen from their fi nance reports, their profi ts are also enormous. But much of their consumers’ money is tak-en abroad. On the other hand, we, the local companies, do pay the taxes diligently. The money is used for development.

In [our] strategy to face competition from foreign insurance companies, we’re going to strengthen the company’s internal aff airs. We make promises which we have to keep. Services for the general public should be made easier. [Our] image should be good; the information technology sys-tem needs to be reorganized. Also, we will not be negligent. We will pay claims, as promised.●

52 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

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THE ceramic bowls, cups and tea-sets are quite unique. The bowls are coarse to the touch giving the feel not unlike that of a rough cement wall. Some

mugs have handles in the shape of necks and a horse’s head. Others have letter-shaped handles, from A to Z. The colors are refreshing, shades of light blues, yellows and greens. “The alphabet mugs are the best-selling items. The designer thought people would want a stamp of identity for something they use every day. We’ve sold more than 1,000 items,” Bathsebha Saty-aalangghya, generally known as Ghia, told Tempo recently.

The ceramic ware comes under the Kan-dura label, a company established by Fauzy Prasetya (30), Tisa Granicia (31), and Ghia (30). Since its founding in 2005, Kandura boasts 200 line of products. In addition to tableware, Kandura also has a line for pen-dants, with shapes ranging from tiny bells to coral stones.

The three founders are graduates of the Bandung Institute of Technology’s (ITB) School for Fine Arts and Design. Fauzy ma-jored in product design, while Tisa and Ghia in ceramics. During their obligatory internship, Fauzy got Tisa and Ghia to join forces with him to produce ceramic table-ware. They turned serious, and have since continued their ceramics business.

With a loan of Rp15 million as start-up capital from their respective parents, the three bought a kiln, a load of clay, and some basic equipment. They began experimen-ting with formula, using fi ring and glazing

techniques suited to their designs. They operate from a rented garage next door to Fauzy’s home, which they transformed into a ceramics studio.

The 80-square-meter studio is divided into two parts. The offi ce is in the front sec-tion, while production goes on in the back. Two large kilns occupy a narrow yard, whi-le two smaller ones fi ll up the back section. Kandura focuses on two product lines: tab-leware and ceramic jewellery. They some-times cater to orders for wall ceramics, alt-hough on a small scale.

In the beginning, when business was still slack, founders Fauzy and Ghia would fl y overseas to further their studies. Fauzy completed a master’s degree in ceramics design from Saint Martin’s Central College of Art and Design in London. Ghia comp-leted a master’s in fashion accessories and business from the Instituto Europeo de Di-seno in Madrid, Spain. Another partner, Nuri Fatima joined their venture in 2010.

Currently Fauzy acts as chief designer, Tisa and Ghia are the resident artists and do the marketing, while Nuri is in charge of fi nances. They are assisted by producti-on manager Kanya, and four artisans who joined Kandura in 2006. The artisans hail from Kiaracondong, one of Bandung’s im-portant ceramics production centers. One of the artisans, Yayat Sutaryat, 41, has been working with ceramics since he was a tee-nager.

Yayat once worked for a ceramics factory in Leuwipanjang, Bandung. With years of experience as an artisan and factory wor-ker, Yayat’s specialty is ornamental items

such as jars, vases and fl owerpots made out of red clay. He found work very diff erent in Kandura. “In producing tableware, we have to do things with care and patience so that the ceramic production corresponds exactly to the design intended.” he said. “If not, then we have to scrap everything and start all over again.”

Ghia feels that working with Yayat and his three colleague has been a learning cur-ve for everyone. Originally, the Kandura founders were sticklers for theory and al-ways went by the book. They were compel-led to get out of their boxes when they came up against the artisans who had been pro-ducing ceramics for decades.

The ceramics-making process at Kan-dura begins with the design. The idea can come from either Fauzy, Tisa or Ghia. They then go into serious discussions about it. While this is happening, they order clay from suppliers in Plered, Purwakarta and Sukabumi, West Java. Ghia says Kandura uses both stoneware clay and terracotta. White clay they prefer to get from Malang,

A TASTE FOR CERAMICSThree young graduates of the ITB School of Fine Arts and Design, established a ceramics tableware business, turning a monthly profi t of Rp100 million.

Ceramic mug sporting a popular design by Kendura.

Producing Kendura products in Cigadung, Bandung, West Java.

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 53

to be glazed into porcelain. Other minerals and oxides, such as fi eldspar, kaolin, sili-con and manganese cobalt are bought from suppliers in Bandung.

They can order up to 500 kilograms of clay a month, which is shipped over in installments. Each batch of clay is minutely inspected. Experience shows that at times the clay sent is not up to par, causing dama-ge in the kiln or in the glazing process.

This is one of the challenges of ceramics, a process requiring careful ongoing stu-dy and searching for the perfect formula, and one that not very many people can ap-preciate. Some would-be customers hagg-le Kandura items down to prices similar to factory-made goods. “It’s saddening, actu-ally, considering our products are hand-made,” says Ghia. Kandura engages their customers in discussions for made-to-or-der tableware or items for home and offi -ce interior. “Production takes at least three weeks,” said Ghia.

Kandura items range from Rp50,000 to Rp300,000. Their monthly production ca-

pacity totals some 1,000 items. So far their biggest customer is the Bank Indonesia Mu-seum, with orders reaching over Rp200 million.

The Bank Indonesia Museum required Kandura to replace their old ceramic ti-les with the caveat that the motif, size and tensile strength of the items remained ex-actly the same. They have also completed a project at the Jakarta Capital Residence complex, in conjunction with an architec-tural fi rm. From design and material spec-ifi cation approval to fi nal production took a period of one and a half years before the building was 100 percent completed. Kan-dura produced a total of 76 pieces of art-work for the building.

They were also involved in a conserva-tion project for the Bank Indonesia build-ing in Padang, and an old building in Ma-laysia. These projects have given Kandu-ra an appreciation of the history of ceram-ics and the materials needed, particular-ly ceramics used in Indonesia under the Dutch during the 1900s. Kandura opts for

real-life marketing strategies, and corrobo-rates with many other artists and designers with the object of introducing ceramics as an artistic medium. “We hope our consum-ers can begin to understand the long and painstaking process a hand-made item re-quires. Our products originate as ideas and become tangible products that people can hold,” says Ghia.

The proliferation of middle and high-class cafes and restaurants in Jakarta have also added to Kandura’s coff ers. Ghia maintains that many outlets nowadays use tableware to establish the venue’s charac-teristics. The company does its marketing through its website and Facebook. They are diligent in taking part in exhibitions, i.e. the Brightspot Market in Jakarta and the Designboom Mart 2010 in Valencia, Spain. Kandura managed to fi nd foreign buyers who later became their marketing partners. Kandura’s profi ts amount to be-tween Rp50-100 million a month. They are determined to continue producing hand-made goods and to using only raw materi-als from Indonesia. As a result, no two Kan-dura products are precisely the same even from the same design.

Kandura hopes that their brand will be-come better known within the next fi ve years. They plan to conduct workshops and hold small educational events to discuss materials and the ceramics process in va-rious places.

To aspiring ceramics entrepreneurs, Kandura has this to say: people should fi rst acquire a deeper understand of the for-mula needed, the potential of raw materi-als and, of course, the production techni-ques. Without this deep understanding, said Ghia, it would be extremely diffi cult to come up with innovative products. Pur-wanto, the supervising consultant of Bank Indonesia, who hired Kandura for their services, thinks the fi rm is tenacious whe-re their work is concerned. All the repli-cas they produced were exactly according to the originals. “We had gone all over the place looking for a ceramics producer, from Probolinggo to Yogyakarta. We fi nal-ly found Kandura the most suitable. They are not oriented to business only, there is art in their products,” said Purwanto.

“I really like their tableware. Every single item from one design comes out diff erent-ly. They’re not into mass-production, and this is what makes them exclusive. They are very playful in nature, and their items are so beautiful,” said Mia Maria, a writer and loyal Kandura customer.

● SYARI FANI, CONI PACIFICA, ANWAR SISWANDI

54 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

S Y R I A

In Syria, the devastation of war has spread far and wide, from Damascus to areas bordering Turkey, where the Syrian Liberation Army (FSA) exerts the most infl uence. The offi cial “two green stars, red-white-black” fl ag has long been replaced with the symbol of freedom, the “three red stars, green white and black” banner, last fl own during the war

of independence against France. After battling for 20 long months, opposition forces are convinced that if they control Aleppo, the way to the capital of Damascus, 300 kilometers

to the south, would be a matter of time. Tempo reporter Stefanus Teguh Edi Pramono, embedded with the FSA for two weeks, witnessed the daily struggle of citizens caught in

the confl ict and fi led this report.

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 55

56 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

S Y R I A

SINCE he desert-ed the government army, 10 months ago, Colonel Abdel-

Jabbar al-Oqaidi is always pa-trolling Aleppo and surround-ings. His task is to coordinate opposition troops from north-ern Syria. He stressed that the guerillas will not stop fi ght-ing until President Bashar al-Assad falls. “For us, the choice is only freedom or death,” said Abdel-Jabbar.

Three weeks ago, he sat with Stefanus Teguh Edi Pramono of Tempo in one of his bases near the border. He spoke in Arabic which was translated by Muhammad, an employee of the media center at the bor-der.

It’s been one year and eight

months since the war in Syria

began. Did you think it was go-

ing to drag on this long?

We did not. You see what is happening around here. And the Syrian people are suff er-ing so much.

In other Arab countries, it

didn’t take this long to oust

their governments. So far, the

Syrian Liberation Army (FSA)

has been unable to control Syr-

ia.

You cannot compare this to other countries. The Assad government’s army has been given com-plete arms, including heavy artillery and tanks. But it’s not easy fi ghting them.

Some say the FSA movement is not well-

organized.

No, we are united in all districts in Syr-ia. Troop commanders in regions like Idlib and Aleppo are communicating. We haven’t been able to control the country

because of a shortage of weapons.Do you expect other countries to support

the rebels, like in Egypt and Libya?

We need help and we want them to help. But so far, there has been no help. I think other countries, like Europe and the US enjoy watching blood being shed in Syria. They are enjoying all this.

Russia said that the US is providing the

FSA with weapons.

There has been no help at all. We get our weapons when we defeat Assad’s troops. We also buy weapons at the black market, from government troops who steal weapons and sell them to us.

Have you communicat-

ed with the United Nations or

countries like Turkey?

We have not communicat-ed with other countries, only with the combatants inside the country.

You don’t think the FSA lead-

ers in Turkey are supporting

this struggle?

I cannot comment on that.Are you disappointed with the

FSA leadership outside Syria?

I cannot answer that ques-tion either.

What if President Assad pro-

poses peace or an agreement

with the rebels in Turkey to end

the war?

We will not accept that. We will continue to fi ght. You can see how Assad’s troops shoot at unarmed civilians. We will never accept the in-justice which has caused Syri-ans to be killed. Our objective is to bring down this tyranni-cal government. For us, the choice is freedom or death.

Fighting has been fi erce at

Aleppo. How important is Alep-

po to the opposition?

If we can control Aleppo, then we can control Damascus. Aleppo is the biggest city and an important industrial center in Syria. If Aleppo is free, we won’t need much time to set up a government and par-liament over here.

When can the FSA control Aleppo?

Insya Allah as soon as possible. Pray for us. ●

OTHER COUNTRIES ARE FIGHTING THEIR WARS IN SYRIA

CHIEF, NORTHERN SYRIA LIBERATION ARMY COUNCILCOL. ABDEL-JABBAR AL-OQAIDI

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 57

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Alfred Simanjuntak as a reporter in Soember, 1949.

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 5911 NOVEMBER 2012 | | 59

Memoir

STILL fi ery at the age of 92, Alfred Simanjuntak has become one of Indonesia’s for-gotten composers. He composed many songs about Indonesia’s struggles for inde-pendence. Together with Cornel Simanjuntak, Liberty Manik, Binsar Sitompul, and Husein Mutahar—all of whom have passed away—Alfred contributed musical compo-sitions that have endured. But he has yet to receive recognition or even a sign of gratitude from the country. This teacher-composer has never been invited to attend events to commemorate Independence Day at the National Palace. He still writes reli-gious songs for Yayasan Musik Gereja (Church Music Foundation), which he founded in 1967. He recounted the story of his long life to Tempo, including the time he com-posed the song that ignited the spirit of many people, Bangun Pemudi Pemuda (Rise Up, Youths).[ PHOTO: PRIVATE COLLECTION ]

THE PASSIONATE ALFRED SIMANJUNTAK

60 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

ALTHOUGH he may wobble a bit now when he walks, Alfred Simanjuntak, the only re-maining composer of Indonesian songs of struggle, is still energetic. The tone of his speech is alla marcia, like the tempo of his composition Bangun Pemudi Pemuda, which is nimble and emphatic. His voice rings clear at 92. Tempo met Alfred at his home in Bintaro, South Jakarta, on two occasions, last month.

Wearing a long-sleeved red batik shirt with a white fl ower motif, long dark trousers, and sandals, he greeted us on the terrace of his home surrounded by ornamental plants. He shook hands with each of his guests, asked our names and the regions of our hometowns.Upon hearing that one of his guests was from Central Java, he immediately switched to a efi ned Javanese. For a while he talked about how important it is to understand Javanese, even for non-Javanese people. “This is a Java-nese country. All of the presidents have been from Java. Sukarno, Suharto, Susilo, o…, o…, o...” Then, his housekeeper reminded him to invite his guests in.

A native of North Sumatra, Alfred calls himself Javanese. “I lived in Surakarta, went to school by the banks of the Bengawan Solo,” he said. Then he immediately began singing verses of Gesang’s famous composition.

His wife, Alida Salomo, 76, welcomed us in her wheelchair. Alfred said he no longer re-members when and where he fi rst met Alida. “For me that’s not important…because I love

youuu...” He then began singing fragments of the song in his baritone voice.

Sonia, his granddaughter who accom-panied him in the interview, poked his arm. “That’s enough. Grandpa indeed likes to draw out the end of a song,” explained Sonia. Alfred then ended his “cries”. “Ah, I’ve been told to stop. If not, it could go on for half an hour,” he said, teasing his granddaughter who lives with them.

■ ■ ■

I WAS born into a very simple family. My hometown is in a remote corner of North Tapanuli. The village is called Parlombuan, Pangaribuan subdistrict, North Sumatra, a cold, mountainous region. Until I was fi ve years old, my family did not have any mod-ern furnishings. We did not have plates and glasses; all that we had were coconut shells. Walking 15 kilometers was nothing extraor-dinary because there were no bicycles or cars. The fi rst time I saw a car on the road, the other children and I ran helter-skelter and hid in the high grasses. But, thank God, I had the chance to get an education. My fa-ther, Guru Lamsana Simanjuntak, was a teacher of the church congregation. That is why I was able to attend the Dutch school.

My mother was Kornelia Silitonga. She gave birth to eight children. I am the old-est. All of my younger siblings have already passed away. “God, what else must I do be-fore I am called?”

Even though everyone in my family likes to sing, my parents never taught us to sing. I had singing lessons at the Hollandsch In-landsche School (HIS) in Narumonda, Por-sea, North Tapanuli. And I always per-formed songs in the Christmas programs at school.

I entered HIS in 1928, attended for eight years, and graduated in 1935. Then I trav-eled to Solo, Central Java, and entered Hol-landsch Inlandsche Kweek School (HIKS), a kind of school for teachers, in Margoyu-dan, until 1941. My singing skills also de-veloped. I taught myself to play musical in-struments. I can play the piano, organ, vio-lin and guitar.

I had to take exams to pass in school. At that time, the exams were given at the Cath-olic school in Muntilan. R. Sudjasmin (later to become the State Palace conductor) was

my examiner, but later we became friends and fellow composers. At that school I also met Cornel Simanjuntak for the fi rst time, the composer who was one of my idols. His voice was amazing, even when he sang without a microphone. Cornel was truly like an Italian tenor.

After graduating from HIKS, I became a teacher at schakelschool (primary schools for commoners) in Kutoarjo, Madiun, and Semarang. In Semarang in 1943 I was em-ployed as the singing teacher at Sekolah Rakyat Sempurna Indonesia on Jalan Ger-gaji. Sekolah Rakyat Sempurna Indonesia was a school based on the spirit of patrio-tism. It was founded by a group of national- T

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ists such as Education Minister Dr. Bahder Djohan and Governor Mr. Wongsonegoro. At this school I met friends from various re-gions, ethnic groups, and cultures.

In Semarang I lived in a rented house with Liberty Manik on Jalan Ledog Sari. Almost every day L. Manik and I would take turns playing the violin. In that house he created the song, Satu Nusa Satu Bangsa (One Coun-try, One Nation). Hearing him gremeng-gre-meng singing it, I commented that the mel-ody sounded like church music.

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ALFRED’S long term memory is still strong. But he would often answer, “I don’t

remember.” For example, “Did I live in the same rented house or not with Liberty Man-ik in Semarang? I really don’t remember.” It was the same when Alfred was asked precisely when he composed the song, Bangun Pemu-di Pemuda. He does remember that the lyrics came to him suddenly in the bath. “From far away, it was as if I got an inspiration hearing that song. Na-na-na-na...”

The song Bangun Pemudi Pemuda origi-nated from a march I also composed for the Sekolah Rakyat Sempurna Indonesia.

Sekolah Rakyat Sempurna IndonesiaGergaji Tiga tempatnya sungguh indahlahAnak segala bangsa di Indonesia

Menjadi bersaudara rukun semua…

(Sekolah Rakyat Sempurna IndonesiaGergaji Tiga is truly a beautiful placeAll Indonesian childrenAre as one family...) So, the notes were created fi rst, and then

I changed the lyrics. I changed the lyrics so that this spirit was not just to be found in Sekolah Sempurna Indonesia with its six classes, but more broadly across Indone-sia.

Alfred at his home in Bintaro, Jakarta, 2012.

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Bangun pemudi pemuda Indonesia. Ta-ngan bajumu singsingkan untuk negara. Masa yang akan datang kewajibanmulah. Menjadi tanggunganmu terhadap nusa. Menjadi tanggunganmu terhadap nusa...

(Arise young women and men of Indonesia. Roll up your sleeves for the country. The fu-ture is your obligation. It will be your respon-sibility towards the country. It will be your re-sponsibility towards the country...)

Sudi tetap berusaha jujur dan ikhlas. Tak usah banyak bicara trus kerja keras. Hati teguh dan lurus pikir tetap jernih. Berting-kah laku halus hai putra negri. Bertingkah laku halus hai putra negri...

(Endeavor to be honest and sincere. No need for a lot of talking, just keep working hard. A fi rm heart and straight, clear think-ing. Be gentle, oh child of this country. Be gen-tle, oh child of this country...)

In my opinion, nationalism amongst young people must be cultivated. Youth must love their country and nation. The younger generation must be given atten-tion. Junior high school, senior high school and university students must be given mo-tivation because the hopes of the nation are with them. Those who are already old, who are 40, already married, working, yeah, it’s enough. Enjoy your work.

I put young women (pemudi) in front of young men (pemuda) because everywhere, women are number one. “In German it’s damen und herren; In Dutch it’s dames en heren, in English it’s ladies and gentlemen. Those who protect our earth and lead our nation are young women. Young men are at the back, just helping.”

Because of that song, the Kempetai, the Japanese military police searched for me. I found out after Indonesian independence from some friends who said, “Hey, Alfred, you were lucky. The Japanese put you on the black list to be killed because your song inspired patriotism.” Wow, how terrible of

Alfred with his wife, Alida, at their home, last October 17.

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the Japanese army that a person who mere-ly composed a song was hunted down to be killed.

Yes, the Japanese army behaved badly, the Japanese themselves admit this. When I was in Tokyo, I told my Japanese friend about my experience being chased by the Japanese army. My friend nodded in agree-ment. During the Japanese occupation, all teachers had to speak Japanese. You were not allowed not to do so. I can speak Japa-nese. I can also speak German and Dutch. “I dream in Dutch.”

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ALFRED continued his higher education abroad. After studying in the Literature De-partment of the University of Indonesia in 1950, he left for the Netherlands in 1954 for a period of two years to study Dutch at three campuses at the same time: in Stedelijke Uni-versiteit in Amsterdam, Rijksuniversiteit in Utrecht, and Leidse Universiteit in Leiden. He also visited Germany. “I traveled to the place of the minister, Dr. Ingwer Ludwig Nom-mensen, who spread Christianity in the lands of the Batak people,” he said. During the time

that he served as director of the publishing company Badan Penerbitan Kristen Gunung Mulia, he often went to seminars abroad. “I traveled through Europe, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and India. I’ve also been to the USA, but only for a vacation.”

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FROM Semarang I moved to Jakarta. Here I rekindled my friendships with the impor-tant Indonesian composers Cornel Siman-juntak and Binsar Sitompul. Although we are both Simanjuntak, there are no blood ties between Cornel and me. Among my composer friends, I am the oldest. But they all passed away before me.

Cornel died at the age of 26 on September 15, 1946, after being shot in the thigh in a bat-tle with the Dutch at Tanah Tinggi, Jakarta. Binsar Sitompul died of liver cancer at the age of 68 in November 1991. Liberty Manik passed away on September 16, 1993, at the age of 69.

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ALFRED remains healthy in his old age. The prescription for staying young, says Al-fred, is to eat vegetables every day. Clear spin-

ach soup is one of his favorites. “Saben dino mangan jangan sing akeh (every day eat lots of vegetables),” he said. He also has tips to keep a good voice: avoid cigarettes, chilies, and fried foods, because these three things can ruin the vocal chords.

In 2002, he underwent surgery on his head. As a result of a fall on the terrace of his home, there was a blood clot on the right side of his brain. The surgeon in one of the hospi-tals in Bintaro refused to treat Alfred who was 82 at the time, because the risks were too high. Then Alfred received a miracle. He was treat-ed by a doctor in Siloam Gleneagles Hospital, in Tangerang. Since that operation, Alfred’s physical condition has not changed much. He still plays the piano every morning or when-ever he completes a song that he composes. His fi ngers are still nimble on the keys of the piano. It is only diffi cult to bend his little fi n-ger and middle fi nger on his left hand. “This is what is hard, uh…it hurts…it hurts,” he said while trying to fold his fi ngers into his palm. Sonia, his granddaughter stopped him, “It’s enough, Grandpa, don’t force it.”

According to Sonia, before he fell, her grandfather often walked for exercise. Alfred

Alfred (right), working at BPK Gunung Mulia, 1950.

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ALTHOUGH WE ARE BOTH SIMANJUNTAK, THERE ARE NO BLOOD TIES BETWEEN

CORNEL AND ME. AMONG MY COMPOSER FRIENDS, I AM THE OLDEST. BUT THEY ALL

PASSED AWAY BEFORE ME.

and Alida often played ping-pong in front of their home. “He was still strong enough to play from the afternoon into the night. The neighbors would come and play here for Au-gust 17 events,” Sonia told us. Now the ping-pong table is mostly abandoned.

Alida is Alfred’s second wife whom he mar-ried in 1971. His fi rst wife, Damaris Siliton-ga, died in 1968 from diabetes. They had four children: Aida, Toga, Dorothea, and John. He and Alida did not have any children.

Alfred’s love for music has been passed down to his children. He started piano les-son for his eldest daughter when she was four years old. They were living in the Netherlands at the time. Aida is became a competent pia-nist and received a scholarship to study music in Geneva from the Council of Churches. She continued her music education at Westmin-

Samuel Pandjaitan asked me to join. I cov-ered all kinds of news, not just politics. At one time I joined the Three Countries Com-mission, a delegation of the United Nations when they wanted to enter Yogyakarta. “I don’t know what news we printed, I don’t remember anymore, but the newspaper was banned.”

When I was no longer a journalist, I worked full time for a publishing compa-ny, Badan Penerbit Kristen Gunung Mulia in 1950. For more than three decades, I was at BPK Gunung Mulia until 1985. In 1971, I changed the name of BPK to BPK Gunung Mulia in memory of Todung Sutan Mulia Harahap, Director of the Indonesian Coun-cil of Churches and the Education and Cul-ture Minister in the Sjahrir Cabinets I and II. I devoted myself to contributing to build

Born in:Parlombuan,North Tapanuli,September 8, 1920

Married to:» Damaris Silitonga (died on February 13, 1968),

with four children: Aida, Toga, Dorothea, and John

» Alida Salomo, 76

Occupation: Teacher and songwriter Education:» Holandsch Inlandsche School/primary school

(1935)» Holandsch Inlandsche Kweek School/

teacher’s training school (1941)» School of Letters, University of Indonesia

(1952)» Dutch Language Study Program at Stedelijke

Universiteit in Amsterdam, Rijksuniversiteit in Utrecht, and Leidse Universiteit in Leiden (1956)

Experience:» Primary school teacher in Kutoarjo, Madiun,

and Semarang (1941-1946)» Journalist of Soember daily, Jakarta (1946-

1949)» Worked for the Gunung Mulia Christian

Publishing House, Jakarta, reaching the position of director (1950-1985)

» Initiator and permanent juror of Church Choir Festival (1985-2001)

» Founder and leader of the church choral core team, Church Music Foundation (1967-present)

Works:Over 42 songs, heroic as well as spiritual, among others:» Bangun Pemudi Pemuda» Negara Pancasila (Pancasila State)» Indonesia Bersatulah (Unify Indonesia) » Yubelium 50 Tahun BPK Penabur (BPK Penabur

50th anniversary celebration)» Kami Berjanjilah (Let’s Make a Pledge)» Himne Parta Kebangkitan Bangsa (The BKP

Hymn)» Himne Rumah Sakit PGI Cikini (PGI Cikini

Hospital Hymn)» Selamatkan Terumbu Karang (Save the Coral

Reefs)» Aku Suka Sekolah (I Like School)» Sipahutar Na Uli Jala Tungil» Firman-Mu Itu Pelita (Your Word is Light)» Ya Allah Kasihani Aku (O, Lord, Have Mercy on

Me)» Tuhan Engkau Mengenalku (God, You know me)

Award:Doctorate, Honoris Causa, from Saint John University for his devotion to education for over 60 years.

ster Choir College at Princeton University in 1979. In 1992, Aida established the Cordana Indonesian Children’s Choir to represent In-donesia in an ASEAN festival in the Philip-pines. This choir has an international reputa-tion, appearing at the National Convention in Miami, Florida (2007) and the World Choral Symposium in Vienna, Austria (2008). Aida is also conductor and Director of the Indone-sian Children’s Choir, Cordana Choir; Exec-utive Director of the Orkes Simfoni Nusanta-ra; and advisor for the Yayasan Musik Gereja (Church Music Foundation).

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I WAS a teacher for more than half my life. Vice President Sudharmono and Attorney General Ali Said were once my students. Another student of mine became an am-bassador, but I forget his name. I also was a journalist for Soember newspaper in Ja-karta for three years (1946-1949). My friend

the people through books. I met many lead-ing fi gures. One was Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who then became my friend. In my opinion, Pramoedya was a hero of the op-pressed, who became a target of the elite which he called the feudal sub-class. “Raise the self-esteem of the people,” he said to me at one time. History will prove wheth-er his perspective, which he wove through-out the many books he wrote, was right or wrong.

I also founded the Yayasan Musik Ge-reja (Yamuger) on February 11, 1967. I still write songs for Yamuger. All of them are re-ligious songs, including Kidung Jemaat. Ev-ery Monday and Thursday, my driver takes me to the Yamuger offi ce in Rawamangun, East Jakarta. There I discuss the songs I have written with six other composers who are the core team for the church songs. I am now writing a song in preparation for Christmas. ● DODY HIDAYAT, DIAN YULIASTUTI, IL

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ALFRED has always carried a small blue-covered notebook with a ballpoint. The book re-cords musical notes he is com-posing. There are also other

important notes such as the titles of sev-eral Dutch books. “Some pages of these

books contain good quotes,” he said. Read-ing has indeed become his pastime. He owns a large collection of books. In one of the rooms in his residence, shelves packed with books cover nearly all sides of its walls. Asked how many songs he had written, Al-fred answered he could not remember.

“There’re a lot of them.” Sonia, his grand-child, added Alfred’s songs had been docu-mented in a catalogue.

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BESIDES Bangun Pemudi Pemuda (Rise Up, Youths), I also created another hero-ic song, Indonesia Bersatulah (Unify Indo-nesia). This song had a major role in boost-ing the spirit of unity. When the rebellions of the Indonesian Revolutionary Govern-ment (PRRI) in Central Sumatra and the Universal Struggle (Permesta) in Central and North Sulawesi broke out in 1958, Ra-dio Republik Indonesia aired this song at least three times daily, in order to unify all confl icting parties.

But at the same time I was facing a dilem-ma, because all the parties in confl ict were my friends: Maludin Simbolon (PRRI Com-mandant), Saladin Sarumpaet (Permesta Education Minister), and Gen. A.H. Nasu-

“Perhaps in the present era, heroic songs that arouse a sense of nationalism are no longer needed.”

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Alfred and one of the awards that he received.

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tion (Army Chief of Staff ).I also wrote Negara Pancasila (Pancasi-

la State). It was in the 1980s. I did it on my own initiative rather than at the govern-ment’s request. The Pancasila State isn’t that of certain ethnic groups or religions. Religious harmony, noble character, lov-ing the country and fellow humans, living in justice and prosperity. That’s what I pray for to God. This is not a religious state. Feel free to embrace diff erent faiths, but please live in harmony. This is important.

Writing a song can be a very fast process when an inspiration pops up. Bangun Pemu-di Pemuda, for example, struck me when I was in the bathroom. It just came out. I was still drenched when I searched for a sheet of paper to jot down the lyrics.

That was the case when Gus Dur asked me to create a hymn of the National Awak-ening Party (PKB) in 1999. I have no idea how he got to know my name. I produced the melody and lyrics of the song myself without any hint from Gus Dur. When I re-ceived the request, I visited Gus Dur in his residence in Ciganjur and had a talk with him about various events in our country and society, and what the PKB could con-

era, heroic songs that arouse a sense of na-tionalism are no longer needed. But songs for the promotion of unity at the communi-ty level may still be needed today, such as those which encourage harmony in com-munity life.

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IN my old age, my life depends on my chil-dren and grandchildren. My wife and I are no longer working and we get no pension allowances. Songs I write for the church are also meant for service, so I expect no pay-ment at all. There are no royalties for my songs, either. From the Indonesian govern-ment I’ve never received any remuneration so far. I only earn honorariums from pub-lishers releasing my songs.

If the government is willing to give me (something/royalty), monggo, matur nu-wun (please do, thank you). I’ve just also heard a musical band issuing an album that contains the song Bangun Pemudi Pemu-da (Cokelat’s album entitled Untukmu In-donesiaku released by Sony BMG Music In-donesia). They never off ered any royalty. They’ve never come to ask for permission, either.

In his house, Alfred displays his trophies and awards from diff erent institutions. But none of them come from government agen-cies. “I’ve never been invited to attend the in-dependence anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia at the Palace. I may not be consid-ered a veteran or the government doesn’t rec-ognize me.” One of the certifi cates of appreci-ation was the doctor’s degree granted hono-ris causa by Saint John University, which was conferred on February 10, 2001. Alfred made his inaugural speech entitled Membangun Manusia Pembangunan (Building Agents of Development). The degree was awarded for Alfred’s devotion to education for over 60 years. On September 23, 2010, at Balai Sar-bini, Jakarta, the Nusantara Symphony Or-chestra staged an oratorio, The Creation (Die Schofung), by Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn to celebrate Alfred’s 90th birth-day. ●

tribute to make further headway in the fu-ture. The PKB is open to everybody wish-ing to build the country and nation, accord-ing to Gus Dur. On my way home, the lyr-ics began to form, followed by the melody. I was paid by Gus Dur, but I’ve forgotten the amount.

Then Alfred sang the refrain of The PKB Hymn:

Allahu Akbar… Allahu Akbar… Allah Ma-habesar

(God is Great…)Allahu Akbar… Allahu Akbar… Membela

yang benar…(God is Great… He defends the truth…}

I was also asked to write a hymn of BPK Penabur to mark the 50th anniversary of the Christian high school in 2000. I’m still writing songs, mostly spiritual ones now. Moreover, the Christmas Day is nearing. For me today, music has a deep meaning, it’s a preparation for heaven. “There we’ll be singing all the way, praising God, …Al-lahu Akbar.”

At present there are no more compos-ers of heroic songs. Perhaps in the present

Alfred (left) as a teacher in BPK Penabur Elementary School Jakarta, 1971.

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SCENE& HEARD

68 | | 18 NOVEMBER 2012

PEOPLE usually try to avoid traditional markets that have remained, well, traditional—i.e. muddy and smelly. But not fi lmmak-er Mira Lesmana. She re-

gards them as a favorite destination wher-ever she goes. In fact, in between shoot-ings while on location, she would escape to these markets, instead of going to the usu-al tourist sites. In Maumere, a port town in the island of Flores, while fi lming a docu-mentary, she visited the market where peo-ple bought their fi sh, pork and fresh vegeta-bles. “I really enjoy seeing the fresh vegeta-ble and other items they had for sale,” Mira told Tempo’s Ririn Agustia two weeks ago.

It is those other items that she usually seeks out, something local and unique that she can take back home. And she would brave smelly, muddy and dirty markets anywhere in order to get what she wants, it seems. ●

TRADITIONALMARKETS

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 69

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HURRICANE Sandy, which wreaked a path of destruc-tion across the East Coast of the US two weeks ago, also

created a bit of havoc for our permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Desra Percaya. As chairman of the UN General Assem-bly Committee 1 (in the area of arms dis-armament and international security), he was tasked with cutting short a three-day event into one. Add to this, the prob-lem of a fl ooded basement and no elec-trical power at the site of the meeting.

Desra, 51, came up with a ‘Formula San-dy’ to solve his problem. “I was inspired by the storm,” the Ambassador told Tem-po reporter, Purwani Diyah Prabandari. The formula was to persuade representa-tives from 130 nations to cut their speech-es to one minute, while they could upload their entire speeches in the UN website. Although there were objections, mostly agreed. But what can be said in one min-ute? “They used that opportunity to con-vey their condolences (for the storm’s vic-tims),” said Desra. It proved to be an eff ec-tive diplomatic move. ●

DESIGNER and ‘cloth-maker,’ as Josephine Komara, better known as Obin, is fond of de-scribing herself, got into bit of a

panic at the recent opening of the Jakarta Fashion Week. The glitzy series of events were held at the spacious lobby of the Atri-um as well as under the decorated tents at the open square of Plaza Senayan. But as public events go, there were glitches. When the rains poured, the tents leaked like a sieve, forcing some of the events to be de-layed or relocated

The unpreparedness and ineffi cien-cy of organizers to anticipate such calam-ities drove the perfectionist Obin literally ‘up the wall’ and threatened to pull her cre-ations from the show, which was to be held at the once-bowling alley of Plaza Senayan. There were rumors that the hall, which had been unused for three years, was haunted by supernatural beings. Without missing a beat, Obin proceeded to place beautifully-scented fl owers on stage, on the eve of her show. While dismissing it had anything to do with mystical beings, she did admit, “it’s tradition that when you visit a new place, you must ask permission fi rst,” Obin told Tempo reporter Mitra Tarigan. It worked, whatever it was. Her show, entitled Time Travelers was a resounding success. ●

OPENING NIGHT FRIGHT

IRON CHEF FLIES INAND OUT OF TOWN

HE was instantly recognized by the hundreds of foodies that had gathered at the recent Jakarta Culinary Festival, as award-winning Mario Batali, chief chef at the popular program Iron Chef America came on stage. Sport-ing his usual chef uniform of hat and coat over his denims and his trade-

mark Crocs, the thinly-bearded Batali, fully held the attention of his audience. Not a cell-phone blinked or blipped when he began his presentation!

Yet, his much-pronounced culinary genius, as represented through his menu that day comprising risotto, lobster and pasta, turned out to come short of expectations, particularly for anyone who forked out Rp3 million a person. As noted by a number of observers—“the pasta was cold, the lobster tough”—many plates went back to the kitchen half-consumed, and some, even un-tasted, which begs the question: What happened? Batali, however, was not available for comments, since he only stayed a day in Jakarta. ●

SURVIVING SANDY

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ACTIVISTS CAMPAIGN TO BLOCK NEW APP PULP MILL

A COALITION of 60 environmental activists and civ-il society groups have sent letters to banks and fi -nancial institutions around the world to campaign against forest-clearing activities in Sumatra by Asia

Pulp & Paper (APP) and other paper companies. Three repre-sentatives from Indonesian social and environmental NGOs are traveling this month to major European cities—Berlin, Lon-don, Brussels, Barcelona, Rome, Vienna and Dusseldorf—to de-liver their message to investors, government offi cials, media and non-governmental organizations.

Letters are being delivered to banks and investors in Indone-sia, China, Japan, the United States, South Africa, Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, Taiwan, Australia and Sweden, urg-ing them to refuse funding for a new paper mill in Sumatra that they say will produce annually between up to 2 million metric tons of bleached hardwood pulp, making it the largest single pulp line in the world.

“In order to supply their pulp mills, Indonesian paper com-panies have resorted to land grabbing, by obtaining the use of land without the free, prior and informed consent of all aff ect-ed communities,” the activists said in a statement. “Despite pa-per company assurances that they respect local people’s rights,

in fact thousands of Indonesian communities are now living beside pulp plantations without having had the opportunity to have their say in how the land should be utilized.”

APP, one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world, has denied media reports that it is building a new mill in South Sumatra. “We do not engage in speculative commen-tary concerning our future expansion plans. We respect com-mercial confi dentiality as a core principle of good business practice,” the APP said in a statement last Friday to the envi-ronmental news website Mongabay.com. “At the same time, we also take very seriously the responsibility to inform stakehold-ers of new developments, when it is appropriate for those to be made public.”

INDONESIA’S LARGEST CITIES SINKING AT ALARMING RATES

THREE of Indonesia’s biggest cities—Ja-karta, Bandung and Semarang—are sinking at worrying rates due to land subsidence cau-sed by groundwater depletion, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resour-ces. Jakarta is sinking up to 10 centimeters per year, followed by Semarang, which is sin-king 6 to 7 centimeters per year, and Ban-dung about 5 centimeters per annum, the Ja-

karta Globe reported. The three cities have been declared ‘red

zones’ and face threats of infrastructure and building damage as a result of land subsiden-ce. “Jakarta may sink if we let the situation be,” Dodid Murdohardono, the head of the mi-nistry’s Groundwater Resources and Environ-ment Geology Center, was quoted as saying at a Jakarta workshop on groundwater infor-mation systems.

Murdohardono attributed the problem to the large-scale use of groundwater by vario-us industries. He urged local administrations to restrict industrial use of groundwater by tightening permit procedures.

ABOUT half of the damaged coral reefs in Indonesia have been rehabilitated, according to Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister, Sharief Cicip Sutardjo.

“We have carried out rehabilitation efforts in cooperation with the World Bank as of fi ve years ago, under the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program,” Sutardjo said, according to Antara News.

He noted that the coral rehabilitation program refl ected the government’s plan to develop a ‘blue’ economy, based on sustainable management of Indonesia’s maritime resources to maximize national economic growth.

Indonesia has established cooperation with Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippi-nes, Thailand and Timor-Leste to protect marine resources in the Coral Triangle, which is home to an estimated 500 species of reef-building corals.

CORAL REHABILITATION RESTORES DAMAGED REEFS

FOCUSOutreachDevelopment of Indonesia’s Outlying Areas

SUPRIYANTHO KHAFID FOR TEMPO

Public health centers—better known as puskesmas—spearhead the delivery of health services in Indonesia, particularly in diffi cult-to-access areas and to the country’s poor. Often, however, they provided sub-standard services, neglecting to address even the most basic of health problems. But people in two areas, Kekeri village in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara and in Biaro, Agam in West Sumatra, decided to be innovative and take matters into their own hands and. Today, the two puskesmas provide much better health services than ever before. On the occasion of the National Health Day, Tempo English profi les these two village health centers.

HEALTH WARRIORS

OUTREACH

LALU Segap looked fresh when he met with Tempo two weeks ago in his home in Kekeri village, West Lombok subdis-trict, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). His dark skin showed its sheen, his steps

were confi dent, and he was all smiles. The 57-year-old had earlier suffered from kidney stone disease. He recovered after having a laser operation at the Central General Hospital (RSUP) of NTB in Septem-ber. “It was a free treatment,” he said gratefully.

The construction worker with six children was once resigned to his fate and endured his pain af-ter realizing he could not afford the cost of surgery. “The hospital estimated the cost at tens of millions of rupiah,” he recalled. But his daughter Mahyu-ni, 27, would not give up. She visited Sri Rahmada-ni, 45, a member of the reports division of the Inde-pendent Community Center Mandiri (CC Mandiri), requesting that she assist her father in fulfi lling re-quirements for free health service such as the cit-izen’s identity card (KTP), health card, and Pub-lic Health Security (Jamkesmas) card. After com-pleting all administrative documents, Segap could fi nally be operated on. “I’m indebted to the CC Mandiri volunteer,” he said.

CC Mandiri is a group of residents in Kekeri vil-lage set up as a center of public reports, of informa-tion, and of community health learning. One of the jobs they perform is accompanying residents to ap-ply for Jamkesmas. Owing to the low level of educa-tion in Kekeri, many people are unable to handle free treatment applications at public health center (puskesmas). “Moreover, puskesmas offi cers have

been very unfriendly,’’ said Sri. Thirty-six cadres of CC Mandiri are working

without pay. For transportation, they sometimes have to dip into their pockets. Occasionally they go by private motorbike, taxi, or hire a resident’s Kijang car at Rp20,000—for gasoline reimburse-ment.

Despite the barely enough resources, CC Mandiri has made quite an achievement. According to Kustiyah, 43, Chairperson of CC Mandiri, 38 re-ports from residents have been properly handled since 2007. Their cases vary from administrative assistance requests, domestic violence complaints, to mental disease.

But the most important thing is CC Mandiri has managed to drastically enhance the quality of Puskesmas Penimbung—the one most frequently visited by residents of Kekeri. Suhaemi, Secretary General of the West Lombok Civil Society Network, SU

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PUBLIC HEALTH CENTER REFORMA group of women in Kekeri village, West Nusa Tenggara, formed an Independent Community Center, prompted by poor public health services. Since then, 13 other community centers have appeared and are active in West Lombok.

MEMBERS OF

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EditorYuli IsmartonoDeputy EditorHermien Y. KledenProject Offi cerSadika HamidWriterSadika HamidSyari FaniReporterSupriyantho Khafi dAndri El FaruqiAudrey SantosoGraphic DesignEko Punto PambudiRobbyeeborPhoto ResearchIjar Karim

said the survey already conducted by his agency found that the rates of public satisfaction had in-creased: 44 percent of residents felt its service im-proved, while 10 percent described the service as very good.

In comparison, the satisfaction rates for the other puskesmas in Sekotong district, also in West Lom-bok, still ranged around 13 percent. “Today Pusk-esmas Penimbung has been the best in West Lom-bok regency in terms of the service of doctors, nurs-es, and service in general,” he noted.

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LIVING below the poverty line has made Kekeri villagers pin their hopes on two programs of free medical treatments: Jamkesmas and Regional Health Security (Jamkesda). Because of its proxim-ity and availability of both programs, many people in Kekeri have chosen to be treated at Puskesmas

Penimbung.But in practice quite a number of puskesmas of-

fi cers still demanded medical costs and denied Jamkesmas and Jamkesda documents brought by residents. They also frequently turned sour when interacting with locals. Finally people became re-luctant to visit puskesmas and shifted to tradition-al healers.

Responding to the worsening health service, three women of Kekeri, Sri Rahmadani, Kustiyah and Johra, invited residents to fi nd a way of im-proving the situation. The basis of their reasoning was simple: poor puskesmas service will harm the health of mothers and children. They observed the majority of users of puskesmas service were wom-en. But integrated service stations (posyandu) were not active. Consequently, three children in Kekeri village were affected by malnutrition.

Along with 14 others, they eventually formed CC Mandiri in September 2006. They organized it into several divisions, such as those of education and reports.

At the time, CC Mandiri was even seen as a non-governmental organization aiming only to discred-it the government. The operational fund raised on a self-support basis was also limited. Yet they kept going. To make people aware of their rights, CC Mandiri held frequent discussions. Their themes included procedures for utilizing Jamkesmas, Jamkesda, and strategies to avoid being tricked by puskesmas offi cers.

One day in early 2007, offi cials of the NTB Health Offi ce were surveying their village. With the op-portunity that rarely came twice, the volunteers immediately gathered local residents and ar-ranged an open discussion. Then villagers direct-ly expressed all their grievances regarding pusk-esmas service. For instance, some reported an of-fi cer of Puskesmas Penimbung who had charged Rp10,000 for dental examinations. “We were even visited by the puskesmas offi cer,’’ said Sri Rah-madani, recalling the experience fi ve years ago.

But CC did not just reach residents through dis-cussions. The female members of CC Mandiri also communicated residents’ rights to healthful living by a unique method called “Approach to Residents a la Women”. The women were thus encouraged to tell their stories and experiences when chatting with other buyers in public markets, visiting rela-tives, or meeting with friends.

But all such communication would be in vain without any improvement within puskesmas

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themselves. After tough negotiations, CC Mandiri and Puskesmas Penimbung at last agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on January 23, 2007. In the accord, Puskesmas Penimbung states health service of good quality is the right of all cit-izens regardless of their class, race, religion and sex.

They agreed among others that the working hours of health service should be consistent; offi -cers should not discriminate; they should remain at the puskesmas during service hours and infor-mation given to poor patients should be open. The mechanism of making reports is also regulated in detail: they can be verbal and written, and con-veyed in phases.

The result? This memorandum has caused pusk-esmas service to be responsive. ‘’A report on the sudden death of chickens will make them come right away,’’ said Sri.

Nasrudin, Head of Gegutu Dayan Aik hamlet, Kekeri village, admitted the service rendered by Puskesmas Penimbung had considerably changed. A total of 546 families in his hamlet, mostly ground-nut mill workers, are often affected by respiratory disorders and tuberculosis. “But since there has been collaboration between CC Mandiri and Pusk-esmas Penimbung, residents have not had diffi cul-ty in getting treatments,” he said.

Head of the West Lombok Health Offi ce’s Nutri-tion Section, Wine Frida Sri Purwani, witnessed CC Mandiri’s signifi cant contribution to the ris-ing number of residents to puskesmas and posy-andu. Now no more babies are found below the red line limit. “Information on malnutrition is quickly passed on to local people,” she indicated.

Posyandu has become active once again, with improved performance. The total number of vil-lagers serving as posyandu cadres at Puskesmas Penimbung has also increased. Of the fi ve posyan-du service desks, four have been handled by posy-andu cadres who are also CC volunteers.

Not only in villages, in various hamlets posyan-du activities have also been resumed. “Here we also have a posyandu. If parents don’t bring along their children, their KTPs or certifi cates of pover-ty won’t be processed,’’ said Nasrudin, head of the Gegutu Dayan Aik hamlet and chairman of the Community Nutrition Group.

In order to draw more visitors, Nasrudin has also opened a pregnant women’s guidance class and provided door prize, bath soap and other needs of mothers, given to women who bring their babies.

Residents are thus more eager to visit puskesmas and posyandu. “They used to be vacant as most people chose to see traditional healers,’’ he added. With posyandu becoming functional once again, the Australian Community Development and Civil Society Strengthening Scheme (ACCESS) has made available a contribution for mother and child health in Kekeri worth Rp140 million.

Realizing the benefi ts of community groups, oth-er such bodies are mushrooming, with CC Mandiri as their motor, groups such as the Nutrition Aware Group (KSG), Smart Healthy Generation (GSC), Community Nutrition Group (KGM), and Nutri-tion Improvement through Community Empower-ment (NICE). There is also the community activity to gather voluntary donations, locally called jimpi-tan. “Everybody can contribute whatever amount above Rp500,” said Kustiyah. This money is man-aged to help mothers provide extra infant food.

The success of CC Mandiri has also induced oth-er areas to imitate. Now there are already 13 new CCs in West Lombok. And CC Mandiri, with the other CCs, is carrying out a new mission: promot-ing health service at the regency level. “Two exec-utives of CC Mandiri are present as delegates to the Regency Advocacy Team,” said Kustiyah. ■

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THE government has been running the Pub-lic Health Centers or puskesmas since 1970. The program was aimed at providing In-donesians with health services even in

the most remote areas. All doctors are required to spend part of their medical internship in one of the puskesmas spread around the country. “It wouldn’t be surprising if the puskesmas leads in the deliv-ery of public health services,” said Adang Bachtiar, president of the Indonesian Public Health Associa-tion or IPHA.

Adang, who obtained his public health degree at Harvard University in 1987, said that the objective of the public health centers was to create a healthy society. Two weeks ago, Adang met with Tempo English. Excerpts from the interview:

How important is the role of puskesmas in our soci-

ety?

It is the backbone of our public health system. The World Health Organization (WHO) regards the puskesmas as the most important tool in providing primary health care. But according to the WHO, in practice, health centers in Indonesia and a num-ber of Asian countries are not focused enough so that there has not been signifi cant improvement in people’s health.

We found people in a few remote areas who were in-novative in improving the health services . Is special as-sistance available for such initiatives?

If the function and leadership of the puskesmas is well run, such innovations must be sustained and supported. But in practice, it’s a problem be-cause the puskesmas lack the proper human re-sources. The government does help with opera-tional funds. But in this case, what is needed is not just funds but an improved standard of compe-tence of public health service providers.

Do you agree that there are more health personnel preferring to practice in cities than in villages?

Surveys show that doctors leave puskesmas be-cause they cannot work with the low professional standards there and because there is no personal

advancement for them. The Health Offi ce often ne-glects this problem by replacing them. It is diffi cult because there are no regulations on this problem.

Indonesia has diffi culties achievieng one of the Mil-

lenium Development Goals target of lowering the

mortality rate of mother and child. How can the pusk-

esmas contribute in achieving this goal?

The health target is linked to people’s welfare. Many mothers who give birth endure high blood pressure because they worry about the economy of their households. So we must focus on revitaliz-ing the basic health services.

Only a few regions in the country actually allocate 10

percent of their offi cial budgets for health purposes.

What do you think?

Law No. 36/2009 mandates all regions to allocate 10 percent of their offi cial budget for the health sector. The fact is that even 4 percent of the bud-get—let alone 10 percent—cannot be absorbed, be-cause the competence of existing personnel are unable to follow regulations, carry out programs or evaluations. ■

ADANG BACHTIAR, INDONESIAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT:

SUCCESSFUL HEALTH SERVICES DELIVERY DEPEND ON HUMAN RESOURCES

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | V

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IN the hallway in the western wing of the Bi-aro Public Health Center, Agam, West Suma-tra, one can fi nd a room the size of 3.5 x 2 me-ters. The little room is no different from other rooms at the health center with a window dis-

play containing books and health posters decorat-ing the poorly furnished room. The pungent smell of disinfectant fi lled the air. This is the Biaro Public Health Center’s Drug Rehabilitation Clinic.

Although it does not look very special, the Reha-bilitation Clinic has made the Biaro Health Cen-ter famous throughout the West Sumatra. Biaro Health Center is the fi rst in West Sumatra to give services to drug addicts. “The Clinic of Biaro Health Center has helped me,” said Feri, 30, who had been using drugs since middle school. According to the data at the Biaro Health Center, there were 100 pa-tients in 2011, and in 2012 the number increased to 213 patients.

According to Mitra Yani, 48, a nurse at the Reha-bilitation Clinic, the idea of setting up the rehabil-itation center for drug addicts came from Dr. Salvi Riani. According to her, initially the health center did not have any experience in dealing with drug addicts. But Salvi embraced several social fi gures so that the clinic could be opened. “It was she her-self that opened the network to National Agency for Narcotics (BNN),” Mitra said.

Salvi Riani is well known throughout West Su-matra because of her numerous achievements. The 33-year-old dentist has won the model physician awards at the national level several times, and last year she won the Decolgen Model Award. “She de-serves all the awards. She did a lot of innovations during her assignment in Biaro,” said Dr. Indra Rus-li, head of Agam Regency Health Offi ce. According to Rusli, Salvi’s innovations have motivated other

HEROINE FROM BIAROSalvi Riani designed various innovative programs to improve services at her Public Health Center. She won awards several times.

health workers in the Agam Regency. “Many Public Health Centers follow her programs,” he said.

Salvi, who served as the head of Biaro Public Health Center for nine years, pioneered the drug re-habilitation program since 2005. Initially, the grad-uate of the Dentistry Faculty at the Padjadjaran Uni-versity, Bandung, was concerned with kids of her colleagues who had become addicts. “Their moth-ers complained about the unavailability of reha-bilitation centers for drug users,” she said.

Worse still, the fact that being addicted to drugs was considered a taboo at that time had rendered many cases undetected. When making a visit to the Prison of Class II A in Agam Regency, Salvi became more aware of the danger of drug use. Around 60 to 70 percent of the prisoners were drug users. “So far, people have only cared about malnutrition, even though its impact is suffered by the patients only. It is different from drugs that may cause dis-advantages to so many people,” she said. One of the dangers, according to the dentist, is the risk of be-ing infected with HIV/AIDS.

In 2005, she began lobbying incessantly. Salvi presented her program and established the Board of Trustees for the Center of Public Health, with members coming from bureaucrats and social fi g-ures. She also distributed proposals to heads of governmental offi ces, House of Representatives (DPR) and other social fi gures for fund raising. “Be-fore that year nobody was aware of the drug prob-lem,” she said.

In a meeting in Maninjau, Salvi met with ex-drug users who were then united in an NGO by the name of New Pandu Jiwa (NPJ). NPJ had a mission of giv-ing assistance to drug users. “Drug addicts basical-ly do not feel comfortable with people they don’t know. Therefore in order to reach them we empow- PH

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“So far, people have only cared about malnutrition, even though its impact is suff ered by the patients only. It is diff erent from drugs that may cause disadvantages to so many people,”-

—SALVI RIANI

er the former users,” said Herman, 33 , chairperson of the NPJ NGO.

Salvi then decided to collaborate with them. The NPJ team had the task of giving assistance and access to rehabilitation at the Center for Pub-lic Health. Sometimes they provided free syringes to prevent HIV/AIDS. Before reaching the users, the team mapped areas with drug users. “This is why most of the team members are ex-users: they can precisely locate these places,” said Herman.

During the work, Herman admitted that he was often suspected as being a police spy. “When really, what we wanted to do was provide counseling. We did not want to report them,” he said. On the oth-er hand, the police also suspected them since they were seen as friends of ]users. Therefore, the Biaro Center for Public Health then asked for the help of the Bukittinggi Police to not arrest team members when they are in the fi eld together with the drug users.

In order to add the number of outreach mem-bers, the Biaro Public Health Center involved the institution of National Unity and Politics (Kesbang-pol) of Agam Regency. Representatives were select-ed from ex-addicts. In each subdistrict there were three outreachers.

In order for the program to function well, Salvi together with the head of BNK, Speaker of Region-al House of Representatives (DPRD), Board of Trust-ees, Health Offi ce of the Agam Regency and the out-reach team made a comparative study visit to the Hospital of Drug Addiction in Cibubur. There they studied how drug patients were taken care of. The team continued their way to the Jatinegara Public Health Center, Jakarta, that had been giving ser-vices to drug addicts, and to the offi ce of National Agency for Narcotics (BNN).

Sometime after that the BNN in turn visited the Biaro Public Health Center. Looking at the serious-ness of the Health Center, the BNN gave an aid of Rp70 million in 2007. The next year BNN was back again with more aid consisting of medical appara-tuses, medicines, and appliances worth of Rp300 million.

To improve the capacity of medical personnel, Biaro Public Health Center assigned fi ve persons to attend an apprenticeship at the Rehabilitation Cen-ter for Drug Abuse in Lido, Sukabumi. “For three months they were provided with training on how to handle drug patients,” said Mitra. According to her, one of the most important principles in reha-

bilitation is family support. “Therefore, during consultation we ask them to be accompanied by their families,” she said.

Besides drugs, Salvi also devoted her attention to youth problems. In 2001, Biaro Public Health Cen-ter did a survey of 350 middle and high school stu-dents and found 53 percent were smoking.

“This can plunge them into drugs,” she said. They also found that some of the youths engaged in un-healthy sexual behavior. The Health Center then concluded that the students needed a counselor. In the same year they opened the Sehati (One Heart) Clinic. In one corner at the Health Center, troubled young people were given a place where they could consult someone about their problems.

Collaborating with schools, the Biaro Health Cen-ter set up the Program of Youth Health Care (PKPR). In each school they trained 20 students to become peer counselors. If they could not solve the prob-lem, the case would be referred to Sehati Clinic.

In 2008, the Biaro Health Center collaborated with Radio Argo, a local radio, to set up a commu-nity radio station at Biaro Health Center. Sever-al times the broadcasting received good response from the people.

Finally a team from the Health Center set up a ra-dio station in a very simple fashion. With an initial fund of Rp3 million from the Health Center’s Board of Trustees, they bought equipment such as an am-plifi er and tape recorder.

In the beginning they merely broadcasted through the loudspeakers installed within the Health Center. But Salvi was not satisfi ed. She drafted another proposal. They fi nally got a contri-bution of a used transmitter from Radio Argo.

“This radio broadcasting makes health messag-es more accessible to people,” said Indra, head of Agam Regency’s Health Offi ce.

Upon completion of her assignment in Biaro ear-ly this year Salvi was transferred to the Guguak Panjang Public Health Center in Bukittinggi mu-nicipality. There she planned to pioneer the coun-seling program for youth.

But what has become of the program in Biaro? “I oversee programs pioneered by Salvi,” said Yori Sulistia, head of Biaro Health Center who replaced Salvi.

Indra also wished for this. “Create a sustain-able system. Whoever the leader is, the program that has become an icon of the Biaro Health Center should continue,” he said. ■

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INDIA CLAIMS CASSOWARY BIRDS AS INDIGENOUS

INDONESIAN Minister for the Environment Balthasar Kam-buaya said the Indian government is trying to claim the southern cassowary bird as a native species. This was re-

vealed by a representative of the Indian government at a meet-ing during the 11th Convention on Biological Diversity in India in October.

“India as the host gave a report on slides that there are types of wildlife that they asked to be recognized as being rightfully theirs. One of them was the cassowary bird,” said Balthasar at Hotel Bidakara, Jakarta, on Monday two weeks ago.

According to Balthasar, the Indonesian government has a problem with the claim that the Casuarius casuarias is from In-dia. “This is our question. Is it (the cassowary) only found in In-dia? They can also be found in Papua,” he said.

For this reason, he added, the Indian government cannot just claim that the southern cassowary belongs to that country fa-mous for its Bollywood fi lms. “We are going to work hard so that the cassowary belongs to us,” said Balthasar. ■ PRIHANDOKO

HUNDREDS OF INDONESIAN BLOGGERS GATHER IN MAKASSAR

AS many as 600 bloggers from around Indone-sia gathered in Makassar for the 2012 Nus-antara Bloggers Gathering on November 11.

They took part in training and blogging workshop, as well as creative writing activities. Syarifullah Daeng Gassing, Chairman of the Executive Com-mittee, who is also Chairman of the Anging Mam-miri Blogger Community, said the activity was a continuation of the 2011 Nusantara Bloggers Gath-ering, which was held in Sidoarjo last year.

According to Syariful, the hottest topic of discus-sion was “Entrepreneur Blogging”. Bloggers could learn how to make money by blogging. One blog-ger fi gure in Makassar, Asri Tadda, who at pres-ent manages thousands of blogs, said that month-ly revenue can reach hundreds of millions of rupi-ah. He explained that he does not manage the blogs alone. He recruited employees to manage and up-

date their content.There are a number of sources of revenue for

blogging. However, the largest source, he said, is from advertising. The only thing is, ads will not come automatically. The key is for bloggers to ac-tively write and provide the kinds of articles most sought after by Internet users. “In this way, adver-tisers will come on their own, because data on the number of visitors to our blog will be recorded by the search engine,” he said. ■ ANISWATI SYAHRIR

VIII | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 71

INVITATION cards to various fi ne arts exhibitions were sent to Nasi-run’s elegant house and studio in the Bayeman Indah housing complex,

Yogyakarta. The cards were sent there by Nasirun’s friends and various galleries in Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Singa-pore, Beijing and other cities.

Nasirun had collected the cards since 1994. His close friend, poet Afrizal Malna, calls the heaps of cards uwuh (litter, in Java-nese). But Nasirun’s hands were itching to adorn the litter with his strokes. He paint-ed diff erent shapes with acrylic in response to the “portraits” or “panoramas” on the cards, transforming them into new pieces. Now 1,000 cards with Nasirun’s enhance-ments are on display in the exhibition, Uwuh Seni (Litter of Art), at Salihara Gal-lery, which will be up until November 25.

Asikin Hasan, the display’s curator, pro-vides two spaces. The fi rst is dedicated to cards posted along the gallery walls. The second is for an installation, placed at the center of the space in the form of glass piec-es with cards attached to them. The glass enables people to view the unadorned side of the cards.

Nasirun works in this way. When there’s an invitation, the artist born in Cilacap on October 1, 1965 picks a theme. The colors and compositions of the invitation cards

Nasirun’sInvitation PieceNasirun, a Yogyakarta artist now popular in the art market, displays 1,000 invitation cards he has enhanced. He responds to their colors and forms.

stimulate him to respond by drawing a number of lines or brushing strokes of dif-ferent colors. Sometimes he adds to what’s already there; in other cases he paints over it with something entirely new.

Nasirun admitted the diffi culty in adjust-ing to the existing colors. Moreover, he’s used to painting on large media, rather than small ones such as invitation cards, most of them the size of a book or a magazine, with the exception of several types of folders.

“Ideas arise from past memories,” said the graduate of the painting department at

the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta (ISI). The work, for him, serves as wayang,“shadows” of his recollections. Memories, for Nasirun, are his experiences as a child brought up by his father who followed the Qadiriyah Naqsabandiyah group and his mother who embraced the Sunda Wiwitan faith as a villager living in a Cilacap hamlet, watching shadow puppet shows, making batik, and so forth.

His paintings on invitation cards still de-pict various things found on his canvas-es such as strange creatures, shadow pup-pet fi gures, burak (horse), coarse strokes, bright colors, and the golden hue. Some of his paintings are combined with the themes of the cards, such as the red hand with a human face on the palm over the pic-ture on the invitation to S. Teddy D’s exhi-bition portraying Teddy’s Mystery of Hand. But other times his painting covered whole planes, erasing all traces of invitation on the cards, like the painting 2010: 0095, for example, in the shape of a winged wheel with a head beside it and a fi reball in the background.

However, unlike a solo display with a

ARTS

specifi c theme, here we discover many themes, objects, forms, and tales. It may be due to Nasirun’s spontaneous responses at distinct moments, thus resulting in diverse themes. The trouble is that they aren’t sub-sumed under one unity. They’re discrete fragments. The title Uwuh for this exhibi-tion refers to the same material like “plas-tic” or “cardboard,” for instance. They don’t constitute an idea, though they can be interpreted as such. Perhaps they’re only sketches.

● KURNIAWAN, EVIETA FADJAR

Nasirun’s works displayed at Salihara Gallery, Jakarta.

Nasirun.

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You are the fi rst Korean ambassador to ASEAN. What exactly is your mission?

This is the product of our government’s neo-Asian diplomacy, which is being em-phasized today. The establishment of a Ko-rean mission in ASEAN is to stress the co-operation and strategic partnership be-tween South Korea and ASEAN. That is our main mission to ASEAN, so we can ob-serve how fast and where ASEAN builds its economic community by 2015. Then, when ASEAN actually realizes its targets, we should be prepared with the strategy on how the Korean government and com-panies will respond to it accordingly and quickly. Then there the various consulta-tive bodies within ASEAN [that must be monitored]. There are hundreds of meet-ings in a year, at the technical, offi cial and academic levels to discuss ASEAN integra-tion. We would like to participate and ob-serve in those meetings to grasp the trend of its movements.

How will South Korea and ASEAN main-tain relations?

The South Korean government has spe-cial funds for the 10 ASEAN member coun-tries, about US$5 million a year. What we

do with this fund is to help human resourc-es networking. More specifi cally, we pro-vide training for technicians and civil ser-vants on the fi lm industry and IT sector. Today, Korea has shown outstanding ap-pearances in the fi lm and visual industries, such as the K-pop performances. So we in-vite people in the fi elds of fi lm or cinema from ASEAN countries to come to Korea and provide them with training. This in-cludes introducing them to the advanced Korean fi lm industry. We will also send Ko-reans from the drama and fi lm industry to the ASEAN member countries to give train-ing and introduction [on innovative ideas]. This is how we spend that US$5 million ev-ery year in ASEAN. This fund was started back in 1989 but with smaller amounts, and now has grown to US$5 million. If the rela-tionship between South Korea and ASEAN can be strengthened, the fi gure could be in-creased to US$10-20 million.

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak once mentioned ‘economic expansion’ re-ferring to the strengthening relationship with ASEAN. How important is ASEAN to South Korea today?

The situation today is that we cannot

help but build mutual-assistance and co-operation with ASEAN. ASEAN is one body. As we deal with Australia as one body, South Korea deals with 10 ASEAN member countries as one body. ASEAN is bulky. It has a population of 600 million people with a combined GDP of more than US$2 trillion. It is a huge territory with a wealth of resources and raw materials. The 600 million population is truly a point that cannot be missed. It is a big consumer market. So, for us this is an attractive mar-ket in which to sell our products and gain the resources.

How do you see ASEAN’s role? Can ASEAN really build a regional community like the EU?

There is pessimism and optimism, but I think ASEAN is diff erent from the EU in terms of its members’ backgrounds. The [countries of the] EU share the same his-torical, religious, political and economic roots for the last hundreds and thousands of years, such as with Christianity, democ-ratization and the growth of a market econ-omy, except for Eastern Europe. Their liv-ing conditions are more or less at a similar level. So to those countries sharing dem-

BAEK SEONG TAEK SOUTH KOREAN AMBASSADOR TO ASEAN

THE REGION IS AN ATTRACTIVE MARKET FOR

SOUTH KOREA

THERE is no question that Southeast Asia is taking on increasing importance, not only for its thriving economy but also for its geopolitical position. The 10 countries of this re-gion, forming themselves into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN in 1967, are on their way to becoming a regional community, globally recognized for their economic potential. This recognition is proven by the increasing trade and investment activities both intra-ASEAN, as well as with partners in the neighboring regions and be-yond.

One of these long-time economic partners is South Korea, who joined other countries in offi cially recog-nizing ASEAN by sending an ambassador to represent its interests at the secretariat in Jakarta, following the 14th ASEAN-Korea summit in Bali in November 2011. ASEAN is now South Korea’s second largest trad-ing partner (US$124.9 billion) after China and its second major investment target region after the USA.

Baek Seong Taek, the fi rst Korean Ambassador to ASEAN took up his three-year assignment last Octo-ber. Ambassador Baek, a career diplomat who has served in Malaysia and Vietnam, recently spoke to Tem-po reporter Seulki Lee, on his mission in and vision of ASEAN. Excerpts:

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 73

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ocratic market economy, human rights and universal human values, it’s easy to band together. But ASEAN is totally diff er-ent. In one country, a couple gets married with a diamond ring while in another coun-try, they use a copper ring. This is the bloc that has both rich and poor nations. The religion, politics and economic systems are all diff erent. That’s why they need to meet often. When there is so much diff er-ence, there must be a lot of give and take. In ASEAN, one either has money or advanced brains like Singapore, or one has a big labor force like Myanmar. Then they can merge their specialties [with their needs].

How do you see the prospects and the challenges of an ASEAN economic commu-nity by 2015?

There can be many arguments on wheth-er ASEAN can reach the target of an eco-nomic community by 2015 and what kind of community it will be. But certainly it is an inevitable progress of ASEAN and it will be much more concentrated and coherent. It will defi nitely head in that direction. No-body can be sure when ASEAN integration can be achieved but the form will be much more concentrated than ever. I think next

year will be much more integrated than this year. Along the way, the year 2020 would be more integrated than 2015. ASEAN will face many problems similar to the fi nancial crisis but I don’t think it will happen for a while, because what they can benefi t from an integrated community will be greater synergy with regards to their diff erences and gaps, as I mentioned earlier. But there is one condition, this is possible only when there is free fl ow of human resources and money within ASEAN.

How do you value Indonesia’s role with-in ASEAN?

The ASEAN Secretariat is located in Jakar-ta, and this is a natural sequence. Indonesia has 40-50 percent of ASEAN’s population, area and economic capacity. Indonesia’s 250 million population is half of ASEAN’s, the Indonesian GDP is about US$800 bil-lion which is 40 percent of ASEAN’s GDP of US$2 trillion. Also what shapes ASEAN to-day is according to the Indonesian way of thinking and way of life.

What do you mean by ‘Indonesia shapes ASEAN today?’

This is a very signifi cant expression. The Indonesian style is not off -based, its pow-

er and volume embrace others, no mat-ter what. It’s quite diffi cult to let poorer nations into a group to be on an equal sta-tus with richer nations where the econo-my and money rules. Korea can’t do that well and neither can the EU. If the former Indonesian president Suharto, Sukarno or the current President Yudhoyono takes coercive attitude when they talk with oth-er countries, they wouldn’t join the group. So far, Indonesia role’s in ASEAN is what is called the ‘fi rst among equals,’ not ranking number 1, 2 or 3. Instead they claim that we are all equal, but we need to choose num-ber one among equal members. I personal-ly think Indonesia’s leading role in ASEAN came from their experience in the Band-ung conference of the Non-Aligned Move-ment. The non-interference and neutral policy has come down for the past 50 years, which has survived many shaky interna-tional incidents. But in the South Korean case, we took the American side and totally relied on them, while ASEAN remains very cool-headed, not taking any sides but bal-ancing it so that it can benefi t from being in between. I think that historical Bandung ‘DNA’ made ASEAN what it is today. ●

74 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

I’M STAKING MY REPUTATION!

AFTER the golden era of the 1990s, the qual-ity of badminton in Indonesia seems to have slowly regressed to its lowest point. New managers came and went, yet our badmin-ton players, who could be predicted to win gold medals since the 1992 Olympics, came home emptyhanded. The World Badmin-

ton Federation even disqualifi ed two of Indonesia’s—in addition to those from China and Korea—players for intentionally losing their matches to avoid playing against a stronger opponent.

One month after the devastating loss at the London Olympics, the national congress of the All-Indonesia Badminton Organiza-tion (PBSI) appointed Gita Wirjawan—who is also the Trade Min-ister—as its chairman in Yogyakarta. Gita began his new task by restructuring the organization and involving a group of former badminton champions in the eff ort. “In two to three years’ time, we will see the result,” Gita told Tempo.

He ensured that Rexy Mainaky would return home and man-age the section on quality performance. Rexy will work togeth-er with his teammate, Ricky Soebagdja, who won a gold med-al at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. For the past 10 years, he has been traveling to the UK, Malaysia and the Philippines to train badminton players. In Malaysia, Rexy was the most expensive coach, earning over Rp100 million a month. Gita also recruited Susi Susanti, the 1992 Olympics gold medalist, as an expert staff to work in the quality performance section and Ricky in the pub-lic relations department.

Yet Gita is unable to do much since he has yet to be sworn in as the new PBSI chairman by the Indonesian National Sports Com-mittee (KONI). Despite his election to the post by a resounding 30 votes versus two, with one abstention, Gita as the new exec-utive must fi rst deal with the charges of former world badmin-ton champion, Icuk Sugiarto. He believes Gita’s election was un-democratic because the national conference decided to do away with the candidates’ presentation of their vision and mission. Consequently, the offi cial inauguration of the new PBSI board must wait until the Indonesian Sports Arbitration Board issues its ruling on the case.

In the meantime, Gita has asked the executive board to come up with a work plan. About the only actual work he can do right now is to clean up the national training center and headquarters, in Cipayung. “So long as I haven’t been sworn in, I can only man-age the plants and the toilets,” said Gita. Last week, he sat down with Tempo reporters Adek Media Roa, Puwani Diyah Praban-dari and Gadi Makitan for a special interview in his Trade Minis-try offi ce. Excerpts:

Who encouraged you to run for the PBSI chair?

It certainly did not appear in my dreams. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Djoko Santoso, the previous chair-man, asked me to go for it. No matter how busy I may be, I could never refuse the request of someone I respect.

What was the president’s message?

Help improve our badminton game.The public seems to demand the highest out of badminton, yet

the quality of our game today is pathetic.

Yes, I am staking my reputation on this eff ort. This means that I and the other executives and managers must work hard. Come to think of it, it’s either do or die for me.

You certainly are brave, given your lack of badminton

experience?

I was a champ in high school, but I’m more of a football, volley-ball, an American football player and a swimmer.

How did you convince Rexy Mainaki and Susi Susanti to join the

PBSI?

I told them I didn’t know as much badminton as Rexy and his friends did, but that I knew enough about management and that I am dedicated to things close to my heart, and that’s sports and the arts. Then I asked him whether he would be interested in working with me, to enter a carriage that would take us from Ja-karta to Paris but that if we didn’t work hard, it would just reach Purwakarta.

What program did you offer to make them join up?

Education, focus on training, the welfare of the players and trainers. I don’t see us advancing if we don’t upgrade their wel-fare.

Will you pay Rexy what he got in other countries?

No, but I am committed to compensating him above what is usually paid here.

How much would that be?

I can’t be specifi c. But I believe that in his heart, Rexy wants to return and give something back to his nation. The problem is whether he needs to work with people he can trust, or with peo-ple he respects, and whether his pocketbook will be enough to put food on the table for his kids. Yes, all this combination must be considered and packaged in a sexy way, not in a luxurious way, but in a way that makes sense.

What about the welfare of the trainers?

That’s what I just said, the welfare of trainers and players must be recalibrated. When a trainer moves to a neighboring coun-try, he can get six to 10 times what he gets here. On top of that, they get a car, housing, international school facilities for their kids and they eat steaks. What about over here? That’s why train- T

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G I T A W I R J A W A N :

INTERVIEW

NOVEMBER 25, 2012 | | 75

Place & Date of Birth:Jakarta, September 21,

1965

Education:» Kennedy School of

Government, Harvard University (1992)

» Public Administration, Harvard University

(1999)

Career:» Goldman Sachs, Singapore (2000)

» ST Telecommunications,

Singapore (2004)» CEO, JP Morgan,

Jakarta (2006)» Founder, Ancora

Capital (2008)» Chairman, Investment

Coordinating Board—BKPM (2009-2012)

» Trade Minister (2011-2014)

GITA WIRJAWAN

INTERVIEW

76 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

ers must be given an incentive so they will train well.

What exactly is your defi nition of a

player’s welfare?

There must be a clear diff erence between good players and those who are not. That is what goes on in the world of sports. So it’s in the mind of players that if they work hard, train hard and perform superbly, they will get better compensation.

Many of our former athletes are not doing

so well in their old age, what can you do to

change this?

We want a system that guarantees so-cial welfare. One way is to set up a system of savings for the players. Some thought must also be given to players who break their fi n-gers and cannot play any more. Where can they work after that? I will urge sponsors not only to help us with the PBSI operations but also with the welfare of the players.

You promised to increase the PBSI Trust

Fund, which right now stands at Rp40

billion, to Rp100 billion. Where will you get

that kind of money?

People will donate when they believe in

what they are donating. I come from a back-ground where credibility is vital: the world of fi nance and business. As a business per-son, I will only help if I believe in the peo-ple I help.

What about the credibility of the

managers and executives?

This is what my presentation will be on. Believe it or not. There used to be many positions under the chairman, but today there are only four. Simple as that. Each po-sition will be held by people who truly un-derstand their jobs. Basri Yusuf (head of development) once worked at the Djarum Club but who was hijacked by Singapore, proved he can produce good players. Rexy trained in the UK, Malaysia and then the Philippines. Anton Subowo, a business-man, knows how to communicate with oth-er businesspeople and he has been tasked with raising funds.

So, you will go to the businesspeople?

I will not whine and ask for their help to-day. I will fi rst demonstrate what we can achieve.

Going forward, what is your target?

Assuming we work really hard, hopefully the ultimate target will be to win the Thom-as and the Uber Cups in 2014. To win the Sudirman Prize in 2013 would be too ambi-tious. In our assessment, the men’s doubles is still okay, but the others really need to be improved.

What about the Olympics?

Defi nitely our ambition is to win the Olympic medal. Why not?

What needs to be stressed to raise the

performance of our badminton players?

The most important is the training and nurturing of young athletes. We have no young cadres at the training centers. And this does not apply only to the training cen-ters, but also to other areas.

How can this problem be resolved?

First, bringing in an extraordinary train-er doesn’t mean just paying attention to the main athletes but also to the trainee and the juniors. Second, the club owner who

Sony Dwi Kuncoro and his peers training at the badminton center in Cipayung, Jakarta.

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GITA WIRJAWAN

sends his young athletes to training cen-ters must be convinced that his kids will get full attention. Today, they still have doubts about that.

Even good trainers can have diffi culties if

there is outside intervention in the selection

of players. How can this be prevented?

I will change the system. Anything that is linked to performance is Rexy’s business, as well as matters involving shuttlecocks, nets, airline tickets, food, beverages, san-dals, soap, toothpaste—everything that is needed to support a player’s performance. All that must become part of the training and nurturing.

Will Rexy have full authority?

Yes, he will be fully responsible, and also accountable. When we bask in glory, he gets the credit, but if we lose who do I blame?

Will you take Indonesia to more

international tournaments?

There’s enough participation but it should be participated by better players. In the future, there must be more young players. When our work plan is completed, I want each player to know which tourna-ment he will be playing in one year ahead, of course with the necessary evaluation. If

There must be a clear difference between good players and those who are not. That is what goes on in the world of sports. So it’s in the mind of players that if they work hard, train hard and perform superbly, they will get better compensation.

he gains enough points, the player will con-tinue to play, according to schedule, and re-adjust. For example, a player is scheduled to play in Copenhagen but if his appearanc-es haven’t been that good, we will take him to play in Klaten, or the opposite.

What are the new managers doing pen-

ding their installation?

I have suggested to my colleagues in the management to come up with a business plan by the end of November. With that, we should be able to consolidate the diff er-ent viewpoints relating to development, fi -nances, fundraising and training. As soon as we enter 2013, we should start immedi-ately so we can produce winners in two to three years’ time.

Why is it called a business plan?

In order to get a sense of planning, a sense of business and a sense of crisis. To be more proper. Because we want to be better.

What is your impression of Icuk Sugiarto?

I have been a big fan of Icuk since I was small. When he won, I would cry because I was so proud and I am not dramatizing. I never had any negative thoughts about him. At the national conference in Yogyakarta, because of the voting, Icuk and I were sent out of the room. I told him, “Good luck and let’s compete democratically.”

So, once the arbitration is clear and you

are installed, will you recruit Icuk?

That depends. If he aspires to serious-ly develop the PBSI and the quality of our players, we will certainly fi nd a way for him. ●

Sidelines

ONE day, a few decades ago now, when I was still in primary school, our new headmaster celebrated He-roes Day on the 10th of November with solemnity. Pak Sumadi stood on top of a desk. The teachers and stu-

dents were lined up to listen to him in the back yard of a building that used to be the warehouse of a Chinese merchant.

On that makeshift stage, he did not sermonize about patrio-tism and heroism; he merely talked about his own experience in Surabaya on the day of that famous battle. His voice was not loud, yet it was enthralling.

He talked about his own fears and those of other young men of his generation, the fear that the Republic that was then not yet four months old was about to be recolonized. He spoke about his decision to leave his parents in Semarang and go to Surabaya with no expectation of returning. He joined the thousands of young men who were ar-riving from all corners of the Republic, gathering in neighborhood corners in Surabaya. He spoke about the unequal battle, which they went to face almost recklessly. He described his fear before the fi rst shots were fi red, and what happened when this fear disappeared in the heat of battle. Two of his friends were killed after bringing down three Gurkha soldiers; another threw himself and a gre-nade at a British tank.

His story had no conclusion. The ceremony end-ed with a choir of 20 students singing a few songs, one of which suggested the motherland that had been saved in Surabaya: ‘your soil is sacred, your sky holy…’; this country that made us ‘thirsty’ to serve.

I noticed Pak Sumadi wipe away the tears in his eyes.Then the ceremony was over and we went back to class, as usu-

al. But probably what we heard that day slowly made us aware of the meaning of independent Indonesia. The rough wooden walls of our classroom were decorated with pictures sent by the Minis-try of Education about our country that was under construction; a busy port, a huge railway station, neat, happy schoolchildren.

And in this way we were introduced to death and rebirth, to sacrifi ce and hope. We were not prepared to face cynicism.

Maybe this is why my stomach felt rather queasy when I read the novel Surabaya for the fi rst time, a decade or so after its fi rst printing in 1947. Idroes’s work is a mosaic of his impressions and conclusions about those tumultuous days around the 10th of No-vember 1945.

Briefl y, Surabaya records that situation: the uncertainty, ten-sion and ferocity. Courage and love for motherland going mad. The conviction that what was old was changing. I found the fi rst paragraph of this 64-page book shocking because of its cutting sarcasm, with metaphors fresh but not always appropriate about the mental situation at that time:

Courage emerged unexpectedly, like a snake from the under-growth. Belief in oneself and love of the motherland overfl owed, like beer froth. Thinking diminished, people acted like animals, and the results were gratifying. People no longer believed much in God. God had just arrived and his names were many: bombs, machine guns and mortars.

Following this, Idroes depicts the story of Surabaya’s battle to the death as a class B movie between ‘cowboys’ and ‘bandits’. The British Gurkha troops, ‘black as locomotives’, landed in Suraba-ya. They quickly confronted the ‘cowboys’—the armed Indone-sian youths. To the ‘cowboys’ the Gurkha troops were ‘bandits left to range wild’.

In the middle of the streets the bandits stopped the cowboys and made them surrender their weapons. The bandits shouted, while holding up their bayonets: ‘Your weapons or your lives!’

The cowboys did not raise their hands, nor did they give over their weapons. They shouted: ‘take our lives!—and at the same moment began to fi re. The bandits also fi red and a fi erce battle ensued.

In a half humorous way, this part of the story actually still conveys how the young Indonesian men courageously defended their dignity. But Idroes does not spend time discussing dignity or the ‘fi erce battle’. The war is shown only in broad strokes. Details are more evident when he depicts the places where the women take refuge.

Maybe this is because his knowledge was limit-ed. At that time, aged 24, he himself did not go to the front line; he was a journalist for the newspa-

per Berdjoeang in Malang. And as a journalist, he took distance; he did not take sides.

But actually his prose does take sides: he chooses to believe there were no heroes on that day. In this book there is a hint of the cynicism that views people as fi gures always posing. The humor is dark. Surabaya seems to echo Galileo’s words in Brecht’s play Life of Galileo, “Unhappy is the country that needs heroes.”

But I remember Pak Sumadi. Perhaps ‘heroes’ are indeed mere-ly political constructs to justify a history. Or heroes end up being fl eeting fi gures. But the actions of Pak Sumadi and his friends can-not be seen as posing. Their lives were witness to heroic deeds: they were prepared to die for many.

This diff erence between heroes and heroism is not evident in the novel Surabaya. Maybe because when Idroes wrote the book, he himself had not experienced it. The refugees in the book are like the middle class that never wants to lose, and views life from a point of routine. Hegel would consider them an example of ‘psy-chological valets’ or psychologischen Kammerdiener; people who do not know heroism because they are merely valets, and ‘no man is a hero to his valet’.

● Goenawan Mohamad

SURABAYA

78 | | NOVEMBER 25, 2012

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