[Kabar-Irian] News:April 10-13 2007
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KABAR IRIAN NEWS
March Apr 10-13
TOPICS
* IPDN lecturer suspended over violence report
* Indonesian MP says time not right to open Papua to media
* Easter inspires a plea for peace
* Former Vanuatu PM discusses Papua’s autonomy in Port Moresby
* Freeport Mine Workers Plan Wage Protest; Copper Gains (Update4)
* Employees of Freeport mine threaten strike
* Gasoline shortage reported in Papua
* Fitch Ups Outlook for Freeport-McMoRan
* Timber imports cost the earth
* Stop treating women as objects
* Indonesian navy foils attempt to smuggle timber out of Papua
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070410.A05&irec=4
IPDN lecturer suspended over violence report
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Sumedang
Authorities at the Institute of Public Administration (IPDN) suspended a
lecturer on Monday after he spoke
publicly on the death of a sophomore student and other violence at the
college.
Lecturer Inu Kencana Syafi'i said that if the suspension was a punishment
then it was unjust and did not
correspond with his work to stop brutality at the academy.
Inu sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono informing him that
34 students had died at IPDN
since 1993, 17 of whom are believed to have died in suspicious circumstances.
"I sent him the letter this morning enclosing data on the deaths of the
college students in order to set it
straight that I'm not making this up. Not all the students died of
unnatural causes apparently, but I have
specified the irregular ones," he was quoted by Detikcom as saying at his
official house in the IPDN
lecturers' housing complex in Jatinangor, Sumedang, on Monday.
In the report shown to reporters, he said 34 students had died from 1993
to 2007, the most recent case
being the death of sophomore Cliff Muntu from North Sulawesi. He
highlighted the names of students
whom he alleged died of unnatural causes.
On May 8, 1993, according to Inu's report, Aliyan, from West Kalimantan,
fell from the second floor of the
Bengkulu dormitory. Also that year, the report says, an East Java student,
Gatot, was found dead with
bruises on his chest and broken ribs after attending basic military training.
"I saw the condition of the student with my own eyes," said Inu.
The report says that in 1995, Alfian, from Lampung, was found dead with a
fractured skull in his dormitory
and in 1997 Fahruddin from Central Java died of unnatural causes. College
authorities refused to allow
doctors to perform an autopsy on him, according to the report.
In 1999, Edy, whose origin is not listed in the report, died during a
field study and, Inu says, the institute
also refused an autopsy on him. In 2000, Arizal, from South Sulawesi, was
believed to have drowned in
Lake Toba, North Sumatra. Purwanto, from Central Java, was found dead with
broken ribs after
graduating from the college in 2000.
In the same year, Obeth Nego Indow, from Papua, died in his senior's room
with blood in his mouth and
broken ribs, the report alleges.
In March 2000, a West Java student Eri Rahman, died in hospital after
being beaten by seniors, who
were sent to prison, but allowed to graduate after they served their
sentences.
In 2000, a student from Jakarta, Utari Mustika, allegedly bled to death
after an abortion. Her body was left
in a mosque in Cimahi, West Java.
On July 25, 2002, Teddy Frederich Hendra, from Maluku, drowned and his
body was found floating in the
sea off Cilacap. In 2002, South Sulawesi student Wirman Nurman died. The
college claimed he died in a
traffic accident. In 2003, Wahyu Hidayat, from West Java, died after
allegedly being beaten by his
seniors. In 2004, Arizal Sasad, from Central Java, died. College officials
told his parents he had died in a
traffic accident.
In 2005, Irfan Albert Hibo, from Papua, died in his room and college
officials said he committed suicide
by taking insecticide, although it was later alleged that he died of a
drug overdose.
In 2006, Papuan student Manfred Hubi, died at IPDN's IIP branch campus in
Cilandak, Jakarta. College
officials claimed he died of acute hepatitis, but they again refused to
allow an autopsy.
"The difference between my data and that of the IPDN officials, which
indicated that 29 students had died,
is because theirs did not include students who died mysteriously and whose
bodies were not examined,"
Inu said.
Inu received the suspension letter, signed by IPDN assistant rector Tjahja
Supriatna, on Sunday.
"I don't understand it. They say I don't have to teach as long as I have
to deal with the investigative team,"
said Inu, who has been teaching at the college for 17 years.
He also alleged that lecturers had used formaldehyde to hide bruises on
Cliff's body, and asked why they
had not been questioned.
---
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=31394
Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
Indonesian MP says time not right to open Papua to media
Posted at 03:42 on 10 April, 2007 UTC
An Indonesian Democratic Party MP says the time is still not right to open
up Papua province to foreign
journalists and fact-finding missions.
Sutradara Gintings made the comment in his just-concluded visit to
Wellington, where he and other
members of the House of Representatives met New Zealand’s Defence Minister
Phil Goff.
Mr Sutradara says the implementation of special autonomy status for Papua
is improving, although he
admits the province is still hampered by development and human rights
problems.
He says Papua needs to be managed with two perspectives: one which seeks
to maintain Indonesia’s
national integrity and the other to give Papuans the opportunity to
improve themselves.
“We will open it in the right time. Why? Because you know that the
condition of Papua is sometimes
very sensitive. But sensitivity is less and less now... We are not
resistant to the wants of the media and
international community, no... but it must be considered, the sensitivity
of the local problem.”
Indonesian MP, Sutradara Gintings.
---
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/opinion/easter-inspires-a-plea-for-
peace/2007/04/06/1175366473855.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Easter inspires a plea for peace
Frank Brennan | April 7, 2007
Though never a practising Christian, the sociologist John Carroll has
just published The Existential Jesus, claiming: "Jesus is the core of
the Western Dreaming. His presence is vital to our civilisation and its
individuals."
Easter is the most important feast in the Christian calendar. The
majority of Australians still identify as Christians. Despite our
increasing secularism, religion just will not go away. Led by Kevin
Rudd and Tony Abbott, our politicians on both sides of the fence have
had much to say recently about the relationship between religion and
politics.
Carroll laments that the Christian churches "have lost their
traditional and most important function of providing persuasive answers
to questions about the meaning of life and death". He thinks
"contemporary mainstream Christian churches seem embarrassed to talk
about God. When they do, their words usually sound wooden and archaic."
He thinks priests like myself "fall over backwards to keep the
religious framework of [our] belief out of [our] public views", thereby
helping to "diminish the authority of that framework".
When agitating for the rights of refugees or indigenous peoples with
government or the electorate, it is sensible, and respectful to others,
that I try to make my arguments comprehensible to those of all
religious faiths and of none. This Easter reflection should be
different from my Easter sermon, and not just because the audience is
more religiously diverse. Christian readers also expect a different
discourse in the mainstream media than they would hear from the pulpit
tomorrow.
Christians who believe the Easter message of new life and hope through
passion and death can bring, and be, good news for others. A universal
message of life beyond death, and hope beyond the present, may not
withstand scientific proof but it can still be real, good news. Easter
is an appropriate time for those of us impressed by Jesus to confirm
our hope, pondering how we might transcend our self-interest, our
nationalism, the constraints of history and politics. It is a moment
for our hearts to burn within us as we hear the stories and recall
others (especially the recently deceased) who take us beyond ourselves
and our preconceptions of our world.
I recently spent a month in Papua - the west of the island of New
Guinea taken over by Indonesia in 1963 and oppressively administered
ever since. It took the arrival in Australia of 43 Papuan asylum
seekers on a boat last year to convince me that it was time to go and
see the situation next door. These people have known endless oppression
for four decades and they live just 300 kilometres from our shores. One
Papuan priest looked me in the eye and said: "We are your neighbours."
There is a well-known parable about all that. He was prompting me to
action.
A woman in Jayapura told me she was very sad that Australia had taken
no notice of her people for more than 40 years and that it took just
one boatload of asylum seekers to make Australians curious, if not
interested, in the people next door.
When that boat arrived in Australia, our Government was anxious that
there not be a flow of refugees from Papua. It wanted Parliament to
extend the so-called Pacific solution because it was "necessary to
prevent Australia from being used as a staging post for political
protests".
Independence for Papua is now virtually inconceivable. Papuan leaders
and church groups speak not about independence, but about the need for
Papua to be a land of peace - tannah damai.
It was not always preposterous to consider that in the future the
people of Papua might be independent. Throughout the 1950s, the Menzies
government was adamant that Melanesia and Indonesia were distinct
entities and that "the people of West New Guinea have little in common,
except a past common administration, with the peoples of Indonesia".
Our government joined others at the UN in signing a deal in which
sovereignty in Papua was transferred to Indonesia on May 1, 1963, with
provision for a later "act of free choice" in 1969. By then, there was
no choice at all.
When I was flying home from Papua, a Garuda flight attendant sat down
next to me. I told her that I was sad because my friend Liz O'Neill,
the Jakarta embassy official, was one of the five Australians who had
died in the tragic plane accident at Yogyakarta two days before. She
then told me that she too had lost a friend who had been a steward on
that fateful flight which claimed 22 lives.
We held hands briefly. It was an Easter moment. Liz would have smiled;
Liz, whose human touch constantly broke through barriers and brought
people together in the midst of tragedy; Liz, the daughter and sister
schooled in faith, the wife and mother nurtured in love, the friend and
diplomat dedicated to hope in our shared humanity. She spent her last
years dedicated to creating good relations between neighbours, between
Australia and Indonesia, especially in the midst of tragedy. She is now
an Easter person.
Father Frank Brennan is professor of law at the Australian Catholic
University and professor of human rights at the University of Notre
Dame, Australia. His most recent book is Acting on Conscience (UQPress,
2007).
---
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=31486
Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
Former Vanuatu PM discusses Papua’s autonomy in Port Moresby
Posted at 04:06 on 13 April, 2007 UTC
It has been reported that a former Vanuatu prime minister, Barak Sope, was
in Port Moresby over Easter
to meet people from Indonesia’s Papua province to discuss the special
autonomy granted to the province.
The chief international spokesman for the PNG-based Papua Council
Presidium, Franzalbert Joku, says
he was pleased with the outcome of the three-day meeting and the growing
acceptance and support of the
international community for Papua’s special autonomy.
Mr Joku said Mr Sope agreed commitment by both Jakarta and Papua
leadership was crucial to the
successful implementation of the autonomy laws enacted six years ago.
---
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=ai03djbAZd_4&refer=asia
Freeport Mine Workers Plan Wage Protest; Copper Gains (Update4)
By Leony Aurora
April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Output from Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s
Grasberg mine in Indonesia
may be disrupted next week when some workers at the world's second-largest
copper mine plan a protest
over wages. The price of the metal gained.
The ``rally'' from April 18 will last until the management gives written
commitments on the demands, said
Frans Pigome, head of Tongoi Papua, the local group behind the action.
Tongoi Papua planned a
``peaceful demonstration,'' said Mindo Pangaribuan, a spokesman for
Freeport's Indonesian unit.
The possibility of disruption at the mine may squeeze global copper
supplies at a time of rising prices and
surging demand, led by China. Three-month futures on the London Metal
Exchange gained 45 percent
between Feb. 5 and yesterday.
``Given Grasberg's status as the largest copper mine in the region, this
could have a massive impact,''
said Gerard Burg, a metals economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in
Melbourne. ``We could see prices
spike up again with this labor dispute.''
Copper futures in London reversed an earlier decline to gain as much as
$64, or 0.8 percent, to $7,754 a
ton, and traded at $7,720 at 2:33 p.m. Jakarta time. The metal reached a
record $8,800 last May.
`Harmful to All'
``We certainly are hopeful that there will be no such impact'' on
production ``as it would only be harmful to
all stakeholders, including Tongoi Papua,'' Pangaribuan said today in an
e-mail sent to Bloomberg News.
PT Freeport Indonesia, the local unit of New Orleans-based
Freeport-McMoRan, had had ``numerous
meetings'' with Tongoi Papua, and didn't know when the demonstration was
planned nor how many
workers may join it, Pangaribuan said.
Grasberg, located in the easternmost province of the Southeast Asian
archipelago, produced 435 million
pounds of copper in the fourth quarter of last year, and 514,000 ounces of
gold, Freeport-McMoRan said
Jan. 16.
Tongoi Papua ``is an informal organization that plays a role in
facilitating communication between the
company and native Papuan employees,'' Pangaribuan said in a separate
e-mail. The group had
submitted a report after a convention and the company had responded,
Pangaribuan said, without giving
details.
Aside from higher wages, the workers are demanding Freeport hires more
Papuans as permanent
employees, Pigome said in a phone interview today from Jayapura, the
biggest city in Papua.
`Many Years'
``Most of the Papuan employees are still on contracts, while Freeport has
been in Papua for so many
years,'' Pigome said. The group claims to represent 6,000 workers at
Freeport, and the companies that
support the mine.
Freeport has nearly quadrupled the number of Papuan employees to over
3,000 since 1996, Pangaribuan
said.
Richard Adkerson, chief executive officer at Freeport- McMoRan, said March
29 the industry was having
a ``challenging time'' meeting copper demand and the market was very
tight. Adkerson's counterparts
have made similar remarks, highlighting Chinese demand for commodities,
including copper, which is
used to make pipes and wires.
Charlie Sartain, chief executive for copper at Xstrata Plc, the world's
fifth-largest miner, said April 2 the
growth in China's demand for commodities ``is just phenomenal.'' Bret
Clayton, head of copper at Rio
Tinto Group, the world's third- largest miner, said March 27 that China's
economic growth was ``absolutely
mind-boggling.''
Freeport's shares have gained 9.9 percent over the past year to settle
yesterday at $69.85. The company
has a market capitalization of $26.7 billion.
Freeport-McMoRan operates Grasberg under a 30-year contract with the
Indonesian government that
began in 1992. The company owns 91 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia, the
main operating subsidiary in
the country, and the government owns the balance, according to the
Freeport-McMoRan Web site.
``If the workers go on strike, this will make copper- concentrate supplies
tighter, and may force some
smelters to reduce refined-copper production,'' Takashi Murata, an analyst
at the Daiwa Institute of
Research, said by phone from Tokyo.
To contact the reporter on this story: Leony Aurora in Jakarta at
laurora@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 13, 2007 03:36 EDT
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070413.G01&irec=0
Employees of Freeport mine threaten strike
Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Timika
Employees of gold and copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia threatened
Thursday to stage a
peaceful strike next Wednesday, urging company management to pay more
attention to their welfare,
especially with regard to wages and benefits.
Their demands include employee development for native Papuan employees and
are the result of
discussions with Tongoi Papua, an informal organization that facilitates
communication between any
company and native Papuan employees.
Tongoi Papua chairman Frans Pigome told reporters at the Mimika Police
station he was coordinating the
strike with the help of local police.
He said Tongoi Papua representatives had met with PT Freeport management
three times and that they
had been left no other choice but to strike.
"We met again with PT Freeport management on April 5, but by April 6,
which was our deadline, we had
still received no response," Pigome said.
"Our aspirations are not only for Papuan employees -- we are interested in
supporting change for all
employees.
"We've met with PT Freeport's association of Indonesian workers, which
fully supports our plan to go on
strike," he said.
But PT Freeport spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan said Thursday Tongoi Papua
submitted a report from the
Tongoi Papua convention to PT Freeport management and that the company had
delivered a response
through the correct industrial relations channels.
This response was in line with PT Freeport's industrial relations efforts
and their commitment to all
employees, Mindo said in a statement.
"Wages and benefits are among the main topics of discussion with the
workers' union, as provided under
the prevailing legislation," Mindo said.
He said PT Freeport Indonesia was committed to continually advancing its
native Papuan employees and
ensuring numbers of native Papuan employees occupying senior positions
within the organization grows.
"To this end, the company is to run two programs for native Papuans -- a
new graduate program and an
apprenticeship program at the Nemangkawi Mining Institute," he said.
The programs will focus on the selection and development of native Papuans
with the potential and skills to
succeed in professional work.
Mindo said in the last 10 years, the native Papuan workforce at PT
Freeport had increased significantly.
In 1996, there were approximately 800 native Papuan employees and by
January 2007, this number had
climbed to more than 3,000, including apprentice program participants at
the Nemangkawi Mining
Institute, Mindo said.
"This meets the commitment PTFI made back in 1996, but these efforts will
continue, because that
commitment long ago became basic policy."
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070412.G06
Gasoline shortage reported in Papua
National News - April 12, 2007
TIMIKA, Papua: Gasoline shortages in Timika have resulted in long lines at
the city's gas stations since
Tuesday.
An attendant at one gas station said people began lining up for gas early
Wednesday morning. He said
the station normally sold 20,000 liters of fuel a day, but Pertamina
delivered just 16,000 liters on Tuesday
and 13,000 liters on Wednesday.
"We usually close at 7 p.m., but because of the supply shortages we are
only opening from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. now," he said.
He said Pertamina was currently supplying Timika with 30 kiloliters of
fuel a day, compared to 60 kiloliters
on normal days.
The manager of another gas station, Syamsul Ashari, said bad weather was
affecting deliveries from
Pertamina. He said rough weather in the Arafura Sea was disrupting
supplies shipped from Ambon. -- JP
---
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/10/ap3598251.html?partner=alerts
Associated Press
Fitch Ups Outlook for Freeport-McMoRan
Associated Press 04.10.07, 12:00 PM ET
Fitch Ratings said Tuesday it changed its rating outlook for
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold to
"Positive" in light of the mining company's recent completion of $5.76
billion in equity financings.
Freeport-McMoRan has said that the financing's net proceeds of $5.6
billion will be used to repay debt
used finance the acquisition of Phelps Dodge Corp.
Fitch said the financings will "reduce subsequent scheduled repayments in
direct order which will result in
no scheduled repayment over the medium term," Fitch said in a news
release. The company's scheduled
loan repayments aggregated $325 million annually over the medium term, the
ratings agency also said.
Annual dividends will increase by about $252 million and annual interest
costs will be reduced by about
$385 million, Fitch said.
Freeport-McMoRan shares rose $1.37 to $70.35 in midday trading on the New
York Stock Exchange.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press.
---
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/466/story.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10432022
Maire Leadbeater: Timber imports cost the earth
5:00AM Monday April 02, 2007
It is not usual for me to agree with Indonesian Government
representatives, but Minister for the
Environment Rachmat Witoelar has my full support for his call on the
international community to help curb
the demand for tropical hardwood.
Witoelar wants to preserve what remains of the tropical old-growth forests
in Papua but he is up against
out-of-control illegal logging which is fuelled by high demand for kwila
in prosperous Western societies.
Witoelar conceded in a Radio New Zealand interview that the trade in
illegal timber is hard to stop given
that Indonesia has so many islands and so many exits.
The problem isn't only to do with geography but with the power of the
timber barons and the lack of
effective regulation and enforcement of their operations.
Ironically, the problem is worse than it was under Suharto, whose regime
allocated most logging
concessions to key supporters and cronies.
The military and its business foundations remain heavily implicated in
every aspect of the logging trade,
including the suppression of any opposition in their area.
The delightful summer family barbecues most of us enjoy often take place
on a deck constructed from
kwila and the guests sit on kwila chairs and recliners.
Greenpeace research shows that nearly all our kwila comes from the
diminishing rainforest in Papua New
Guinea or West Papua. And the World Bank estimates that 80 per cent of all
the timber from both
countries is logged illegally.
If you check out the kwila furniture advertisements in the newspaper or on
the internet you will find New
Zealand retailers promoting the distinctive red-brown timber's durability
and attractiveness.
What is not mentioned is that this tall tree, with its spreading canopy,
is under such threat that there are
proposals for it to be internationally registered as an endangered species.
Every year Indonesia loses 2.8 million hectares of forest, an area about
the size of Belgium.
Now that the jungle has largely been stripped from Borneo and Sumatra, the
loggers are concentrating on
West Papua, which shares the world's third largest tropical rainforest
with its neighbour, Papua New
Guinea. Only the Amazon and the Congo have larger tracts.
The region's biodiversity holds scientists in awe. Exquisitely beautiful
birds, animals and plants new to
science have just been discovered in a part of West Papua that the
scientists dub the Lost Land.
Tragically, this pristine enclave may be lost for all time if the logging
continues.
The Indonesian Government reacted promptly two years ago when
environmental groups exposed illegal
shipments to China of stolen logs - a huge 300,000 cubic metres a month.
Logs were seized and 170 people, including security officers and
Government officials, were arrested.
But once that enforcement operation was over the timber barons and their
military backers were back in
business, this time sending processed wood, instead of logs, to Java,
Vietnam and Malaysia from where it
is re-exported to luxury markets in North America, Europe and New Zealand.
When we approached Auckland retailers, some cited documents to establish
that their furniture was from
correctly managed forests - or even certified by the Forest Stewardship
Council.
Others seemed unconcerned about the origins of their tropical-wood
products. Indonesian firm Warwick
Teak, which sources its kwila from West Papua, proudly announces on its
webpage that its kwila outdoor
furniture is being exported to New Zealand.
I am sceptical of certification that guarantees that the timber has been
sustainably logged. For one thing,
kwila - like New Zealand hardwoods - does not regenerate easily and takes
about 80 years to grow to
maturity.
There is evidence that some kwila is smuggled out of West Papua on ships
which subsequently call at
Papua New Guinea, where additional logs are loaded and PNG documents
supplied to obscure the origin
of the cargo.
The loggers take few precautions to protect water sources or to lessen the
destruction caused by their
access roads, while the indigenous people are alienated from their
ancestral lands for payment that
amounts to a fraction of the money the timber earns in the West.
For tribal people, the logging boom is just the latest threat to their
foodbasket and customary rights.
Since Freeport McMoran was granted concessions in 1967 to mine copper and
gold at Timika in the
highlands, it has destroyed forests and aquatic resources belonging to the
Amungme and Kamoro people.
Their sacred mountain has been decapitated and a 230 square kilometre
barren wasteland now dominates
as the mine tailings extend relentlessly.
Greenpeace says that kwila costs the earth but few New Zealand buyers are
aware that their affordable
outdoor furniture has a black history.
The New Zealand Government announced late last year a policy aimed to
discourage the import of illegal
timber and to forbid Government departments from using it.
But this weak policy is manifestly ineffective in curbing the demand for
kwila products. What is to stop the
Government from regulating to prevent the import of stolen rainforest timber?
We should revive the adage of the anti-nuclear campaigners - if in doubt
keep it out - and use only
plantation-harvested wood for our decks and leisure furniture.
* Maire Leadbeater is a member of the Indonesia Human Rights Committee.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20070413.E03&irec=2
Stop treating women as objects
Indraswari, Bandung
Zainal Fikri, in his article Religion-based ordinances violate human
rights, published by this paper on
March 30, offered an interesting insight into how our unitary state could
be torn apart by conflicting local
ordinances.
He expresses concern about the administration of the West Irian Jaya
regency of Manokwari -- a
regency where Christians are the majority, which has finalized a draft
regional ordinance based on the
Bible that forbids people from wearing Muslim headscarves, or jilbab, in
public. On the other hand, other
regencies in Indonesia require people to wear clothing deemed Islamic.
I agree with the writer's main arguments that both laws are against the
very nature of human rights, as well
as the Indonesian Constitution, which guarantees everybody the right to
exercise his/her religion freely,
and states that religion is a right not an obligation. I, however, would
like to offer a different insight into the
same issue, but from a gender-based perspective.
Since a long time ago women's bodies have been the center of a public
debate over what is right or
wrong, good or bad for society and public morality. This is currently the
case in Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam province, which applies sharia law and obliges people to wear
Islamic clothing, especially
jilbab for women.
In Manokwari -- if the draft is approved -- the reverse occurs. When
sanctions are applied, women
become the first target, as is the case of Aceh, and possibly in
Manokwari, though for a different reason.
It is not only in Indonesia that jilbab is an issue. In 2004, headscarves
became an issue in France when
girls were not allowed to wear jilbab at public schools, as happened in
Indonesia in the 1980s, while in
Germany a school teacher was not allowed to wear a jilbab when teaching.
It is clear that whatever the regulations, women are the victims of
dominant ideologies accommodated in
public policies that adopt strong patriarchal values. In many cases,
women's voices are rarely heard, and
what is regarded as good or bad for them is not determined by the women
themselves but by higher
authorities.
Why does this happen? This is because women are viewed as no more than
objects. Aquarini P.
Prabasmoro (2006), in Feminist Cultural Studies: Body, Literature, Pop
Culture, states: "In patriarchal
culture, a women's body is perceived as objects of sight, touch, sexual,
men's lust and ideology.
Generally, women are perceived as objects and an object literally means
receiver of action."
The religion-based ordinances discussed above clearly view women in this
regard.
Why do such policies target mainly women? Women are probably the easiest
target, since no matter how
(gender) biased a policy is, religious and cultural justifications, which
are claimed to be for women's sake,
can always be made and passed with minimal resistance.
Unlike women, men are not objects, but subjects. Moreover, a man's body is
not a "battlefield" where
people of different ideologies explore it as a medium to determine what is
deemed good or bad, right or
wrong. As a result, men are not in a as difficult a position as women, who
have to bear the impact of
whatever policies target them. Women's physical appearance often becomes a
basis to judge, if not to
"criminalize" them.
In line with Zainal Fikri's opinion, people of all faiths should be free
to exercise or not exercise their
religion, including wearing or not wearing religious attire. More than
just physical appearance, we cannot
judge one's religious devotion and morality from what he/she is wearing.
In the case of women, why not let women decide what is best for them,
because they are not merely
objects. Moreover, women's bodies belong to them, not to local governments
or the state.
The writer is a lecturer in the Department of Public Administration,
School of Social and Political Science,
Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung.
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http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/4/10/indonesian-navy-foils-attempt-to-smuggle-timber-out-of-papua/
Indonesian navy foils attempt to smuggle timber out of Papua
Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA News) - An Indonesian Navy patrol boat, the
KRI Panana 817, recently
foiled an attempt by certain parties to smuggle 1,354 logs or 5,416 cubic
meters of timber out of Papua in
a barge pulled by a tugboat in Namlea waters near Buru Island in Maluku
province, a Navy spokesman
said.
The Indonesian-flagged tugboat, the Theodore, was operated by PT Surya
Maritim Shipping and the
barge by PT Kian Guan Line while the logs belonged to PT Maluku Sentosa.
They were intercepted by the KRI Panana 817 last March 26, Lt Col Toni
Syaiful, chief information officer
at the Navy"s Eastern Fleet Command Headquarters in Surabaya said on Tuesday.
KRI Panana crew members found out that the logs were being transported to
Belawan in North Sumatra
but they were not covered by the required shipping and forestry documents
so that there was reason to
believe the timber had been felled illegally.
"We believe the people involved in the case have violated several articles
in existing forestry laws making
them liable to certain penalties, including a fine of up to Rp10 billion,"
Syaiful said.
Assuming that the market value of one cubic meter of logs was Rp750,000,
the 1,354 impounded logs
were worth more than Rp4 billion, he said. (*)
Copyright © 2007 ANTARA
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