Proposed New Criminal Law Threatens Indonesia's Unity in Diversity

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Proposed New Criminal Law Threatens Indonesia's Unity in Diversity
Yohanes Sulaiman | March 28, 2013



The law that is supposed to be 'more inclusive' and to create a more harmonious society could end up creating a divisive and disharmonious community. (JG Illustration)

The proposed criminal law that is currently being discussed in the parliament is, to put it bluntly, a disaster in the making. While there have been a lot of discussions concerning the controversial parts of the laws, such as the article that threatens to put single people engaging in premarital sex in jail, there is surprisingly little discussion on the nature of the proposed law itself which, should it be implemented, could wreak havoc on legal certainty and worse, create a more divided society, threatening the unity of the state itself by possibly stoking the issue of ethno-nationalism.

The core problems with this proposed criminal law lie in Article 2(1) and 756(1). Article 2(1) states, “The provision as noted in the Article 1 Paragraph (1) does not reduce the validity of rules that exist in the society that regulate whether someone should be sentenced even though that particular act is not regulated in the legislation.” Meanwhile Article 756 (1) adds, “Action that according to the unwritten law is prohibited and threatened with criminal sanctions is [a] criminal act.”

Defenders of these articles note that the current official law is often criticized as being detrimental to local interests as it does not take into account local values. Therefore this proposed new law would take into account local values and tribal laws, and in essence, create a more inclusive and just law. 

The intent, of course, is always noble. The question, however, is what local value is. By its nature, local values and traditions are unwritten. There are so many obscure values that exist in the society that just to be aware of some of these rules would require a long immersion in the community. 

Now, however, everyone should be aware of what the local values and traditions are, immediately, lest their actions could be inadvertently criminalized. The first victims of this law would then be companies that inadvertently run afoul of local values. What could prevent a group of people, claiming themselves representatives of the aggrieved community, to declare that a company has inadvertently broken a local taboo, for instance, by cutting down a “sacred forest,” in which the company has already been given a permission to operate by the government? 

This does not mean that there are no legitimate grievances. The Indonesian bureaucracy and its legal system is notoriously corrupt, giving bad companies opportunities to simply ignore existing rules and regulations. The proposed law, however, could open a floodgate of frivolous lawsuits, as this time the protests will be backed by the criminal law itself, and would criminalize good companies and bad companies alike, with the ripple effect of souring the investment climate in Indonesia.

More disturbingly, this new law could be used to stoke ethnic conflict. When there are two communities with different values existing together, and members of these different communities come into conflict because they are doing something that might not be seen as acceptable to a different community (e.g. eating beef in parts of Central Java or Bali), whose local traditions and tribal laws should be obeyed? 

Of course, then there are questions of “who is the majority” and how far the boundaries of tribal law would apply. 

Javanese could make a strong case that since they are the largest ethnic group in Indonesia, the Javanese tribal laws and regulations must apply anywhere in Indonesia. On the other hand, if the “boundary” is seen as the size of a district, then this proposed law could create patchworks of different laws based on local traditions that could further compartmentalize ethnic groups, creating an incentive for an ethnic group to be a majority in that particular area. To make the situation more confusing, even within an ethnic group, there are always sub-groups whose values may be different, such as the Sundanese Baduy community. Therefore, this law will create more and more legal uncertainties since there are of course always different interpretations of what a “local area” is.

There is also the possibility that troublemakers will simply make up local laws and regulations that are very vague in order to stoke ethnic and religious conflicts — e.g. a particular ethnic group by its nature should adhere to one particular religion only. This would result in forced conversions and more religious conflicts and squabbles. Political opportunists and troublemakers then could cause more problems. 

While many politicians have already used ethnic issues to get ahead during the electioneering season, the stakes are now higher, since this is more about whose ethnic values and regulations would dominate. Ironically, the law that is supposed to be “more inclusive” and to create a more harmonious society could end up creating a divisive and disharmonious community. While one defender of the proposed law declared that it would create a truly independent Indonesia, independent from the shackles of Dutch colonial law, the inadvertent side effect of this law could threaten the existence of Indonesia itself.

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jblnor

3:39pm Mar 28, 2013

Good article. I fear this country is losing its mind and these new proposed laws prove it. No thinking ahead to what problems they will create. I fear large scale sectarian and ethnic conflict is on the way and these new laws will accelerate it from coming.

Also regarding the laws governing peoples private lives like sexuality, whose values are they talking about. Unmarried sexual relations are rampant in Indonesia from villages right up to the government. Or even worse are the marriages that are performed just so that two people can have sex which will be even more common after these laws. So when they say that goes against our values they really mean the fantasy values not the reality of what the values actually are in this country.I also find it strange nothing was included about corruption which is really the biggest issue in Indonesia.

Roland

4:10pm Mar 28, 2013

@Yohanes Sulaiman - excellent article.

 

marko1

4:14pm Mar 28, 2013

i think if the law is too stupid most regions will have a better excuse to seperate such as Bali.

 

TalkingEid

4:56pm Mar 28, 2013

hasty laws = bad bad laws. As Yohanes Sulaiman has high lighted, our 'lords and masters' are incapable of think through the ramifications of their proposals

SimpleTruth

5:45pm Mar 28, 2013

Isn't this the caliber of article a senior news anchor for Metro TV should aspire to write?

Excellent piece.

Pelan2

6:30pm Mar 28, 2013

@Yohanes - thanks for another spot on article. However, your sober observations make you unqualified to be president - you can think and reason. None of these abilities are appreciated by the establishment here. What jblnor mention below could actually happen rather sooner that later.

Pak Yohanes, I would like to ask you one question: If the Filipinos could get rid of Marcos by popular uprising, how come the Indonesian public does not go down this road - they must be just as sick and tired of what happens here?? Wish you all a happy and peaceful Easter..

Valkyrie

7:31pm Mar 28, 2013

Nice to see you writing again Yohanes and a very good one too!

Best regards.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

9:04pm Mar 28, 2013

Thank you all for your kind comments.

@jblnor: actually there's something about corruption -- the KUHP will make it illegal to conduct wiretap, unless it is approved by the court first; meaning that the KPK will lose one of its most important tools to combat corruption.

@TalkingEid: the goal is simply to get something done before the next election so they could make an argument that this is not a do-nothing parliament. Yeah, I know, this explanation is overly charitable, otherwise the other explanation is that they are as dumb as doornails.

@Pelan2: The short answer is that Marcos manipulated the election and people were sick of his governance. He was ill and people found an alternative in Aquino. In our case, the regular and relatively free and clean election is the safety valve that actually prevent people's anger from boiling.

Contextus

11:32pm Mar 28, 2013

It is a bit disappointing that the fundamentals of criminal law established in the 19th century are unfamiliar to lawmakers in the 21st century. Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege certa et scripta: There is to be no crime and no punishment without a definite written law. “A penal stature can only achieve its purpose, namely to function as an authoritative basis for punishability if it defines both the punishable conduct and its consequences - the penalty - with sufficient definiteness - only then can penal statutes be foreseeable and calculable for citizens. [Indeterminate] penal statutes would of course excavate both the general preventive function and the protective function of criminal law, whereby the protection of individual citizens against judicial arbitrariness is considered to be the decisive constitutional aspect.” (M. Boot)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nulla_poena_sine_lege

DrDez

9:05am Mar 29, 2013

Good piece -

One thing to add re your response the Pelan.

From travels around the nation over the last few years it has become obvious that more Indonesians are getting really fed up with all the corruption, violence and oppression. (police/tni/religious/mobs)- What is amazing is that anger is rarely directed at the palace, but tends to remain local.

Sooner or later hastened by the ever widening poverty gap and increasing radicalization of an ever more maginalized populous that anger will explode.

Even the elections are more often than no being viewed with suspicion, and rightly so - the time bomb is ticking, which is why the greedy gits are pushing through all manner of social order bills

Pelan2

3:44pm Mar 29, 2013

Thanks Pak Yohanes. No. 2 - how long will it take, in your view, before the RI people will have had enough of non-performing, corrupt executive and legislative branch representatives?

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:37pm Mar 29, 2013

@Contextus: The argument is that they want to totally ditch the "colonial" law that Indonesia cannot be independent until it has its own law that take into account local traditons. Therefore, away with that "fundamental." In other words, they have zero clue on what they are doing.

@DrDez: true. The anger is not directed to the palace due to the feudal mindset of many Indonesians that think that "Pak SBY" is nice and the evil things are done by his subordinates. Though, I am betting that should Ibas really be indicted for corruption, things may change really fast.

@Pelan2: My hunch is when there really is a credible alternative. Look at Jokowi. Before he is in power, nobody cares about the DPRD. Now, every time one of them try to bring Jokowi down a notch, seems that the reactions from the public are very hostile.

In essence, you will think that everyday will be business as usual, until there's someone credible enough to tell you that there is a new sheriff in town that's gonna run these people out from the town.

Valkyrie

4:41am Mar 30, 2013

Yohanes.....

Let's give the new sheriff all the support he deserves and I truly hope a particular pair will succeed at the MA. The incumbent's in the same boat as 'A' or perhaps even worse.

Kangkung

7:42am Mar 30, 2013

I disagree. I think the proposed law is good. It will bring us closer to our root, to our origin when everything is pure and simple and without all the bad foreign influence.

This will bring us to the original law prevailing in this beautiful archipelago long long time ago. Yes, the jungle law.

 

Madworld

11:02pm Apr 2, 2013

When adat/tradition talks, intelectual mutation needed.

When politic talks, diminished truth ensues.

When radical religion talks, bigotry & horrific quackery is on display.

When money talks, oxymoron laws can be made.

Veritas, non auctoritas, facit legem. ( Truth, not authority makes the law)

2011 Is Here and Gone, but Eight Stories Will Live On in Indonesia in the New Year

Eight most important stories of 2011. The last choice, I admit, is controversial. Still, I think it helped destroying Marzuki Alie's plan to build a new building and to put a spotlight on many money-wasting activities of the DPR.

A companion article could be found here at the Center for World Conflict and Peace.

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2011 Is Here and Gone, but Eight Stories Will Live On in Indonesia in the New Year
Yohanes Sulaiman | December 30, 2011

The Democratic Party’s former treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, has leveled several accusations at fellow party members during his ongoing corruption trial for alleged bid-rigging. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

With the year drawing to a close, here are eight developments in 2011 that will have important implications for Indonesia in 2012.

Troubles in Europe

This will be remembered as an annus horribilis for the European Union. The facade of European unity was finally shattered by its currency crisis. The crisis laid bare the fact that regardless of all the talk about equality among nations, in the end the marching orders were issued from Berlin and Paris — though it took so long that a spooked market ended up exacerbating the crisis.

Even if the EU survives, Europe may face a long recession. That will have an impact on the global economy, especially in China, one of Indonesia’s top trading partners.

Chinese obstacles
While China seems to have been able to weather the economic crisis so far, the deadly high-speed train crash in July and the incompetent handling of the crisis highlighted flaws in an economic model that focus more on exports and infrastructure and less on domestic consumption. The accident brought into question growth that is the result of poorly built, state-driven projects, while also exposing the reality that state-owned companies are prone to corruption.

None of this bodes well for China’s economy in the new year. Its export-oriented economy remains exposed to the global slowdown, with local consumption unable to pick up the slack.

And as China is the biggest consumer of Indonesia’s energy products, any slowdown there will hit Indonesia’s budget hard.

US deadlock
The year 2011 saw the Democrats and the Republicans deadlocked, unable and unwilling to compromise to create a coherent plan to fix the US economy in order to end the recession. Both parties are trapped by their core constituents: the Republicans have to pander to the tax-cutting, budget-slashing Tea Party, while the Democrats are cajoling the spend-to-grow labor union and anarchist Occupy movement, whose demands aside of taxing the rich remain unclear.

Expect to see more partisan sniping and deadlock in the United States in 2012 as the presidential race heats up. The uber-partisanship will further prevent the United States from being a global engine of growth, which could have repercussions for the Indonesian economy, especially if China experiences a slowdown.

Arab Spring
While the long-term effect of the Arab Spring remains unclear, its short-term impacts were spectacular: causing the downfall of dictators in Tunisia, Yemen, Libya and Egypt; threatening the regimes of King Abdullah of Jordan and Bashar al-Assad in Syria and arguably inspiring various protest movements from the Occupy Wall Street in the United States to the anti-Putin campaign in Russia.

In Indonesia, the impact so far has been minimal. Even though Sondang Hutagalung’s action was presumably inspired by Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation act that spurred the Arab Spring in Tunisia, the lack of a compelling narrative to accompany Sondang’s act and the relative prosperity of Indonesians meant his death failed to resonate and gain traction widely. Still, should the global economy remain bad and Indonesia’s economy start to worsen, expect to see more Arab Spring-inspired protests in 2012.

The Nazaruddin show

If economy does not sink President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s popularity, scandals will. While the Bank Century case was too technical with its arcane language of economics and unclear “heroes” and “villains,” and while the Nunun Nurbaeti case was a symbol of the government’s lack of seriousness in tackling corruption, the Muhammad Nazaruddin scandal is a straightforward tell-all scandal that attracted the public’s undivided attention.

It generated enough outrage that it most likely did in the presidential ambitions of Anas Urbaningrum, grievously damaged the Democratic Party’s brand and sent the president’s popularity plunging.

Ahmadiyah and GKI Yasmin

The slap-on-the-wrist punishments for those who attacked Ahmadiyah followers and the government’s effeminate response to the mayor of Bogor’s blatant disregard of the rule of law bring into question Yudhoyono’s commitment to protect religious freedom. At the same time, the central government’s lack of spine has emboldened the country’s religious fanatics. A Catholic church in Bogor is still under siege. Not surprisingly, the human rights watchdog Setara Institute awarded West Java the dubious honor of being the “least tolerant province.”

With both economic downturn and election season on the horizon, expect more incompetent officials and politicians pandering to religious fundamentalists for support.

Police brutality

This year also saw the police using unnecessary and excessive violence against demonstrators that left many dead and injured. The end-of-year mayhem in Bima and recent revelations of brutality in Lampung sent a misguided signal to many people that the police were in cahoots with big industry. Sadly, legitimate industries will have to pay the price through more red tape and more social resistance, which will lead to reduction in capital investment.

The government would be wise to remember that it was police misconduct that led Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia, not just social inequality or corruption in high places.

Commission VIII

Few people probably remember a trivial and yet important incident that happened in May, when legislative members from Commission VIII on religious and social affairs were grilled by Indonesian students in Australia. The lawmakers’ feeble answers elicited guffaws. While there had previously been criticism of the costs of House members’ international excursions, the incident was the breaking point when Indonesians finally saw the uselessness of such trips. The incident further brought into question the quality of legislative members and made it all the easier to oppose House Speaker Marzuki Alie’s white-elephant project to build an expensive new building for the House.

One hopes that lawmakers will be wiser in the year ahead.

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trueblue

2:54pm Jan 1, 2012

@yohannes.Two brief comments. A few days ago the respected DrDez bemoaned the fact that the Indonesian media had not extensively reported the Arab Spring. You have at every opportunity raised this issue, and have been fearless in the potential domino. Can we have a piece reflecting entirely on this issue? A comprehensive op-ed would be enlightening. With respect to US/China, I would suggest that the US$ reserves now held by China and increasing quarterly by billions is of a greater economic threat than a resources slowdown. North Korea is also a loose cannon.

New year greetings.

DrDez

5:40pm Jan 1, 2012

Trueblue
Yohannes is an excellent commentator on home affairs, and if I feel one of only a few who seem to grasp the issues that threaten our medium term prosperity. The fallout from what will be the Arab winter is yet to be understood and I am yet to see anything that can give an overall picture or direction. My own view is that the Arab nations are screwed and screwed by a mix of Islam and political/military greed.
With respect to China the reality is their own internal debt issue is at least as bad at the US. The US on the other hand do not have to ensure 1 billion mouths are fed to stave of a revolution. The US debt issue is in many ways unimportant - China cannot afford to call them in because the US will just impose an import tax (rather like we do) and the reduction in Chinese purchases would devastate the Chinese economy within months.
2012 ... phew what a year in prospect

Yohanes-Sulaiman

6:22pm Jan 2, 2012

Dear DrDez & Trueblue:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to both of you and other readers. Thank you for your kind responses and my apology for unable to reply until today due to my internet-free vacation (yeah, I cheated as I twitted).

Actually, I have discussed a bit about the implication of the Arab Spring, though not in this revered publication, but in my friend's blog (Center for World Conflict and Peace). Still, I am kinda tempted to write an anniversary piece on Arab Spring, especially its implication on Indonesia -- why it failed to catch fire here, regardless the fact that back in March (I believe) even Sultan Hamengkubuwono X had raised the threat of Arab Spring in Indonesia and the Sondang's incident, as I mentioned in this piece, also failed to catch the imagination.

I will look at it. Maybe I should make it this week's topic, as I am still groggy from vacation and my mind is currently blank thus too lazy to think of new topic.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

6:28pm Jan 2, 2012

One more thing about US-China: it is interesting that very few people actually realize that China dug a deep hole by getting US debt. You see, logically, when you keep exporting goods and others keep importing it, sooner or later, your currency should be stronger and others' get weaker. Yet, China tried to negate this by buying US debt, and thus making US$ unable to depreciate that would make China's export to be expensive. At the same time, as China's currency was artificially depressed, the Chinese population was, to some degree, subsidizing the US' imports, thus China was taxing its own people, and depressing the local demands (and thus local consumption).

Of course, as the international economy is going kaput and Chinese consumers unable to pick the slack due to this "involuntary tax," then China is put in a major bind, that its economy is dependent on the US.

Thus, this year will be a very interesting year for Chinese economy. I'd advise to pull out from Yuan.

DrDez

5:36am Jan 3, 2012

Yohanes
Happy New Year to you & your family - may it be filled with peace for us all. May our authorities start accepting their responsibilities & apply the law equally. May the silent majority remove their head from the sand.
Re China - huge internal debt is also a major challenge. As % of GDP it is suggested that they have more debt than the US..Al J last year
If you do write an Arab Spring article here I would implore you to look at the situation in Syria. It seems to be the forgotten conflict and yet there are an estimated 16000 political prisoners and maybe as many as 10,000 dead and 40,000 wounded.** The Arab League are simply embarrassing as are the Muslim Groups (cannot blame the West so they are silent). It is open conflict and will I fear spread. Iran is using Assad for sure to create mass instability. I am certain they actually want a war & the consequence would be global.
**outcry when an Israeli shoots a Palestinian burglar. Silence when Assad kills 10,000... :) amazing

Must Try Harder: Yudhoyono’s School Report Shows Much Room to Improve

The idea for this article came during the lunch meeting with Ben Otto. We were discussing about my articles and where it should go, when he mentioned the idea that the Jakarta Globe was going to do some articles on "2011." I volunteered to write an article on evaluating SBY's performance, followed a week after, by an article on the most important events of 2011.

Not surprisingly, this became the longest article I had written for the Globe at approximately 1400s words.
While was really tempting to say that SBY's presidency was a failure, I had to be objective in this case. I had to evaluate the presidency carefully, paying attention to which ones he could not have done anything had he wanted to and which ones were the missing opportunity.

Thus, I could not put in the hijacking of Indonesian freighter by the Somalian pirates (though it was very tempting to write all the government's missteps that exacerbated the situation) and many more blunders. Still, it was an interesting mind exercise.

Of all the comments, I found Christianto Wibisono's to be the most amusing. He said that no wonder I was not a popular teacher - I was harsher than Pak Fitch in grading Mr. SBY.

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Must Try Harder: Yudhoyono’s School Report Shows Much Room to Improve
Yohanes Sulaiman | December 20, 2011

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono speaking at the Democratic Party's 10th anniversary event on Thursday.
(Rumgapres Photo)

With a few days to go before the new year, this is a good time to evaluate the performance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2011.

Politics: 2011 was another year of wasted opportunities. With the opposition in disarray due to multiple scandals and misconduct and lawmakers’ popularity at a new low, Yudhoyono could have shown himself to be the only adult in town by being an effective administrator pushing for economic, law enforcement and political reforms.

Instead he was distracted by multiple scandals involving his own political party.

While Yudhoyono remains the most popular politician in Indonesia, Golkar has been working hard behind the scenes to ensure that it wins regional elections and ultimately the national election in 2014. At this juncture, Aburizal Bakrie may succeed in his bid to become the next president thanks to his ability to maintain discipline within Golkar. Grade: C.

Stability: Yudhoyono has a mixed record in maintaining the stability of the country. On one hand, he did a great job in tackling and managing the impact of bombings, preventing them from creating a new panic. In the case of Maluku, so far he has managed to prevent the situation there from degenerating further into an ethno-religious conflict.

Papua remains in turmoil, with the government unable to do much to curb corruption and to address local grievances. The government’s heavy-handed approach in dealing with discontent will hurt in the long run. Grade: B.

Economy: The economy has grown nicely this year, with every macroeconomic indicator in the black.

There are also signs of trouble, however, building on the horizon. Most of the nation’s growth so far has been driven by domestic consumption and international demand for our coal, gas and various other natural resources, which may decline drastically should China enter a period of recession.

There are concerns that all the economic gains do not trickle down to the middle and lower class, creating more inequality.

At the same time, some respected economists, such as Christianto Wibisono, have argued that growth of the Indonesian economy was solely driven by the private sector, with the government doing nothing but dragging the growth rate down due to massive red tape, conflicting regulations between the local and national levels and corruption.

Moreover, some short-sighted policies did nothing but sour the climate for investment further. For instance, Communication Minister Tifatul Sembiring’s threat to shut down Research In Motion’s operation in Indonesia and Churchill Mining’s troubles in East Kalimantan will spook foreign investors, wary that their investment will be politicized or simply taken away due to regulatory loopholes and corruption.

On the plus side, Dahlan Iskan’s appointment as the minister for state enterprises seems to be a great choice so far. Grade: B-.

Governance: Yudhoyono has a dysfunctional cabinet, with ministers unwilling to be the bearer of bad news to the president and unwilling to coordinate with each other. He succumbed to his political calculations and instead of streamlining the decision-making process, he created several positions of deputy ministers that further bloated the bureaucracy. Grade: D.

Corruption: Despite his campaign promises, corruption remains rampant within the bureaucracy and has had direct implications on people’s well-being and our national reputation, such as the collapsing bridges and graft surrounding the housing for athletes at the Southeast Asian Games.

Unchecked attempts to emasculate the to Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Gayus show, Nazaruddin and Nunun’s adventures abroad (that only ended after public outcry), then Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar’s decision to reduce the sentences of graft convicts, and the failure of many regional courts to punish those who commit graft are just the very top of this wreck that did nothing but undermine the public’s trust in the seriousness of the government to clean house. Grade: F.

Human Rights and Religious Freedom: While the government always stresses its commitments in defending human rights and religious freedoms, events prove otherwise.

Religious extremists are still running around with implicit clearance from the law enforcement apparatus. The failure of the government to defend the Ahmadiyah, let alone to persecute their attackers, did nothing but to sully Indonesia’s name abroad. Worse, the Bogor mayor’s decision to close down the GKI Yasmin Church, citing dubious excuses and in spite of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the church’s position, made further mockery of the rule of law. Grade: D.

Military Reform: The military remains committed to transforming itself into a modern, professional organization.

Though the progress is slow, and misconduct remains rampant, the improvement has been steady. The government has also helped the reform with its commitment to slowly increasing the budget for arms procurement and in improving the military’s ties with the United States. Grade: A.

Law Enforcement: Corruption remains rampant within Indonesian law enforcement, extending from the police corps and the office of prosecutor to the judiciary system.

The Constitutional Court is the only relatively bright spot in an otherwise rotten system. While there are efforts to clean things up, most prosecutions are politically influenced or driven by popular outrage. Grade: D.

Foreign Policy: While there were many foreign policy accomplishments this year with Indonesia as the chair of Asean, the country also had its share of missteps. For instance, even though the Asean Summit was a huge international event, there was little coverage in Indonesia, with the government unable to rouse public enthusiasm for the event. In addition, various governmental missteps, such as its inability to protect its workers from unjustified capital punishment abroad put a blemish on the government’s record.

On the plus side, the government handled the border crisis decently, keeping the situation from spiraling out of control. Grade: C.

Final Evaluation: 2011 was a year of several missed opportunities, with Yudhoyono unable to develop a coherent long-term strategy for Indonesia. The promised reforms were nonexistent, due to the lack of decisiveness. One hopes that the government will show a little backbone next year, especially in tackling the issue of corruption. Overall Grade: C-.

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carolinetanjaya

1:42pm Dec 20, 2011

Although I cannot say I disagree with the rest of the evaluation, some of the examples mentioned under the corruption heading are not thoroughly accurate or balanced. Some of the collapsing bridges were procured and built before SBY assume the presidency,like the Kukar bridge and the new Justice and the Human Rights minister ordered for a stricter procedure to reduce the sentence of the graft convicts. Furthermore we have to appreciate the fact that Nazaruddin and Nunun were indeed caught and brought back to Indonesia for trial. However, I agree that there is still much room for improvement.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

9:03pm Dec 20, 2011

@Carolinetanjaya: Thank you for your kind comments. While you are right that some of the collapsing bridges were built before his era, had he been through in cracking down on corruption, the local government would have been unable to skim the money used for the regular maintenance. We could even see a parade of the responsible parties on trial. Yet, a few weeks after the collapsed bridge, seems everything is back to the doldrums, that nobody got dragged kicking and screaming to the court to face the music.

On the new Justice and Human Rights minister: I am grading him on his yearly performance, and like it or not, Patrialis could not do anything without his acquiesence, so Patrialis Akbar's blunders still stop at his desk.

On Naz and Nunun: Yeah, they got arrested after popular outrage and much embarassment. That's not a plus in my estimation.

DrDez

7:05am Dec 21, 2011

Yohanes
More or less agree, I would have ranked a score lower on some issues re human rights & religious freedoms since he has been ineffective & has avoided the issues whenever religion has been a central theme.. Minor disagreement
However where I do disagree significantly is related to Military Reform. The bill (2008?) requiring the TNI to withdraw from SOE's has been all but ignored and in many ways that ties in with your corruption score - I would score MF no better than a C.

Caroline - Many of the maintenance contracts are controlled by a Kalla owned Group - they are paid extortionate amounts to and I quote 'check a few nuts and bolts'

Yohanes-Sulaiman

6:02pm Dec 21, 2011

@Dr. Dez: On religious freedom and human rights, I don't think he is THAT failed -- he had a bad score thanks to all these messes from GKI Yamin, Ahmadiyah, and now, that killings of the farmers in Lampung. Yet, we have to acknowledge that this is far from a police state, and he is guilty of being passive -- thus the grade D.

On military reform: we can agree to disagree here. Yeah, the military is still in a mess, but from my dealing with them on a constant basis, it seems to me that the military itself is geniunely interested in reforming itself -- especially among the rank and file. True that they are still defending their vested interests and have a very narrow understanding of what their roles supposed to be and how to deal with e.g. Papua, but as a whole, the institution is truly moving forward, which is far cry to the rest of the nation.

Still, I may be biased here.

RuleBritannia

6:32pm Dec 21, 2011

@Yohanes: Concur re. your grades. However, in the words of Edmund Burke, "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" so, the crime of passivity is perhaps one of the biggest crimes of all for a ruling president.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

6:47pm Dec 21, 2011

@RuleBrittannia: I agree, but well, I could not say he was passive so this was a year of failure. Though I think Bung Hatta would have put it succinctly by quoting Schiller, his favourite poet: "The century has given birth to a time of greatness, But the great moment finds man small."

RuleBritannia

7:11pm Dec 21, 2011

@Yohanes: Indeed . . And I'm sure those celebrating Christmas in a parking lot, together with many others, will be praying for John 4:23 'Cometh the hour, cometh the man.' as their New Year Wish!!

DrDez

9:26pm Dec 21, 2011

The real crime is that SBY had a whole nation behind him - he had not only the elite but a popular vote to make real change... Almost no politician in history has had such a luxury - JFK, Churchill, Ghandi in the modern era perhaps - but the simple truth is he has blown it.. No debate, no more analysis, no more what if's... His next few years will be spent preparing the legacy (his protection)... It is abject failure if viewed from a national perspective as simple as that

nonredneck

10:13pm Dec 21, 2011

I 2nd caroline & Yohanes views.This comes back to political game of balances. To catch the fish,sometimes u hv to let the mud settle down OR sometimes u hv to disturb the water. To us it's easy when we see it on the news "hey u're not doing anything SBY!" but not so when we'r in tht position ourself having to deal with our own internal party, military, the imams, foreign preassure, economic etc. This reminds me of Sukarno's fragile balance of nasakom and cia. In order to attract a sizable amount of investment for further economic progress,a relative stability is required. A political strugle or worse if military & extremist-open-war is involved. These could even worsen the fragile situation. There's no quick attack solution for hundreds yr old problems,but regardless of heritage/culture/military/protests/religious,all balance will never be achieved if there is no economic prosperity. Indo can be monarcy like brunei for all I care but economic prosperity must be priotiry fr all policies

Yohanes-Sulaiman

10:19pm Dec 21, 2011

Risking myself to be seen as starry-eyed idealist, I think we need a complete revamp of the election law. We should make it that a president can only reign for 1 term of 6 years. We will have the DPR election on the second and fourth years of the presidency -- providing feedback and rebukes to the ruling party. So, instead of having those clowns to sit pretty for 5 years in the parliament, they should be judged by population every two or four years.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that the democracy can no longer be salvaged thanks to these clowns up there.

DrDez

5:16am Dec 22, 2011

Yohanes
Many (of us) have lobbied for voting reforms for years via working groups, business groups, advisory groups etc etc and what we witness time after time is that as soon as their power/prosperity is challenged the doors are firmly shut. You may recall my post about the spatial planning fiasco a few weeks ago - A typical example of exposing a deep flaw in the administration and then getting the door slammed.
NRN - I am sorry but economic prosperity at any costs is not a wise path. It is already twisted and used as the excuse for personal gain as it is and is incredibly narrow in its benefits. We are doing this/that for the nation translates to we are making a killing (literally sometimes) and don't care about the consequences

nonredneck

2:35pm Dec 22, 2011

DD: Just curious, in your business dealings, do you make money first and fix the system later, OR fix the system to perfection first then make money later? Assuming you are in the situation of the poor majority.

DrDez

4:07pm Dec 22, 2011

NRN
Born from a philosophy to make things right first time, we employ the best people we can, pay very well & use a Toyota based system. We made no money for years & then about 35 years ago we took our first major export step Toshiba. A 1000% increase in turnover in 2 yrs resulted. 40 staff to 500. We still stuck by our philosophy & it stood up well.
20 years ago we had accredn with FAA & the biz exploded again. Current CEO is my oldest grandson who we have groomed since he was 15 & hopefully he will do the family proud.
I would say we plan well and always try get the model right; knowing that it will make money
Starting pay is 1.8x min wage + FF medical cover, free canteen and travel allowance. After 1 year we offer a lot of other stuff including profit share (2010 was Rp25jt/per person)
In return we have almost zero staff turnover and almost zero defects, we run at an ebita over 30% and pay our taxes. Our biggest issues are usually from the local mosques and village chiefs

blightyboy

4:59pm Dec 22, 2011

DrDez - I can only applaud.

blightyboy

5:03pm Dec 22, 2011

nonredneck - The name you have chosen really is quite offensive.

nonredneck

5:56pm Dec 22, 2011

blightyboy: I've explained my stance on my username before on different topic. If you're not an extremist, not a sawn-off-shotgun slinger, not a fighting-pitbull breeder, not a slave owner, and not a forest burner then you are also my friend... also a non-redneck.

nonredneck

5:58pm Dec 22, 2011

DD: Your way sounds absolutely the way a business should be run, and I agree 100%. But in larger application, can this model be applied in larger scale of a nation? If it is applied though, won't this turn back to autocratic leadership style, and there will be no voting/protests to influence the direction of the company. Singapore is an example of how a state is run like a profitable enterprise, and the result is amazing! But this would also means lack of public involvement, and single party dominance over all policies. And SG policies as we know it tends to favor businesses, and economic prosperity. Only recently after the election, they change their style. So going back to economic first or system first, if for example Indo is to use your business philosophy then that would mean a strong dominant leader at the top to determine the direction of the ship, and among which social-strata can we find this kind of uncorrupted leader?

DrDez

6:27pm Dec 22, 2011

NRN its a business model not a model nation. We do things by committee and only rarely does Mathew or previously myself make a singular decision. We run works councils, Health & Safety Councils, NPI Councils so that everyone has a say – They all own what they do and they are proud of the company and we are proud of them. We all wear the same gear, eat in the same canteen, start and finish at the same time, our wage structure is public – we operate a grades system. Nothing is underhand and if we have an issue we always deal with it publicly .
If I had to run a nation – I would devise a different model – that model would start by splicing religion and state, it would also sell off all SOE’s and disband the military. It would open our doors to the world without prejudice… then see what we would become...At my age I have seen hope and despair in this nation - right now I have no confidence in our peoples ability to overturn the oppressor

padt

6:30pm Dec 22, 2011

And the issues from the local mosques and village chiefs are DrDez?

BilboBaggins

8:08pm Dec 22, 2011

DrDez
"right now I have no confidence in our peoples ability to overturn the oppressor "

It makes me sad that I feel that you are right on this point.

DrDez

8:15pm Dec 22, 2011

Padt : threats, stirring up trouble, asking for donations or bribes (not to cause trouble) & worse
Example: years ago we built 2 schools & still pay for uniforms, books & our onsite Nurse visits to check on the kids
The local mosque man came saying he could get the stuff cheaper & it would give local people employment. The Nurse noticed the kids had not got new uniforms so she asked the teacher who said they had not had anything this term. My wife confronted the cleric. I had given him via bank transfer Rp15jt down payment as requested about 8 weeks previously. He said he had not had the cash, so I involved the bank who proved it had been paid. The Police refused to press charges unless we paid a fee. We lost Rp15jt – we bought more books and uniforms and then stopped the annual gift to the mosque (Rp25jt) Can you believe he came to ask for it the first year! We refused resulting in vandalism and threats to staff direct from him
Aceh1 Remind me again why I should like Islam?

DrDez

8:16pm Dec 22, 2011

Bilbo
The problem is that the majority would in their shoes do exactly the same

Valkyrie

9:21pm Dec 22, 2011

DrDez...

I am able to understand how you feel about religion.
Just need to tell you that there are still some good apples in the basket.

SirAnthonyKnown-Bender

11:35pm Dec 22, 2011

Nice story from Dr Dez there and alas all too typical I fear. Rather than good apples, who would be good apples in any case, my own view is that religion, like the flag, is far more often something for bad apples to hide behind and mask their negativity behind a patina of respectability. And in related news I see that Iraq has lasted precisely one week after the Yanks left before reaching the verge of Islamic internecine civil war.

DrDez

6:40am Dec 23, 2011

Val
I have said this a million times. I have no issue with people being religious - UNTIL they start using their belief in god to hurt, kill, corrupt, oppress, control, outlaw blah blah(you get the picture)
Religion is a fine thing - it gives people hope and a support system.
What really pisses me off is when pious people have incredibly obvious double standards and use religion for personal gain.
What pisses me off even more is the ultra sensitivity that Islam is displaying right here right now
what pisses me off even more than that is the response of most religious people here 'well he cant be a Muslim the Koran forbids that' and on and on. ergo an Ostrich response
Sheesh when are we going to learn to live together? Why is Islam so frightened of criticism that the instant response is attack? When are the state going to stand up and protect the minority? Do recall that the minorities account for some 50 million people (approx 20% of 250m)its not like its a small number

DrDez

7:36am Dec 23, 2011

Sir
Yes I agree - and re Iraq it looks like an all out sunni/shia conflict is on the cards - They will of course blame the CIA or Zionists... But the Sunni have been slaughtering Shia in Iraq this year via the bus load (literally)
2012 will be a bad year I can feel it in my water

Yohanes-Sulaiman

12:14pm Dec 23, 2011

@all: What we observe here is the unholy incest between religion and politics. As long are religion is used as means to achieve political goals without paying much attention to rule of law, expect such idiocy to continue unhindered.

nonredneck

4:58pm Dec 23, 2011

DD: AHA...something clicks when you said "at my age"... Now I can see why we share many common agreement on issues, but the differece is in "hope". I'm guessing we as human measure our surroundings & future outlook based on our own lifespan. Say you live to 100 or more, it is most likely that you won't see much change at all,hence explain your outlook on the country. On the contrary I have a longer time to reach 100 so my outlook for the future is more hopeful therefore deemed more positive. But I'm surprised at so many younger audience reading JG having cynical views, I don't know if it's the sheep mentality, or they genuinely have cynical views at their young age, if they are genuine then I'll be worried because it's a vicious-cycle.

nonredneck

4:58pm Dec 23, 2011

On iraq, it has officially become a stage for proxy wars, secular propaganda must be strengthen. I don't care how, but the PR machines must work hard to spin that secular propaganda in the hearts and minds. Nationalistic fascism is better than religious extremism, north korea is easier to dismantle than extremist hydras

DrDez

5:20pm Dec 23, 2011

NRN
84 & married to my Indonesian wife (whom I met in Paris) over 50 years, we have lived in JK for nearly 44 years
I have seen a LOT of changes here, I see repeated & predictable patterns & right now we are in a cycle that will get significantly worse before it gets better. The TNI will figure large
Iraqi: the region will in 2012 see deaths beyond imagination. Civil war will continue in Syria & Yemen, sectarian violence will worsen in Iraq, Iran will maintain the support for Syria and The Shia in Iraq, Pakistan will continue killing itself until ISI takes over and no doubt will draw India into conflict. Behind the scenes Saudi will be pumping cash into Islamic extremism, the US will use the CIA as a counter measure, Russia and China will carry on their subversion. The MB will screw Egypt and probably in desperation take them to war with Israel, Turks meanwhile will continue to kill the kurds Marko would say its NWO time
I am not looking forward to '12. The grim reaper will be busy

nonredneck

4:36pm Dec 24, 2011

Hmmm many many dead bodies in mideast.... which is happier god or syaitan? > if their answer is 'g' then they're indicating that their 'g' is bloodthirsty. And if their answer is 's' then why use the 'g' name?