INDONESIA A NEWS

Thank you all for being here today, and for the warm welcome. I feel very much at home, even though my definition of "home" is usually 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and lots of coconut trees under the sunshine. Of course, there will be plenty of that at the World Economic Forum East Asia which will be held in Jakarta, in Remarkable Indonesia, on June 12-13 this year, which you are all invited to. We meet today at a time of continuing uncertainty for the global economy. We have managed to avoid a global depression and achieve some recovery, but it remains sluggish and uneven. There are continuing concerns about the post crisis situation, whether in dealing with the European sovereign debt issue, winding down deficits, restructuring of the financial sector, and job creation. This in turn increase domestic tensions, which can potentially lead to protectionist and inward looking measures. Thus, we have some distance to go - and much to do - to reach our common objective of strong, sus...

Three Indonesian soldiers behind the videotaped torture of two men in the country's restive Papua Province were jailed for less than a year by a military court on Monday, angering human rights activists who have denounced the legal proceedings as a farce.   The soldiers were sentenced to between 8 and 10 months for disobeying orders - rather than the more serious charge of torture - in the May 2010 abuse of the villagers, Tunaliwor Kiwo and Telangga Gire, in the province's remote central highlands, a site of sporadic fighting between separatist rebels and Jakarta.   A cellphone video about 10 minutes long was posted online last year showing soldiers at a military post kicking and suffocating Mr. Kiwo and burning his penis with a smoldering stick. The video also shows soldiers holding a knife to the face of Mr. Gire. Mr. Kiwo said he was further tortured over a period of three days.   The release of the video outraged activists and residents in the province and prompte...

Gayus Tambunan, the tax official at the centre of a scandal that exposed a wide network of corruption among Indonesian law enforcers and bureaucrats, has been sentenced to seven years in prison. The sentence was far less than the 20 years being sought, but the panel of judges said it could act only on the limited indictment provided by prosecutors, which did not touch on scores of corrupt activities that Gayus confessed to. Before being taken to prison, Gayus told reporters yesterday he accepted the verdict but that he was a scapegoat. Investigators had failed to follow up his revelations about corruption by the director-general of taxation and senior prosecutors, he said. Gayus amassed $3 million despite being a mid-level official at the tax office. He gained notoriety not only for his sensational allegations of corruption, but also for bribing his way out of prison on 68 occasions while awaiting trial, including to travel overseas and to a tennis tournament in Bali. Not include...

Indonesia's transformation from economic basket case to powerhouse continues apace. Moody's Investor Services has upgraded the country's sovereign credit rating to just one step below ''investment grade''. Severely battered by the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, Indonesia struggled for many years to shake off its reputation in capital markets as unstable and a major investment risk. But, after weathering the 2008 global financial crisis and posting growth in excess of 6 per cent last year, Indonesia's economy is set to expand at an even more impressive rate this year and join the ranks of China, India and Brazil as investment darlings. If the economic gains can be secured, the geopolitical ramifications are significant, especially for Australia, the country's near neighbour. Indonesia is the world's fourth largest country, friendly to the West and one of the few nations to embrace democracy in the past decade or so. It also has ...

RECENT visitors to Bali have been urged to see a doctor if they suffer flu-like symptoms, after at least 10 Australians contracted Legionnaires' Disease while holidaying on the island.  Victoria's Chief Health Officer John Carnie said on Friday four Victorians, aged from 45 to 82, recovered after being treated for the illness on their return from holidays in Bali. Six cases were detected among West Australians who had been to the Indonesian resort island, Dr Carnie said. He said the first two Victorian cases were in August and October, and the latter two had visited Bali in late December. "The Indonesian government has been advised of the Australian cases and is investigating to determine the source of the infections," Dr Carnie said in a statement. Dr Carnie said Legionnaires' causes flu-like symptoms such as headache, fever, chills, muscle aches and pains, and may lead to respiratory problems and pneumonia. It is acquired through breathing in very fine dro...

A THREAT by Indonesia to curb BlackBerry smartphone services unless the company filters pornographic sites prompted a wave of angry protests online on Sunday.  The row is the latest in a series of controversies that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has found itself in, as a number of governments have complained about difficulties monitoring communications via the smartphones.  Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring has given RIM a two-week deadline to block access or risk restrictions being imposed, according to local reports.  'We have repeatedly asked them to do it and we have given them some time,' Mr Sembiring was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Globe newspaper on Saturday.  'If they keep delaying, we will shut down their operation here because they fail to comply with our laws,' he added. Details of the extent of any curbs were unclear.  His statement had drawn protests on microblogging site Twitter on Sunday how...

It may seem a bit early given that elections are three years away, but Jakarta's political circles are beginning to buzz with reports that Kristiani Herawati, the wife of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, plans to run for president when his second term expires in 2014. The whole thing, pundits and insiders say, is about building a Yudhoyono dynasty. Mrs Yudhoyono, known universally as Ibu Ani, is the daughter and eldest child of the late Gen. Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, who played a key role in the events of 1965 in which the late strongman Suharto took advantage of a failed coup to elevate himself into power over founding president Sukarno. Initially a close ally of Suharto who also played a role in the bloody purge of Indonesian communists in 1965-66, Sarwo Edhie was said to have been pushed aside in 1970 after he reportedly complained about government corruption.   From that point on, he was given positions that largely kept him outside the political sphere of the central government...

INDONESIAN suspects and convicts are routinely tortured by police and prison wardens to obtain confessions or information, a report claims.   Beatings, intimidation, burnings and rape were so commonplace that they were considered the norm, with few victims bothering to lodge complaints, Restaria Hutabarat of the Jakarta-based Legal Aid Foundation said yesterday. The findings are based on year-long interviews with 1154 suspects and prison inmates in the capital and four other major cities in 2009-10. Questionnaires were also given to 419 police, prosecutors, judges, wardens and rights activists who accompanied suspects during the legal process. "We found that torture is systematic," Mr Hutabarat said, adding that it started with the arrest and continued during interrogations, trials and after imprisonment. "It is seen as a normal way to get information and extract confessions, " he said. Indonesia, a nation of 237 million people, only emerged from decades of dic...

Law enforcement officials from police to prison wardens routinely torture Indonesian suspects and convicts to extract confessions or obtain information, a new report asserted Friday. Beatings, intimidation, burnings and rape are so commonplace that they are considered the norm, with few victims ever bothering to lodge complaints, said Restaria Hutabarat of the Jakarta-based Legal Aid Foundation.The torture findings, published this week, were based on yearlong interviews with 1,154 suspects and prison inmates in the capital, Jakarta, and four other major cities in 2009 and 2010. Questionnaires also were given to 419 police, prosecutors, judges, wardens and rights activists who accompanied suspects during the legal process. "We found that torture is systematic," Hutabarat said Friday, adding that it starts with the arrest and continues during interrogations, trials and after imprisonment. "It is seen as a normal way to get information and extract confessions. "Indo...