INDONESIA A NEWS

IT HAS become something of a ritual in Indonesia: the panicky stockpiling of cheap petrol ahead of a mooted price rise. Fuel prices here are not dictated by the vagaries of the world price - they are dictated by the government, which subsidises them heavily to keep them affordable. But the cost to the national budget of subsidies on both oil and coal is huge. About 15 per cent of the government's entire budget - or $US20 billion ($A18.5 billion) - is spent just to maintain low prices. It's more than the combined health and education budgets, says Australian National University economist Hal Hill, and when the world oil price increases, the cost to the national budget also jumps. So, last week, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik announced a plan to increase prices in April by up to 33 per cent. Yesterday, as a crowd protested outside, he met legislators of the House of Representatives, whom he must convince to vote for it. In Jakarta, one of the most polluted an...

Since its founding in 1998, hardline vigilante group the Islamic Defenders Front (known by its Indonesian acronym FPI) has perpetuated violence in the name of Islamic morality. Now, Indonesians are calling for an end to the intimidation and intolerance, signaling growing rejection of the group's and its supporters' radical religious ideology.  Palangka Raya, the capital of Central Kalimantan province, was in the national headlines two weeks ago when its residents stopped FPI leaders from landing at the town's airport. Four FPI leaders had flown there to officiate the opening of a new provincial FPI branch but in an act of defiance a crowd of about 800 people staged a protest.  A few hundred, mainly indigenous Dayak people, forced their way onto the airport's apron and runway to confront the FPI officials. Protesters dispersed only when airport officials convinced them that the FPI members would remain on board the plane and would travel on to another destination.  ...

The survival of Sumatra's tigers, elephants, orangutans, rhinos, as well as indigenous communities, is threatened by the "world's fastest deforestation rate", caused by the pulp and paper industry, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).  WWF in a recent report named Indonesian-based Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) as "responsible for more forest destruction in Sumatra than any other single company". APP and competitor Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL) have consumed the majority of the wood harvested from commercial forest clearances and agriculture conversion.  "In central Sumatra, the impact of APP's operations on wildlife has been devastating. The company's forest clearing in Riau Province has been driving Sumatran elephants and tigers toward local extinction," the report said.  The companies have also begun clearing peat swamp forests. According to Indonesian Ministry of Forestry estimates, deforestation associated wit...

A young woman, carrying her infant son in a sling around her neck, stands in the shadows of a decaying concrete pylon, her hand extended in the hope that a passing motorist will pick her up. Maya Sari, 23, and one-year-old Muhammad are ''jockeys''. Jakarta motorists pay to carry them in peak hour traffic, because to legally travel on the city's best roads, cars need three occupants. Babies count, and they cost less to hire than an adult, so on feeder roads all over the city, women and their young children stand touting for business. One ride with them costs the driver about 20,000 rupiah, or $2.15. As Jakarta's population grows in wealth, 565 more cars and 3006 more motorbikes clog its roads every day. According to one official report, this city with a daytime population of 11 million is just nine years away from being gridlocked. When it rains and the roads flood, many areas are there already. It's the most immediately obvious of Indonesia's profound ...

Indonesia is looking to stop sending its nationals to work as maids abroad by 2017, under a "roadmap" it is drawing up to reform and formalise its domestic worker sector. Under the Domestic Worker Roadmap 2017, it wants to ensure maids are treated like other workers when they work abroad - earning minimum wages, getting leave and working fixed hours, for example. The plan is part of a larger aim to raise the skills of the thousands of Indonesians going overseas to work, according to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry. If it is carried out, however, it could mean a massive shortage of maids for places like Singapore and Malaysia, both of which rely heavily on domestic workers from Indonesia. Indonesians account for almost half of Singapore's 200,000-plus maids, and 80 per cent of Malaysia's 350,000 maids. "Under the roadmap, we target zero sending out of domestic maids," Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar was quoted by news report...

Draft legislation to redenominate Indonesia's currency is expected to gain momentum this year as lawmakers and monetary authorities push to drop the last three zeros from the nominal value of the rupiah. While the paper change will be largely cosmetic, analysts are divided on whether a redenomination could spark inflation and sow confusion among the public.  The rupiah currently trades at 9,200 to the US dollar and is the second-lowest priced currency in the world, trailing only the Vietnamese dong. The rupiah collapsed amid the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis and despite economic and financial recovery still trades at a fraction of its pre-crisis value.  Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said last month that the government was prepared to submit the draft law to the House of Representatives (DPR) for approval. The central bank, Bank Indonesia, has backed the move for various reasons, including the need to simplify accounting standards for transactions that now often excee...

The year 2011 was a tumultuous one for the island of New Guinea, the world's second-largest and perhaps most politically divided island. Papua New Guinea (PNG), the independent country on the island's eastern half, suffered from a four-month political standoff that was at least temporarily resolved in late December.  On the island's western half, consisting of two Indonesian provinces, what started out as a strike over wages at the Grasberg mine spiraled into four months of protests which fueled a revival of the Papuan independence movement. While relative peace had been restored on both sides of the island by year's end, lasting stability will depend on a number of mutable factors in the year ahead.  The key figure in the PNG political crisis - and also the key figure in the country since its independence - is Sir Michael Somare. Somare headed the first "indigenous" government from 1972-1975 before PNG acquired official independence from Australia in 1975....