INDONESIA A NEWS

The Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta declared that ''freedom is justice'' as he stepped down as East Timor's president during an emotional ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the country's independence. Dr Ramos-Horta told more than 100,000 Timorese who packed a beachside area on Dili's outskirts early yesterday that their greatest achievement was fighting for and achieving their freedom after hundreds of years of foreign occupation and war during which a quarter of the population were killed or died from starvation or disease. Among dozens of foreign dignitaries who witnessed the ceremony was Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian President, who earlier stood alongside East Timor's Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, the former guerilla fighter who spent years in Indonesian jails, and spoke about Indonesia's enhanced co-operation and growing people-to-people ties with East Timor. Dr Yudhoyono said it was Indonesia's duty to...

The world’s largest producer of teak, an Indonesian state-owned company on the island of Java, has again been awarded sustainable forest management certification. But the company has a long and sometimes contentious relationship with forest communities in the area, and the forest rights of indigenous communities remain a potential cause of conflict.  “Land rights have long been a source of violence on Java,” Rhett Butler, a leading environmentalist and creator of a leading environmental news website told IRIN. Perhutani (Indonesian state forestry company) exploits 2.4 million hectares of forests in Java - 7 percent of the island area - with earnings of around US$400 million in 2011.  Although Perhutani agreed in 2011 to the voluntary process that promotes eco-friendly management in order to obtain certification, it controls a huge area of forest once used by indigenous communities, many of whom still depend on the forests for their livelihoods.  The company n...

As Hisyam Alizein, alias Umar Patek and a cadre of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), rose to speak during his trial in the West Jakarta district court on March 7, few would have expected the 45-year old hardcore terrorist to apologize to the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings that claimed the lives of 202 people.  The JI had indeed surprised many by its rise and ability to organize repeated high profile symbolic attacks in the early 2000s. Patek, being one of last remnants of the outfit offered asurprise yet again - this time confirming the rapid decline of the outfit since the Indonesian authorities executed the Bali bombers in 2008 - both in terms of its existence and ideology. Nothing else could have been a more convincing statement on the decline of Islamist terror in the archipelagic nation, with larger implications on the entire Southeast Asia.  "I ask for forgiveness from all the victims and their families. Those who lost their lives and t...

Once again, it’s that time of year when areas of Jakarta find themselves hip-deep in water, the victims not so much of the seasonal downpours but of poor sanitation, lagging infrastructure and substandard drainage. It is estimated that the health of as many as 5 million of Jakarta official 10.1 million residents are being threatened by river water that is polluted by household and industrial waste. As many as 50,000 people die annually in Indonesia, attributed to poor sanitation and hygiene, according to a March, 2008 study by the World Bank, which estimates that as much as 6 million tonnes of human waste are released into Indonesia inland water bodies without treatment. Unfortunately, Jakarta is far from alone. As cities have grown to unmanageable size in third-world countries, the problem is being compounded by climate change, which climatologists believe has increased the number of adverse weather events. Anothe...

"Things happen for a reason" ... Rizni Aulia believes this week's earthquake, like the one in 2004, was a warning from Allah. "Things happen for a reason" ... Rizni Aulia believes this week's earthquake, like the one in 2004, was a warning from Allah. Photo: Michael Bachelard WHEN pentecostal pastor Danny Nalliah thundered that the 2009 Victorian bushfires were caused by God's wrath at that state's decision to decriminalise abortion, he was an outlier even among radical Christians. But in Aceh, Indonesia's most devout province (and its most disaster prone), it's not just common but mainstream to believe that Wednesday's terrifying earthquake, like the tsunami before it, was a messages from Allah that people were not taking their religion seriously enough. Like many, Acehnese man Rizni Aulia's suffering from the 2004 tsunami was profound. Of his family, only he and his wife survived the wave. Together they watched from the second st...

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.  ...