For Most Indonesians, KPK Is the Only Credible Graftbuster

JakartaGlobe, Yustinus Paat, November 26, 2015

A poll of 1,500 respondents by Indonesia Corruption Watch found that an
overwhelming 98 percent felt the KPK was necessary in Indonesia’s fight against
graft. (Antara Photo/Ismar Patrizki)

Jakarta. Most Indonesians feel the national antigraft commission is indispensable, in the absence of strong and consistent law enforcement by police and prosecutors, a survey has found.

The poll of 1,500 respondents by Indonesia Corruption Watch found that an overwhelming 98 percent felt the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was necessary in Indonesia’s fight against graft.

Respondents also rated the KPK higher than the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office on a scale of 1 to 10 of how committed they were to tackling corruption.

“They gave an average score of 5.3 for the police, 5.6 for the AGO, and 7.8 for the KPK, meaning they believe the KPK can do a better job when it comes to handling corruption cases compared to the other two,” Firdaus Ilyas, ICW’s research coordinator, said at the release of the survey’s findings in Jakarta on Thursday.

The poll also found, unsurprisingly, that respondents considered the House of Representatives the top priority for the KPK to tackle. Corruption perception indexes have consistently ranked the House as being among the most graft-ridden institutions in Indonesia.

“Thirty-four percent of the respondents said the House should be the KPK’s first target, followed by 22 percent for the police, 13 percent for the courts, 8 percent each for ministries and political parties, 7 percent for the state-owned companies, and 5 percent for the AGO,” Firdaus said.

The findings from the survey chime with a similar poll released last month by Indo Barometer, showing the KPK was by far the most trusted public institution in Indonesia, well ahead of the AGO and the police force.

Supreme Court Chief Welcomes EU-, UNDP-Backed Justice Reform Project

Jakarta Globe, Erwin Sihombing, November 24, 2015

The Sustain Project, which will run until June 2019, aligns with the Supreme
Court’s own roadmap for reform. (Antara Photo/M. Agung Rajasa)

Jakarta. Supreme Court Chief Justice Hatta Ali has hailed a project being carried out with the European Union and the United Nations that seeks to reform Indonesia’s justice system.

The Sustain Project, which will run until June 2019, aligns with the Supreme Court’s own roadmap for reform, Hatta said in Jakarta on Tuesday, especially in the fields of monitoring , training, human resource management, and case management.

“This project, in cooperation with the EU and the UNDP, will create both long- and short-term advantages for Indonesia [in terms of justice system reform],” he said.

The Sustain Project is also aimed at strengthening Indonesia’s special courts, such as those for fisheries and for juveniles, including by certifying judges serving in children’s courts.

While the project is being implemented nationwide, it will pay particular focus on pilot projects at courts in regions such as Ambon in Maluku province; Bandung and Cibinong in West Java; Bitung and Manado (North Sulawesi); Jayapura and Sorong (Papua); Kabanjahe and Medan (North Sumatra); Kupang (East Nusa Tenggara); and Pontianak and Singkawang (West Kalimantan).

Christophe Bahuet, the UNDP director for Indonesia, said “We are certain that the cooperation with the Supreme Court, the EU and the UNDP will produce perfect decisions [necessary] to improve the country’s justice system and the public trust in it.”

Asean Establishes Landmark Economic and Security Bloc

Jakarta Globe, Trinna Leong, November 22, 2015

Asean leaders joined China's Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

Kuala Lumpur. Southeast Asian nations on Sunday established a formal community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of $2.6 trillion.

The community declaration was signed by leaders of the 10- member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Kuala Lumpur, this year's host of the group's annual summit.

Twelve years in the making, the Asean community is a landmark in the 48-year history of a group founded at the height of the Cold War as an anti-communist bulwark.

The Asean Community includes a political, security and socio-cultural dimension in a region with governments ranging from communist in Vietnam and quasi-military in Myanmar to the kingdom of Brunei and the boisterous democracy of the Philippines.

But it is the economic community that offers the most concrete opportunities for integration in a region whose combined gross domestic product (GDP) would make it the world's seventh-largest economy.

In practice, Asean has already virtually eliminated tariff barriers among the 10 countries, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the summit host, at the signing ceremony. "We now have to ensure that we create a truly single market and production base, with freer movement of goods and services."

At the closing news conference, however, he said Asean had no specific deadline for achieving zero tariffs, but would aim for "meaningful deliverables that can be done every year when we meet at the Asean summit."

The combined GDP of the Asean economies is expected to grow from $2.6 trillion to $4.7 trillion by 2020, Najib said, and could become the world's fourth-largest economy as a bloc as early as 2030.

The countries aim to harmonize economic strategies, recognize each other's professional qualifications and consult more closely on macroeconomic and financial policies.

They have also agreed to enhance the connectivity of their transportation infrastructure and communications, better facilitate electronic transactions, integrate industries to promote regional sourcing, and enhance private-sector involvement in the economy.

Eight groups of professionals will be able to work more easily throughout the region: engineers, architects, nurses, doctors, dentists, accountants, surveyors and tourism professionals.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Reuters

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"Message for South America" - Nov 16, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New


"The End of History" -  Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

" ... South America and the New Energy

South America is starting to consider the same thing. My partner was just there and I allowed him to see the energy of the potential future in that land.

I would like to paint history for you regarding South America. There was a time when every single country had a dictator. Less than 15 years ago, they had failing economies and currencies that were worthless. Trouble and strife and killings were the norm. Marauding drug lords openly killed in the streets and corruption was everywhere. Even the politicians created fear and many disappeared overnight, never to be seen again. Today it isn't that way. Today, there is an ongoing stability as one country after another brings a new, positive, stable energy to their cultures. So, without a concentrated effort by any kind of multi-national leadership or direction, how could this have changed in only 15 years?

Within the entire continent, there's only one dictator left. What's happening? If you think that's amazing, there is a move afoot that you're not going to hear about yet. But they're discussing it right now, so let me tell you what they're thinking. "What would happen if we took these countries and eliminated the borders?" Sound familiar? They're talking about it. In back rooms where nobody is reporting it, they're saying, "What about a plan of eventually having one currency from the top of Columbia to the bottom of Chile? And we would be strong and we would be unified." And dear ones, I'm here to tell you, that it's going to work, and it might not take 50 years. Soon the one dictator will be gone, and the unification can begin.

There's a shift happening on this planet ...."

Minister: Indonesia Putting Executions on Hold to Focus on Economy

Jakarta Globe, Basten Gokkon, 19 Nov 2015

Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs,
 told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday that President Joko Widodo would not
authorize any more executions pending efforts to revive the economy, which is
growing at its slowest pace in six years. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government has announced a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in order to focus on improving a sputtering economy.

Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday that President Joko Widodo would not authorize any more executions pending efforts to revive the economy, which is growing at its slowest pace in six years.

“The government needs to focus on Indonesia's economy first,” Luhut said, without giving a time frame for the suspension of executions.

The Joko administration has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community for reviving the death penalty that the previous administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had largely shelved.

Under Joko, Indonesia has this year put to death 14 people convicted of drug offenses, 12 of them foreign nationals, including a mentally ill Brazilian and two Australians who had reformed and were providing classes and ministry for fellow prisoners.

China welcomes IMF backing to make yuan world reserve currency

Yahoo – AFP, 14 Nov 2015

The yuan has rapidly grown in importance in recent years as China -- the world's

 top trading nation -- has used it to settle more of its commerce, and made it 

directly convertable with more currencies (AFP Photo)

China on Saturday welcomed backing from IMF experts that the yuan should be included in its reserve currencies, saying the move would strengthen the world's financial system.

Now the world's second-largest economy, China asked last year for the yuan to be added to the elite basket of SDR currencies, but until recently it was considered too tightly controlled to qualify.

It now looks likely the yuan will be formally admitted to the IMF's "special drawing rights" currency basket at the end of the month, which would mark a milestone in China's efforts to become a global economic power.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the fund now deemed the yuan "meets the requirements to be a 'freely usable' currency" -- a key hurdle to joining the yen, dollar, pound and euro as a leading unit in international trade.

The yuan hit headlines in August when China's central bank devalued the currency and said it would use a more market-oriented system to calculate the point around which the currency can trade each day.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says the fund now deems

 the yuan "meets the requirements to be a 'freely usable' currency" -- a key hurdle 

to joining the yen, dollar, pound and euro as a leading unit in international trade 

(AFP Photo/Yasser al-Zayyat)

The move sent markets into a tailspin as investors took it as a sign of slowing growth in China, a key driver of the world economy, but the central bank on Saturday said such reforms had taken it closer to joining the SDR basket.

"China thinks that the inclusion of the RMB (yuan) into the SDR basket will strengthen the representativeness and the attraction of the SDR (and) that it will improve the existing international monetary system," the People's Bank of China (PBoC) added.

"It will have win-win benefits both for China and the world."

Yuan's rapid rise

The yuan has rapidly grown in importance in recent years as China -- the world's top trading nation -- has used it to settle more of its commerce, and made it directly convertable with more currencies.

Including the Chinese currency in the SDR would likely boost demand for yuan-denominated assets among central banks, and give it a sheen of respectability at a time when many investors are questioning Beijing's ability to manage the slowing economy.

Lagarde said IMF experts ruled Beijing had addressed "all remaining operational issues" required for SDR inclusion, which will be decided by the executive board at a November 30 meeting.

Now the world's second-largest economy, China asked last year for the yuan to 

be added to the elite basket of SDR currencies, but until recently it was considered 

too tightly controlled to qualify (AFP Photo/Wang Zhao)

"I support the staff's findings," she said, adding to expectations that the board will also back the yuan.

That would mark an about turn from the beginning of August -- before the yuan devaluation -- when the Fund said the currency was not freely usable enough to be included in the basket.

Despite the recent misgivings, there has been strong pressure for the IMF to act now as the SDR basket is only reviewed every five years.

If a decision to include the yuan is made this month, the actual inclusion could take place as late as September 30, 2016, giving Beijing more time to prepare.

The recommendation Friday was broadly backed by the United States, China's main rival for world economic supremacy.

"We intend to support the renminbi's inclusion in the Special Drawing Rights basket provided the currency meets the International Monetary Fund's existing criteria," the Treasury Department said, using another name for the yuan.

"We will review the IMF's paper in that light."

Yudhoyono to Joko: Don’t Force Indonesia to Enter TPP

Jakarta Globe, Hayat Indriyatno, October 31, 2015

Yudhoyono, whose foreign policy mantra was 'A thousand friends, zero enemies,'
has cautioned Joko to look at the geopolitical consequences of signing up to the
 TPP, which conspicuously leaves out China but includes US ally Japan.
(Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo)

Jakarta. Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has cautioned his successor against signing up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, insisting the justifications he gave for refusing to join the trade pact while in office are still valid today.

In a series of tweets sent on Friday, Yudhoyono said President Joko Widodo had every right to commit Indonesia to the US-initiated pact, but warned that “If Indonesia is not ready and is forced to enter the TPP, then our nation will suffer. Such is the ‘law of globalization.’”

The essence of the TPP, he wrote, “is trade and investment liberalization.”

“The TPP is actually a good thing, if all the member states are ready, their interests are accommodated and there are real benefits all parties,” he said.

“But if we’re not ready for it, our market will be flooded with goods and services from other countries, while our exports will fail to be competitive abroad.”

Yudhoyono said his reasons for refusing to sign up to the TPP when he was in office included the fact that Indonesia was preparing for a similar agreement on a Southeast Asian scale: the Asean Economic Community, which comes into force at the end of this year.

He added that Indonesia also needed time to see the benefits from another trade pact, the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement, which saw Jakarta’s trade deficit with China doubling within a year of coming into full force in 2010.

Yudhoyono also pointed out that the three other Asean countries that had signed up to the TPP – Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam – had fundamentally different economic models from Indonesia. “The economies of Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam […] are ‘export-oriented.’ Indonesia is not. We have a large domestic market,” he tweeted.

He said that in order to protect its interests, Indonesia would have to be “tough” in its negotiations – but that the current TPP members had concluded their negotiations on Oct. 5.

Yudhoyono, whose foreign policy mantra was “A thousand friends, zero enemies,” also cautioned Joko to look at the geopolitical consequences of signing up to the TPP, which conspicuously leaves out China but includes US ally Japan.

“Let us ensure that we remain friendly with all our partners, including America, China and Japan,” he wrote. “Let us maintain a free and active foreign policy […] an all-directions foreign policy. Avoid allying with one country and distancing others.

“Let us also ensure that, whichever side we partner with, Indonesia’s national interests will be prioritized above all else.”

He then called on the Indonesian people to help Joko reach an “appropriate and clear decision for the interests of the people and the nation.”

Pastikan Indonesia mendapatkan keuntungan nyata ~ dlm pertumbuhan ekonomi, lapangan kerja & pengurangan kemiskinan. *SBY*

— S. B. Yudhoyono (@SBYudhoyono) October 30, 2015

Joko’s announcement, following a visit to the White House on Monday, that he was committed to signing Indonesia to the TPP has met with concern from the business community and the political establishment alike.

Yudhoyono’s own statements follow his Democratic Party’s warning that Indonesia is not yet ready to face the competition that joining the pact would entail, citing inadequate infrastructure and low public awareness about the TPP and its costs and benefits.

“Are Indonesians and the national economy really ready for this?” asked Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, the former president’s son and a senior member of the Democratic Party.

“How about our domestic infrastructure? Has the government asked for the public’s opinion, especially those involved in the national economy, about the possible impact of the TPP on Indonesia in the future?”

Wrong step

The Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), chaired by Joko’s rival in last year’s presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, has also criticized the president’s stance on the TPP.

Fadli Zon, a Gerindra deputy chairman and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said the TPP would only benefit Indonesia “if we had competitive businesses.”

Without adequate infrastructure and strong supporting education, welfare and legal systems, he warned, Indonesia would only be a “passive player” in the trade agreement.

“It would be a wrong step to join the TPP,” Fadli said on Wednesday.

Economist Lana Soelistianingsih of the University of Indonesia said separately that “Countries with manufacturing-based exports will be able to perform better in this partnership.”

“Our exports are mainly raw materials like oil and gas. If we can we get our commodities into a market like Chile” – which has signed up to the TPP – “can we compete with Brazil, which is much closer to Chile than Indonesia is? That’s the concern,” Lana said on Wednesday.

“How can we improve our manufacturing sector without electricity? It’s not that we should refrain from entering the partnership, but we need a clear blueprint on what products we want to sell, which raw materials we need to manufacture the products, and what kind of infrastructure we need,” she said.

The TPP, forged by the United States and other 11 countries around the Pacific Rim, including Australia and Canada, has a stated goal to “to promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labor and environmental protections.”

In practice, the biggest impact will be the lowering of trade barriers, including tariffs.

The #TPP - a 12-nation free trade agreement pic.twitter.com/1h82wFRF68

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 5, 2015

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