Basuki Shakes Up Jakarta’s City-Owned Enterprises’ Board

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, Jan 19, 2015

Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. (SP Photo/Joanito De Saojoao)

Jakarta. After forcing massive restructuring on Jakarta’s bureaucracy, Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has announced there will be big changes at the city-owned enterprises agency, or BUMD.

Basuki said on Monday that there would be a “reshuffle” of the board of directors, citing poor profit margins and missed targets as the driver.

“After having conducted a huge reshuffle of civil servants, we will also do the same thing for city-owned enterprises’ board of directors,” the governor said.

The entire board will be dismissed and Basuki said several new appointments had already been made. Former president director Budi Karya Sumadi is also leaving after being tapped for a job at state-owned airport management company Angkasa Pura II.

Basuki said he was looking for a new candidate to fill the top role that was “honest” and had “integrity.”

The BUMD, which manages 27 city-owned enterprises, is required to improve the region’s economy by providing services for residents.

In December Basuki announced sweeping job cuts at City Hall due to inefficiency and “disobedience.” A total of 1,162 civil servant positions were to be cut and 6,849 current roles opened up for new applications.

Jokowi Inaugurates Politician-Heavy Advisory Board

Jakarta Globe, Ezra Sihite, Jan 19, 2015

President Joko Widodo and his wife Iriana, left, with Vice President Jusuf Kalla
 and his wife Mufidah, seen at the State Palace presenting the cabinet in this
Oct. 26, 2014, file photo. (Antara Photo/Andika Wahyu)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo on Monday officially inaugurated the nine members of his Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres).

The board consists of senior figures from the military and the religious establishment, but is dominated by politicians.

The new presidential advisers are former Education Minister Abdul Malik Fadjar; Hasyim Muzadi of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama; Jan Darmadi of the National Democrat (NasDem) Party; retired general Yusuf Kartanegara of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI); Lion Air chief executive Rusdi Kirana, who is also a deputy chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB); former People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Sidarto Danusubroto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Strugle (PDI-P); Sri Adiningsih, an economic adviser to the PDI-P; former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret.) Subagyo H.S. of the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura); and Suharso Monoarfa of the United Development Party (PPP).

Separately, Rusdi said that he would step down from his other positions after being inaugurated as a member of the Presidential Advisory Board.

“We have to let go of our other positions at private or state companies and also at political parties,” Lion Air Group co-founder Rusdi said, as quoted by news portal Kompas.com on Monday. “I’ve spoken to the PKB and I was nominated by them [for a position in the Wantimpres],” he added.

Amid Execution Outcry, AG Says Respect Indonesia’s Laws

Jakarta Globe, Jan 18, 2015

Indonesia's Attorney General H.M Prasetyo addresses a press conference
following the execution of six inmates. (Antara Photo/Muhammad Adimaja)

Jakarta. Following international condemnation for the execution of six prisoners for drug trafficking, Indonesia’s attorney general has called on the international community to respect Indonesia’s laws.

“We can understand the reaction coming from the world and countries that had their citizens shot,” Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told a press conference on Sunday.

“However, every country has to respect the law applied in our country,”

Five foreigners and one Indonesian were killed by firing squad shortly after midnight on Sunday. They included citizens of Nigeria, Malawi, Vietnam, the Netherlands and Brazil. Five inmates were executed at Nusakambangan prison and one at Boyolali prison.

The executions have been condemned by human rights activists and several governments. Brazil and the Netherlands have both recalled their ambassadors from Jakarta.

Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, released a statement on Thursday condemning the planned executions, calling the move “deeply regrettable.”

Prasetyo, however, said Indonesia was opposed to drug trafficking and drug-related crimes would be punished.

“I think they can understand that the death sentence is something that is in effect in Indonesia. They will understand our concern,” he said.

Indonesia resumed the execution of death row inmates in 2013, under former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Despite its use of the death penalty at home, Indonesia regularly pursues clemency for its citizens abroad.

President Joko Widodo disappointed death-penalty campaigners in December when he said he would not offer clemency to convicted drug traffickers.

Joko argued the extreme measure was necessary to combat the production and distribution of drugs in Indonesia.

The government has also pledged to execute as many as 20 people each year, despite criticism.

Prasetyo said his office was moving forward with the second phase of executions.

“There shouldn’t be any unfinished legal process. Once it’s [the legal process] done completely, we’ll prepare the execution as soon as possible,” he told newsportal Jpnn.com.

Related Articles:

Indonesia executes six drug convicts, five of them foreigners


"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

Indonesia executes six drug convicts, five of them foreigners

Indonesia has executed six people convicted on drug charges, despite international pleas for them to be spared. They are the first executions to take place under new President Joko Widodo.

  

Deutsche Welle, 17 Jan 2015

Five foreigners and an Indonesian woman sentenced to death on drug charges will
 be executed by firing squad despite international pleas, Indonesian officials
said Saturday. (AP Photo/Wagino)

Indonesia on Sunday put to death five foreigners and an Indonesian woman who had all been sentenced to death on drug charges, despite calls for a stay of execution from around the world.

The foreigners came from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria. The executions were carried out by firing squad.

Indonesian authorities refused to heed all international requests for clemency. These included a last-minute appeal to President Joko Widodo by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to spare the life of her compatriot Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira.

"The enforcement of the death penalty, which is increasingly rejected by the international community, has grave consequences for the relations between our two countries," Rousseff said on Saturday local time after Moreira, 53, was executed despite her plea.

Ex-pilot Moreira was among those
executed

The Dutch government also made a last-minute plea for the life of its citizen, Ang Kiem Soei, 62, that was disregarded as well.

The others who died were Indonesian woman Rani Andriani, Nigerian Daniel Enemuo, Namaona Denis from Malawi, and a woman from Vietnam, Tran Thi Bich Hanh.

'Cruel and inhumane'

The European Union had earlier also urged Indonesia to halt the executions. Foreign policy chief Federica Mogerini called the plan "deeply regrettable," and described the death penalty as "a cruel and inhumane punishment that fails to act as a deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity."

Amnesty International's research director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Rupert Abbott, said the executions were "a seriously regressive move," and called on Jakarta to halt plans for future ones. Indonesian authorities say 20 are planned for this year.

Indonesia, which has strict drug laws, ceased executing people in 2008, but began again in 2013, though 2014 saw no one put to death.

Widodo has pledged to bring
reform to Indonesia

Widodo, who took office in October, has disappointed activists by his strong support for capital punishment despite promises to improve the human rights situation in his country. Last month, he rejected appeals for clemency from all those executed on Sunday.

His tough stance has raised concern about other foreigners facing a death sentence, including two Australians who were part of a group, dubbed the "Bali Nine," that tried to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005.

One of them, Myuran Sukumaran, also had his clemency appeal rejected last month, but his accomplice Andrew Chan is still waiting for the outcome of his.

tj/bw AFP, AP, dpa)

Related Articles:

Amid Execution Outcry, AG Says Respect Indonesia’s Laws
Dutch ambassador to Indonesia recalled following execution

Last ditch efforts to stop Indonesia executing Utrecht man

Vietnamese Drug Convict Awaiting Execution Expresses One Final Wish
Attorney General Announces Six Executions to Take Place Sunday

Widodo has pledged to bring reform to Indonesia

Jokowi Signals Break With ‘Thousand Friends’ Foreign Policy

Editorial: Respect Human Rights, Commute Death Sentences
Jakarta Archbishop Criticizes Indonesia’s Use of Death Penalty
Activists Condemn Upcoming Executions in Indonesia

Last ditch efforts to stop Indonesia executing Utrecht man

DutchNews.nl, January 16, 2015

Foreign affairs minister Bert Koenders has told reporters he and prime minister Mark Rutte are doing all they can to stop Indonesia executing a Dutch national this weekend. 

Koenders said he is using international channels to try to stop Ang Kiem Soei from facing a firing squad on Sunday. ‘There are all sorts of ways to do this, pressure, conviction, alliances with other countries and using our people at the highest level,’ he said.

Kiem Soei was sentenced to death in 2003 for his involvement in an ecstasy production lab in Indonesia.

Four other foreigners from Brazil, Malawi, Vietnam and Nigeria are also due to be executed along with an Indonesian man, international news agencies said.

Another Dutch national is also on death row in Indonesia for ecstasy production. A third Dutch man, also senteced to death for his involvement in ecstasy, died in jail several years ago. 

Some 130 people are awaiting the death penalty in Indonesia, 64 of them for drugs offences, news agency ANP said.

Five foreigners and an Indonesian woman sentenced to death on drug charges will

 be executed by firing squad despite international pleas, Indonesian officials said
Saturday. (AP Photo/Wagino)

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Indonesia executes six drug convicts, five of them foreigners - New

Vietnamese Drug Convict Awaiting Execution Expresses One Final Wish
Attorney General Announces Six Executions to Take Place Sunday

Widodo has pledged to bring reform to Indonesia

Jokowi Signals Break With ‘Thousand Friends’ Foreign Policy

Editorial: Respect Human Rights, Commute Death Sentences
Jakarta Archbishop Criticizes Indonesia’s Use of Death Penalty
Activists Condemn Upcoming Executions in Indonesia

Police Crisis Deepens as Chief Detective Purged Over Closeness to KPK: Source

Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz, Jan 16, 2015

A soufe within the police said Suhardi had been removed as chief detective
because of his perceived closeness to the KPK. (Antara Photo/Yusran Uccang)

Jakarta. The chief detective of the National Police is to be fired because of the controversy surrounding the appointment of corruption suspect Budi Gunawan to lead the Indonesian police force.

A source within the National Police said that chief detective Suhardi Alius was being removed from his position after he was deemed incapable of securing Comr. Gen.Budi’s appointment as police chief.

“[Suhardi] was phoned by the National Police chief [Gen. Sutarman] himself last night,” the source said on Friday. “Suhardi was deemed incapable of securing Budi’s appointment so he was seen as an unprofessional chief detective.”

It is understood that the police tasked Suhardi with ensuring Budi’s appointment went through with as little turbulence as possible. Suhardi believes this role did not fall within his job description as the country’s head detective.

Insp. Gen. Budi Waseso has been lined up to replace Suhardi.

Acting National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti would not confirm or deny that Suhardi’s days were numbered, but he did say an official letter had yet to be signed.

“It’s indeed heading that way, the decision could be from the National Police chief himself or from the president, but the official document has not been issued so I do not want to get ahead of myself,” Badrodin said.

Suhardi said he would accept being forced out, but denied any wrongdoing.

Suhardi said he believed he was removed from office because he was close to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Financial Transaction Report and Analysis Center (PPATK). Both institutions have led the investigation into Budi Gunawan’s alleged corruption.

“I have definitely been slandered, I am close to KPK and PPATK in the capacity of my job as the [chief detective],” Suhardi said.

Budi Waseso said he was ready to take over, and launched into an astonishing public criticism of his colleague, Suhardi.

“I am ready. A traitor should not be allowed to stay within the National Police, even if he did not commit a betrayal he was incapable of doing his job,” Budi said.

“Until my last drop of blood I will defend the honor of my institution,” he said. “The situation within the National Police is no longer solid.”

Surveys show that the Indonesian people view the National Police as the country’s most corrupt institution.

President Joko Widodo’s decision to appoint Budi Gunawan as the new police chief to replace Sutarman has created an entirely avoidable crisis.

Budi has long been linked to corruption cases after PPATK found several irregular transactions in his bank accounts.

Tension heightened when the KPK named Budi a corruption suspect after months of investigation, and right after getting the nod from Joko.

Despite Budi Gunawan’s status as a graft suspect, Joko refused to withdraw his nomination and the House of Representatives still cleared him on its fit-and-proper test.

A plenary session at the House held on Thursday also officially approved Budi as the new police chief, prompting anger from the public.

Elsewhere, Tempo reported that KPK chief Abraham Samad had met with the president on Thursday night. Abraham told Tempo he had briefed Joko on the investigation into Budi Gunawan, but this was denied by Vice President Jusuf Kala, who said the meeting was a general update on corruption-eradication initiatives.

Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan talks to journalists after completing

 the fit-and-proper test at the House of Representatives building in 

jakarta, on Jan. 14, 2015. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

Related Article:

Jokowi Delays Appointment of Graft Suspect Budi as Police Chief

Arief Hidayat Appointed Constitutional Court Chief

Jakarta Globe, Jan 12, 2015

Arief Hidayat will lead Indonesia's Constitutional Court until 2017.
(Antara Photo/Wahyu Putro A.)

Jakarta. Arief Hidayat, a law professor, was on Monday appointed the new chief justice of Indonesia’s troubled Constitutional Court.

Arief, who only replaced former chief Mahfud M.D. to become a Constitutional Court justice in 2013, will take over the top role from Hamdan Zoelva, whose leadership term ended on Jan. 7.

He was appointed chief justice at a plenary meeting between the nine court justices in Jakarta on Monday, news portal Kompas.com reported. He will lead the court until 2017.

Arief, born in 1956, was head of the masters program of law at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, before he was appointed to Indonesia’s top court. He earned his doctorate degree from the same university in 2006.

The new chief justice will have a tough job rebuilding faith in Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, the reputation of which was badly damaged when former Chief Justice Akil Mochtar was convicted of corruption last year.

The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Akil to life in prison. He was found guilty of having sold off Indonesia’s powerful local government seats to corrupt politicians.

Indonesia Halts Unlimited Case Reviews for Cons

Jakarta Globe, Erwin Sihombing, Jan 09, 2015

Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly. (Antara Photo/
Vitalis Yogi Trisna)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government has stepped in amid a fundamental difference of opinion between the two highest courts in the land over how many case reviews a convict can request after exhausting all other avenues of appeal.

The Justice Ministry will issue a government regulation that will “find a middle path” in the debate engendered by the conflicting stances of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, Minister Yasonna Laoly said in Jakarta on Friday.

“Hopefully we can agree that there won’t be a difference of opinion like we’re seeing today, at least not between different institutions,” he said.

The Constitutional Court ruled in 2013 that an article in the Criminal Code Procedures restricting convicts to just one case review — a post-appeal motion filed with the Supreme Court after it has already issued a final and binding ruling in their case — was unconstitutional, and struck it from the statutes, effectively permitting convicts an unlimited number of case reviews.

On the last day of 2014, however, the Supreme Court issued a letter to all lower courts, the Attorney General’s Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) — which prosecutes cases at anti-corruption courts — instructing them to reject all case reviews by death row inmates who had exhausted all avenues of appeal.

Yasonna said that pending the issuance of the government decree, no new case reviews would be granted, but those already underway would be allowed to proceed.

He denied that the government, which has made clear its intention to execute all 64 death-row inmates in Indonesia, was flouting the Constitutional Court’s ruling. Instead, he said the ruling had caused a “vacuum” in the legal process — by allowing unlimited case reviews — that needed to be filled to ensure legal certainty.

Related Article:

Activists Condemn Upcoming Executions in Indonesia

Indonesia Doubling Transport Budget With $10 Billion Fuel Saving

Jakarta Globe, Sharon Chen,  Jan 05, 2015

Motorists ride their motorbikes between cars during rush hour on a main road
in Jakarta on Nov. 28, 2014. (EPA Photo/Mast Irham)

Jakarta. Indonesia will save about $10 billion from the biggest overhaul of its decades-old fuel subsidy system, allowing the government to double spending on transportation, agriculture and public works, the energy minister said.

The finance ministry estimates that at least 120 trillion rupiah ($10 billion) in savings will be made this year, and the number will increase in coming years, said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Angie Lau on Monday.

“What happened is shifting the subsidy from consumption into more productive spending,” the minister said.

“Because of the policy this year 2015, the public works, the transportation sector and the agriculture will double the capital expenditure budget.”

President Joko Widodo scrapped the subsidy for gasoline on Jan. 1 and capped the amount of aid for diesel, joining India and Malaysia in taking advantage of plunging oil prices to wean their nations off government subsidized fuel. Indonesia had been subsidizing fuel since the first oil price shock in the 1970s and kept prices at less than $0.20 per liter until 2005, according to a World Bank report published in March.

The government plans to double spending on transportation from last year, according to Said. The budget for public works such as roads, housing and irrigation will be more than twice the original allocation and more money will be set aside for farmers and the agriculture sector, he said. Building infrastructure for the oil and gas industry and electricity will be part of the government’s focus this year, he said.

Dismantling the subsidy program is a political hot potato — protests accompanied past price increases and riots spurred by soaring living costs helped oust dictator Suharto in 1998.

“The challenge would be of course the response from the public, but I have confidence that if we communicate well, then they will understand” and in the longer term it is going to be a much better budget structure, the minister said.

Bloomberg

Basuki Rejects Request to Delay New Minimum Wage

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, Jan 05, 2015

Jakarta. Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has rejected a request from 27 South Korean companies that they be exempt from immediately implementing Jakarta’s 2015 minimum wage.

Basuki on Monday said there would be no delay in implementing the new provincial wage of Rp 2.7 million ($219) a month.

“We rejected the motion because I refuse to be ordered around,” the governor said.

He added that if foreign companies did not want to comply with regulations they could move elsewhere.

“They could move to Majalengka [in West Java] the provincial minimum wage is still cheap there.”

Basuki said the companies — who are all garment manufacturers based in Cilincing, North Jakarta — had made similar requests in the past, despite the fact wages were based on the capital’s Decent Living Index, or KHL.

The KHL is used to define the minimum amount needed to sustain a “decent” quality of life in the capital.

The head of Jakarta’s Manpower and Transmigration Agency, Priyono, said all companies that wanted a delay had to go through the correct procedure.

An exemption could only be granted with a recommendation from the wage council, after a review of a company’s finances, he said.

Never a Dull Moment on Jokowi’s Policy Trail

Shake-Up: From the fuel subsidy to executions, the new president has stirred debate

Jakarta Globe, Kennial Caroline Laia, Jan 02, 2015

President Joko Widodo arrives for the 12th Asean India Summit at Myanmar
International Convention Center in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on Nov. 12, 2014.
(EPA Photo/Rungroj Yongrit)

Jakarta. In the just over two months that he has been president, Joko Widodo has earned both plaudits and criticism for some of his policies, most of them a complete 180 on his predecessor’s take on the same issue.

One of his most attention-grabbing moves was to order the sinking of foreign fishing vessels caught poaching inside Indonesia’s maritime borders.

Since then, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has enrolled the Navy to round up 19 boats and sink five of them.

The policy has drawn praise, with observers saying the administration needs to get touch on fish poaching if it is to turn Indonesia into a global maritime fulcrum as Joko envisions.

“It’s necessary to sink those illegal vessels,” says Hikmahanto Juwana, an international law expert at the University of Indonesia.

Under the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration, he says, “fish poaching as a problem was hardly looked into by the government.”

“There are many boats that continue to poach our sea resources, and we’ve done little about the problem,” he says. “So now, by sinking these boats, our government wants to convey its stance that Indonesia will never compromise with any foreign boats that steal our fish.”

Hikmahanto says the sinking of the vessels will not damage relations with the countries where the boats are registered, because Indonesia’s response is targeted toward an illegal act being committed in its own waters.

“We are dealing with illegal fishing boats that violate our maritime territory, not the countries where those boats come from,” he says.

He adds, though, that over the next few years, the government will need to make its policy clear to other countries to prevent unwanted diplomatic rows.

“What’s being done now must be continued. We cannot be discriminatory in selecting the boats,” Hikmahanto says.

“In addition, it is best for the Foreign Ministry to inform other countries around the world that we have this policy in place so there won’t be any misunderstanding. Ideally, these other countries must start prohibiting their fishermen from poaching in Indonesian waters.”

A less flashy though far more impactful policy move under Joko has been the raising of subsidized fuel prices as part of an effort to trim the burgeoning subsidy and allocate the savings to more productive programs.

The hike, Joko calculated, would save the state around Rp 100 trillion ($8.04 billion).

On Nov. 18, less than a month since his inauguration on Oct. 20, Joko duly raised the pump price of the widely used Premium brand of low-octane gasoline, from Rp 5,500 per liter to Rp 8,500 per liter. The price of subsidized diesel sold under the Solar brand also went up, from Rp 5,500 per liter to Rp 7,500 per liter.

But on Wednesday, the government announced that there would be another price adjustment — downward this time, in light of the falling price of crude oil.

As of the first day of 2015, Premium has been tamped down to Rp 7,600 per liter, and Solar to Rp 7,250 per liter.

The move seems to have vindicated critics of the initial hike, who said at the time that there was no urgent need to raise pump prices just them with the world oil price on a decline since June this year.

Another controversial issue in the past couple of months has been Joko’s insistence on not just maintaining by actively implementing the death penalty, which was rarely employed during Yudhoyono’s second term as president.

Joko previously claimed that five death row inmates who had exhausted all avenues of appeal would be put to death in December. The Attorney General’s Office, which is responsible for arranging executions, later said that only two of those inmates would face the firing squad that month.

The AGO typically carries out executions in secret and down not announce whether they have been carried out until well after the fact.

As of Thursday, there was no word yet on whether the two executions, set to take place in Batam, Riau Islands, and Cilacap, Central Java, had been carried out.

Rights activists have accused Joko of reneging on campaign promises to champion human rights.

“Joko has [...] violated the spirit of human rights in our country,” says Hendardi, from the Setara Institute, a rights and democracy advocacy group. “Joko shouldn’t continue this policy. It is against global opinion.

“The government will be better off reviewing capital punishment for drug convicts,” he adds.

“It is useless and wouldn’t serve any deterrent effect for drug dealers. There are no statistics showing that capital punishment discourages drug dealing,” Hendardi says.

Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), says Joko has “no understanding on human rights.”

Related Articles:

Jakarta Archbishop Criticizes Indonesia’s Use of Death Penalty

AGO Adds Another Death Row Inmate to Imminent Execution List

AirAsia, Indonesia and Effective Crisis Management

President Joko Widodo, center, talks to the head of Indonesia’s national search
 and rescue agency, Soelistyo, left, and Chief of the Sea Security Coordinating
 Agency, Vice Admiral Desi Albert Mamahit, right, shortly before a news conference
 about missing Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ 8501 in Jakarta, on Dec. 29, 2014.
 (EPA Photo/Bagus Indahono)

Police Fire 119 Officers This Year, but Djoko Susilo Still on Payroll

Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz, Dec 31, 2014

Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo looks to his lawyer during the delivery of his verdict at a
courtroom in Jakarta in this Sept. 3, 2013, file photo. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. A total of 119 police officers have been fired in the past year, but Indonesia’s most infamous cop — Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo — is still on the payroll.

Djoko, the former chief of the National Police’s traffic division, was sentenced to 18 years in jail and fined Rp 1 billion ($80,000) after he was found guilty of corruption in the Rp 200 billion procurement of driving simulators for use in tests to issue driver’s licenses.

“The total of 119 is less than last year, when there were 208 [officers who lost their job],” Gen. Sutarman, the chief of National Police, said on Wednesday.

Sutarman said that the reason why Djoko was still officially employed was that police were waiting for an internal ruling on his status.

Djoko tendered his resignation but may instead be fired from the force. A police commission is yet to rule on the matter.

Apart from the officers being fired, another 127 cops were convicted in a criminal court — 23 more than last year.

Another 9,892 officers were given disciplinary sanctions, while 444 were found to have violated the police code of ethics.

However, no fewer than 35,119 officers of the National Police were given commendations this year for exceptional service.

Corruption crackdown

Indonesian police have been trying to boost their image by cracking down on corruption and ineptitude within the ranks

Earlier this month, just days after a controversial new regulation banning motorcycles from some of Jakarta’s main streets caused chaos and confusion, the director of the city’’s traffic police unit was relieved of his command, just seven months into the job.

Sr. Comr. Restu Mulya Budiyanto just turned out to be not the right man to fix the capital’s traffic woes, Sutarman told the Jakarta Globe at the time, stressing that the replacement had nothing to do with a recent corruption scandal involving a number of top traffic cops.

The police force has long been identified by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt institutions in Indonesia.

In February, the National Police named Sr. Comr. Conny Tri Restyoko, the former Surabaya Police chief, a suspect for allegedly swindling colleagues out of Rp 800 million. He was said to have invested the money in a vehicle license and registration agency, which reportedly benefited from his connections to the traffic police to expedite the issuance of the documents.

As world honours the dead, Indonesia begins tsunami memorials

Yahoo – AFP, Nurdin Hasan, 26 Dec 2014

Women attend a prayer service at Baiturrahman Mosque in Banda Aceh, in

 the northern Sumatra island, on December 25, 2014, prior to the 10th anniversary

 of the tsunami that hit the west coast of Aceh province (AFP Photo/

Chaideer Mahyuddin)

Thousands of people held a memorial Thursday in Indonesia's Aceh province, the epicentre of the Indian Ocean tsunami, as the world prepared to mark a decade since a disaster that took 220,00 lives and laid waste to coastal areas in 14 countries.

On December 26, 2004 a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western coast sparked a series of towering waves that wrought destruction across countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

Among the victims were thousands of foreign holidaymakers enjoying Christmas on the region's sun-kissed beaches, striking tragedy into homes around the world.

A tourist rides a bicycle past a poster

 ahead of the tenth anniversary of the 2004

 tsunami at Patong beach in Phuket

 province on December 25, 2014 (AFP\

 Photo/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Muslim clerics, tsunami survivors and rescue workers led around 7,000 mourners gathered at Banda Aceh's black-domed Baiturrahman Grand Mosque for memorial prayers late Thursday.

Malaysian cleric Syeikh Ismail Kassim said he and several hundred compatriots attended to show support for Aceh.

"We hope Aceh people will not waver as a result of the calamity that has befallen them," he told AFP.

Aceh governor Zaini Abdullah thanked Indonesians and the international community in his address at the mosque, one of the few buildings which withstood the wrath of the massive earthquake and ensuing waves which left 170,000 people in the country dead or missing.

"The tsunami had caused deep sorrow to Aceh residents from having lost their loved ones," he said.

"Sympathy from Indonesians and the international community has helped (Aceh) to recover," he added.

He also called on residents not to "dwell in our grief, so that we could rise from adversity and achieve a better Aceh".

Kamaruddin, a fisherman who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said he attended the prayers to remember his wife and three children who died in the tsunami.

"I hope there will be no more disasters in Aceh," the 50-year-old said.

In Meulaboh, a fishing town considered to be the ground zero of the tsunami -- where 35 metre-high waves flattened almost everything -- Indonesian flags were flown at half-mast as small groups of residents held night prayers at mosques.

The main memorials were planned for Friday morning, starting in Aceh which was hit first by the waves, then moving to Thailand where candlelit ceremonies are expected in the resort hubs of Phuket and Khao Lak.

There will also be events in Sri Lanka, including at the site where a train carrying 1,500 people was washed away, as well as in several European capitals to remember foreign nationals who perished.

'Like being in a washing machine'

Many of the tsunami's victims died in dark, churning waters laden with uprooted trees, boats, cars and eviscerated beach bungalows, as the waves surged miles inland and then retreated, sucking many more into the sea.

Thailand saw 5,395 people killed by the disaster -- half of them foreign holidaymakers.

British survivor Andy Chaggar was in a bungalow on Thailand's Khao Lak when the tsunami waves struck, taking his girlfriend's life and sweeping him inland.

This picture taken on December 4, 2014 shows people visiting the Ban Nam

Khem tsunami memorial park wall in Khao Lak (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

"I came to in the water... there was glass, metal, there were pieces of wood, bricks, it was like being in a washing machine full of nails," he told AFP on Thursday, on the same beach where he lost his girlfriend.

As the scale of the tragedy emerged, disaster-stricken nations struggled to mobilise a relief effort, leaving bloated bodies to pile up under the tropical sun or in makeshift morgues.

The world poured money and expertise into the relief and reconstruction, with more than $13.5 billion collected in the months after the disaster.

Almost $7 billion in aid went into rebuilding more than 140,000 houses across Aceh, thousands of kilometres of roads, and new schools and hospitals.

The vast majority of Indonesia's 170,000 victims perished in the province, among them tens of thousands of children.

But the disaster also ended a decades-long separatist conflict, with a peace deal between rebels and Jakarta struck less than a year later.

It also prompted the establishment of a pan-ocean tsunami warning system, made up of sea gauges and buoys, while individual countries have invested heavily in disaster preparedness.

But experts have cautioned against the perils of "disaster amnesia" creeping into communities vulnerable to natural disasters.

Related Articles:

Tsunami devastation remembered in Asia, 10 years on (+Video)

"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“… Mass Human Death

The final one, dear Human, is the hardest one for my partner and the one we wish to leave you with in this channeling tonight. This is the one that my partner doesn't want to even have me talk about. It's the appropriateness of mass death. For you, built in to your very essence is the honor for life, and the sorrow when it passes. It's correct and appropriate that this is there, and never let it be tempered. But the wisdom of understanding is also needed to help you get past some challenges of the Human heart.

"Dear Kryon, was the tsunami really necessary?" Yes it was. Almost 200,000 Human Beings passed over. It's an event that for you is filled with horror, sorrow, emotion, and challenge. Back in 1989, we told you of those that might have to leave the earth en masse, and here it is. Yet even my partner [Lee] asks the questions, "Why the children? Why the poorest parts of the earth? Why the seeming inappropriateness of all this death?"

And I say to you the same thing I said with respect to Terri: Do you understand yet that death is often as precious as life on this planet of many energies and lessons? They are not gone! They're all here [speaking from Kryon's perspective]. They're having a great time! They're joyful! It seems like a moment ago they leaned into the wind of birth with us beside them. We said, "How would you like to participate in an event that will change the compassion factor of the planet so that energies can move forward and provide faster acceleration of vibratory shift? How would you like to help create peace on earth through a consciousness shift within Gaia itself? And they said, "Show us the way!"

Do you understand why we are in love with humanity... that you would love the earth and the Universe so much that you would go through these things? So much of what you see is horrible tragedy, yet you're looking at the heroes of humanity as they deliver a gift that will change the very fabric of Gaia through the compassion created as a wave of humanity responds to their plight.

They knew the potentials and they went through with it. Even the children knew, for they're old souls within their divinity. There was so much compassion created at that time, in that one week, the earth has never seen anything like it in your lifetime. Billions of Humans were involved with a compassion that instantly went to the core of the planet. It went into the earth and it's still there. It changed the actual energy of where you walk and it planted a seeds that will grow that will indeed emerge later in Israel, and those surrounding Israel.

And that's what it's about. Yet some of you didn't want to hear that, did you? But they're here, with me now... and with you as well. How could you fit them all in this room, you might ask? They can fit on the head of a pin! That's interdimensional talk. They can go home in your purse or your pocket! That's interdimensional talk, too. And they've got a message for you that we've given before, but you can't hear it enough: "We did our part - now you do yours, Lighthouse! For the ones who remain are the only ones who can manipulate the tools we have helped create."

When you go home tonight, you're not going to be in a survival situation - in a tent in a tribe with no lights or clean water, with no food. You're not going to be in sorrow or despair. Instead, you go home to a warm place with plenty of food and friendship and the love of family. That's why you're the Lighthouses, because you have time for it. You've got the intellect for it. You're not in survival mode, as is so much of humanity on the earth. You have the education for it and the intuition for it. Now, do you understand why there are so many Lighthworkers in the western world? It's because your culture has created a situation where there's abundance of these things, and it allows you to lead the way in changing the energy of earth, instead of having all your time spent just trying to survive. Does this help you understand the responsibility of what you have before you?

Strike the light and send it to the Sudanese. Strike light and send it to those dark places with governments where there's corruption. Strike the light and send it to the scientists and researchers who already have the cures for the more virulent diseases on the planet, but can't begin their work due to the barriers of certain leadership and their old ways. Strike the light and send it to Israel and Palestine and get on with this solution! This is why you're here, and this is the agreement you made when you arrived and selected the culture you live in.

Achievable in your lifetime, it is. Peace and compassion will prevail. You shall see. You shall see.

And so it is.

Kryon