KPK to Give New Ministers Transparency Training

Jakarta Globe, Rizky Amelia & Novi Setuningsih, Oct 27, 2014

The headquarters of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta.
(BeritaSatu Photo)

Jakarta. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) says it will conduct a briefing for the nation’s newly appointed ministers on how to prevent becoming entangled in graft cases.

“The general subject will be corruption prevention,” KPK deputy chairman Adnan Pandu Praja said on Sunday evening, after the announcement of President Joko Widodo’s cabinet.

The exact date for the briefing has not been set.

Another KPK deputy chairman, Buysro Muqoddas, on Monday said it would be held at some point after the first official cabinet meeting, which was held later on Monday.

“We’ll wait for the government,” Busyro told reporters at the KPK headquarters.

‘They have to report everything’

Busyro explained that the anti-graft agency would outline how the ministers can work transparently and within the boundaries of the constitution.

“If they really want the government to be transparent, accountable, and siding with the people, the perspective [which is to be presented by the KPK] should be followed,” Busyro said.

KPK will also inform the ministers regarding their obligation to submit a wealth report, he said.

“Now [that they're government officials] they have to report everything,” Busyro said.

Government officials have to submit a wealth report when they take up a position, when they get transferred or promoted, and when they leave the job.

No red flags, but no guarantees

The KPK has been involved in the cabinet selection to make sure that the new lineup is clear from graft suspects and individuals that might be related to corruption cases.

The vetting concluded that none of the ministers in what Joko called his Working Cabinet received red flags, according the anti-graft agency’s spokesman.

“None [of Joko's ministers] were given red marks,” spokesman Johan Budi said in Jakarta on Monday. “We can’t guarantee that nobody, including the ministerial candidates that didn’t get red-flagged by the KPK, would be involved in corruption later on, however, because people change when they’re given the power and authority to manage a huge amount of money.”

Joko had submitted 43 names of potential ministers to the KPK and Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the agency tasked with money laundering investigations, before forming his cabinet of 34 ministers.

The anti-graft body met with Joko last week to return the list of candidates with color-coded marks. Candidates assessed as potential suspects in corruption cases or with fishy financial records flagged by the PPATK received a red or yellow mark from the KPK, indication the candidate’s level of corruption risk.The president eliminated eight of 43 names under consideration for cabinet posts on Wednesday.

Controversial picks

Still, a number of the appointed ministers, including State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarmo, have come in for criticism.

Rini was questioned by the KPK last year in an investigation related to so-called release and discharge documents obtained by debtor conglomerates in the notorious Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) case. Rini, who was the deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), was questioned in connection with her position as a member of the Committee for the Stabilization of the Financial Sector (KSSK).

The KPK suspected that Rini knew about the process of obtaining the discharge release papers issued by IBRA, based on a 2002 Presidential Instruction and signed by the then-president, Megawati, on her key economy minister’s recommendation.

Also, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya was accused of having received Rp 100 million as part of a fire truck procurement case when she was the secretary general at the Home Affairs Ministry, according to news portal Tribunnews.com.

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Jokowi Finally Presents His Awesome Indonesia Cabinet

Retno Is First Female Foreign Minister

Jakarta Globe, Oct 27, 2014

Retno Marsudi, Indonesia’s current ambassador to the Netherlands, speaks to
 the media after she was named the country’s next foreign minister by President
Joko Widodo at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Oct. 26, 2014. (Reuters Photo/
Darren Whiteside)

Jakarta. Indonesia has a female foreign minister, a first in the country’s history, following the appointment of veteran diplomat Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi to the post on Sunday.

Retno was Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands before being recalled by President Joko Widodo as he began shaping his cabinet. She has nearly three decades of experience in the Foreign Ministry and she is also among the few female ambassadors in the nation’s male-dominated diplomatic service.

“Indonesia has so much to offer the world and we should gain a lot from our international relations,” Retno, 52, told the Jakarta Globe in Amsterdam recently. “We must work hard to maintain and continue to boost our global standing.”

Retno, who was named as one of the nation’s 99 most powerful women by Globe Asia, is married to architect Agus Marsudi, and they have two children together. She has a bachelor’s degree from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and a master’s degree in law from the Hague University of Applied Sciences.

She became Indonesia’s ambassador to Norway and Iceland when she was 42 years old and served as the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s director general for the Americas and Europe before being assigned as ambassador to the Netherlands in 2012.

Known as a Foreign Ministry sweetheart by her colleagues, Retno hails from the same batch of diplomats as Marty Natalegawa, the previous minister. Retno is seen by many as the most appropriate choice to replace Marty, who is considered highly successful as foreign minister in the administration of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“She is tough and has very strong character,” says Bantarto Bandoro, an international relations expert at the Indonesian Defense University.

“I believe she can carry the torch from Marty, and, most importantly, that she can realize Jokowi’s idea of making diplomacy economically — beside politically — beneficial to the nation.”

Retno’s signature success as a diplomat was to bring relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands back to one of their highest points after Yudhoyono canceled a trip there in 2010 over fears that he could be arrested for alleged human rights abuses. Relations between the two countries then plunged.

However, Retno managed to convince the Dutch government to restore ties with Indonesia and restate this country’s economic and geopolitical importance to the Netherlands, peaking with the visit of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to Jakarta just last year.

“Indonesia and the Netherlands must have equal relations. Each of us must benefit from cooperation,” Retno said at the time.

Related Article:

Jokowi Finally Presents His Awesome Indonesia Cabinet

Jokowi Finally Presents His Awesome Indonesia Cabinet

Jakarta Globe, Oct 26, 2014

A framed photo of President Joko Widodo. (Antara Photo/Ivan Pramana Putra)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo late on Sunday afternoon finally presented his cabinet, bringing to an end a period of anxious waiting for the much-anticipated list of names.

The president was inaugurated on Oct. 20 and lists of possible ministerial lineups have been doing the rounds since then.

At the announcement, Joko said the cabinet was to work for a period of five years, which is why the selection was made after careful consideration, and based on candidates’ “experience and good leadership skills.”

Joko, together with Vice President Jusuf Kalla apparently were close to announcing the cabinet lineup on Wednesday night — with a stage already having been prepared at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta — but that event was cancelled at the last minute.

Joko made it a point to submit his list of 34 prospective members of the Awesome Indonesia Cabinet (KIH) to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for vetting, with eight unnamed candidates being flagged by the anti-graft body. The president and his team then had to find replacements, accounting for at least part of the delay.

The official inauguration of the new cabinet was expected to take place on Monday.

The ministers:

• State secretary: Pratikno
• National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) minister: Andrinof Chaniago
• Coordinating minister for maritime affairs: Indroyono Soesilo
• Minister of transportation: Ignasius Jonan
• Minister of maritime affairs and fisheries: Susi Pudjiastuti
• Minister of tourism: Arief Yahya
• Minister of energy and mineral resources: Sudirman Said
• Coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs: Tedjo Edy Purdjianto
• Minister of home affairs: Tjahjo Kumolo
• Minister of foreign affairs: Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi
• Minister of defense: Ryamizard Ryacudu
• Minister of justice and human rights: Yasonna H. Laoly
• Minister of communication and information technology Rudiantara
• Minister of administrative reform: Yuddy Chrisnandi
• Coordinating minister for the economy: Sofyan Djalil
• Finance minister: Bambang Brodjonegoro
• Minister of state-owned enterprises: Rini M. Soemarno
• Minister of cooperatives and small and medium enterprises: Anak Agung Gede Ngurah Puspayoga
• Minister of industry:  Saleh Husi
• Minister of trade: Rahmat Gobel
• Minister of agriculture: Amran Sulaiman
• Minister of manpower: Hanif Dhakiri
• Minister of public works and housing: Basuki Hadimuljono
• Minister of forestry and environment: Siti Nurbaja
• Coordinating minister of human development and culture: Puan Maharani
• Minister of religion: Lukman Hakim Saifuddin
• Minister of health: Nila F. Moeloek
• Minister of social affairs: Khofifah Indar Parawansa
• Minister of women’s empowerment and child protection: Yohana S. Yambise
• Minister of primary and secondary education and culture: Anies Baswedan
• Minister of research and technology and higher education: M. Nasir
• Minister of sports and youth affairs: Imam Nahrawi
• Minister of development of villages and underdeveloped regions and transmigration: Marwan Jafar

Related Article:

Indonesia’s New Ministers: Who Are They?

Constitutional Court Rejects Judicial Review of Regional Elections Law

Jakarta Globe, Adelia Anjani Putri & Camelia Pasandaran, Oct 24, 2014

An image of Indonesia's Constitutional Court in session. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)

Jakarta. The Constitutional Court rejected on Thursday a judicial review of the controversial regional elections law on account of a presidential decree rushed out by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“The court doesn’t consider the legal standing of the application and the request for review,” Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said, as quoted by the state-run Antara news agency.

The judicial review was filed by several applicants, including human rights group Imparsial, against a law passed in September by the House of Representatives (DPR) ending direct elections for mayors, district heads and provincial governors. Local leaders would instead be appointed by the Regional Representatives Council (DPRD), ending people’s right to choose officials who wield sweeping powers over large budgets conferred by Indonesia’s highly decentralized political system.

The passing of the law was seen by many as an affront to democracy engineered by losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and his most senior backers in the Red-White Coalition — the bloc of parties that control the majority in the House.

The judicial review of the regional elections law was applied after Yudhoyono issued a presidential decree known in Indonesia by its acronym, Perppu.

Constitutional Court Justice Patrialias Akbar said the Perppu had invalidated the law, and that there were therefore no grounds for a review of a law that no longer existed. The Perppu remains a temporary measure to buy time.

It was issued in desperation by Yudhoyono after his Democratic Party walked out of the House session — in so doing handing victory to Prabowo’s Red-White coalition. But the House will have an opportunity to vote down the Perppu, reinstating the removal of direct elections for regional heads in an example of the complexities of Indonesian law.

Article 205 of the Perppu Pilkada states that “After this Perppu comes into effect, 2014 Law No 22 [the Regional Elections Law] is revoked and no longer valid.”

The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, Wahyudi Djafar, told the Jakarta Globe that he knew the application for judicial review was dead in the water all along because of the existence of the Perppu, but that the collective behind the court application felt they had no option but to proceed anyway.

“We are aware that the legal objective was non-existent,” he said. “However we had no choice but to proceed with the judicial review appeal and let the justices reject it —something that we already knew would happen.

“We could not retract the appeal because it would mean that we might seem to have second thoughts about our actions and the reasons behind them, hence our legal standing would be lost.

“By letting the court reject the appeal, we maintain our right … if we want to file another judicial review —which we will if the House decides to [overrule the Perppu].”

A constitutional law expert at the University of Indonesia agreed that there was no legal impasse to filing a second judicial review.

“Should the House decide to take down the presidential regulation and revive the local election law, anyone can go to the Constitutional Court and file a new judicial review,” Irman Putra Sidin told the Globe.

Refly Harun, another legal expert, said that President Joko Widodo could issue another presidential decree to replace Yudhoyono’s — should that be voted down by the House.

Prabowo’s Red-White Coalition has defied consensus opinion that it would have disintegrated by now. Most financial analysts, journalists and university academics had predicted some of Prabowo’s coalition parties would have jumped ship to Joko’s camp once the reality of being out of power had sunk in.

That scenario has not been realized, however, and the outlook for direct local elections in the world’s fourth-largest democracy remains uncertain, with more political horse trading and legal wrangling to come.

Wahyudi, the lawyer at the helm of the plaintiffs’ judicial review, said he would play the waiting game to see whether the House voted to reinstate the law, which, in the Globe’s Sep. 26 editorial, was described as having “in one fell swoop thrown the country’s democratic system back into the dark ages of the New Order regime.”

“For now, we’re waiting on the House’s political choice,” Wahyudi told the Globe on Friday. “This is not about legal form — it’s about protecting our right to vote.”

Indonesia’s Pension Funds Seen Rising 20% This Year

Jakarta Globe, Thomas E Harefa, Oct 21, 2014

An employee of the Indonesia Stock Exchange takes a nap while others work in
 Jakarta on July 10, 2014, when stocks closed at the highest since May 2013.
 (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s Financial Institution Pension Fund Association, or ADPLK, estimates that pension funds under management at its 23 members will rise 20 percent by the end of this year.

The target is based on a new government policy that allows companies to invest in a reserve for an employee’s severance payment through a pension fund, said ADPLK chairman Nur Hasan Kurniawan on Monday.

The funds of 23 ADPLK members increased to Rp 31 trillion ($2.6 billion) at the end of the first half of this year, from Rp 29 trillion at the end of last year, Nur Hasan said, adding that the amount of funds accounted for 18 percent of the total of Rp 174 trillion in the country’s pension funds.

In Indonesia, a financial institution pension fund is a third-party financial service that manages pension funds for customers, as opposed to an employer’s pension fund, in which the employer or company manages the funds for their employees.

Lack of knowledge has led the majority of Indonesians to underestimate their pension spending.

Only 3.5 million employees out of 63 million workers in the formal sector have pensions fund, either from financial institutions or their employers, ADPLK data showed.

Investor Daily

Indonesian Financial Markets Rise as President Jokowi Takes Over

Stocks, bonds and rupiah advance

Jakarta Globe, Dion Bisara, Oct 20, 2014

President Joko Widodo is sworn in during his presidential inauguration at the House
of Representatives building in Jakarta on Monday. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)

Jakarta. Indonesian financial markets rose on Monday, as Joko Widodo became the country’s seventh president, lifting optimism that he will guide the nation toward improving the economy and the public’s livelihood through reforms such as reducing costs on fuel subsidies.

The Jakarta Composite Index rose 49.72, or 1 percent, to 5,078.67 as of 11:30 a.m.

The rupiah rose 0.5 percent against the dollar to 12,048, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield on the 10-year government note slipped to 8.070 percent from 8.210 percent on Friday, Bloomberg data show. Yields move inversely to price, indicating that Indonesian bond prices were higher.

Investors are eagerly waiting for clues on the make-up of his new cabinet and fuel subsidy policy, which are viewed as crucial to Joko’s commitment to improve the country’s economy.

“Jokowi’s first task is to announce his cabinet,” DBS Bank said in a note to clients on Monday. “It has been widely anticipated that technocrats will dominate the key economic portfolios, but markets will also look at the cabinet appointments for any cues of political bargaining.”

Next on the agenda is the long-awaited subsidized fuel price increase, said Lana Soelistianingsih, economist at Samuel Sekuritas. “Joko needs to increase the subsidized fuel price so that he will have funds to finance more productive programs.”

DBS said that the move will help to save about $15 billion from the 2015 state budget and will help to narrow the country’s current account deficit.

DBS, though, warns that Joko needs to maintain close coordination with Bank Indonesia, the central bank, in implementing policy in order to avoid shocks to financial markets.

“We believe that maintaining financial market stability is crucial for longer-term growth potential in GDP [gross domestic product], especially noting the adverse impact from a weak rupiah on investment growth since last year,” DBS said.

Joko, citing the Constitution at the legislative building, reminded that the country is still a long way in achieving its goals in protecting its people, improving their prosperity, developing the nation’s intellectual capacity, and contributing to a world order based on freedom, lasting peace and social justice.

“We can bear this heavy historical burden together, with unity, cooperation with each other, and hard work,” the president said.

Joko also promised to make the bureaucrats work so that all remote parts of the country “can enjoy government service.”

The president also said that he will build Indonesia from its seas, in an attempt to return the country to its maritime glory.

“We have too long been neglecting our oceans, seas, straits and bays,” Joko said.

KPK Said to Vet Jokowi’s Ministers

Jakarta Globe, Oct 17, 2014

KPK spokesman Johan Budi at its Jakarta headquarters on Sept. 25, 2014.
(Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)

Jakarta. Three days before he is scheduled to be inaugurated, President-elect Joko Widodo appeared to have made a final decision on his upcoming cabinet lineup on Friday.

Two members of Joko’s transition team arrived to the headquarters of the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, at 1:30 p.m. on Friday carrying a bundle of documents.

“We don’t know exactly the content of the documents. But yes, the documents contain the names of [Joko’s] ministers,” Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Hasto Kristiyanto, a member of the transition team, told reporters.

He declined to elaborate.

KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas had requested that Joko or his transition team forward the names of ministerial candidates “immediately” so the commission could carry out background checks.

Busyro said vetting would not take long.

“We already have the data. It’s only going to take a day,” he said.

Joko previously said there would be 34 ministries in his cabinet, led by a mix of technocrats and politicians. The ministers will be overseen by four coordinating ministers.

A source close to the incoming president said that Joko, who is set to be inaugurated as Indonesia’s seventh president on Monday, plans to create a new post of coordinating minister for maritime affairs and the environment, as part of his push to develop Indonesia’s rich maritime potential.

Two of the posts will remain the same: the office of the coordinating minister for political legal and security affairs, and the office of the coordinating minister for the economy.

The existing office of the coordinating minister for people’s welfare, meanwhile, will be replaced with an office of the coordinating minister for human development and social and cultural affairs, the source continued.

Transition team member Andi Widjajanto confirmed that Joko wanted to pay more attention to maritime affairs.

“This is part of his presidential campaign; building Indonesia into the world’s maritime axis,” he said.

The new minister is tasked with increasing fishing production and building solid maritime infrastructure.

With the names submitted, Joko did not disclose further details about the makeup from his four-party coalition.

Earlier, Joko’s team had been in talks with opposition parties in a bid to lure them to switch sides.

Joko on Wednesday met with Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie and on Friday with losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra). Both opposition leaders said they would support Joko’s leadership but maintained that they would stay in the opposition.

Joko will meet outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the chairman of the Democratic Party, today. The United Development Party, or PPP, appears to be the only party likely to join Joko’s Awesome Indonesia coalition (KIH).

Jokowi Makes Time’s Front Cover in ‘A New Hope’

Jakarta Globe, Oct 16, 2014

 (Photo courtesy of Time)

Jakarta. Man of the Year?

Not exactly. But President-elect Joko Widodo made Time’s cover in the Oct. 27 issue, which was posted on the magazine’s website on Thursday.

Titled “A New Hope” by journalist Hannah Beech, Time’s coverage highlights the importance of progress in Indonesia’s democratic movement in the world’s fourth most populous nation.

Joko’s inauguration as the nation’s seventh president takes place on Monday, and he succeeds President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose second five-year term will end.

All presidents of Indonesia have made the cover of Time.

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Joko Bids Farewell to Jakarta Govt, Promises to Continue Working for City

Mark Zuckerberg: Internet as an Economic Driver

Jakarta Globe, Vanesha Manuturi, Oct 13, 2014

Getting more of the population in Indonesia and businesses on the Internet is one
 of the biggest levers the government has [for growth] Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder
and CEO of Facebook said in Jakarta. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. Boosting Internet connectivity in Indonesia is a key component of the country’s quest for higher economic growth, Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said during his visit to Jakarta on Monday.

“There’s a lot of studies and research that show businesses that are connected to the Internet grow twice as quickly as the ones that aren’t, in terms of using it to communicate with users,” Zuckerberg told reporters in Jakarta.

The entrepreneur, worth an estimated $32.2 billion, was in town to promote greater Internet connectivity in Indonesia through Internet.org, a global non-profit initiative run by Facebook and five other large global technology companies.

He also met with President-elect Joko Widodo on Monday to discuss the issue.

“Getting more of the population in Indonesia and businesses on the Internet is one of the biggest levers the government has to grow the economy and it’s one of the biggest ways for Facebook to help with the economy in Indonesia,” said Zuckerberg, famous for starting Facebook in 2004 in his college dorm room and building it into one of the biggest technology companies in the world.

In a press conference at the Four Seasons hotel, Zuckerberg said he wanted to connect the world to the Internet.

“We’ve invested in building satellites and solar-powered planes to beam down Internet, and that’s some of the challenges we plan to work with the government and the telecom operators,” he said.

“We can’t do any of this by ourselves. We have to work with not only government but also telecom providers, entrepreneurs [and] service providers. We’re a pretty small part of it. We’re just trying to help organize it,” he said.

Indonesia is important market for Facebook. According to a June 27 report from the Wall Street Journal’s tech and news analysis portal wsj.d, Facobook had some 69 million monthly active users in Indonesia.

The wsj.d quoted Anand Tilak, Facebook’s Indonesia country manager, who said that figure represented a 6 percent rise from the 65 million users six months ago.

No official country ranking has been provided by Facebook, but studies from research companies often state that Indonesia ranks fourth, after the United States, India and Brazil, for Facebook users.

On Monday, Facebook announced a cooperation with XL Axiata, the country’s second-biggest mobile carrier, as a local partner for its Internet.org initiative.

Jakarta-based XL Axiata has some 69.2 million subscribers, half of them being data service subscribers.

Under the partnership, Facebook and XL, along with telecommunication infrastructure provider Ericsson Indonesia, will encourage Indonesia’s smartphone application developers to optimize the data usage of their apps.

Optimizing the apps, according to Facebook’s Zuckerberg, will decrease data consumption. That in turn will allow more affordable data services for Indonesian Internet subscribers. Increasing bandwidth was not brought up.

Indonesia had 82 million Internet users, as of the end of May this year, according to data from the Communications and Information Technology Ministry.

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Jokowi Meets with Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, right, accompanied by President-Elect
Joko Widodo talks to journalists after their meeting in Jakarta, on Monday. (EPA
Photo/Adi Weda)

US Reduces Indonesian Debt in Exchange for Wildlife Protection

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Oct 04, 2014

A pangolin is held in a private zoo on the outskirts of Kandang town in Aceh, Sumatra,
 where animals are displayed for visitors and buyers on on June 9, 2013. (AFP Photo/
Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program/Paul Hilton)

The United States has struck a deal to reduce Indonesia’s debts in exchange for Jakarta pledging about $12 million for programs to protect endangered species and their habitats on Sumatra island, conservationists said Friday.

The move adds to a similar agreement in 2009, under which the Indonesian government pledged $30 million for increased protection of Sumatra’s forests, said NGO Conservation International, which helped broker the deal.

The agreement, which was inked this week, will provide additional funds for environmental groups to improve programmes aimed at protecting the Sumatran low-land rainforests as well as efforts to increase populations of threatened animals.

The forests of Sumatra, a huge island in western Indonesia, are one of the most biodiverse places on the planet and are home to critically endangered Sumatran rhinos and tigers.

“The debt-for-nature swap will benefit critical ecosystems in Sumatra through increasing conservation efforts,” Conservation International said in a statement.

“The United States is proud to partner with the government of Indonesia and the NGO sector to help protect and preserve the diverse wildlife that exists on Sumatra,” said Kristen Bauer, charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Jakarta.

Under the agreement, the Indonesian government will pay about $12 million over seven years into a trust that will issue grants for the conservation efforts, Conservation International said.

The US government contributed most of the money for the debt swap, while Conservation International also gave some.

Agence France-Presse

SBY Signs Presidential Decree to Replace Regional Elections Law

Jakarta Globe, SP/Novianti Setuningsih, Oct 03, 2014

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,left, is accompanied by Vice President Boediono
as he signs a special presidential order late on Thursday in an attempt to cancel out the
much-criticized regional elections law, which was passed last week by the House
 of Representatives. (Rumgapres Photo/Abror Rizki)

Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a special presidential order late on Thursday in an attempt to cancel out the much-criticized regional elections law, which was passed last week by the House of Representatives.

Deputy Justice and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana said the president signed the regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on Thursday.

“President Yudhoyono wants the regional elections to be better than the previous one and therefore the substance of this Perppu is the answer to all the criticism … that has been voiced by many people,” Denny said on Friday.

Denny said the Perppu canceled out the regional elections law, which removed direct elections for mayors, district heads and governors and placed their appointment in the hands of regional legislative councils.

The law was criticized as a major step back for Indonesian democracy, but it was unclear on Friday whether the Perppu would stand because the House could still veto the president’s last-minute intervention.

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KPK Launches Theme Park-Style Anti-Graft Mobile App

Jakarta Globe, Novi Setuningsih, Oct 01, 2014

Screen shot from KPK’s new launched anti-gratification mobile application GRATis
taken from Apple AppStore. (Courtesy of Apple)

Jakarta. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has launched a mobile app to raise public awareness about the pitfalls of corruption. Enter the virtual “Taman Gratifikasi” to clear up any confusion about what is and is not an appropriate gift to give a public official for services rendered.

GRATis, which stands for Gratifikasi: Informasi dan Sosialisasi (Gratification: Information and Socialization), is intended as a soft approach to inform the Indonesian public about the rules and regulations surrounding public officials receiving gits.

“Gratification is a door toward greater corruption,” KPK Deputy Chairman Zulkarnain said at GRATIs launch on Wednesday. “Receiving gratification might lead to wider corruption.”

The app provides details of favors and “thank you” gifts that are proscribed for government officials.

The information is illustrated through a virtual park with different shop fronts, each providing an explanation on things such as laws and regulations, case studies and “Our Roles”. The obligatory mobile games are also a feature of the app.

GRATis can be downloaded from Google Play Store and IOS App Store with the key words “KPK”, “GRATis”, or “Gratifikasi”.