Jakarta. Administrators of Islamic websites blocked by the government last week over alleged extremist content are planning to file suit against the National Counterterrorism Agency and Communications and Information Technology Ministry.

“We can use defamation articles in the Criminal Code because our websites are ideological, so the impact [of the ban] is wide,” Mahladi, editor-in-chief of Hidayatullah.com, said during a public forum organized by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) in Jakarta on Sunday.

Hidayatullah.com is among 19 websites blocked briefly by the Communications Ministry last week for allegedly spreading radical Islamist ideologies. Others include Arrahmah.com, Voa-islam.com, Dakwatuna.com, Aqlislamiccenter.com, Eramuslim.com, Kiblat.net and Daulahislam.com.

A majority were back up on Wednesday following a wave of protests accusing the policy of being “Islamophobic.”

The ministry claimed it had formulated its list of potentially harmful extremist  websites based on recommendations from the National Counterterrorism Agency, or BNPT.

“Our website is still blocked. If only a few of our articles are considered inappropriate, [the ministry] can ask us to remove them; we’re willing to do that,” Mahladi said as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

BNPT chief Saud Usman conceded these websites did not consist entirely of radical Islamist sentiments, but they did contain posts that incited violence against supposed “enemies” of Islam.

Yoseph Adi Prasetyo, head of the Press Council’s legal commission, further argued that many of the sites’ supposed news articles lacked reliable source and its writers could therefore not be considered members of the press.

The Press Council has refused to support them.

Several “chief editors” have contacted their lawyers to decide on what charges they could file against both the Communications Ministry and BNPT, deciding ultimately on defamation, Mahladi said.

He added the legal charges would be in the form of a civic lawsuit, and would be filed to both the regular district court and the state administrative court.

Speaking at the same forum on Sunday, Saud defended the government’s move to ban the 19 sites, saying: “As a Muslim myself, it is sad that I have to block some Islamic websites.

“But the list I gave the ministry include sites that contain potentially dangerous  content, promoting racism or terrorism.”

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Jakarta. President Joko Widodo is expected to discuss the canceled nomination of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as National Police chief in a meeting with senior lawmakers scheduled for Monday.

Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo on Sunday confirmed that he, chief security minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly and State Secretary Pratikno would be in attendance, along with House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto and his four deputies.

The meeting will discuss the controversy surrounding the canceled nomination of Budi as police chief after he was named a bribery suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in January, according to Trimedya Pandjaitan, deputy head of the House’s Commission III, overseeing legal affairs.

Joko settled on Budi as his sole candidate for National Police chief despite a red flag on his personal financial reports issued by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, or PPATK, in 2010.

Lawmakers approved the president’s decision a day after the KPK officially declared Budi a graft suspect.

Joko finally withdrew his nomination following a mounting public outcry, a move lawmakers considered a deviation from the House’s orders.

Meanwhile, police dug up cold cases against all four KPK commissioners and dozens of investigators.

The sudden onslaught of cases, some of them a decade old and all leveled on dubious grounds, raised accusations of a retaliation by the police.

Trimedya, a senior politician with Joko’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, sees the meeting as a progressive step forward in the matter, saying: “Joko is ready to meet and consult with [lawmakers] to discuss these issues.

“He must remember that as president, it is his duty to maintain a smooth avenue of communication within the government,” he added.

Today’s meeting will be Joko’s first audience with lawmakers since his inauguration in October last year.

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Jakarta. Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, will impose export levies to fund biodiesel subsidies, replanting, research and development.

Shippers will pay a levy of $50 a metric ton for palm oil and $30 for processed products starting this month, Sofyan Djalil, the coordinating minister for the economy, said in Jakarta on Saturday.

The government will keep the threshold for application of a separate export tax at $750 a ton, Sofyan said.

Indonesia has promoted biofuel use to help absorb rising supplies of the world’s most-traded cooking oil and to cut carbon emissions.

The country boosted the mandated amount of palm blending in diesel to 10 percent from 7.5 percent in 2013, and ordered power plants to mix 20 percent in 2014.

The biodiesel subsidy was raised in February to Rp 4,000 (31 cents) a liter from Rp 1,500 and the mandated blending for diesel will be increased to 15 percent in April.

“The funds will be used to compensate the price differences between the regular diesel and biodiesel,” Sofyan told reporters, referring to proceeds from the levy.

“It will also be used to help replanting, research and development and human resources development related to palm oil industry.”

The levy will be paid even when the export tax is at zero and will be “taken from export tax proceeds when prices are above $750,” Sofyan said on March 20.

The government sets the tax monthly, based on average prices in Jakarta, Rotterdam and Kuala Lumpur.

Crude palm oil shipments attract no tax if the average is $750 or less over four weeks, with rates at 7.5 percent to 22.5 percent at higher prices.

Palm oil futures in Kuala Lumpur have fallen 18 percent in the past year as a collapse in petroleum costs cut the appeal of cooking oils as biofuel.

Global supplies of soybeans, used to make an alternative oil, expanded to an all-time high. Futures retreated 6.1 percent in March, the most since August, as soybeans and soybean oil dropped on expectations of record planting intentions in the United States.

Ivy Ng, an analyst at CIMB Investment Bank in Kuala Lumpur, said the decision might hurt Indonesian producers in the short term as domestic prices could decline.

“Local prices of crude palm oil will fall by close to $50 per ton while processed palm oil in local market will fall by $30 per ton,” Ng said on Saturday.

“In three to six months’ time if the biodiesel program becomes really successful then prices may recover.”

Indonesia has maintained zero tax on most palm oil shipments for seven months through April because the reference price stayed below the $750 threshold, the Trade Ministry said on March 30.

The government decree regarding the new levy is expected to be signed today or Tuesday and the ruling will become effective upon signing, Sofyan said.

Bloomberg

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Karawang, West Java. The government has scrapped plans to develop a Rp 34.5 trillion ($2.66 billion) Cilamaya deep sea port project in West Java on worries it may disrupt the offshore oil and gas production of a block owned by state energy company Pertamina.

“Pushing ahead with the [Cilamaya] project may prove to be dangerous,” Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in Karawang district after an aerial tour of the proposed location.

“There’s a high likelihood that ships can hit rigs — it’s just far too risky. As in oil and gas facilities, safety must be the primary concern when building a port.”

He added the government would relocate the planned port elsewhere. Subang and Indramayu districts, also in West Java, are among the possible candidates.

The Cilamaya site is located a short distance from an oil and gas block operated by Pertamina Hulu Energi Offshore North West Java (PHE ONJW).

The Cilamaya area supports a multitude of projects, according to PHE acting president director Bambang Kardono.

Oil production at the PHE block stands at about 40,000 barrels and 180 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, Bambang added.

The current output is just 50 percent of the block’s full capacity.

Once the block reaches full production capacity, it is expected to generate up to Rp 21 trillion worth of oil and gas.

The company is now seeking to renew its contract of work with the government, which will expire in 2017.

The Cilamaya deep sea port project was initially meant to help ease the burden on the overloaded Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta.

The plan had been continuously postponed since 2010.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan previously said foreign investors would contribute 49 percent of the funds to complete the project.

Investor Daily

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Jakarta. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has joined hands with state lender Bank Negara Indonesia, in staging Garuda Indonesia Travel Fair 2015.

The two-day travel fair, which ran from Friday through Sunday, was expected to attract at least 120,000 visitors and rack up sales of up to Rp 245 billion ($18.9 million).

“GATF is a one-stop shopping fair [for travellers]. In addition to selling flight tickets, it also offered other holiday-related services, including accommodation and tour packages,” Garuda commercial director Handayani said in a press release on Friday.

The travel fair was held simultaneously in nine cities, namely Jakarta; Bandung, West Java; Yogyakarta; Solo, Central Java; Makassar, South Sulawesi; Surabaya, East Java; Pontianak, West Kalimantan; Semarang, Central Java; and Balikpapan in East Kalimantan.

GATF is scheduled to arrive at eight more cities in April 10-12, including Denpasar, Bali; Medan, North Sumatra; and Jayapura, Papua.

Garuda hopes the fair will help boost domestic tourism, Handayani said.

Investor Daily

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Jakarta. Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Thursday evening inaugurated Bahlil Lahadalia as chairman of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association, or Hipmi, in a ceremony held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, South Jakarta.

The evening also saw Kalla swear in members of Hipmi’s executive board for the 2015-2018 period.

The association, founded in 1972 by Indonesian businessman Abdul Latif, is known for producing a series of prominent entrepreneurs who have gone on to build a political career.

A former Himpi member himself, Kalla vowed that the government would give local entrepreneurs priority in developing infrastructure projects across the country.

Bahlil was voted in by Hipmi members in February and will be the association’s first chairman to come from Papua.

He takes the reigns from Raja Sapta Oktohari, son of OSO Group founder Oesman Sapta Odang.

GlobeAsia

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Jakarta. When former television news presenter Grace Natalie unveiled her fledgling political party last month, she emphasized that its executive members would all be young Indonesians, building on what some have seized on as a changing of the guard in Indonesia’s ossified political scene.

It’s a noble sentiment, political analysts say, motivated in large part by the meteoric rise of Joko Widodo from small-town mayor to president of the republic — but it ignores the hard reality that political power remains concentrated in the hands of a long-entrenched and self-serving elite.

“My name is Grace and I am the chairwoman of the PSI,” the 32-year-old former TVOne presenter said last week, referring to her newly founded Indonesian Solidarity Party. “I’m a woman, young, a non-Muslim and also [ethnic] Chinese.”

It was a bold introduction and a welcome one for a political landscape devoid of new faces and ideas, says Arbi Sanit, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia.

“The youth must join politics to fix and change the old style of Indonesian politics, such as the practice of horse trading, which has been a political tradition here for years,” Arbi tells the Jakarta Globe.

“Throughout Indonesia’s political history, big movements were always started by the mobilization of the young. Who knows, perhaps the youths can also bring changes to politics today?”

Arbi says contemporary Indonesian politics has evolved to serve solely as a haven for those seeking to gain power for their own interests, without any concern for those they are supposed to serve, namely the people.

“Our politics has long been corrupted with greed for power. Everybody prioritizes their own interests, while very few display any interest in doing good for the people’s sake. Now is the time for a change and hopefully it can be brought by the youths,” Arbi says.

Yunarto Wijaya, the executive director of the think tank Charta Politika, similarly applauds the launch of the PSI, calling it an act of bravery.

“This is a new breakthrough in Indonesia’s party system. Founding a new party, amid the dominion of the political oligarchy, requires great bravery,” he says.

He argues that parties founded by young people have a better chance of snaring the youth vote — which is last year’s elections accounted for four in every 10 votes.

Aleksius Jemadu, a political scientist at Pelita Harapan University, says a new party like the PSI is always welcome, as long as it can convince the people to abandon the more traditional politics practiced by established parties. He says young politicians must revive the idealism and ideology of their predecessors.

“They must strive for change, they must continue the legacy left behind by [youth who were instrumental in] the 1998 reform, so that this country can continue to transform for good — be it in the social, economic, human rights or political aspects,” Aleksius says.

‘The youth were asleep’

But whatever hope for change a party like the PSI promises must be tempered by the reality that it needs the patronage of the old guard to even get a foot in the door, Arbi says.

Grace herself, in announcing her new party, cited the support of Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah — Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organizations, which, though avowedly apolitical, are nevertheless hugely influential at the ballot box and the springboard into politics for many of today’s national-level players.

If it fails in its lofty goal of attracting the brightest of the country’s youths into its folds, it will be seen at best as no different from the other parties, and at worst as less credible than the others, given its lack of experience, Arbi says.

“It will become simply an object of amusement,” he adds.

He says that even if it exhibits the fighting spirit to bring change to Indonesia’s politics, it still needs an ideology that it can strongly and transparently align with.

“If they have that, the youth can fix our politics by implementing ethics in politics, ensuring fair representation based on region and gender,” he says.

Arbi notes that this is not the first time a political party has been established in Indonesia with the promise of a younger generation of idealists as its main selling point.

In 1996, the People’s Democratic Party (PRD) was founded from the university student movement against the authoritarian New Order regime. The party was chaired by Budiman Sudjatmiko, now a politician with the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P.

At its height, the PRD won less than a tenth of a percent of votes in the 1999 legislative elections; it did not feature in last year’s polls.

Arbi says the problem with setting up a youth-based party today is that ideology is not as much of a rallying point for young Indonesians as it once was.

“Intellectually, there’s a big difference between today’s youth and those in the past. In the past, Indonesia’s youth weren’t materialistic. The middle-class youth used to be idealistic, with a clear ideology. They had something to fight against, which was the New Order regime,” Arbi says.

“Today’s middle-class youth have money and are business players. They have a different lifestyle; a metropolitan lifestyle that’s led to them losing their appetite for reform.

“They tend to enjoy the luxury lifestyle that’s been given them, without being aware of the growing socioeconomic gap in the country.

“This is why former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono survived his 10 years in the presidency — the youth were asleep.”

Graveyard of ideals

Yudhoyono’s political vehicle, the Democratic Party, was, like the PSI, an upstart that promised change through political regeneration.

Among its brightest members were Anas Urbaningrum, who served on the committee that drafted the first post-New Order political reforms in 1998, and Andi Mallarangeng, a former poll commissioner who oversaw the first free legislative ballot in 1999.

Both Anas and Andi are now in prison for corruption. Their party, whose antigraft rhetoric helped propel Yudhoyono to a landslide re-election win in 2009, took a drubbing in 2014 and is now widely seen as having joined the list of established parties with little concern for the public interest.

In winning the presidency last year, Joko, like Yudhoyono before him, appeared to usher in a new political era free of any ties to the New Order past.

But he only ran after getting the blessing of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, the chairwoman of the PDI-P.

Megawati also dictated the choice of a running mate for Joko, who reportedly wanted a younger person. Instead, the PDI-P paired him with the 72-year-old Jusuf Kalla, a Golkar Party stalwart who served as vice president during Yudhoyono’s first term.

Although Megawati was once seen as a reform leader in her own right, with her party’s victory in the 1999 election marking the birth of Indonesia’s new political era — one free of the control of Suharto and his political machine — her brief presidency was marked by allegations of “legendary corruption,” according to a leaked US diplomatic cable, and her 16-year stranglehold on the PDI-P leadership has been blighted by a singular lack of political regeneration.

Edited by Hayat Indriyatno

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