Jakarta. Britain is seeking to offer its maritime, defense and space technology during British Prime Minister David Cameron’s official visit to Jakarta scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

Indonesia kick starts Cameron’s first tour of Asia since his re-election in May.

“That is a very very important statement on our part. That is a deliberate choice. Because we believe Indonesia will be a key partner in the future. We believe Indonesia is one of those countries alongside India and China that will shape the Asian economy and the world’s economy for the 21^st century,” Moazzam Malik, Britain’s Ambassador to Indonesia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Timor Leste, said in Jakarta on Sunday.

The British prime minister is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Monday and meet with President Joko Widodo in the afternoon.

Forging collaborations in the maritime sector will be among Britain’s primary focus during Cameron’s two-day visit to the capital, Malik said.

He assured that the European nation’s vast experience in developing maritime infrastructure would be a compatible fit to Joko’s ambitious plans to transform Indonesia into a global maritime fulcrum.

“President Jokowi has been giving signals that he wishes to see Indonesia emerge as a maritime nation,” Malik said. “The UK has a great deal of experience as an island nation ourselves and we are ready to share our maritime experience.”

Cameron will also be seeking to develop a maritime defense partnership with Indonesia following a “successful” meeting between British and Indonesian navy officials conducted in London last week.

“We agreed on measures to take it forward, and certainly again the UK has a fantastic defense industry [and] technology in the navy sector … Maritime defense is one of the areas that we want to cooperate [on],” Malik said.

In addition to proposing partnerships between the two nation’s defense and maritime sectors, the prime minister will also use this visit to offer Britain’s expertise in space technology, which could not only support the archipelago’s maritime defenses but also help “tackle illegal fishing, deforestation and climate change-related risks.”

The ambassador cited El Nino as an example, suggesting Indonesia could better prepare itself against the extreme weather phenomenon by tapping into satellite technology. El Nino is expected to hit the archipelago between July and November, bringing severe droughts along with it, threatening harvests and food security.

“This [space technology] is a scenario that will be an important area of our future cooperation,” Malik said.

He further offered Britain’s knowledge of utilizing public-private partnerships to support Indonesia’s infrastructure developments, saying the UK had implemented PPP schemes on a wide array of projects.

“We also have some of the world’s finest design and engineering [companies]. And the UK is ready to share that experience [with Indonesia],” Malik said.

Separately, the executive director of the Indonesian Center for Democracy Diplomacy and Defense Teuku Rezasyah commented that Cameron’s visit to Jakarta was prompted by Britain’s slowing economy and the investment opportunities Indonesia had to offer with Joko’s ambitious infrastructure plans.

“It looks like Britain doesn’t want to be defeated by its competitors such as Japan and China, which are currently competing for a multi-billion dollar railway development project in Indonesia,” Rezasyah told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

He agreed that Britain’s advanced maritime expertise, particularly in defense, might have the most appeal to Indonesia, citing the archipelago’s aging marine radars and expired Exocet missiles as examples of what Indonesia needed to improve in its maritime defense system.

“Britain is very good in radar technology, and also at synergizing military and civilian radars,” Rezasyah said.

“It’s good that developed countries have responded to the president’s calls for foreign investment. Each [country] has its own strengths, so we have a wide selection of services to choose from,” he added.

Britain is currently the fifth largest foreign investor in Indonesia.

Malik said the country was looking to “maintain that record and build on it.”

Cameron is also scheduled to attend a business forum with the Indonesian business community during his two-day visit to Jakarta.

The prime minister will be accompanied by his trade, energy and economic ministers, as well as 30 British business leaders representing top global brands, including Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Surrey Satellite Technology, the Weir Group and the UK Higher Education International Unit.

On the joint fight against Islamic State and extremism

Malik said establishing cooperation to tackle terrorism and religious extremism, especially with the emergence of the extremist group Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, was also high on the agenda.

“[IS] is a common enemy for Indonesia and for the UK, and for many others around the world. And we’re looking to see how we can cooperate with Indonesia and try to keep the risks of extremism and terrorism at bay,” the ambassador said.

Authorities estimate that approximately 500 Indonesian nationals have left for Syria and Iraq to join the IS.

In Britain, where the Muslim population is much smaller, the figure is slightly higher, according to Malik, although he stopped short of naming an exact number.

“So we have come to see how Indonesia is succeeding in keeping extremism at bay,” he said.

Cameron is scheduled to meet with Indonesia’s religious leaders to learn about their experience in dealing with extremism.

“Our prime minister and his delegation will be keen to learn from Indonesia’s strong record in maintaining tolerance. We’ll be keen to see how we can benefit from that experience. And we will be keen to encourage Indonesia to share that experience to a wider audience,” Malik said.

Rezasyah commented that Britain might want to learn from Indonesia about its soft approach in dealing with extremism and terrorism.

“Our method [of tackling terrorism] is different with that of Britain and the United States. They will annihilate even the smallest threat,” Rezasyah said. “As for us, our approach is to deal with the root cause of the problems, namely stupidity, poverty and extraordinary indoctrination from abroad.”

“Terrorism is also a form of criticism toward the world’s helplessness in dealing with the crises in the Middle East, the abnormal collapse of its regimes, and the United States’ involvements [in those crises],” he added.

Finally, the British PM will take steps toward strengthening his nation’s ties with the Asean by meeting with the Asean secretary general at the Asean secretariat in Jakarta.

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Nusa Dua, Bali. China is making clearer its intention of engaging Southeast Asia to support its ambitious plans to revive the ancient Silk Road commerce routes, but observers in Jakarta remind Indonesia — which has expressed interest in China’s new initiative — to exercise caution.

The joint “Belt and Road” development is the topic of a forum in Nusa Dua, Bali, taking place on Sunday and Monday, which was attended by officials and community representatives from China and member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

China has been touting the phrase Belt and Road to promote its ambitious initiative of engaging other countries to jointly develop the so-called Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.

The former, land-based, will link China to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea through Central and West Asia, as well as to Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean.

The latter, meanwhile, will link China’s coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, as well as to the South Pacific.

The Chinese government has been actively promoting the initiative since it was first raised by President Xi Jinping when he toured Central Asia and Southeast Asia in late 2013.

Since then, Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang have visited over 20 countries, met with their leaders and attended many international forums to promote the development of the Belt and Road, according to information on the initiative published by China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

At the forum in Bali, China is seeking to persuade the Asean public to support the plans. Asean is central to the Maritime Silk Road initiative in particular, with the planned main route through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean bound to overlap with maritime territories of the member states.

Chinese Deputy Premier Liu Yandong on Sunday emphasized the need to “step up people-to-people cooperation” between China and Asean in order to bolster development in the respective regions and economic growth

“Civil society groups, think tanks, media agencies and business communities in China and Asean must step up cooperation … to embrace 21st-century opportunities offered by the Maritime Silk Road,” Liu said, via an English interpreter, in her keynote address during the opening session of the 2nd China-Southeast Asia High-Level People-to-People Dialogue in Nusa Dua.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who also addressed a keynote speech at the Bali forum, conveyed his full support for the Maritime Silk Road initiative, saying it is line with the spirit of the Asean Economic Community — set to come into full force at the end of the year — which will seek greater economic cooperation and interconnectivity in the region.

“I strongly encourage wider and deeper cooperation among countries along the Belt and Road … to connect people-to-people, and to promote peace and security, cooperation and shared prosperity among the countries. The Belt and Road will be for the benefit of all,” Sok said.

Asean Deputy Secretary-General A.K.P. Mochtan, an Indonesian technocrat and another keynote speaker in the forum, said China’s new initiatives should be seen in a positive light, “as complementing and enriching the region.”

He added China and Asean had been “strategic partners” for some time now, across a broad range of sectors — including trade, economy and investment, as well as tourism and education.

Cautious welcome

Retired Indonesian veteran diplomat and maritime law expert Hasyim Djalal said Indonesia could definitely benefit from China’s Maritime Silk Road initiative, more so now with President Joko Widodo’s ambitious vision to turn Indonesia into a “global maritime fulcrum.”

Since being inaugurated as the president of Indonesia in October last year, Joko has met three times with Xi, and has said that China’s Silk Road plans overlap with the archipelago’s need to boost interconnectivity between its sprawling islands. Joko has said he wants to build new sea ports and ocean highways to boost Indonesia’s interconnectivity.

Hasyim, though, warned Indonesia to remain cautious, raising the possibility that China may want to also use the Silk Road for military purposes.

“We must be careful about possible military aspects [of the plans]. We don’t want this to turn into some kind of a military penetration,” Hasyim said in a phone interview with the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

“As long as this remains about economy and trade, though, the initative will be useful and we can definitely benefit from it,” he added.

International relations and defense expert Bantarto Bandoro of the Indonesian Defense University, meanwhile, cautioned for a “hidden agenda” behind China’s Belt and Road plans, saying Indonesia and Asean should see them as part of China’s strategy to expand its influence in the region.

“This is part of China’s race with the United States for influence in the region. Indonesia should remain very alert about this,” Bantarto asserted.

He added, however, that he was skeptical China would be able to realize the initiative, given the current levels of tension it has with several Asean countries — especially Vietnam and the Philippines — concerning border disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea.

“As long as China still has to deal with the South China Sea issues with several Asean member states, I don’t think there will be a real prospect for [the silk road initiative] to be realized,” Bantarto said.

“And Indonesia should not allow itself to be used by China to persuade other Asean members to cooperate,” he added.

Further coverage:
Editorial

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Jakarta. Indonesia’s rate of deforestation makes the country one of the world’s major greenhouse gas emitters and a target work area for many international organizations.

Preferring to supply technical assistance and guidance rather than financial support, London-based Climate and Development Knowledge Network is one of the many organizations assisting Indonesia with its climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

CDKN’s chief executive Sam Bickersteth, however, thinks deforestation efforts in Indonesia have garnered a lot of attention already.

His organization therefore is mostly focusing on other areas that have largely been untapped — including renewable energy and climate finance.

Bickersteth sat with the Jakarta Globe last week during a brief visit to Jakarta to talk about these issues, including the upcoming United Nations’ climate change conference (COP) in Paris.

Q: Why is renewable energy one of your organization’s focus areas in Indonesia?

A: In case of Indonesia, clearly how forests and land use are managed is the biggest issue in the short and medium term. But that has received a lot of attention from a lot of international organizations. And our focus is being in a number of areas less related to that.

Energy is one issue. In smaller islands and remote areas, a large proportion of the population don’t have access to energy.

It seems to me that growing renewable energy — solar, geothermal and wind and other climate compatible sources of energy — is a huge opportunity for Indonesia, rather than relying on coal, which ultimately is not the long term solution for energy sources.

So we’ve been working with the Energy Ministry in trying to plan and create conditions for better investment in renewable energies.

I would highlight that in international media quite a lot of attention has been paid to the fuel subsidy reform in Indonesia, which has potentially huge and significant effects on emissions [and] more efficient use of fossil fuel.

We’re [also] doing some work around land use. Our third focus area is around what is called climate finance — attracting international and domestic finance to climate-related areas.

Indonesia was a pioneer in setting out a national climate change fund, the ICCTF [the Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund]. And we’ve been working with that unit.

Will Indonesia will be able to afford the technologies?
What is important about renewable energy is finance. It’s not really a question about technology actually; a lot of technology is available. It’s about access to the money to pay for it.

And I suspect the thing that is not in place in a number of countries is a financing mechanism, whether it’s public or private.

And ultimately the solution for climate change is going to come from private investors. [Existing] international climate funds in Indonesia [are expected] to catalyze the flow of private money into renewables.

How should the climate finance work?

In the United States and in Europe, the governments create tax incentives and [other policies]. But most of the finance is private finance, which comes from pension funds and private investors.

It’s a combination of sound government policy and incentives, plus public and private finance that will transform the energy scene in Indonesia.

So your banks — public and private — investment agencies, the bond market, the stock exchange; what are they doing about transition to low carbon? We need to talk to the right people.

Presently we talk to the ministry, we’re talking to NGOs, we’re talking to universities. We should be talking to the bankers and that’s a big shift that has to happen.

We have to communicate differently, we have to help them understand that it’s an opportunity, not a threat. That’s a huge opportunity to make that transition. The technologies are there and available, and often available at a better price.

But the point about renewables is all your costs are [paid] up-front. If you buy your coal, you’re paying as you go along and you get your income to match.

With renewables you have to build nearly all your investment at the front, and you wait for your payback. The only solution is a good banking arrangement, long term. Bankers have long-term visions. So I really think the constraint is often much more in the financial area rather than technology.

There remains skepticism about the next much-anticipated COP meeting in Paris. What do you think the result will be?

I think globally what the world needs is a fair and ambitious deal that keeps us within the safe limit of 2 degrees of additional warming on average across the globe — from historic [pre-industrial] level of global temperature.

It’s a very important meeting, the most important global climate change meeting since the one held in 2009 in Copenhagen [producing the Copenhagen Accord].

It is hugely complex, 190 countries are negotiating over a huge range of topics — from access to finance, technology, knowledge, support on adaptation.

The question is, will it provide a mechanism to push us to reach it over time? We’re not going to agree this December [in Paris] on how exactly we’ll get to meet global net carbon neutrality by the end of the century.

We need to globally meet carbon neutrality, which is an enormously large challenge. But it is achievable.

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Jakarta. Indonesia has achieved only half of the global target for early childhood education, while its rate of primary school enrollment has dropped and the number of primary school-aged children not in school has doubled since 2010.

These were among some of the key findings published last week in the Education for All global monitoring report from the United Nations education agency, or Unesco, based on 2012 data.

The report found that Indonesia had doubled the proportion of children receiving an early childhood, or pre-primary, education, from 24 percent in 2000 to 48 percent in 2012. But this was still far short of the indicative target of 80 percent set in the Education for All goals, launched in 2000.

Indonesia fared worse on this metric than Malaysia (70 percent), Vietnam (79 percent) and Brunei (92 percent).

The Education Ministry attributes the low early childhood education enrollment on the fact that the government only began seriously focusing on pre-primary learning in the final years of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration.

“But now we’ve been vigorously expanding the outreach of early childhood education,” Furqon, the head of the ministry’s research and development division, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.

“We now have the ‘one early childhood education center per village’ program, as well as the ‘early childhood education mother’ program,” he added.

The first program targets the opening of early childhood education centers in every village and urban ward, while the latter employs housewives to teach at these centers on part-time or volunteer basis.

“We do have to pay more attention on early childhood education because this will heavily influence the future development of a child, in their adolescence and so on,” Furqon acknowledged.

The Unesco report, titled “Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges,” details achievements, or the lack thereof, of six education goals set in 2000 by region and per individual countries.

Aside from the early childhood care and education goal, there are goals on: universal primary education, secondary education, adult literacy, gender equality, and education quality.

On primary education, Indonesia’s primary school enrollment slid slightly from 97 percent of its primary age population in 2000 to 95 percent in 2012, falling short of the target of 100 percent.

Indonesia’s 2012 score was lower than that of Laos (96 percent), Vietnam (98 percent) and Cambodia (98 percent), which all saw their enrollment rates improve.

The number of children who did not go to primary school in Indonesia reached 1.336 million in 2012, the highest in the East Asia and the Pacific region and double the figure in 2000.

In secondary education, the percentage of children who completed lower secondary school went up from around 50 percent in 2000 to 76 percent in 2012. The number of adolescents who did not go to school dropped by more than half — from 3.5 million to 1.7 million.

Indonesia did well on gender equality in education. In 2000, there were two fewer girls for every 100 boys enrolled at primary schools; 12 years on, the ratio was at parity. In secondary education, there were two fewer girls enrolled for every 100 boys in 2000 — that figure reversed to three fewer boys enrolled for every 100 girls in 2012.

Indonesia’s education spending, albeit having met its own constitutional mandate of 20 percent of state expenditure, failed to meet the EFA target of 4 percent of gross domestic product.

Indonesia’s education spending was the equivalent of 3 percent of GDP in 2000 and 2012. Furqon said he was not aware of any government plans to boost education spending to 4 percent of GDP.

“What we’re focusing on right now is how to use the existing funds more effectively, so that they can be more beneficial to education development,” he said.

Unesco said that globally, only a third of countries had achieved all the EFA goals, and half had achieved “the most watched” goal of universal primary enrollment.

An extra $22 billion a year is needed on top of already ambitious government contributions in order to ensure that countries achieve new education targets being set for the year 2030, it says.

“The world has made tremendous progress towards Education for All,” said Unesco director general  Irina Bokova in a press statement. “Despite not meeting the 2015 deadline, millions more children are in school than would have been had the trends of the 1990s persisted.

“However, the agenda is far from finished. We need to see specific, well-funded strategies that prioritize the poorest — especially girls — improve the quality of learning and reduce the literacy gap so that education becomes meaningful and universal.”

Further Coverage

Editorial: Indonesia’s Education Not Making the Grade

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Jakarta. It wasn’t until a few years ago that the word “Shiite” suddenly began to inspire a negative, if not hateful, tone among some members of the Indonesian Sunni community.

In the country with the world’s biggest Muslim population, where the majority who practice the faith identify as Sunni, the word “Shiite” probably struck as something foreign and strange — but never had it triggered so hateful a tone in sermons at mosques or daily conversations among Indonesian Sunni Muslims.

And then the Syrian war broke out in early 2011, with President Bashar al-Assad of the minority Shiite sect, the Alawites, fighting against Sunni-dominated rebels.

A year later, a conflict erupted between local Sunni and Shiite residents in a village in Sampang, in Indonesia’s Madura Island. Houses belonging to Shiite members were torched, and two Shiites were killed.

And then somehow, suddenly, Shiites became public enemy number one among conservative members of the Indonesian Sunni community.

A campaign declaring the Shiites heretics began to be preached at mosques; last year, presidential candidate Joko Widodo was rumored to be a pro-Shiite agent ahead of the election in July; and more recently, a government ban (and subsequent backtrack) on 19 websites deemed to be spreading extremist ideology was lambasted as part of a pro-Shiite conspiracy — with many of the websites known to publish articles containing hateful sentiment against the Shiites.

Fajar Riza Ul Haq, an Islamic scholar and executive director of the Maarif Institute, says there has always been some kind of a strain in the relationship between Indonesia’s Sunni and Shiite communities.

Over the past few years, though, that tension has increased, prompted partly by the failure of the administration of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to protect members of the country’s religious minorities amid acts of violence and discrimination by hard-liners, Fajar says.

When the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq escalated, followed by the Syrian war, the ramifications spread far beyond the Middle East, reverberating in Indonesia.

Fajar says he is concerned that the tension will only get worse with the latest conflict in Yemen, which international analysts see as yet another proxy battle between the Middle East’s Sunni powers and Shiite-led Iran.

Yemen has been wracked by violence since last year, when Shiite Houthi fighters seized the capital Sanaa and forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile in neighboring Saudi Arabia. The conflict intensified nearly weeks ago with a relentless series of air strikes against Houthi positions by a Saudi-led coalition.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Monday said approximately 700 Indonesian nationals had been evacuated from Yemen since December last year, amid the growing conflict.

Fajar says the “internal dynamics” between Sunnis and Shiites in Indonesia “have been influenced by the development of conflicts in the Middle East.”

“And now that the conflict in Yemen is likely heading for worse [...] I observe a deliberate attempt to exacerbate the Sunni-Shiite relations in Indonesia by blurring the conflict in Yemen and presenting it as a Sunni-Shiite conflict, when this is actually a political conflict,” he says.

Another Islamic scholar, Azyumardi Azra, agrees that the Sunni-Shiite tension in Indonesia has grown in line with the “escalating rivalry” between Saudi Arabia and Iran to spread their influence.

He says he doubts, though, that the hostilities are registering with the majority of Indonesian Muslims, whom he calls moderate.

“Anti-Shiite groups are trying to fuel a sectarian conflict in Indonesia, but such a conflict won’t be supported by moderate Muslim groups in Indonesia, such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah,” Azyumardi says.

“The majority of Muslims here aren’t affected by the conflict because of the involvement of NU, Muhammadiyah, etc.”

Fajar, nevertheless, says groups such as NU and Muhammadiyah need to do more to prevent the growing tension from spilling over into more violence.

“Indonesian Muslim communities must understand the map of the problems, the situation in the Middle East. Arab nations under Saudi Arabia are using the sectarian issue against the Shiites to unite themselves, when this is all actually about Saudi Arabia versus Iran,” he says.

“The Indonesian government and civil society groups such as NU and Muhammadiyah must explain [to Indonesian Muslims] that this isn’t a Shiite-Sunni conflict. The Indonesian public must be smart and not get caught up in it.”

Fajar says Indonesian Muslims should stop viewing Saudi Arabia as the center of the Islamic universe, arguing that the kingdom is merely engaged in a “selfish effort” to spread its hard-line Wahhabi ideology and keep its monarchy in power.

Further Coverage

Editorial

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Jakarta. Jakarta has been consistently ranked as among the world’s least livable cities. A global survey earlier this year crowned the Indonesian capital for having the worst traffic in the world, while a separate report on safety placed the city at the bottom of its list.

But oversights in urban development in Indonesia are not exclusive to Jakarta;  they are becoming increasingly common in other major cities, such as Bandung, (West Java), Yogyakarta, Medan (North Sumatra) and Denpasar (Bali), where traffic, overcrowding and pollution are now a familiar burden to everyday life.

While developed cities in other parts of the world vie to outdo each other in turning “green,” the archipelago is struggling to even meet its most basic needs.

How can Indonesia begin to remedy  these problems? How can it incorporate today’s trend of green living into its excruciatingly sluggish, if not disorderly, urban development?

The Jakarta Globe spoke to Jason Pomeroy, founder of Singapore-based eco-architecture firm Pomeroy Studio and academic, on a more comprehensive solution to Indonesia’s urban struggles.

Q: What are the main challenges for Indonesia in relation to urban planning?

A: Indonesia is a rapidly developing nation. Even taking into account the current economic slowdown, Indonesia’s gross domestic product grew by 5.02 percent in 2014, a rate many countries would love to have. This growth is a result of rapid industrialization and development. Thanks to the promise of jobs and opportunities, over half [53 percent] of the archipelago’s population live in cities, and as more Indonesians flock in from the countryside, this trend is set to continue.

Jakarta’s population alone stands at over 10 million, and is forecast to expand to over 13 million people by 2030, making it one of the largest cities by population on earth.This mass movement from the countryside into the city has resulted in some significant issues. Poor or haphazard urban planning has resulted in environmental problems and flooding — an annual occurrence. This flooding is also exacerbated by the severe lack of green, open spaces and vegetation that would otherwise help to ‘soak up’ much of the floodwater.

Another consequence of this lack of greenery is the declining ‘livability’ of urban areas, increased temperatures — vegetation can significantly reduce ambient temperatures — and a more ‘stressed out’ population who lack the calming and health benefits of vegetation and green open spaces.

Q: What are the main reasons behind the lack of public services in many Indonesian cities? 

A: The speed at which urbanization has occurred, not just in Indonesia but throughout Asia and the developing world, is unprecedented. Better [infrastructure] connectivity has allowed more people to travel further and quicker. This, understandably, has overwhelmed much of the urban infrastructure that was designed and built to accommodate far fewer citizens. This includes public transport, but also water provision, sewage treatment, health-care services and so on.

The consequences of poor public transport can be seen daily on the streets of Jakarta, with 16 millions vehicles on the roads in 2013.  Furthermore, while first- and second-tier cities have absorbed much of the rural population, we are also witnessing the ‘urbanization of villages’ — literally villages gradually growing into small towns and cities through organic growth.

One example is Pondok Cina, located on the outskirts of Jakarta. This has grown from a rural village to having 5,000 people per square kilometer. Small villages may not have the resources to plan for this growth, and by the time regional governors realize infrastructure is needed, it is often too late.

Q: How can Indonesia address many of these urban issues?

A: From an eco-architectural point of view there are many things that can be done to improve the lives of urbanites throughout the country. Many of these solutions are surprisingly simple — and cost-effective. On a basic level, eco, or ‘green,’ architecture harnesses the sun, wind and rain to reduce energy consumption, costs and pollution, while paying respect to the natural environment. Our [Pomeroy Studio’s] approach to eco-architecture goes beyond this, and incorporates the essence of culture and heritage to create built environments that positively impact people’s lives.

An earlier project of mine — the Idea House in Malaysia — drew on techniques used in the South East Asian Kampong Houses — which were designed before the advent of electricity, and air-conditioning — and reinterpreted them for the 21st century. The result was Asia’s first carbon-neutral prototype home — a modular structure that was constructed in 12 weeks and could generate enough energy to offset the needs of the family.

By drawing on culture and tradition, you can create homes, buildings and cities and landscapes that are more livable, more culturally in-tune with the population and more environmentally friendly. Furthermore, if city planners incorporate more greenery into the urban landscape, they can significantly increase the livability of their cities, improve the health of the urban population and reduce the risk of flooding. This greenery can come in the form of parks, gardens and shrubbery.

But increasingly, as cities become denser and more vertical, it should also come in the form of skyparks and skygardens — literally gardens in the sky [on rooftops] that replace the social and communal spaces lost at ground level. Jakarta can look to Singapore for inspiration on this. In my recent architecture TV series “City Redesign,” I visited [eco-estates] Treelodge@Pungol and the Pinnacle in Duxton. These are both housing projects that constitute the living environment for 84 percent of Singapore’s population and includes sky-rise greenery through skycourts and skygardens.

This offers many benefits to the community; not least the ability to have recreational space for the inhabitants and potentially reduced running costs given the ability of greenery to reduce temperatures and thus the reliance on artificial cooling methods.

Q: Eco-architecture is still perceived as expensive, inaccessible, and irrelevant on a mass scale, especially in a city. What can the government or industry experts do to overcome this attitude?

A: The industry needs to communicate to developers, city planners and governments that it’s not what a sustainable building costs, but actually what it saves. The stigma of green design costing 30 percent more than normal buildings will continue to be challenged and de-mystified as more and more green buildings are assessed in terms of their capital costs and operational costs in comparison to non-green buildings.

Common perceptions that sustainable design is costly will continue to change, with an increased awakening that the costs initially associated with green design are marginal [1 percent to 5 percent over non-green buildings] and yet the upsides considerably outweigh the former. Improved habitable conditions, reduced energy and water consumption and therefore utility bills and greater social mobility all contribute to an increase in savvy property purchasers basing their decisions on such tangible savings and lifestyle improvements.

The World Green Council has also published findings that highlight the heightened tenancy retention, rental and sales value increases of green projects, which further demonstrates that designing green is not only good for the environment, but good for the pocket. But it will only be a matter of time that the word ‘sustainable’ will be dropped from a sentence. It is an appendage used extensively in marketing collateral, and the sooner everyone realizes that sustainable design is good, back to basics design that utilizes tried and tested principles from generations before, the better.

As sustainable building becomes more widespread, so will the principles of sustainable and passive design be applied to larger, mass-scale cities and townships. 

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Jakarta. Amid accusations that Indonesia has used faulty data to justify its executions of drug convicts on death row, the National Narcotics Agency, or BNN, suggested a modest decline in narcotics use in the country on Tuesday when it presented the latest relevant figures.

Bachtiar Tambunan, the deputy chief for community empowerment at BNN, said an estimated four million Indonesians were users of narcotics. This is a correction — albeit not drastic — to the figure that President Joko Widodo often cited to support his claims of Indonesia being in a state of emergency due to the supposedly high prevalence of drug abuse in the country.

Joko, in defense of his rejection of clemency appeals by drug convicts on death row, has said that 4.5 million out of 250 million Indonesians were drug users and that between 40 and 50 people died every day in the country because of drug abuse.

Bachtiar on Tuesday said Joko’s figures were based on data from a few years back. Last year, though, BNN conducted another joint study with the University of Indonesia (UI)’s Health Research Center, and the result showed a new estimate of 4 million drug-using Indonesians as well as a death rate estimated at 33 succumbing per day because of drug use.

BNN divides Indonesian drug users into three categories: those who have “ever tried” using drugs, totaling approximately 1.6 million people; “regular” users who number 1.4 million; and drug addicts who add up to 943,000 people. Men still dominate the statistics, representing 74.5 percent of the total number, while women account for just 25.5 percent.

The mortality rate is based on a combined number of deaths due to overdose, polydrug use — when two or more drugs are used at the same time or on the same occasion — and deaths because of relapse after a long hiatus, Bachtiar explained.

The BNN deputy chief added that marijuana, crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy pills remained the most popular products among Indonesian narcotics users. These users are estimated to consume a total of 14 million ecstasy pills per year, and use marijuana or crystal meth a total of 158 million and 219 million times per year, respectively.

“That is why we call this [drug situation] a state of emergency. During the past couple of months alone, BNN has seized more than one metric ton of crystal meth,” Bachtiar claimed. He added that children as young as 10 years old had been identified as drug users.

“The age of drug users ranges from ten to 59 years old,” Bachtiar said, citing several findings over the past few years on drug use by elementary school students in several regions, including Jakarta, Bekasi, Medan and Jambi.

Economic loss from narcotics problems in Indonesia is estimated to have reached Rp 63 trillion ($4.8 billion) last year, he added.

Bachtiar further said Indonesia’s problems with narcotics use continued to grow because of a number of factors, including law enforcement officers’ inability to distinguish drug users from traffickers, resulting in many who fall into the first category being sent to prison instead of rehab.

“And that worsens the situation. Because when sent to penitentiaries, drug users will learn how to traffic drugs from drug dealers, including foreigners, who have vast experience in inter-city and international trafficking,” Bachtiar asserted.

“Narcotics business generates quite a large sum of money so they can easily lure law enforcement officers [to help the business]…. Imprisoned drug dealers are often still involved in the drug trade [outside jail],” he added.

Bachtiar also said the development of rehab centers for drug addicts had been largely abandoned, adding that the government only began paying attention to this matter two years ago.

Indonesia this year is targeting to send 100,000 drug users to rehab.

“The president actually wants 400,000 people to be sent to rehab, but we don’t have enough rehab facilities yet. So rehabilitating 400,000 users will be our target for next year.”

Furthermore, Bachtiar threw his weight behind the death penalty for drug traffickers, saying he believed it could have a deterrent effect but only “if carried out consistently.”

Joko in December last year said that he had received clemency appeals from 64 inmates on death row in Indonesia, including drug and murder convicts, and that he would reject all of them.

This led to the executions of six inmates in January, including five foreigners, ending Indonesia’s unofficial moratorium on executions of death-row inmates.

The second round of executions of ten inmates – also mostly foreigners — was originally scheduled for last month but has been delayed following requests for review filed by some of the convicts.

Amid escalating diplomatic tension with several countries, including with Brazil and Australia, due to the executions or planned executions of their citizens, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi repeatedly defended the Indonesian president’s war against drug crimes through capital punishment.

“There may be an impression as if we were happy [with the executions],” Retno said during a meeting with local media representatives in her office in Jakarta on Tuesday.

“I must emphasize that we’re not happy doing this. We don’t enjoy doing this. But this is the stance that the government is forced to take in order to enforce the law,” she added.

The post Narcotics Agency: Drugs Kill 33 Indonesians Daily, Not 40-50 appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Jakarta. Foreign Affairs Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi on Tuesday shared her plans for Indonesia’s “new brand” of diplomacy, particularly in relation to the economy, following the delegation of a new task to all Indonesian envoys: to explore market opportunities for Indonesian businesses and safeguard those that currently operate overseas.

Extending President Joko Widodo’s vision for a foreign policy that is more “connected to the people,” Retno has repeatedly asserted that economic diplomacy is now among the main pillars of Indonesia’s foreign policy — in addition to protecting citizens abroad and increasing the country’s role at the international stage

Retno — in an exclusive interview with the Jakarta Globe — cited the measures she implemented during her terms as ambassador to the Netherlands from 2012-14 as an example of what she now expects Indonesian envoys to practice.

“When I served as ambassador overseas, I regularly inspected shops selling Indonesian items. During one particular visit I found that these items were missing,” the minister began. “I asked the shop owners why these goods were unavailable and they informed me that there had been a problem with the supplier.

“I asked them the name of the importer. I received the contact details and immediately called Jakarta. Afterward, I managed to trace the problem — where and how it started — before making sure that these items once again lined the shelves of the shops I visited,” she said.

The minister added that she expects all Indonesian envoys to adopt the same pro-active mindset, saying: “The time of diplomats and ambassadors sitting pretty in their office is over. They must go into the field to understand out strengths [in a foreign country].

“They must be able to solve problems that can be detrimental to our exports, for example. They must understand local regulations [of the country in which they are stations], so that we’ll be able to enter those markets well.”

In addition to supporting the country’s exports, Indonesia’s new stance on economic diplomacy will also work to attract foreign investment to the archipelago, especially in sectors that are currently the government’s development priorities, including infrastructure, Retno said.

Indonesian embassies and consulates around the world are now tasked with handling inquiries related to foreign businesses interested in investing in the country. Envoys were briefed on the matter during a meeting in Jakarta earlier this month, she said.

“We agreed during the meeting that any Indonesian embassy [to receives inquiries related to business matters] must supply the necessary information in no later than  three working days,” she added.

Other areas of priority in the new diplomatic undertaking include matters related to food and energy resilience.

The Foreign Ministry has established what Retno dubbed an “economic diplomacy delivery unit,” headed directly by Deputy Foreign Minister A.M. Fachir. The unit will deal specifically with the new policy and coordinate with related ministries and state institutions, such as the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Industry.

“We must not tire in promoting Indonesia. Ambassadors must change their mindsets to not only maintain, but also boost our nation’s economic diplomacy in a variety of ways,” Retno said.

Speaking at the ambassadors’ gathering, Joko reiterated the policy’s aim of bolstering Indonesia’s exports and pushing the trade deficit into a surplus.

“What I know best is the furniture industry and the market is worth up to $480 billion, but  [Indonesia] benefits from only $1.8 billion of that,” said Joko, a former furniture businessman.

“If ambassadors can promote our products, we can create more opportunities to compete in the international market.”

The post New Brand of Diplomacy to ‘Sell’ Indonesia Abroad appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Soldiers guard the waters surrounding Nusakambangan prison outpost. (Antara Photo/Idhad Zakaria)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday the planned execution of 11 convicts on death row, most on drugs charges, would not be delayed despite concerted pleas from several world leaders. Instead, he warned foreign countries not to intervene with his government’s right to impose the capital punishment.

Joko has denied clemency to the death-row prisoners despite repeated pleas for mercy from Australia, Brazil and France, all of whom have citizens due to be executed by an Indonesian firing squad.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made a similar appeal to Indonesia last Friday.

Eleven inmates are due to face the firing squad after Joko rejected their requests for clemency in January.

“I will say this firmly: no one may intervene with the executions because it is our sovereign right to exercise our laws,” Joko told reporters.

He said he had taken calls from the leaders of France, Brazil and the Netherlands about Indonesia’s use of the death penalty but made no mention of Australia.

Two Australians are among the 11 on death row.

The president did not say when the executions would be carried out.

In a special interview with BeritaSatu Media Holdings on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi asserted that Indonesia would not back down from its decision to execute foreign drug-trafficking inmates on death row, even despite risks of disrupting diplomatic ties with the prisoners’ countries of origin.

“Indonesia is always open [to suggestions]. Wherever I go, I always say that we’re ready to cooperate, to boost our partnerships with any countries and we’ve communicated with them under the spirit of friendship,” Retno said in her office in Jakarta. “But when it reaches a point where they offend our dignity as a nation, that is where we must take a firm and dignified stance [against them].”

The minister was speaking in light of a diplomatic row with Brazil and an increasingly heated dispute with Australia over the execution of a Brazilian in January, as well as the planned executions of another Brazilian and two Australian nationals slated for next month.

Debates over capital punishment for drug trafficking has focused far too much on the point of view of the perpetrators, and not that of the victims, the foreign minister added.

“Has the other angle — the perspective of the victims — been adequately represented? How many millions of Indonesian children have lost their future because of narcotics? How many parents cry every day for these victims? How much do those parents and the government have to spend in order to save Indonesia’s youth?” Retno said.

“Don’t forget: Indonesia is a frequent  point of transit for these transnational drug crimes, and it is now one of the world’s largest market of international drug syndicates. It is time for us to declare war against narcotics.”

Indonesia ended its unofficial moratorium on the death penalty last month when it executed six prisoners, five of whom were foreign nationals.

Joko has repeatedly asserted that Indonesia is in a “state of emergency” concerning drug use, citing National Narcotics Agency (BNN) data, which claim Indonesia has over 4.5 million drug users. Between 40 and 50 people, the agency says, die every day from drug use.

Opponents of the death penalty have disputed these figures.

The government delayed its second round of executions after Australia challenged Indonesia’s rejection of a clemency request from Australian drug traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran at the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN).

The pair are among the 11 inmates facing execution this month.

The court said it was not authorized to rule on the matter and an appeal for clemency fell under the president’s jurisdiction.

Government officials, including Joko, have denied rumors that Indonesia may be bowing down to international pressure, saying the delay was purely related to technical issues.

Domestic debates over capital punishment took a nationalistic turn last week after Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s pleas for mercy turned into what many interpreted as a veiled threat, when he suggested Indonesia should repay the $1 billion in aid his country provided after the 2004 Aceh tsunami should Chan and Sukumaran be executed.

Indonesia’s army of social-media users, many of whom had paid very little attention to the issue, bombarded the Internet with angry support for the execution, while demanding that Australia and Brazil respect Indonesian laws.

Meanwhile, uproar from human rights activists have mostly been muted, as has the accusation that Joko may be using the death penalty to boost his slumping popularity at home.

The president’s approval ratings have suffered significantly due to a string of controversial political appointments made in his cabinet and, most recently, the widely perceived notion that he failed to protect the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) from alleged criminalization attempts by the infamously corrupt National Police.

In addition to growing tensions with its neighbor Down Under, Indonesia is also dealing with a deepening diplomatic row with Brazil after President Dilma Rousseff refused to receive the credentials of the nation’s new Indonesian ambassador-designate, Toto Riyanto.

Expecting to become ambassador to Brazil, Toto arrived at the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia for an induction ceremony on Friday, only to be turned away.

Rousseff approved of ambassadors from El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela, Senegal and Greece, but singled out Indonesia for rejection.

In response, Retno said she has recalled Toto from Brazil, summoned the Brazilian ambassador in Jakarta to “harshly protest” Friday’s incident and dispatched a note of protest to Brasilia.

“The way [Brazil] treated our ambassador is unacceptable. This concerns our dignity as a nation,” Retno said, adding she was still awaiting a response from the Brazilian government.

“We don’t know the official reason, but according to information the ambassador received from Brazil’s foreign affairs minister, [Toto’s rejection] was related to the execution,” Retno said.

Asked if Indonesia would seriously risk cutting diplomatic ties with Brazil by proceeding with its execution of the second Brazilian, Retno said: “We haven’t reached that point in our discussions … Indonesia is now reviewing every aspect of the situation and our relationship with Brazil.”

The government is also re-evaluating procurement plans for fighter jets and rocket launchers from Brazil because of the recent turn of events, according to the Ministry of Defense.

With 58 foreign nationals on death row facing imminent executions, concerns have risen over possible diplomatic friction with other nations, such as France and Nigeria.

But Retno asserted: “We understand [these countries’] concerns for their citizens. We, too, would do everything in our power to rescue our people facing death sentences abroad.

“But this is a matter of the sovereignty of Indonesian law. We’re enforcing our laws and, as a sovereign nation, we don’t want anyone to intervene with our legal processes,” she added.

The minister pointed out that capital punishment was not against international law and that the United Nations has yet to conclude its deliberations over the issue.

While political relations may be at a low, trade between Indonesia and opponents of its penchant for capital punishment continues to run smoothly. Australia is a major trading partner of the archipelago, with bilateral exchanges totalling $10.64 billion last year.

Indonesia is Australia’s largest export market for both live cattle and wheat, and a major buyer of its crude petroleum, aluminum and cotton.

Trade between Indonesia and Brazil totaled $4.07 billion last year, according to Bank Indonesia.

Additional reporting from Reuters

Further Coverage

Editorial: Okay, Mr. Tough Guy. We Get It. Now Stop.

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