Ministry Eyes 7.5m Tourists Going Beyond Jakarta, Bali

Ministry Eyes 7.5m Tourists Going Beyond Jakarta, Bali

Indonesia will strive to promote destinations in the country other than overcrowded Bali and Jakarta to help achieve its target of 7.5 million foreign visitors this year, a Tourism Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

Gusti Ngurah Putra said the government would promote the country as an ecological and cultural destination, as well as a MICE venue — an industry term referring to meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.

In terms of MICE, Putra said Yogyakarta, Padang, Solo, Manado and Bangka-Belitung would be promoted as alternatives to Jakarta and Bali.

“For the two Asean Summits, which will be held in April and October, we will prepare Jakarta and Bali as the locations because the standard of facilities needed for heads of state are only available in those two areas,” Putra said. “However, there are approximately 600 international events that will be held all over Indonesia in 2011.”

He said the opening of more international airports this year, such as the Lombok airport in Mataram, would also help in reaching the 7.5 million goal — half a million more than last year’s target.

“We now have 17 international airports all over Indonesia,” he said. “It would really help the distribution of tourists as well as the development of tourism in several places that have cultural and natural attractions.”

The expectation was that several international entry points would lead to an increase in demand for tourism facilities such as hotels and restaurants.

But Putra added that the government was keen to ensure the ensuing tourism development was eco-friendly. A new destination management system, he said, would be employed by the ministry to this end.

“This means a complete development that involves many sectors, so that tourism development is not just about business but will not destroy the ecosystem and harm the society,” he said.

This system, he said, was successfully implemented in the last two years in West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, where the Komodo National Park is located.

“We built an access road to Komodo National Park from Labuhan Bajo with funding from the Switzerland government, making it easier for tourists to go there,” he said.

“Moving forward, we have a complete development plan for the tourism sector in Flores that will benefit both the society and tourists.”

This year, he added, Indonesian tourism development would be pro-growth, pro-job, pro-poor and pro-environment.

Indonesian Military Members Among Train Fare Dodgers

Indonesian Military Members Among Train Fare Dodgers

State-owned railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia is involved in a personal battle with military members who board trains without paying the fare.

Mateta Rizalulhaq, a spokesman for the company, said on Monday that KAI was working with the Indonesian Military (TNI) to crack down on fare-dodging soldiers.

“We sometimes carry out ticket inspections targeting TNI members,” Mateta said. “They [military members who ride the trains without paying] end up being punished by both KAI and the TNI.

“We drop them off at the next station or they have to pay twice the price of the original fare in order to stay on board.”

“I understand that the TNI also reprimands them but I have no idea what type of sanctions are imposed on offending soldiers,” he added.

Despite these assurances, news portal Republika Online reported that on the express service from Cirebon to Jakarta on Dec. 20 no action was taken by KAI inspectors conducting ticket checks.

According to the report, the inspectors were met with a mixture of reactions from around20 members of the military who had boarded the 6:15 a.m. train and were seated in the business-class section.

Some of them, according to the Republika report, attempted to cover up their military shirts with jackets when approached by inspectors.

The report further said that while some of the soldiers paid Rp 20,000 — well below the standard Cirebon business-class fare of Rp 55,000 — others refused to pay anything and instead attempted to challenge the KAI workers.

The rail inspectors ended up leaving those soldiers alone.

Mateta told the Jakarta Globe that KAI provided cheap tickets — up to 50 percent off — for members of the military.

“The TNI is responsible for informing its members of this fact, especially those soldiers who use the train as their main mode of transportation,” he said.

“We actually have a list of which TNI members take the train regularly,” he added. “Based on our data and their ID cards, we are happy to provide these soldiers with a discount.”

Mateta said he expected members of the military would be prepared to pay for their tickets.

“Considering they are from the military, the value of discipline is constantly drilled into them,” he said.

According to the Republika report, Hendi Helmy, a KAI spokesman in Cirebon, said that each week many military members failed to pay the fare before boarding trains, and that his staff was often powerless to confront them.

The railway operator recorded a net profit of Rp 154.8 billion ($17 million) last year from a loss of Rp 87.5 billion in 2008, according to its Web site

Prior Clash Cited as Cause of Attack on HKBP Church Leaders

Prior Clash Cited as Cause of Attack on HKBP Church Leaders

An eyewitness to a violent attack on two church leaders in Bekasi told a district court on Monday that the attack occurred after members of the church’s congregation had mobbed a passing motorcyclist.

Ciketing resident Edy Suryo Purnomo was testifying at the Bekasi District Court in the trial of 13 men who stand accused of assaulting Asia Sihombing and Rev. Luspida Simandjuntak, from the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP), in September.

Asia was stabbed during the Sept. 12 attack while Luspida was beaten with a bamboo stick. The incident occurred as the congregation was on its way to a vacant lot in Ciketing, where it had been holding services after authorities sealed off the residential house it was using as a church in Pondok Timur Indah.

Edy, who lives near the vacant lot, told the court that a man had been mobbed by members of the HKBP congregation before the attack.

“Some 30 minutes before the riot happened, a motorcyclist passed by the field where the church was holding its service. Suddenly, from the direction of the congregation, someone screamed ‘Thief!’ and they started to beat up the motorcyclist,” Edy told the presiding judge, Wasdi Permana.

“To avoid a serious clash, I tried to prevent the motorcyclist from being beaten up really badly. I asked the congregation what was going on and told them I would take the man to the police.”

Edy asked the motorcyclist to identify himself, he said, and the man reportedly told him he was a journalist. Edy said the man showed him a camera and a press card, but he could not get a clear look at the details.

Both the judge and prosecutor, Priorenta, asked Edy why he failed to get the name of the motorcyclist or which media organization he worked for, to which Edy said the congregation members had pulled the man away from him and he did not get a chance to read the details on the press card.

“While they were interrogating the motorcyclist, men in white skullcaps arrived in a convoy of motorcycles and demanded to know why the congregation was beating up the motorist,” Edy continued. “They were defending the motorcyclist. This is how the attack began.”

The other two witnesses present at Monday’s hearing were a police officer, First Brig. Galih Dwi Setiawan, who was assigned to provide security for the congregation , and another local resident, Ruly Rukmana, who was driving by in his car when he was caught in the middle of the clash.

Galih said that even though he witnessed the incident, he could not identify the people involved.

“I have no idea which organization these men with the white caps were from. I did not see any emblems [on their clothing or their motorcycles],” Galih told the court. “I also do not know whether they were locals or outsiders.”

Galih said that he was too busy to identify any of the assailants because he was trying to get Asia away from the crowd an onto his motorcycle so he could take him to a hospital for emergency treatment.

New System to Register Migrant Workers Online

New System to Register Migrant Workers Online

The government has launched an online registry to collect data on current and prospective migrant workers in a bid to prevent them from going abroad illegally.

The pilot project, which was launched on Thursday, is a joint effort by the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI) and the government of West Java, which has the highest number of migrant workers of all the country’s provinces.

The system, which will be tested in West Java first before spreading to East Java and West Nusa Tenggara, then to the rest of the country, will record personal and work information, including details about the job and departure dates.

Muhammad Jumhur Hidayat, chairman of the BNP2TKI, said the online system was the first of its kind in Indonesia.

“Other than providing data on migrant workers, this system will also help us avoid the risk of human trafficking and falsification of documents used to send worker abroad illegally,” he said.

“The data will be collected by the manpower offices in each district in the province, and will be made accessible by manpower offices in all other districts in West Java.”

The rollout of the online system comes ahead of the planned introduction of a call center later this year, which the BNP2TKI says will serve as a hot line for migrant workers seeking to report any abuse or other difficulties they face.

Jumhur said once the call center was operational, it would use data from the online system to identify workers in trouble and update information on specific workers.

The call center will also accommodate complaints, queries and reports from the general public, as well as prospective, current and former migrant workers and their families.

Roostiawati, head of foreign cooperation at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration’s directorate for migrant worker placement, said the online system was being introduced in West Java because it was one of the main sources of the country’s labor and the provincial government was able to support it with funding.

Meanwhile, Wahyu Susilo, a migration analyst with the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development, doubted the system could do anything to resolve the problems facing the country’s migrant workers.

“It’s nothing new because the BNP2TKI used to have an online system,” he said. “But was it effective? No, it wasn’t.

“If the previous system really did work, why has the BNP2TKI failed to answer even the most basic questions, such as how many Indonesians are working overseas?”

Wahyu added that rather than spend money on a new system, the BNP2TKI should have evaluated and improved the old system.

He said a crackdown was instead needed on unscrupulous placement agencies that charged lower fees but sent workers overseas illegally and without proper documentation.

Forest Concessions to Be Granted in Logged Land

Forest Concessions to Be Granted in Logged Land

The Forestry Ministry has announced that 500,000 hectares of land concessions will be granted this year in previously logged areas as part of a wider plan to keep virgin forests intact and slow the rate of carbon dioxide emissions.

Hadi Daryanto, the ministry’s director general of forestry management, said on Thursday that opening these concessions in so-called degraded forests would ensure that natural and peat forests remained untouched.

“Indonesia has 35.4 million hectares of degraded forest that we can designate as agricultural and forest concessions,” he said.

“By using degraded forests instead of virgin forests, we can develop more concessions and keep emissions low, as well as providing jobs in the forestry sector.”

The government sells permits each year to use publicly owned land for specific purposes such as agriculture, logging and mining. Prices for such concessions vary depending on the land’s location and intended use. The concessions are handed out throughout the year.

Last year, 487,744 hectares of such concessions came from degraded forests, surpassing the Forestry Ministry’s target of 450,000 hectares.

Hadi said reusing previously logged land was part of the government’s plan to suspend the issuance of new concessions in peat and primary natural forests.

The moratorium is part of a bilateral deal with Norway that went into effect on Saturday, the first day of 2011. In return for the moratorium, Norway will provide $1 billion in funding for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD-Plus) schemes.

“Besides implementing the Indonesia-Norway agreement, we can also use this to attain our national emissions reduction target of 26 percent by 2020,” Hadi said. “At the same time, it gives the ministry a role in helping to achieve the GDP growth target of 7 percent by 2014.”

He said the target for new concessions this year was up from 2010 because of an increased demand for wood pulp.

“Even though there’s rising demand for wood pulp, and hence for forest concessions, we’ve already mapped out the projected concessions so there’s no possibility of clearing natural or peat forests,” he said.

Hadi also said that because the issuance of land concessions was a lucrative business, the government was concerned about parties posing as brokers for investors seeking permits.

“We need a monitoring team to supervise the implementation of the moratorium on new concessions in peat and natural forests,” he said.

Mas Achmad Santosa, an environmental law expert, said the effective implementation of the moratorium could only be ensured with firm legal support.

“It will take some time before the government issues a policy as the legal instrument to back the moratorium,” he said.

“Therefore it’d be better if the president issued a decree on implementing the moratorium.”

Mas said that besides the lack of a legal foundation, the moratorium was threatened by the prospect of regional administrations not acting in line with the central government’s logging policy.

“One thing we need to be concerned about is the possibility of regional administrations issuing their own concessions in natural and peat forests,” he said.

“With regional autonomy now in place, regional administrations are under pressure to raise their own income.”

Trial of 13 in Church Assault Begins

Trial of 13 in Church Assault Begins

The trials of 13 men accused of attacking two Batak Christian Protestant Church leaders in September finally began at the Bekasi District Court on Wednesday.

The defendants — including Murhali Barda, the suspended leader of the Islamic Defenders Front’s (FPI) Bekasi chapter — allegedly assaulted Asia Sihombing and Rev. Luspida Simandjuntak, both leaders of the church, also known as HKBP.

The victims were on their way to a service on Sept. 12 in Pondok Timur Indah when a group of men accosted them. Asia was stabbed and Luspida was beaten with a stick.

On Wednesday, the defendants were split into five groups and were tried separately.

They face a variety of charges, including committing violence against others, unpleasant conduct and provocation. These constitute violations to Articles 170, 335 and 160 of the Criminal Code, respectively.

More than 100 police officers stood guard during the court proceedings, as dozens of members from the FPI demanded the immediate release of Murhali.

At a hearing presided by Judge Wasdi Permana on Wednesday, prosecutor Priorenta said Murhali had “provoked the attack against Asia and Luspida.”

“He is facing up to seven years in jail,” Priorenta said, adding that the Christian group had faced numerous protests in the area and were barred from entering their church.

The September attack occurred as the church leaders were heading to a vacant lot in Ciketing, where the congregation was forced to hold services after officials sealed off their church in Pondok Timur Indah.

The church was first closed in June after Islamic hard-liners objected to it being there. The city has tried to reach a compromise, offering the congregation two plots of land on which to build a church.

Following the attack and subsequent mass demonstrations by hard-line Islamic groups, Luspida was transferred to a different branch of the HKBP. He was replaced by Rev. Peterson Purba.

Peterson said the defendants may have been ordered to attack the church elders, among other cases of harassment and intimidation in recent years.

“We believe that most of the defendants did not really know what they were doing,” he said. “They must have been paid or rewarded by an individual or an interested party to attack us continually. There is someone out there who is very unhappy with our presence in the area.”

“Religion cannot be used as an excuse to justify attacks,” Peterson added.

Police in Bekasi have been criticized for failing to arrest more members of the FPI, which many believe was responsible not only for the Sept. 12 assault, but also for previous threats against the HKBP.

Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar, spokesman for the National Police, had earlier said authorities believed September’s attack was premeditated and was instigated by Murhali.

However, Shalih Manggara Sitompul, Murhali’s lawyer, insisted on his client’s innocence.

“We will prove that the 13 defendants have done nothing wrong,” Shalih said, adding that the indictment was “too vague.”

“We also hope that judge Wasdi will allow Murhali to be placed under the city’s custody instead of being detained by prosecutors,” Shalih added.

Munarman, the FPI’s spokesman and legal counsel, said the bigger issue in the case was not religious intolerance but the HKBP’s illegal status.

“This is not about taking other people’s right to have freedom of beliefs,” he said. “This is about the HKBP running an illegal church at the field in Ciketing and Pondok Timur Indah as well as in [other parts of] Bekasi.”

Munarman said the congregation’s activities caused traffic jams, noise pollution and the accumulation of garbage, especially after Sunday services.

The court hearings were adjourned until Monday.

Indonesian Govt to Check Improvements to Transport Safety

Indonesian Govt to Check Improvements to Transport Safety

The transportation safety body announced on Tuesday that it would establish a team to monitor how recommendations on improving road, rail, sea and air safety were being implemented.

Tatang Kurniadi, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), said his office had investigated 36 transportation accidents throughout this year on which it issued 103 recommendations to the relevant authorities.

He said the new team charged with checking the follow-up to those recommendations would likely be formed early next year.

“We want to reduce the number of transportation accidents, whether in the aviation, maritime, railway or road sectors,” Tatang said.

There have been 47,852 reported transportation accidents so far this year, according to the KNKT, down from 63,219 in 2009. The death toll from these accidents year-to-date also fell, to 14,584 from 20,323 last year.

The KNKT, which operates under the authority of the Transportation Ministry, has investigated 168 accidents to date since 2007, accounting for a combined death toll of 1,095.

Tatang said those investigations had yielded 597 recommendations that had been forwarded to the Transportation Ministry, the civil aviation directorate, regional administrations, the National Police and transportation operators.

“Unfortunately, we’ve found that only 40 percent of those recommendations have been followed up on and implemented by the authorities,” he said. “Those adopting them are usually only the transportation operators, regional transportation agencies or regional administrations.”

He said that all recommendation issued by the KNKT were legally binding under the 1992 Aviation Law and the 2007 Railway Law. “Therefore, we see the need for a team to monitor whether the recommendations are being acted on,” Tatang said.

Bambang Ervan, a spokesman for the Transportation Ministry, blamed the slow adoption of the KNKT’s recommendations on bureaucracy and lack of funding to carry out the proposed changes.

“For instance, take the recommendation that railway infrastructure and facilities must be improved,” he said. “To replace the tracks and train cars, we first need to apply for funding from the central government, and that takes a long time to approve. That’s why we’re often forced to delay implementing the recommendations from the KNKT.”

Tatang said it was important for the authorities to act quickly, given that the main cause of railway, maritime and aviation accidents was technical error. By contrast, the leading cause of road accidents is human error.

“It has to be stressed that our investigations aren’t targeted at identifying the culprit behind the accident and bringing them to justice,” Tatang said. “What we’re ultimately looking for is what happened, how did it happen and why was it allowed to happen.”

He said this meant the team to be set up next year would not have the power to fine or otherwise punish officials who failed to implement the recommendations, “although there’s a law that provides for that,” he added.

Danang Parikesit, chairman of the nongovernmental Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), lauded the idea of forming a monitoring team, saying it would help ensure lasting improvements to safety policies.