Sara Schonhardt 2014-07-26T10:11:38-04:00 Sara Schonhardt Copyright 2008,, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Sara Schonhardt Good old fashioned elbow grease. Quake-Prone Indonesia Debates Going Nuclear,2011:/theblog//3.838265 2011-03-23T13:30:47-04:00 2011-05-25T18:40:24-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
Ferhat Aziz, a spokesman for Indonesia's Nuclear Energy Agency said nuclear power would remain a key part of the country's energy strategy, but opposition from government officials reveals deep divisions on how Indonesia should best meet its energy needs.

Demand for electricity is growing at nearly seven percent per year in Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous nation. And still more than a third of the country is not connected to the power grid.

Some in government say nuclear power is key to meeting energy shortfalls that cause frequent blackouts. But like Japan, Indonesia sits amid the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area prone to earthquakes and seismic activity.

The country also struggles with corruption, weak governing institutions and a lack of coordination between regulatory agencies - issues nuclear experts fear will prevent the government from adequately monitoring such a fragile source of energy.

Energy campaigners at environmental organization Greenpeace say Indonesia needs to invest in reliable energy sources that don't pose the same risks to human safety as nuclear power. Warning systems and efficient safety mechanisms are not as advanced here as they are in Japan, and Greenpeace fears the country's inability to cope with a crisis like the one at Fukushima would lead to further tragedy.

Aziz says parts of Indonesia - namely the northern part of Java, Borneo and Bangka-Belitung - are safe for nuclear reactors. Though the latter location has stirred debate since it sits near the volatile fault line in Sumatra that witnessed a major 7.6-magnitude earthquake in September 2009.

And with public criticism growing, the government appears to be wavering. "As long as we have alternative energy or mixed energy, nuclear is the last option," Indonesia's chief economic minister Hatta Rajasa told Reuters on March 16.

Indonesia has the world's third-largest potential reserve of geothermal power, at around 27,000MW, but it has developed less than five percent of that amount. Its hydro potential is even greater, at more than 75,000MW.

Analysts are now conducting environmental impact assessments for several nuclear power plant sites and the Nuclear Energy Agency is bidding for up to four nuclear plants with the ability to generate 4,000MW, or a fourth of the country's current energy needs.

But some analysts say Indonesia's desire to master nuclear technology is more about national pride than its potential as a source of power generation.

"In any emerging market, it's a game of upmanship or being part of a club," said Edward Gustely, the head of an infrastructure investment firm, Tusk Advisory, and an advisor to the government on low-carbon investment. He says the government should be looking at new technologies rather than debating if it can bear the costs needed to build plants able to withstand major shocks.

Other possibilities include mini nuclear power facilities similar to a nuclear submarine or aircraft carrier that could mitigate the risks associated with big plants like Fukushima.

Still, Indonesia's drive to pursue nuclear - part of an energy development plan to cut fossil-fuel dependence by around 12 percent by 2025 - is in contrast to the nuclear rethink displayed by most nations last week.

On March 16 China said it would halt plans for new nuclear plants to pursue safety checks, and Thailand also agreed to freeze development for four proposed sites.

A longer version of this story appears at Eco-Business]]>
Wikileaks Tie Indonesia's President to Corruption, but There Is More To Worry About,2011:/theblog//3.835244 2011-03-14T14:32:08-04:00 2011-05-25T18:40:24-04:00 Sara Schonhardt slapped with corruption allegations, raising questions about how deep the rot goes in a political system that has increasingly failed to deliver on tackling graft, improving inequality and caring for Indonesians at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

The accusations, part of a swath of US diplomatic cables published Friday by Australian newspaper The Age, which obtained them exclusively from Wikileaks, are ambiguous about Yudhoyono's involvement in corruption. But they do say he paid off judges not to press charges against political allies and hired intelligence forces to spy on his opponents.

Yudhoyono kept enough distance so that he could not be implicated, according to a cable from June 2006. But his wife and former vice president, Jusuf Kalla, were fingered for a host of corrupt actions. Kalla, for instance, paid "huge bribes" to win the chairmanship of Golkar, Indonesia's largest political party, and the First Lady allegedly sought to use her political connections to extend the family's reach into state-owned businesses.

The leaked cables reveal a sordid tale of political give and take that hinges on bribery and intimidation. They also show a twisted web of networks and connections that tie Yudhoyono to nefarious businessmen, including the member of a gambling syndicate who alleged funneled funds to Yudhoyono's presidential campaign.

A quote from a cable published in The Age attempts to describe why Yudhoyono has slowed reforms since first being elected in 2004.

"Unwilling to risk alienating segments of the parliament, media, bureaucracy and civil society, ... he is also unwilling to cross any constituencies ... Until he is satisfied that he has shored up his political position, Yudhoyono is unlikely to spend any political capital to move his reform agenda, or controversial aspects of US -Indonesia relations, forward."

What is contained in the cables is not surprising, nor are the accusations revelatory. They are only unique in implicating the president, who the US has supported for being clean and reform-minded. During a state visit last November, US President Barack Obama called Yudhoyono "my good friend" and a strong supporter of democracy.

What is perhaps more noteworthy is that US diplomats have suspected graft, intimidation and abuses of power within the executive and have continued to offer accolades to the current government. Often that support has taken the form of funding or security cooperation. Just before Obama's visit, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the United States would resume ties with Indonesian Special Forces after a 12-year hiatus.

That hiatus was sparked by allegations that the force, known as Kopassus, had committed gross human rights abuses in East Timor and Aceh, where separatists were battling for autonomy. Human rights groups criticized the resumption of funds and training to the force since no one senior military figures have been accused of sanctioning those abuses.

In any country making a rapid transition to democracy, as Indonesia has done in the 13 years since a people power movement forced former strongman Suharto out of office, remnants of the past will surely remain.

During his 32 years in power, Suharto created a system that was difficult to un-entrench, meaning that even without him at the helm the only people able to step up and take over were military figures or his cronies.

Those who led the movement to oust Suharto now say one of their biggest mistakes was turning their backs once the revolution was over and staying out of politics.

Despite being a former general, Yudhoyono was thought to be a politician of a different sort. He campaigned on a platform to tackle corruption and streamline the country's bureaucracy. He proved remarkable unable to do so during his first term, but what's puzzling now is why Yudhoyono has become a lame duck since his landslide election victory in 2009. (A two-term limit prevents him from being re-elected in 2014)

Some analysts say he wants to protect his legacy, which may explain why his wife sought to use the family's position to secure businesses contracts. Others say he has something more to hide. Arguments that he's hoping to appeal to Islamists in government make little sense, since religious parties win few voters.

What is clear is that the release of the cables will further tie up a president already hamstrung by political battles within the governing coalition. Yudhoyono will likely spend the next few weeks battling to restore his credibility, further removing him from taking a stand on increasing sectarian violence or pushing new budget allocations toward health care and education.

Little weight should be given to the actual content of the Wikileaked cables. But what should be of concern to observers is that for a country that relies so heavily on the power of a strong central leader, Indonesia is showing worrying signs of a retreat from democracy.
Give me graft, but also roads,2010:/theblog//3.720971 2010-09-17T11:17:48-04:00 2011-05-25T17:40:20-04:00 Sara Schonhardt The IMF's latest assessment on Indonesia's economy provides a handy thumbs up to Southeast Asia's largest economy. Now if it could just work on its infrastructure

All the talk in the United States of the need for new and improved infrastructure development is particularly familiar in Indonesia, where talk of terrorism or rampant graft seems to draw most international headlines.

The International Monetary Fund takes those concerns into account in a new report released online today. But it highlights infrastructure gaps rather than corruption as a bigger threat to investor confidence in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

The IMF says the main risks facing Indonesia are delays in implementing planned infrastructure improvements and efforts to manage volatile capital inflows, the flight of which aided Indonesia's crash during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

For the most part the report hands Indonesia a warm review, crediting Indonesian authorities with applying prudent policy measures that helped steer Indonesia out of the global financial crisis. It also says the country's currently monetary policy is "appropriate" as long it takes action to keep expected inflation within its 4-6% window.

In an August interview with this correspondent, the fund's Indonesia director, Milan Zavadjil said Indonesia was in a sweet spot. The country came through the crisis fairly unscathed, it has low-levels of government-held debt and there is a general perception of improved economic management.

The report gives a nod to that sentiment: "Sound policies and structural reform, helped Indonesia recover quickly from the 2008 global crisis," it says.

Of course, weak law enforcement and graft are certainly still in the minds of investors. And the impact could be felt in sectors where Indonesia is most in need of development.

Analysts say Indonesia needs to invest $140 billion over the next five years in infrastructure development. But the government puts the estimate around $210 billion, of which roughly one-third would need to come from the private sector.

Foreign investment is therefore necessary to fund Indonesia's expansion. And the country appears to be attracting attention from countries such as China, which is in dire need of Indonesia's vast natural resources and cares less about its lack of transparency.

Japan and Korea are also looking to the rising Southeast Asian powerhouse as a production base for manufactured goods. And with 240 million people (and a growing middle class), Indonesia is proving profitable for countries that understand the consumer market and can target it accordingly.

Not all is shining
The IMF predicts that growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy will reach 6.2 percent next year, up from 6 percent this year and 4.5 percent in 2009. But the government's decision not to intervene to stem rising inflation is causing some concerns at the Fund.

On the IMF's website, the fund's Asia-Pacific division chief Thomas Rumbaugh says the country will need to be more "proactive" on its monetary policy by committing to reducing inflation and keeping it low.

Indonesia, which has held its benchmark interest rate at 6.5% for a year, has bucked the trend in Asia by not raising interest rates in recent months, preferring to foster growth rather than respond to rising inflation.

On September 6 the country's Central Bank Governor Darmin Nasution said the country would remain stable as long as it could manage its monetary variable "by other instruments."

Overall, the IMF report reflected positive developments in Indonesia, though it did say more work was needed - and when is it not?

"Specifically, reducing energy subsidies would create additional fiscal space for much needed infrastructure spending and transfer programs for the poor, with little impact on debt sustainability," the report said.

To put that sentence in context, the IMF analysis comes on the back of several recent reports that reveal poverty in Indonesia has improved little despite growth in the economy.

The Food and Agriculture Organization will release a hunger report in October that lists Indonesia among just seven other nations that account for that two thirds of the world's undernourished. And a joint assessment by the Rajawali Foundation and Harvard's Kennedy School notes that while official statistics show Indonesia to be a pro-poor growth story, this is an illusion.

Inequality is rising in Indonesia, and according to any realistic poverty line about half of Indonesians are poor, Jonathan Pincus, the co-author of a report, wrote in a recent e-mail exchange. By its very nature increasing inequality is bad for growth - as is persistently high poverty rates.

And according to Pincus, the government has failed to perform the most basic functions to support economic growth. "Infrastructure development is slow, particularly power and transport; the education system is failing to provide people with basic skills and to prepare them to acquire more advanced technological skills; [and] the legal and judicial system are dysfunctional."

Indeed, while officially the number of people living below the national poverty line (about $1.50 a day) account for around 14% of the population, around half of the population lives just slightly above that metric, on less than $2 a day.

Love not lost
Indonesia has had a rocky relationship with the IMF since it came to the country's rescue during the 1997-98 financial crisis by providing a bailout to the tune of $43 billion.

But the Fund maintains a presence here in Indonesia, and Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu recently threw her backing behind further support from the monetary body. In an interview with Bloomberg news, she said an IMF safety net that emerging nations can draw on during a financial crisis to stem capital outflows should be agreed on by the Group of 20 nations in November.
US Needs to Look Behind Indonesia's Successes,2010:/theblog//3.670068 2010-08-04T08:53:33-04:00 2011-05-25T17:15:21-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
But is it really in what one of President Barack Obama's advisors called an "indispensable" position to help the United States promote freedom and upward mobility?

At a US Embassy-sponsored discussion in Jakarta this week, Samantha Power, a presidential advisor and the director of multilateral affairs at the US National Security Council, said Indonesia was proof that emerging powers are positioned to lead - "in governing the global economy and managing the threats posted by climate change, but also ... as champions of human rights, openness and democratic change."

She reassured the audience of diplomats and international affairs experts that the United States understood each country must find its own path to democracy, and was adamant about US support for human rights.

The US must live its values and lead by example, Power said, noting the Obama administration's efforts to ban torture and promote human rights at home. Among the other pillars holding up US foreign policy are support for civil society and access to information, curbs on corruption and a push for more multi-lateral action, she said.

Most important in US efforts to make friends, was engaging and partnering with emerging democracies. And that is where Indonesia becomes "indispensable."

"Many of President Obama's core pillars are evident in Indonesia's growth and development today," Power noted, highlighting how Indonesia's achievements "underscore the linkages between economic development and democracy."

What was troubling about Power's speech, however, was not how much she sought to disprove the stereotypes about US democracy promotion efforts, intolerance or nation building, but rather the glowing review she gave to Indonesia without even mentioning its very evident shortcomings.

What about clashes in Papua, malnutrition, high maternal death rates, threats from the Information and Communication Ministry to curb Internet content and a Corruption Eradication Commission that has been hijacked by powerful politicians seeking to serve vested interests?

A recent assessment of Indonesia's prospects for growth and democratic governance from Harvard's Kennedy School -- ironically the institute Power once taught at -- outlined Indonesia's jobless growth rate (due to lack of competitiveness and restrictive labor regulations) and social indicators that place it behind less developed countries in the region.

"An Indonesian child is nearly three times as likely to die before his or her fifth birthday as a Vietnamese child," the authors of the report write. "Progress in providing access to clean water and sanitation has been slow ... Mothers in Indonesia are [also] more than three times more likely to die in childbirth than Vietnamese mothers. These basic indicators of well-being are the most direct measure of government effectiveness ... Successive reformasi governments have failed to achieve this modest objective."

Near the end of her discussion Power reminded Indonesians how they must have felt during the authoritarian years of former president Suharto; a time when people lived under a regime where money for textbooks was siphoned off to pay for the car of the local police chief. Yet, these experiences still happen in Indonesia today.

Indonesia is turning outward, but its image campaign is merely a smokescreen for all of the problems lurking beneath its own soil. And by being too supportive of what has been called democracy's shinning light in Southeast Asia, the United States effectively gives Indonesia a free pass against human rights abuses and intolerance.

Power is not to blame. It was clear her visit was merely a polite gesture to ensure ties don't sour between the US and Indonesia, where president Obama has already canceled three planned visits.

But it's time the US government paid more attention to what is going on behind the trade deals and educational exchanges on which it is so focused. On the same day Power gave her speech, Washington appeared to be moving in that direction. With calls of human rights abuse and a gross lack of development coming from the remote province of Papua, 50 US legislators signed a petition calling on the Obama administration to seek justice for the genocide committed in against Papuans.

Maybe it's time he listened.
Thaksin loses assets, but Thai political saga continues,2010:/theblog//3.478241 2010-02-26T11:46:10-05:00 2011-05-25T15:40:24-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
After a military-backed coup ousted Thaksin in 2006, the junta that took power froze his family's fortune and accused him of corruption. On Friday the Supreme Court ruled that Thaksin unlawfully concealed his assets while in office and abused his power for personal gain, according to the Associated Press.

In announcing its decision, the Supreme Court said seizing all of Thaksin's money would be unfair since some of it was made before he became prime minister.

Many analysts had hoped for such an outcome since a decision to reclaim all of Thaksin's fortune could have sparked deep political unrest among the country's already divided color-coded movements.

The "red shirts," as Thaksin's supporters are known, say he is a victim of a long-running political rivalry, while the yellow shirts say the graft spread by Thaksin and his cronies is holding Thailand back and scaring off investors.

The verdict quelled fears of widespread protests, which the red shirts say they will host in March instead, and led many observers to conclude that Thailand had closed the chapter in its ongoing political saga.

But the verdict is unlikely to be turning point in Thai politics that have been in disarray since 2006. While neither the red or yellow shirts can claim the verdict was unjust, the social tensions that the Thaksin drama has fomented are unlikely to let up.

Thaksin was a populist leader well liked by the country's lower classes, particularly the farming communities in the northeast. His premiership gave them the feeling that they had a stake in their government's decisions, and they saw the effects of programs aimed at providing health care and financial assistance to their communities.

The current government, led by Democrat Abhisit Vejjajiva, is totally ineffective say Thaksin supporters, who believe political horse-trading allowed Abhisit to win the latest vote. They fear a referendum scheduled for later in the year will be postponed, and many have grown disgusted with a political system they see as completely illegitimate.

"People don't understand the meaning of freedom," says Nipon Riabriang, a freelance photographer and former political activist, who says freedom means questioning one's government and holding it accountable for its actions.

Now people spend all their time online, watching TV or playing video games, Riabriang says. Despite agitators among the middle class Red and Yellow shirts, he believes too many people are complacent, including politicians who prioritize compromise over direct action.

At least Thaksin was decisive, says Riabriang, who does not allow such praise to excuse the former prime minister's greed, which was uncovered with the sale of his telecommunications empire Shin Corp, but ran much deeper.

As evidence, Riabriang refers to the Thailand Village and Urban Revolving Fund, which was a promise by the Thai government to provide every village and urban community with a million baht (about $22,500) as working capital for local credit associations. Yet much of the money went toward purchases of motorbikes, refrigerators and televisions produced by companies owned or invested in by Thaksin's business cronies, Riabriang says.

With their faith in government growing thin, many Thais have placed their trust in the King, a man who they say knows the Thai people better than any politician. But the 82-year-old monarch has been in hospital since last year, and his successor has garnered far less faith among Thai citizens.

"What to do?" says Punpen Wipawen, an entrepreneur who backs Thaksin. Though the former prime minister keeps up with his supports through a Facebook page and frequent Twitter updates, his return to Thailand is unlikely. And despite Friday's verdict, the rift between Thailand's social classes - a rift that has in recent years become color-coded - is set to keep growing.
Indonesia's Military Reform is Meaningless: Human Rights Watch,2010:/theblog//3.422990 2010-01-14T10:19:14-05:00 2011-05-25T15:10:21-04:00 Sara Schonhardt report from Human Rights Watch released Tuesday. The report criticized the new regulations for failing to dismantle what it called the armed forces' "dangerous" business empire.

The national military, or TNI, currently maintains 23 foundations and more than 1,000 cooperatives. Its business interests include transportation services, real estate and timber concessions, with the 55 companies it owns under those foundations accounting for around $350 million in assets.

Official figures indicate profits of $25 million a year, but the military also pulls in money from protection payments, involvement in criminal enterprises, such as illegal logging, and land and building leases, according to the HRW report.

An earlier report by the New York-based human rights organization details the extent of the military's economic involvement, stating that its businesses ventures "have been a platform for extortion, violence, property seizures, and other crimes against civilians."

"There has been a practice of using military force to oppress the people," said Rafendi Djamin, who heads the human rights working group at the Institute for Defence Security and Peace Studies (IDSPS) and has documented land disputes between villagers and the navy in East Java and protection rackets run by military forces tasked with providing security around US mining giant Freeport McMoRan's copper and gold interests.

The military's self-funding practices have a long history in Indonesia, with the armed forces dominating politics and business during the three decades in which the autocratic general Suharto ruled.

That power diminished as Indonesia began its transition to democracy in 1998, but its business involvement continued to produce human rights abuses, crime and corruption.

In 2004 then-president Megawati Sukarnoputri backed a law that gave the government five years to fully divest the armed forces of its business interests as a means to promote military professionalism and civilian control.

But despite widespread support for reforms, which even the military backed provided the government increase its budget, the current government, led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, failed to meet the regulation's obligations.

With the deadline having passed, the government issued new measures in October 2009 that the HRW report says do not require the military to give up its businesses, but call for a "partial restructuring" of the cooperatives and foundations - through which the military holds many of its investments.

The government's plans also only include the formal businesses directly owned and managed by TNI, businesses the government says have not existed for many years. "The new regulations do nothing to address the military's many other forms of money-making, including informal and individual activities not registered as businesses," the HRW report states.

"This new plan is a manipulation of what the [original] regulation means," said the executive director of IDSPS, Mufti Makarim Al-Akhlaq, explaining that the informal sector is a massive business the extent of which can only be estimated because it has never been accounted for in an independent audit.

The move comes at a time when Yudhoyono's administration is facing a spate of corruption allegations, with investors increasingly worried about commitment to reform in the world's third-largest democracy.

A presidential spokesperson who responded to the report said reforms took time and the government was intent on making the military more professional.

Meanwhile, Silmy Karim, spokesman for Indonesia's National Team for the Transfer of Military Business told Radio Australia on Thursday that the military has become more transparent and that progress toward reform has been made compared to the end of the Suharto era, when the size of TNI's business empire dwarfed the $350 million military businesses account for today.

According to Lisa Misol, the report's author, the military's involvement in business creates a conflict of interest that undermines civilian control over the armed forces and hinders its accountability.

In the conclusion of its report, Human Rights Watch called on Yudhoyono and his new defense minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, to revise government regulation to cover a wider set of businesses and incorporate independent civilian oversight over the transfer process.

Yet the Indonesian government is not entirely to blame for the flouting of previous laws, also culpable are the companies that come in and hire the TNI to provide security services.

"The international community cannot deny these facts - that the attitude has not changed from the past," said IDSPS's Mufti. "The business sector should respect the public and not use the military to provide security, because that gives them the ability to abuse their power."

As long as multi-national companies continue to fund the TNI, Muftie said groups like Human Rights Watch will have a difficult time putting pressure on them to reform.

Learning From Aceh's Recovery: Tsunami Lessons Five Years On,2009:/theblog//3.402693 2009-12-24T00:39:56-05:00 2011-05-25T15:00:22-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
Five years later, those who witnessed the disaster or took part in recovery efforts are reflecting on the lessons learned.

In Aceh, the area hardest hit by the giant wave, homes have been rebuilt, families reunited and a stable government installed in a province that was battling a deep separatist conflict prior to the tsunami. The city has recovered so well that most of the international aids organizations have pulled up stakes and gone home.

Some aid workers still idle about town, bringing small dollars to the dozens of businesses born when volunteer numbers reached into the thousands. But among Aceh's residents, concerns have shifted from fears of another disaster to fears about job opportunities.

When I met with him last year, Jonathan Papoulidis, then-chief of the UN Office of the Recovery Coordinator (UNORC), said development progress had been a "stabilizing" force that allowed the new government to get its grounding. A lack of employment, however, creates different worries about Aceh's stability.

Uneven aid distribution and cash-for-work programs that create a culture reliant on handouts have in many ways broken down Aceh's social fabric. The head of the psychosocial program at the American Red Cross expressed concern that financial fears could lead to violence.

These effects have become part and parcel of aid and recovery efforts, but some groups have established a lasting presence in Aceh and have gone far to support economic development. Mercy Corps, for instance, has helped train farmers in rice cultivation techniques and provided them with access to micro-finance.

Accomplishments in structural rebuilding also are noteworthy, said the former UNORC chief, whose office was created to streamline aid efforts. But rebuilding can often serve to legitimize progress this long after a disaster, when what is important is the kind of society being created.

In Lambung village, one of the UN's models of development, houses resemble cookie cutouts, each one a square concrete box replicated into the hundreds. Neighborhoods have been rebuilt for ease of escape rather than incorporating the winding, jungle roads that community residents once liked to stroll.

As the world marks the five-year anniversary of the tsunami, it is finding most victims have picked up the pieces of their lives and are moving forward. Most of the 127,000 houses destroyed by the tsunami have been rebuilt with the $6.7 billion in aid that did eventually flow in, according to the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for Ache and Nias.

But "building back better," former President Bill Clinton's slogan for the rebuilding effort, requires more than sturdy homes and evacuation routes. It requires listening to and fulfilling the needs of communities that are forever altered by natural disasters.

A test came in September, when a 7.6-magnitude quake struck off the coast of western Sumatra, sparking a rapid emergency relief response. Affected villagers later said too much time was taken up with needs assessment, preventing aid from reaching their communities. They also said more thought needs to go into aid distribution, explaining that instant noodles provide little assistance when communities lack clean water.

Earthquakes and tectonic activity have become increasingly commonplace in Indonesia. Over the past two decades more than 40 large-scale earthquakes have hit the country, with 15 of them generating tsunamis.

To mitigate the extent of such disasters, the Red Cross and Red Crescent have helped create community-based risk reduction programs that perform small-scale prevention efforts, such as drainage maintenance to prevent flooding during monsoon season.

That is a positive step, but Hening Parlan, executive director of Humanitarian Forum Indonesia, which is made up of NGOs dealing with disaster management, said priority still goes to emergency warning systems rather than disaster prevention.

For three years following the December 26 tsunami the Indonesian government had no budget for disaster management, with the national coordinating board that headed the country's disaster management program focused on emergency response. A 2007 law changed that focus to risk management, but a related regulation that requires local governments to establish disaster management units has been slow to take hold.

Some blame increased regional autonomy and protectionism for holding up volunteer access to disaster sites. Dr. Josia Rastandi, chairman of the Structural Reliability Testing Division at the University of Indonesia, blamed human error for the massive loss of life in Indonesian earthquakes.

"Many houses and public buildings did not meet quake-proof regulations," Rastandi said at a press gathering following the Padang temblor. If the buildings in Padang had been constructed according to 2002 building codes, the extent of the damage might have been minimal.

For now, Jakarta is the only city that has a body tasked with checking the structural design of buildings - and even this is only done for structures over eight stories tall. In 2006 the Ministry of Public Works produced a proper building guidance, but the publication has reached few eyes outside the country's capital.

Some groups have called for a ministry dedicated to disaster mitigation and relief, while others continue to advocate stricter building codes. It's true that progress has been made, but lessons about combating inequality and bureaucratic delays are still surfacing in Aceh.

At Sebagai Cobaan, one of the province's mass burial grounds, a lose sign board spins in the wind, repeating the Koranic verse "Every soul shall have a taste of death." An astounding 14,264 people are buried beneath a grass enclosure the size of two tennis courts. In nearby Lambung village, life takes on a picture of normalcy. This community benefited from high levels of education and community support that made redevelopment easier. Others communities were not so lucky.

Indonesians Rally to Curb Corruption; and It's Only the Beginning,2009:/theblog//3.385412 2009-12-09T10:52:34-05:00 2011-05-25T14:55:21-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
Some demonstrators waved flags with the name of their organization while others held cardboard signs that read, "Let the People Judge," "Crush the Corruptors," and "Save our Country from Corruption."

The predictions leading up to the demonstrations were ominous, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono claiming they were an attempt to attack him, much like the protests in 1998 that led to the ouster of long-running dictator Suharto.

But despite a bit of shoving and the mock immolation of a dummy representing Vice President Boediono, a key figure in the current corruption debacle, the spirit at the rally was almost celebratory.

"Corruption isn't something that is weird here," said Annye, a 24-year-old employee at Uplink, a non-profit organization working in 13 cities to defend the rights of Indonesia's urban poor.
Most of the time people just accept what they see as a part of standard operating procedures, she said. But a series of recent events have woken people up to the need to do something.

First came the arrests of two members of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), an independent agency that since 2003 has successfully prosecuted around 150 high-level politicians and law enforcement officials for bribery and other forms of graft.

Supporters of the KPK, which has the power to wiretap, arrest, and prosecute anyone it suspects of corruption, believe the arrests were an attempt by the police and attorney general's office to stymie the commission.

In response to the fiasco, President Yudhoyono, better known as SBY, appointed a team of lawyers and reform activists to look into the issue. The team responded by calling on SBY to break up the "judicial mafia" that has been rooted in Indonesia's system for decades and has undermined the rule of law through brokers who receive bribes in exchange for settling legal cases.

Then, as SBY waffled on taking decisive action, civil society groups renewed their calls for an investigation into the bailout of Bank Century, a bank that Indonesia's much-respected finance minister said could not have been allowed to fail.

According to watchdog groups, however, the funds from the bailout found their way into the pockets of businessmen with whom the minister was attempting to curry favor as well as recently re-elected SBY's campaign coffers.

Political analysts say the protests could significantly undermine the social and political stability that SBY struggled to rebuild during his first five years in power, particularly as a larger and more diverse array of organizations seem to be jumping on the anti-corruption bandwagon. "Everybody wants to get involved," said Annye, who along with more than 50 members of Uplink wore a surgical mask painted with the word jijik, disgusting.

"That one word represents everything," she said, noting that the scandals have exposed corrupt politicians and should force them to admit to and correct their wrongs.

But getting those in power to change their ways is easier said than done, according to Max Lawalata, a member of Gerindra, an opposition political party started by Suharto's son-in-law. Lawalata believes the only way to rid the nation of corruption is through reformation or revolution. The normal legal channels are stocked with bureaucrats who are used to operating in this corrupt system, he said.

Shortly before the protests began Wednesday a group called ARUS, the People's Alliance for SBY, held a rally in support of the president at a major traffic roundabout in central Jakarta. But Lawalata said it was purely a political maneuver.

When SBY realized he couldn't stop the protests, he tried to change the atmosphere by calling them celebrations, the politician said. "But this is not a celebration, there are messages that people are sending."

One of those messages advocates a Clean Revolution aimed at wiping out corruption in a nation famed for its lack of transparency. The 1998 protests that drove Suharto from power were the culmination of gross economic disparity and dissatisfaction with a ruler who kept limiting peoples' freedoms in an attempt to tighten his grip on power.

"That experience taught us not to wait for change," said Lawalata, explaining that it took 20 years before people were willing to stand up against Suharto. "We don't want to wait another 20 years ... it's what we call democracy."

In addition to anti-corruption groups, a large number of protestors were university students and human rights activists fighting for the rights of the poor and marginalized who they say are the first to suffer from corruption.

"Indonesia has many social problems, people don't yet have enough to eat and there is lots of inequality," said Kurniawan, an activist who was dressed in dark clothing and had painted his hands and face black to illustrate what he called, the "dark spirit of the Indonesian people."

The event also drew out women, children, grandmothers and leaders of the 1998 riots. Most were adamant that such a strong showing would put pressure on the government to makes some changes. But they also realized that big change would need more drastic measures.

"This is only the beginning," said Lawalata. Which will certainly not make SBY happy.
A Sacrificial Feast in Indonesia,2009:/theblog//3.372168 2009-12-02T15:15:11-05:00 2011-05-25T14:45:21-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
Indonesians celebrate the holiday through the mass slaughter of goats, sheep and cows. Much of the meat is then donated to the poor who gather at local mosques to collect black plastic bags of the stuff. For days leading up to the sacrifice, the animals are kept in pens around the city. They are well-fed and cared for to meet quality standards necessary for killing. It is a fascinating spectacle to see herds of goats competing with motorbikes and bajais for room on Jakarta's crowded streets.

This being my first Idul Adha, I decided to wander the city to observe my neighbors enjoying the holiday. I was not looking to revel in the gore of watching men slice raw meat into tiny pieces. Bur rather to observe the array of faces and neighborhoods that make up this city, a place that carries both the promise and poison of all of Indonesia.

Many Americans know Indonesia by the numbers: the world's fourth-largest democracy and most populous Muslim nation. But fewer know about Indonesia's brand of Islam, a fact that may have to do, in part, with the US's more recent hands-off approach to religious affairs here. Previous engagement with Indonesia attempted to challenge people's perceptions of Islam though books and discussions about the need for moderation. But that approach bought little good will, as diplomats and analysts realized that changing people's faith takes more than a propaganda campaign.

Despite last July's terrorist attacks on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels, security experts and diplomats still say the threat of radical Islam taking hold of Indonesia is low. And while the presence of Islam has become more visible in recent years, with more women wearing headscarves, mosque attendance on the increase and even advertisements catering to conservative Muslim consumers, the majority of Indonesia's Muslims continue to practice a form of the faith that embraces openness and tolerance.

Indonesia is a pluralistic society, so the acceptance of religious freedom is vital to the unity and stability of the nation, said Hasyim Muzadi, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization. He was speaking during a November 17 counterterrorism conference jointly hosted by NU and the Washington-based Center of Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, which is hoping to get civil society organizations to help in the fight against terrorism.

Indonesia's secular constitution recognizes six religions -- Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Other religions are not protected by the government, which concerns human rights groups that say religious freedom applies to all religions.

The passage of a stoning law in Aceh and a bill to increase halal labeling, have caused additional concerns that Indonesia's Muslims are becoming more conservative and intolerant.

But Aceh is unique in being the only province in the country that operates under strict Islamic law known as Sharia, and despite several bylaws that discriminate against women and limit freedom of expression, efforts to politicize the religion claimed by 88 percent of Indonesians have not played out.

Indonesia has all the cross-cutting trends one would expect to find in a nation this size - ranging from radical to liberal perceptions of Islam, said Greg Fealy, an Indonesia scholar in the Department of Political and Social Change at Australian National University. He was referring to the pluralism display during this year's parliamentary elections, when Islam-related parties gained a mere 16 percent of the vote, one of the lowest percentages ever.

Islamist parties did worse in the 2009 election than previous years, with people putting support behind candidates they believed could improve the economy rather than those who appealed to religious sentiments, Fealy said.

It is Indonesia's many layers that have allowed moderate Islam to flourish in this nation of 240 million people, said Hasyim, explaining that NU has taken on the posture of moderation, which he called the ability to balance between faith and tolerance.

Dr. Din Syamsuddin, head of the country's other major Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah, addressed Indonesia's approach to religion by rejecting any connection between Islam and terrorism, noting that non-religious factors are often the main motive for extremist acts. "Terrorism has no religion," he said.

The factors that provoke radical ideologies that give way to terrorism are basically issues of underdevelopment, said Rizal Buendia, from the Department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He was referring to issues of injustice, discrimination, poverty and unemployment that marginalize certain people who are then easily swayed by radical groups such as the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah.

Helping strengthen moderate Islam requires the involvement of civil society organizations and government policies that provide benefits such as health care and education to the poorest member of society, the hosts of the counterterrorism conference concluded. But the outcome of the discussion deserves a longer post.

What seems clear from today's Idul Adha celebrations, is that people in Indonesia can and do come together. This is not only an incredibly diverse nation, but its size is vast and its national history is short. And the kindness I see displayed in a city filled with harshness and injustice is certainly something to be thankful for.
Indonesia Makes Its Mark in a Monument,2009:/theblog//3.341842 2009-11-02T14:42:00-05:00 2011-05-25T14:30:27-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
Each time I arrive in a new locale I tie on my pink and black Brooks with their biodegradable midsole and take to the street. This time it's Jakarta, the smoggy, traffic-choked capital of Indonesia, a nation analysts hail for its successful drive toward democracy ten years after the fall of dictator Suharto.

My runs are my time to see all the sides of multi-faceted Jakarta. The early morning light guides my way as I traverse the narrow alleyways of the city's many kampungs (neighborhoods). Yet my destination is always the same, Merdeka Square - site of political protests, family picnics and Suharto-era extravagance.

It is here that the 422-foot national monument, or Monas, rises high above the Jakarta skyline. Capped with a flame coated in gold foil, the marble-encrusted obelisk defines persistence. Despite the cost to the country's already unstable economy, President Sukarno, who commissioned it in 1961, would not back down on his plans for a grand tower.

Monas remains significant for many reasons, but increasingly because of the lessons it provides about Indonesia, a country caught between tradition and modernization, terrorist extremism and religious moderation.

The monument also marks a crossroads between the past and the present. To the north of the square on which it sits is the old, Dutch section of the city, to the south is modern Jakarta, with its glassed-in air-conditioned malls and fancy entertainment districts.

Along the western perimeter extends the TransJakarta bus line, the government's oft-criticized attempt at creating a working public transportation infrastructure. To the east, an older, elevated train line runs. Beneath these tracks trash collectors deposit their goods and women and children beg for money and food. They clutch the thin green fence posts that bar them from the monument, a symbol of Indonesia's fight for independence and a poignant reminder of the ever-widening gap between poor and rich.

Merdeka Square also stands out in a city that suffers from a gross lack of green space. Like Thailand, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, group exercise is a morning ritual, and the land surrounding the monument is one of the few enclosed places where people can exercise in public.

In the hours between sunrise and the beginning of the work day men and women wearing orange and cream sweat suits walk around the square. It is here that civil servants with their regulation uniforms mix with men from the national military, old Chinese couples performing Tai Chi and top-level politicians, such as Parliament's secretary general. The police, clad in navy jumpsuits with white armbands, watch over their activities.

In the afternoon tourists flock to the monument. Some wait in line for the elevator ride to the top, where on a rare clear day one can get a descent view of the sprawling metropolis and the giant dome of the Istiqlal Mosque. School children come to visit the historical museum housed beneath the tower, and on weekends Jakartans come out to fly kites, picnic and socialize.

In an interesting move last week, Jakarta's Public Order Agency announced it would close the monument's park for four hours each night to crack down on teenagers engaging in sexual activity and crime.

Monas has also been the staging ground for protests, and it was here more than a year ago that a religious clash occurred between conservative Muslims and an Islamic sect they consider heretical. Indonesia is a secular country, but Islamist politics and the introduction of stringent Sharia laws by local governments have raised concerns of creeping radicalization in a country where 87 percent of the 240 million people are Muslim.

These are the lessons I've learned by visiting Monas. I continue to think about the people I see there throughout the day. An image of the woman with a red kerchief will appear to me while I'm browsing for produce, or a man on the bus will remind me of a young police officer chatting on his cell phone.

Every journalist has her way of adapting to a new posting. A friend now based in Bishkek got to know the bar scene. In his book War Reporter, Richard Engle said he liked drawing maps to orient himself to a new city. I like running to Monas, a site where the city's schizophrenic frenzy collides in one sensory-filled lesson on modern-day Indonesia.
Assassination of a Terror Mastermind,2009:/theblog//3.290124 2009-09-19T10:56:54-04:00 2011-05-25T14:05:19-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
The raid was carried out by Detachment 88, the anti-terror arm of the national police force which has received training and assistance from the United States and Austrailan governments. It represented the counter-terror squad's latest attempt to root out the Al-Qaeda-linked network, Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

"This is a major achievement in Indonesia's counterterrorism efforts," said Rizal Sukma, executive director of Indonesia's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Others, howevr, shared concerns that the timing of the raid might have been aimed at revamping the police's image, which is suffering from a dispute between senior police officers and the independent Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) which has accused police of trying to discredit its mandate.

Read the full report at Asia Times Online: Assasination of a terrorist mastermind
Indonesia's Economic Optimism,2009:/theblog//3.287254 2009-09-16T12:33:46-04:00 2011-05-25T14:05:19-04:00 Sara Schonhardt quarterly report released Monday the World Bank raised its growth forecast for the country's economy from 3.5 percent to 4.3 percent, higher than even the IMF expected. Although the global economy is showing signs of recovery, Indonesia has weathered the economic crisis much better than other countries in Southeast Asia thanks to strong domestic consumption and increased government spending on stimulus measures, the Bank's report noted.

The big topic now that recovery is being hinted at is reform of the financial sector, said Indonesia's Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, speaking before a group of journalists in Jakarta on Tuesday. The dilemma is how to strike the right balance between regulation that strangles the market and regulation that does not go far enough toward preventing the circumstances led to the current collapse.

Despite the sanguine picture the World Bank has painted, Mulyani said the government will not revise its fiscal projections, which predict GDP growth of around 4 percent by year's end.
Mulyani, an outspoken reformer who has gone far toward cleaning up graft in her own ministry, is unapologetic about the decisions she has made during her term as finance minister.

Most recently she's drawn heat for the government's decision to bail out Bank Century -- Indonesia's own mini version of the Lehman Brothers fiasco. The cost to the public, initially projected at Rp1.3 trillion (US$133 million), eventually swelled to Rp6.7 trillion (US$677 million), drawing the ire of some members from the House of Representatives (DPR) who have called for an audit to determine the legal basis for the rescue.

Yet Indonesia's experience with financial crises -- it was the hardest hit during the 1997 Asian economic crisis that saw GDP plummet by 13 percent from the year earlier -- may well have prevented its exposure this time around. "Our policy was to save and secure the financial system," Mulyani said Tuesday, defending the decision for the Bank Century rescue and assuring those present that "there was no political motive behind the bailout."

During her talk Mulyani also touched on government efforts to transfer funds to the country's most needy from the long-running fuel subsidy that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono slashed last year. She also said the government would continue its fight against corruption (the Corruption Court established in 2006 and considered the most successful measure the country has taken toward prosecuting high-level officials suspected of graft is likely to be dissolved if the DPR does not vote on a law to renew its mandate by the end of its term in September).

With presidential elections in July Mulyani was clearly cautious about providing any details on the president's plan for his second term, which begins when a new parliament is inaugurated October 1.

A new cabinet will be named in mid-October as well, meaning Mulyani will soon relinquish her post at the Finance Ministry. In the swirl of speculation that often comes with government handovers, Mulyani has been placed in nearly every post, from ministry of education to the head of the central bank.

Given her reformist approach, she would do well whatever position she occupies next. Despite all the reasons for optimism, Indonesia still has a long way to go: foreign investment remains low, the country's infrastructure is woefully inadequate and the government remains protective of key industries, such as telecommunications and construction.

But in a country with 240 million people, the steps taken in the ten years since democracy arrived on this expansive archipelago are looking more and more like a big leap.
Afghan Strategy: US Troops Walk Fine Line Between Soldier And Sociologist,2009:/theblog//3.246256 2009-07-28T12:06:53-04:00 2011-05-25T13:45:21-04:00 Sara Schonhardt
About 57,000 of the promised 68,000 US troops have arrived in Afghanistan as part of President Obama's civilian-oriented campaign that seeks to provide better training for Afghan security forces and more effective support for economic and political development.

At the heart of the new strategy are the 4,000 US Marines participating in Operation Khanjar. The mission made headlines after a series of air and ground assaults July 2 helped drive the Taliban out of three districts in southern Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold known to produce around half of the world's opium.

But tactical operations that combine combat with efforts to win hearts and minds take a toll on those involved. Asking US Marines to capture or kill insurgents is one thing. Asking them to build roads, mix with tribal leaders and train the Afghan army is another. Expecting these same troops to do both--shake hands with some Afghans and point guns at others, reconcile with militants but also not empower the enemy--is like asking them to be hunters and humanists, soldiers and sociologists.

Before the latest batch of troops deployed for Helmand I visited the North Carolina base where they were training. I met many of the men from battalion 2/8, which makes up a portion of Operation Khanjar. They all had stories to tell about previous deployments, thoughts on their upcoming mission and wishes to get the job done so they could return to their families. But the Marine whose story left the deepest impression was Sergeant Joe Buompastore's.

Buompastore is part of 1/6, a battalion that returned from southern Helmand last October. When I entered Alpha Company headquarters, the 24-year-old Marine removed his hat and reached out a thick, freckled hand. Buompastore seemed chipper and polite, asking me to call him Joe, but respectfully referring to me as ma'am, despite our minor age difference.

A handful of men from 1/6 bustled around metal desks filling out obligatory paperwork or staring at computer screens backed by images of smiling babies or leggy brunettes. Buompastore suggested we go outside to a grass yard where men gathered to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes. (One-third of active-duty military personnel smoke, according to a US-government commission report by the Institute of Medicine (, which found that this addiction can harm "operational readiness.")

Distant riffle fire punctuated a conversation in which Buompastore shared his knack for cooking spicy sausage and his love of Thai food - mango chicken "is the money."

We talked for nearly half an hour before he mentioned Afghanistan. "We used to tramp through poppy fields until our boots would turn black from the tar," he said.

During Buompastore's first two months in Helmand his 11-man squad moved for days in temperatures that shot up to 125 degrees. They carried all their gear - around 150 pounds of ammo, protective wear, and weapons - taking breaks to change socks and ease their backs from their burdens.

In May 2008, during a routine patrol, insurgents ambushed Buompastore's squad, forcing him to call for assistance. The ensuing firefight left a member of the other squad dead and led to the discovery of a cache of rocket-propelled grenades. The battle was intense, but Buompastore's telling of it sounds mechanical, as though he talking about last night's dinner.

"One of the Taliban stuck an AK47 out of the wall, took a couple pop shots and hit one of the guys - a sniper from weapon's company." Buompastore's description of the battle is heavy with military-speak - words like FOB (forward operating base), suppression, heilo - and light on emotional detail. He glosses over what happened to the injured Marine, out of respect for his family, and it is only when I ask that Buompastore mutters a response. "Nah, he didn't make it. He was gone there, right on the spot."

The death left a dent in the young sergeant's morale, as did the extension of his Afghan deployment. Low morale, repeat deployments and the complex and confusing nature of the war in Afghanistan are the main causes of recent increases in mental-health problems among active-duty military and veterans, according to a study by researchers at the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Of the nearly 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans surveyed, 37 percent were diagnosed with mental health disorders, 22 percent of which were due to posttraumatic stress (PTSD). The study also found that mental health problems increased the longer veterans were out of the service.

Buompastore has now been back from Afghanistan for nine months, the same amount of time he served there, but he continues his struggle to find some sense of normalcy among continuing deployments and troops who were overextended.

Most of the Marines I spoke with at the base said they understood the need to reach out to the Afghan population. Top commanders parroted President Obama's new strategy.

But the civilian-oriented approach has its flaws. Teaching men the culture and language of the country where they'll be fighting is vital. Expecting rapid and dramatic change from such efforts adds to the weight bearing down on US troops.

Already military personnel must decide within a moment whether to capture or kill the people who confront them. They continuously struggle to adjust to conditions in a country where the lack of infrastructure and large number of rudimentary settlements makes the setting seem an ancient backwater. And then they return wondering why they didn't get it, how they could have assessed the situation differently or filled with doubt for pointing their guns at the wrong people.

Afghanistan is not Iraq, but neither is it the "good war" analysts long considered it. With US troops going deeper into Taliban territory, the confusion will grow stronger and the line between soldier and sociologist even thinner.

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