Month: March 2011

Indonesian Govt Delays Film Tax Review Decision

The Jakarta Globe

If you have been waiting patiently for the past month, popcorn box in hand, to find out whether there will be any fresh Hollywood films to watch on the big screen anytime soon, you may have to keep on waiting.


The government on Wednesday failed to come out with a promised decision on the tax on imported films, saying negotiations hadn’t concluded yet.

Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik, who had earlier promised that Wednesday would be the day he would reveal a decision on the tax issue that has led foreign film importers to stop bringing in new titles, said the scheme had yet to be finalized.

“We cannot announce the exact film tax scheme yet because it is still being discussed, taking into consideration three regulations, on customs, tax and also films,” Wacik said.

The policy in question led to members of the Motion Picture Association deciding to halt exports of films to Indonesia.

The core of the issue lies in the calculation of the customs value of imported films, which was previously based on the physical length of the film roll, with each meter valued at 43 cents. But the government now wants to tax royalties up front under a 2006 customs law that stipulates that royalties should be included in the import tax.

The government, though, has sent out mixed messages. While the Directorate General of Customs and Excise has appeared resolute about implementing the new royalty computation, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has maintained that the government was open to negotiations with film importers.

“I want to make sure that foreign films are still entering Indonesia,” Jero reiterated on Wednesday. He did not elaborate on the statement, instead announcing that a separate import tax on film production equipment would be scrapped to help give Indonesian film producers a boost.

The Tourism Ministry has previously said boosting the local film industry was the rationale behind the new royalty policy.
“President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono suggested developing the national film industry by reducing taxes for Indonesian filmmakers, so we are going to apply a zero percent tax on film production equipment,” Wacik said.

He said film production equipment and materials have always been listed as luxury items and therefore were slapped with high taxes.

“Other than that, we are going to reduce the value-added tax to a minimum level,” he said, without elaborating.
Wacik said the country’s current film production levels were not in a position to meet the demands of the 672 screening houses across the nation.

“That is why foreign films are needed, to meet the demand of the screens and also to become references for Indonesian filmmakers to improve the quality of their films,” Wacik said. “We do not want to create a policy that hurts many people, including Hollywood film fans and cinema employees.”

Wacik said the tax regime on imported films was aimed at protecting the national film industry while at the same time not harming foreign film imports.

“We just want to see foreign films enter Indonesia without violating the regulations. So far, the Directorate General of Taxation has decided on a tax scheme, but it has yet to finalize their decision,” he said.

In order to help increase public assess to films, Wacik said his ministry proposed to have dozens of film projection cars available in 2012 to cater to areas without cinemas.

“This idea is basically to bring films to all Indonesian citizens. In that way, films will be a form of entertainment not only enjoyed by city people but also by people from small towns or small villages.” Jero said.

Five Test Positive for Low Radiation

The Jakarta Globe

Low levels of radiation were detected on five Indonesians returning from Japan, but officials insist the levels are well within safe limits.


Reno Alamsyah, the director for alerts at the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten), said three of the five had returned on Saturday, while the other two flew in on an unspecified previous date.

“The last three Indonesian citizens, who just returned from Japan, registered 50 becquerels of radiation,” he told the Jakarta Globe.

“That was higher than the previous two, who registered at 20 becquerels. Actually, 50 becquerels isn’t a dangerous level for human health. It was just external radiation on their clothes and shoes that could be gotten rid of very easily.”

Reno said the group of three, who returned through Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, had been living in Fukushima prefecture at the time the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

He added that they were evacuated to the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo soon after.

“The three of them were interns in Japan who were just a week into their internship in Fukushima,” Reno said.

“Soon after the tsunami hit, they were evacuated away from the nuclear power plant. Because they were in Fukushima, though, we were worried that they might have suffered some internal radiation that would have been undetectable at the airport,” he went on to say.

“Therefore, through the Health Ministry, we suggested they be brought to the Batan [National Nuclear Energy Agency] office for further tests.”

Susilo Widodo, head of safety technology and radiation metrology at Batan, said low levels of iodine-131 radiation had been detected on the three Indonesians.

“Iodine-131 isn’t a dangerous radioactive material,” he said.

“It has a half-life of eight days, which means it’ll lose its radioactivity in a short period of time. It would be a very different case if they had Cesium-137. That has a half-life of 30 years, which means it will stay active for a long time.”

The danger to humans depended on the half-life and the body organs affected, he added.

Reno said efforts to check passengers from Japan for radiation at Soekarno-Hatta and Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport would end shortly .

“With no more Indonesian citizens retuning from Japan, the radiation checks at both airports will cease by Friday,” he said.

Indonesia Still Waiting to Hear Final Decision on Foreign Film Tax

The Jakarta Globe

Despite previously promising to announce the final foreign film tax on National Film Day today, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has postponed its announcement because the government institutions involved are yet to reach a conclusion on the matter.


Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said the ministry, Finance Ministry and Directorate General of Taxation were still finalizing the regulation on foreign films.

“We cannot announce the exact film tax scheme yet because it is still being discussed,” Jero said.

“The regulation is aimed at protecting the national film industry without harming foreign film imports. We just want foreign films to enter Indonesia without violating the regulation. So far the Directorate General of Taxation has decided on a tax scheme, but is yet to finalize their decision.”

The customs value of imported films was previously based on the physical length of the film roll, with each meter valued at 43 cents. The government now wants to tax royalties up front under a 2006 customs law that stipulates that royalties should be included in the import tax.

The new tax calculation is behind a recent move by the Motion Picture Association to halt the export of films to Indonesia.

Students Grow Rice in the Middle of Jakarta

The Jakarta Globe

While the government has been suggesting the nation find alternatives to a dwindling supply of locally grown rice, one teacher in Jakarta is promoting a program to grow the staple food in the middle of the city.


Suhri, an Indonesian language teacher at State Junior High School (SMPN) 209 in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, has introduced a “Rice in a Bucket” cultivation program at his school as a way of teaching students about agriculture and self-sufficiency.

Despite not having a formal background in farming, he said a chance encounter at the rice-cultivating village he grew up in planted a seed that would grow into his innovative program.

“In 2007, my cousin in Ciamis district, in West Java, told me that anybody could plant rice nowadays without having to go out into the fields and get their suits and ties dirty,” he said.

“So I tried to get all the information I could and implemented the methods myself.”

Suhri said he tested the idea of planting rice in buckets at his house before eventually bringing the program to his school in 2007, starting with 50 buckets shared among the students.

“I didn’t want to propose the idea to the principal before I tried it myself. After I successfully harvested the organic rice from my own tiny rice field, then I took the idea to school,” he said.

“Fortunately, I got a positive response from the principal and we started the planting program in 2007.”

Suhri, who is also the coordinator of the school’s forestry program, said his students were excited to learn about growing rice in the city.

Yoga Setiawan, a ninth-grade student who has been taking part in the program, said growing rice in buckets was an innovative idea that he wanted to develop further once he finished school.

“Planting rice is actually not that difficult once you know how to do it,” he said.

Yoga said students bought their seeds at the local bird market and created the correct soil composition themselves.

“The first thing that we do is mix 60 percent soil and 40 percent compost. Then we let it sit for two to four weeks,” he said.

During those weeks waiting for the soil to set, the students prepare their rice plants by growing the sprouts that will be planted in the buckets.

Yoga said that although they never ate the rice they grew in the buckets, he and the other students were always excited when it came time to harvest.

“It takes us three and a half months to go from the preparation stage to harvest,” he said.

Suhri said that since 2007, students at the school had experimented with planting different types of rice to determine which variety was the best for the “Rice in a Bucket” project.

“We tried to plant Japanese rice in 2008, Situ Bagendit rice in 2009 and Ciherang rice in 2010,” he said. “Although Japanese rice tested better, the Japanese rice plant is the hardest to take care of because it is very tall.”

Suhri said the key to growing healthy rice plants with lots of stalks was to use organic liquid fertilizer — the best being your own urine.

“Before we began using urine as the extra organic fertilizer, each bucket only had 50 stalks of rice that produced one or two ounces of grain,” he said. “But since we’ve been using urine, each bucket produces 80 stalks of rice that can produce two to three ounces of grain.”

In order to reduce the smell from the urine, the students add grated ginger, galangal and turmeric mixed with water.

Ambar Susilowati, another ninth-grader involved in the program, said that aside from the fun of growing your own rice, the students also learned a lot about farming and rice cultivation.

“We’ve learned to appreciate farmers because they do so much hard work to grow the rice that ends up on the tables of so many Indonesians,” she said.

“That is why I always finish my food when I have breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Ambar, who will graduate in the middle of this year, added that she wanted to introduce the method to as many people as possible so they could grow their own rice at home.

“I hope this knowledge will not be left at this school once we graduate, but will be spread around the city and help make Jakarta a little greener with small rice buckets in every home,” she said.

Trade Official Denies Govt Turning Blind Eye to Illegally Imported Fish

The Jakarta Globe
Trade Official Denies Govt Turning Blind Eye to Illegally Imported Fish

An advocate for local fishing communities claims the government is ignoring a 2010 law on imported fishery products by failing to destroy shipments of illegally imported fish.

Despite an official denial, Riza Damanik, secretary general for the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara), said on Sunday that while the law clearly stated illegally imported fish must be returned to its country of origin within three days or incinerated, the government had failed to do so.

“There are 5,300 tons of illegally imported fish stuck in four ports and one airport, including Tanjung Priok Port, Belawan Port [in Medan, North Sumatra] and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport,” he said. “They’ve been there for a week now. They have not been returned to their country of origin or incinerated.”

Riza said that allowing such fish to be sold in the domestic market posed threats both to local fishermen’s welfare and to consumers’ health in general.

“These illegally imported fish are usually sold for cheaper than local fish. They’re also more widely available across Indonesia.

“If the government continues being inconsistent about enforcing its own law and letting illegal fish be sold in the Indonesian market without any controls, it will be dangerous for public health because there are no institutions to guarantee whether the fish are fit for consumption or not.”

However, Saut Hutagalung, director of international trade at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, denied that the government was not complying with the return-or-incinerate order.

“We need to keep in mind that imported items are also liable to customs regulations, which in the case of rejected items allow the importer a month to return the items — in this case the fish — to the country of origin,” he said.

“We’re coordinating with customs officials on a time frame to return the fish.”

Saut said the ministry had since March 19 seized more than 180 containers of fish at Belawan, Tanjung Priok and Tanjung Perak Port, in Surabaya, believed to have been illegally imported from China and Pakistan.

“Three containers have already been returned,” he said.

“The reason it’s taking so long to return the rest of them is because the importers have to fill out the requisite paperwork. They also have to wait for a spot in the shipping schedule.”

On Tuesday, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said the government would blacklist Chinese companies illegally importing fish to the detriment of local fishermen.

Fadel said he had found “suspicious indications” involving 13 fish importing companies “owned by three or four people,” but declined to give any names.

With Nothing More to Do, Indonesian SAR Team Comes Back From Japan

The Jakarta Globe
With Nothing More to Do, Indonesian SAR Team Comes Back From Japan

A team from Indonesia arrived back in the country on Sunday after aiding search-and-rescue efforts for Indonesian citizens in Japan following the massive earthquake and tsunami there earlier this month.

Fatchul Hadi, secretary of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), said the 15-person team had initially been scheduled to remain in Japan for two weeks but had not been there as long as expected.

“Because there was nothing more they could do there, especially with regard to evacuation efforts, the government decided it would be best to send them back home,” he said.

Team leader M. Shokir said he and the other volunteers helped rescue 45 people in four separate locations in Ishinomaki city in Miyagi prefecture, one of the areas worst-hit by the tsunami.

“Our main objective was to find Indonesian citizens,” he said. “During our time there, we managed to locate 44 Indonesians and one Japanese citizen, whom we found dead.” Despite their efforts, he added, there were around 230 Indonesians still listed as missing in the disaster, many of them in the Ayukawa whaling town in Ishinomaki.

Shokir said the main difficulty his team encountered in their job was the wintery weather.

“The only problem we had was dealing with the sub-zero temperatures,” he said.

“Other than that, everything was fine. We’d prepared well before going to Japan, so we had sufficient drinking water and fuel.”

Despite their preparations, Shokir said the rescuers were constantly worried about the threat of nuclear radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Fukushima prefecture, south of Miyagi.

“However, we had a to-do-list in the event of a radiation threat, and we were working far enough from the Fukushima nuclear station,” he said.

Kojiro Shiojiri, the Japanese ambassador to Indonesia, who was also on hand to welcome the Indonesian team, expressed his gratitude to the government for willing to help Japan during the emergency situation.

In addition to the search-and-rescue team, the Indonesian government also donated $2 million and 10,000 blankets for the tsunami survivors.

“We want to thank you for the Indonesian search-and-rescue team, for their hard work and also their willingness to put themselves at risk and leave their families behind to help Japan,” Shiojiri said.

“We have also learned so many things from Indonesia, which has been able to [recover from] the Aceh tsunami in 2004.”

The ambassador added his government’s main objective now was to find the 30,000 people still missing and help the survivors return to normal life.

“It will take some time,” Shiojiri said.

Trade Official Denies Govt Turning Blind Eye to Illegal Fish Imports

The Jakarta Globe

An advocate for local fishing communities claims the government is ignoring a 2010 law on imported fishery products by failing to destroy shipments of illegally imported fish.


Despite an official denial, Riza Damanik, secretary general for the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara), said on Sunday that while the law clearly stated illegally imported fish must be returned to its country of origin within three days or incinerated, the government had failed to do so.

“There are 5,300 tons of illegally imported fish stuck in four ports and one airport, including Tanjung Priok Port, Belawan Port [in Medan, North Sumatra] and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport,” he said. “They’ve been there for a week now. They have not been returned to their country of origin or incinerated.”

Riza said that allowing such fish to be sold in the domestic market posed threats both to local fishermen’s welfare and to consumers’ health in general.

“These illegal imported fish are usually sold for cheaper than local fish. They’re also more widely available across Indonesia.

“If the government continues being inconsistent about enforcing its own law and letting illegal fish be sold in the Indonesian market without any controls, it will be dangerous for public health because there are no institutions to guarantee whether the fish are fit for consumption or not.”

However, Saut Hutagalung, director of international trade at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, denied that the government was not complying with the return-or-incinerate order.

“We need to keep in mind that imported items are also liable to customs regulations, which in the case of rejected items allow the importer a month to return the items — in this case the fish — to the country of origin,” he said.

“We’re coordinating with customs officials on a time frame to return the fish.”

Saut said the ministry had since March 19 seized more than 180 containers of fish at Belawan, Tanjung Priok and Tanjung Perak Port, in Surabaya, believed to have been illegally imported from China and Pakistan.

“Three containers have already been returned,” he said.

“The reason it’s taking so long to return the rest of them is because the importers have to fill out the requisite paperwork. They also have to wait for a spot in the shipping schedule.”

On Tuesday, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said the government would blacklist Chinese companies illegally importing fish to the detriment of local fishermen.

Fadel said he had found “suspicious indications” involving 13 fish importing companies “owned by three or four people,” but declined to give any names.

Activists Want Wiretapping Safeguards

The Jakarta Globe

Indonesia must have a law focused solely on the mechanisms, controls and procedures on wiretapping, human rights organizations say.


Zainal Abidin, deputy director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), said on Friday that articles on wiretapping in existing regulations failed to protect the right to privacy.

Zainal’s comments came as the House of Representatives debates a new national intelligence bill, with legislators seeming to favor the idea of giving the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) the power to conduct wiretaps and track money trails without court permission.

The draft bill does not have any specifics on controls or watchdogs that are to supervise BIN in this regard. Zainal said the impact of allowing wiretapping to be carried out without proper controls and mechanisms could be damaging to the rights of private Indonesian citizens and infringe their human rights.

“There are currently a number of laws containing articles that authorize certain state bodies to conduct wiretaps,” he said, referring to the Anti-Narcotics Law, the Anti-Corruption Law and the Human Trafficking Law among others.

“These articles are vulnerable to abuse by law enforcers due to lack of controls and clarity, not to mention overlapping duties.”

Zainal said a special wiretapping law should list in clear detail the exact requirements needed to be met to obtain a permit to conduct a wiretap.

It should also specify how long the wiretapping would be allowed to continue and define limitations on who would have access to the data.

He added that the separate law should specify a body that would regulate and supervise agencies that conduct wiretaps.

Anggara Suwahju, a senior associate of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, agreed with Zainal.

“It [wiretapping] could be used to spy on political rivals, for instance. There needs to be clear controls, including, for example, getting court permission,” Anggara said.

Both Elsam and ICJR urged the House of Represenatives to launch a public discussion and listen to as much public feedback as possible before considering passing the national intelligence bill into law, particularly in relation to the regulations on wiretapping.

GKI Yasmin Urges Ombudsman to Probe Bogor After Church Resealed

The Jakarta Globe

The Indonesian Christian Church and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation on Thursday reported the Bogor administration to the national Ombudsman Commission for defying a Supreme Court ruling and sealing off the church’s house of worship.


In the report, the church, known as GKI Yasmin, accused the city administration of refusing to abide by a Supreme Court ruling by forcefully closing down its building in Bogor on Sunday.

Although in possession of a construction permit issued in 2006, the GKI Yasmin church was sealed by the city in 2010 on the argument that residents opposed the building of the house of worship.

The Supreme Court in January ruled against the revocation of the church’s permit by the Bogor administration and ordered the church reopened. However, the city has refused to comply, citing a ruling of the Bogor District Court that the church had falsified residents’s signatures in order to get the building permit.

Erna Ratnaningsih, chairwoman of the foundation, also known at the YLBHI, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday that the commission, which is charged with supervising and improving public services, needed to probe the city for discrimination.

“The Bogor administration has violated a Supreme Court decision on the church building permit issued in 2006. They have even tried to give GKI Yasmin two alternative options regarding this case,” Erna said.

She said one solution proposed by the city shortly after the Supreme Court ruling entailed the church relocating, with the land and building to be purchased by the city. GKI Yasmin rejected the proposals.

The church’s spokesman, Bona Sigalingging, said on Thursday that Bogor officials had told him that they would not abide by the court’s decision.

“On March 7, we met with the Bogor administration and they said that they had received the Supreme Court letter ordering the church reopened.” Bona said. He claimed they said they would again seal the church to prevent tension between Muslims and Christians.

Ombudsman Commission chairman Budi Santosa said on Thursday that it would be following up the case as soon as possible.

“Tomorrow, we will discuss the final time to invite the Bogor mayor [Diani Budiarto] to get his clarification,” Budi said, adding that two previous summonses had been ignored.

“We will find a clarification on why they did not respond to the letters and why they did not execute the Supreme Court decision,” he added.

Meanwhile, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said the government had also requested an explanation from the Bogor mayor on the issue.

“If there is no legal problem concerning the permit, then there is no reason for us to hamper the construction of the house of worship.”

The church on Jalan KH Abdullah bin Nuh was padlocked on Saturday night and barricaded on Sunday morning by police, Mobile Brigade (Brimob) and public order agency (Satpol PP) officers.

Over the past decade, the congregation has had to face down protests from fundamentalist Muslims and officials in order to build its church there.

It was forced to hold its services on the sidewalk in front of the half-constructed building for much of last year after the Bogor administration first revoked its building permit in March 2010.

Different Backgrounds of Targets Leave Activists Guessing Over Bomber’s Motive

The Jakarta Globe

Pluralism and human rights activists have said that political rather than religious issues could turn out to be the main motive behind Tuesday’s bomb scares in Jakarta.


In a discussion on Wednesday, they said there was little evidence pointing to the involvement of hard-line or terrorist groups.

On Tuesday, package bombs were sent to the co-founder of the Liberal Islamic Network (JIL), Ulil Abshar Abdalla; Gories Mere, a former key officer at the National Police’s counterterrorism unit, Densus 88; and the chairman of the Pemuda Pancasila (Pancasila Youth) organization, Yapto Suryosumarno.

Representatives from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Human Rights Working Group, the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), the rights group Imparsial and The Wahid Institute, which promotes tolerance, attended the discussion.

“I doubt that the three terrorist attacks on Tuesday had a religious motivation,” said Usman Hamid, from Kontras.

“In the past couple of years, instead of an activist defending minority rights, Ulil has been known as a politician. Therefore, his position in politics can be one of the reasons,” he said.

Ulil is currently a member of the central leadership board of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party. He is known for promoting pluralism through JIL.

“If this was because of the Ahmadiyah issue only, why weren’t other moderate Islamic figures such as Yenny Wahid or other pluralism activists targeted?” Usman asked.

Ahmadiyah, the minority Islamic sect, has been targeted recently by hard-liners demanding it be disbanded because of its religious views.

Usman also pointed out that Gories and Yapto come from different backgrounds.

While the police have been targeted by terrorists in the past, Yapto is not particularly known for his public message of peace and pluralism. Pemuda Pancasila used to be a youth wing of the Golkar Party that was mobilized for campaigning and security.

“I doubt [the bombs] were from a hard-line Islamic group,” Usman said. “The hard-line Islamic groups have become so confident in their own method of attacking people by mobilizing the masses. And lately they have been supported by the government such as through the gubernatorial regulations banning Ahmadiyah activities.”

Dawam Raharjo, from JIL, said it was unclear whether those responsible for the bombs were trying to threaten pluralism activists or trying to send a message to the president.

The three package bombs sent on Tuesday were disguised as books. The first one, sent to Ulil in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, aroused suspicion and was reported to the police.

However, police officers attempting to defuse the bomb accidentally detonated it, causing one officer to lose his hand.

The second package was addressed to Gories at his office at the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in Cawang, also in East Jakarta.

The bomb was not opened and was safely defuse, the head of the Jakarta Police’s bomb squad, Sr. Comr. Wahyu Widodo, told the Jakarta Globe.

A third package bomb was sent to Yapto on Tuesday night and was later defused by the police bomb squad.