Monthly Archives: October 2024

Come in now Indonesian democracy, your time is up

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By Duncan Graham 

Oct 31, 2024

It took less than a week for the reality to be exposed. Even Deputy PM Richard Marles must now acknowledge that the nation next door he praises for its moderation and democracy is now a military dictatorship and a serious threat.

Proof absolute was presented on Friday, five days after his inauguration, when new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto issued orders. His 48-member ministry together with 59 vice ministers, and five heads of state agencies had to present themselves in US-style camouflage uniforms at the army’s training camp at Magelang in Central Java.

Three days of exercises, parades and marches followed as the ministers moved like confused conscripts to martial music, camped in 120 tents and shuffled into lines.

They obeyed orders screamed by swaggering officers who in a real democracy are supposed to be subservient to the voters and their elected representatives. They were flown to the site packed in the sides of a Hercules that landed at Adi Sucipto Air Force Base in Yogyakarta.

In the 1970s as a young recruit, Prabowo trained at the camp south-east of Jakarta. In a speech to the rigid ranks, he said: “I prioritise working together as a team. We will have coordination in Magelang. I think it will bring many benefits.”

Indonesia brags of its 300 ethnic and religious groups speaking 200 distinct languages and dialects spread across more than 17,000 islands but all have been dissolved into sameness with the Magelang circus.

In my-way-or-the-highway threats Prabowo has shown that although he was cashiered in 1998 for disobeying orders and his troops disappearing dissident students before fleeing to exile in Jordan, he’s now back in total charge and with the biggest bureaucracy in the Republic’s history.

Two of his predecessors – second president Soeharto (Prabowo’s previous father-in-law) and sixth president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – were former generals but never showed such a blatant way to stamp authority and crush civilian rule.

If there was any disquiet expressed by the ministers snapping selfies of their adventures – particularly those like civilian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming who normally abhor strutters and foot-stampers – it was well hidden.

Instead, TV news footage showed the supposedly elected individuals behaving more like giggling pre-teens allowed a few days away from Mummy.

Before the ‘red and white (the colours of the Indonesian flag) retreat’ Indonesian law expert Professor Tim Lindsey of Melbourne Uni  wrote: “It is clear enough that Prabowo has no enthusiasm for democracy. He has said, for example, that it is ‘very, very tiring’ and ‘very, very messy and costly’.

“Many activists now speak openly of their fear of being targeted and intimidated by government trolls or even the intelligence agencies.”

Opposition in Parliament is negligible as Prabowo has about 80 per cent of members in his coalition.

By the weekend the regiment of polis had received drill training that had nothing to do with running departments in finance, education, health, religion and all other matters of state.

More appropriately, they got “sessions on anti-corruption, development planning, budget structuring, and bureaucratic planning.” It is not known whether these courses were delivered by soldiers trained in ethics and professional administration apart from their everyday skills in stripping down AK-47s,

Despite their uniforms, fatigues, gaiters and big combat boots – everything apart from rifles – many were too old, better used to fighting head colds and unfit to have ever been sought for military service. That included the plump president who has just turned 73.

“I am not here to make you militaristic; that’s a misconception. Many governments and corporations have adopted the military way,” he reportedly said without naming states and corporations that eschew consultation and consensus.

Russia, North Korea and Hungary come to mind.

Journalists were not allowed to ask questions. “The core values are discipline and loyalty—not to me, but to the Indonesian nation and people,” Prabowo added. Why such pledges needed the respondents to be in battledress was not explained.

In a Trump-style comment clearly at odds with the observable facts from streaming TV, Prabowo’s PR man Hasan Nasbi reportedly explained “This activity in Magelang is to galvanise the ministers – this is not militarism. This is for togetherness.”

PM Anthony Albanese’s decision to stay in Australia with his King rather than attend Prabowo’s inauguration was correct. His presence in Jakarta would have been seen as endorsing authoritarianism to the point of fascism. Sending Defence Minister Marles was the right tactic.

Duncan Graham

Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia.
Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.

TNI raises five battalions for Papua food resilience program 

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 October 2, 2024 20:00 GMT+700 Jakarta (ANTARA) – Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) General Agus Subiyanto on Wednesday inaugurated five infantry battalions (Yonif) to support the government’s food resilience program in Papua region.

The battalions will be dispatched to five regions of Papua to collaborate with the Agriculture Ministry and local residents to cultivate essential crops, including rice, he said.

“These battalions are specialized in different aspects, such as construction and production. We will carry out agricultural programs in Papua with their help,” he told journalists after the inauguration in the National Monument (Monas) area, Central Jakarta.

The battalions include Yonif 801/Ksatria Yuddha Kentswuri, which will be stationed in Keerom, Papua Province; Yonif 802/Wimane Mambe Jaya, which will be posted in Sarmi, Papua; Yonif 803/Nduka Adyatma Yuddha, which will be sent to Boven Digoel, South Papua; and Yonif 804/Dharma Bhakti Asasta Yudha, which will work in Merauke, South Papua.

Meanwhile, Yonif 805/Ksatria Satya Waninggap will be based in Sorong, Southwest Papua.

Based on data obtained by ANTARA, each infantry battalion consists of 691 personnel drawn from different regional military commands (Kodam) across the country.

Kodam I/Bukit Barisan has dispatched 150 soldiers, Kodam II/Sriwijaya 150 soldiers, Kodam III/Siliwangi 450 personnel, Kodam IV/Diponegoro 400 officers, Kodam V/Brawijaya 230 personnel, and Kodam VI/Mulawarman has fielded 25 officers for the battalions.

Furthermore, Kodam IX/Udayana has contributed 306 soldiers, Kodam XII/Tanjungpura 43 officers, Kodam XIII/Merdeka 157 personnel, Kodam XIV/Hasanuddin 225 soldiers, Kodam XVI/Pattimura 294 officers, Kodam XVII/Cenderawasih 100 soldiers, and Kodam XVIII/Kasuari has sent 20 personnel.

Meanwhile, the Jaya Kodam of Jakarta and Iskandar Muda Kodam of Aceh have contributed 350 and 100 soldiers, respectively, to the special battalions. 

Indonesian Military Establishes Five New Battalions for Papua Security

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Bella Evanglista Mikaputri   

October 3, 2024 | 3:05 am

Jakarta. The Indonesian Military has established five new infantry battalions to be deployed in conflict-prone areas of Papua, Armed Forces Commander General Agus Subiyanto announced on WednesdayThe primary mission of these battalions is to maintain security and support the government’s development efforts in the eastern region of Indonesia.“We have inaugurated five battalions to be stationed in vulnerable areas of Papua. Their goal is to assist the government in accelerating development and improving the prosperity of the Papuan people,” Agus said during a press briefing in Jakarta.These ground forces will help secure major government projects, such as the food security program covering over 1,000 hectares of crops in Merauke Regency, and key road construction projects across Papua.

The newly established units are:

  • Ksatria Yuddha Kentsuwri 801st Infantry Battalion for Keerom Regency,
  • Wimane Mambe Jaya 802nd Infantry Battalion for Sarmi Regency,
  • Nduka Adyatma Yuddha 803rd Infantry Battalion for Boven Digoel Regency,
  • Dharma Bhakti Asasta Yudha 804th Infantry Battalion for Merauke Regency, and
  • Ksatria Satya Waninggap 805th Infantry Battalion for Sorong Regency.

In recent years, Papua has seen an escalation in insurgent activity, with sporadic attacks on both civilian and military targets. The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has been responsible for abductions and killings, particularly targeting construction workers involved in key infrastructure projects aimed at improving connectivity in the region.

A notable incident involved the abduction of New Zealand pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens, who was held hostage by an OPM rebel group for nearly 20 months before being released last month.

A conservation treasure is threatened by Indonesian plans for food security

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Military-led project also risks stirring resentment in the easternmost Papua region, researchers say.

Stephen Wright

 for RFA 2024.10.02 Bangkok

Indonesia’s military is taking a leading role in plans to convert more than 2 million hectares of wetlands and savannah into rice farms and sugarcane plantations in a part of conflict-prone Papua that conservationists say is an environmental treasure.

The military’s involvement has added to perceptions that it is increasingly intruding into civilian areas in Indonesia and prompted a warning that it would bring bloodshed to Merauke, a regency in South Papua province slated to become a giant food estate. 

It’s an area of easternmost Indonesia that has largely avoided violence during the decades-long armed conflict between Indonesia and indigenous Papuans seeking their own state. 

The plans are part of the government’s ambitions for the nation of 270 million people to achieve food and energy self-sufficiency. They highlight the tension globally between the push for economic development in lower-income countries and protection of the diminishing number of pristine ecosystems.

Taken together, the sugarcane and rice projects for Merauke represent at least a fifth of a 10,000-square-kilometer (38,600-square-mile) lowland known as the TransFly, which spans Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its name comes from the Fly River – a squiggle on the otherwise straight line on the map that marks the border of the two countries on New Guinea island. 

The great expanse of wetlands, grasslands and pockets of tropical rainforest in the south of the island is “globally outstanding,” said Eric Wikramanayake, a conservation biologist who wrote about its significance for a book on conservation regions in Asia.

Researchers say it is home to half of the bird species found in New Guinea including about 80 that exist nowhere else and other endemic animals such as the pig-nosed turtle and cat-like carnivorous marsupials.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called it a “global treasure” and a proposed World Heritage listing says no other place in the region compares to it, including the famous Kakadu national park in northern Australia.  

“If you were to convert a lot of the TransFly into agriculture then it’s going to change the conservation assessment, it will make it much more threatened,” Wikramanayake said.

“There is going to be some impact and those impacts, it’s like opening the can of worms” in paving the way for further development, he said.  

For Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, the major-general who heads Indonesia’s National Food Security Taskforce, the area targeted for development is swamps that should be converted to agriculture to realize their “extraordinary” fertile potential.

He told a 40-minute-long podcast with state broadcaster Radio Indonesia in August that the 1 million-hectare rice component of the agricultural plans was being funded by the government and overseen by the military and agriculture ministry. The sugar cane plantations and a related bioethanol industry are funded by private investors, he said.

Wearing an indigenous Papuan headdress, Ramdhani said he envisioned that Papuans would ask “Mr. TNI” – the initials of the name for the Indonesian military – for help with cultivating their customary lands. 

Sacred and conservation areas would be protected and the land would remain in the ownership of indigenous Papuans, he said.

“To the people of Papua, especially those in Merauke, there is no need to worry and doubt, there is no need to be afraid,” Ramdhani said.

In seemingly contradictory remarks, Ramdhani said the conversion to rice paddy needed to be carried out in three years to ensure food security, but rice would also be exported – to Pacific island countries and Australia because it’s too expensive to send it to Java, Indonesia’s most populated island. 

Analysis of land-use maps shows areas designated for rice overlap with conservation areas, indigenous sacred places and ancestral trails and hunting grounds, said Franky Samperante, director of Indonesian civil society organization Pusaka. 

Pusaka said in a report in September that more than 200 excavators had begun clearing wetlands, customary forests and other lands belonging to the Malind Makleuw indigenous people in Ilwayab, Merauke. 

Members of the community protested against the rice project during a Sept. 24 reception for Indonesian officials, video shows. 

Women with faces caked in white mud to symbolize grief wore cardboard signs around their necks that said “We reject the Jhonlin Group company” – an Indonesian conglomerate that is reportedly a key part of the agricultural projects.

Earlier government and military-led attempts to develop agriculture in Merauke, including in the last decade, led to land grabs and other problems.

‘Risk of resentment’

The military’s leadership of the rice program adds to perceptions it is increasingly intruding into civilian areas, according to three Indonesian security researchers.

The large agricultural projects could fuel pro-independence sentiment and grievances over environmental destruction, said military analyst Raden Mokhamad Luthfi at Al Azhar University Indonesia.

“There’s a real risk that the project could spark new resentment from OPM [Organisasi Papua Merdeka-Free Papua Movement], who may view it as further evidence of inequality, injustice, and environmental harm faced by Papuans,” he told BenarNews.

Justification for the military’s role in the Merauke project, Luthfi said, is based on the concept of food security outlined in Indonesia’s 2015 defense white paper. 

Officers at the army staff college perceived a security threat from possible food shortages in the future caused by climate change and population growth, he said. However, the white paper also said food security efforts should be led by civilian ministries.

Hipolitus Wangge, a researcher at Australian National University, said the military had silenced discontent among Papuans during a failed program last decade to make Merauke into a major center of food production.

“We should expect more discontent, even bloodshed in Merauke in the next five years,” he told Radio Free Asia.

“Human Rights in Indonesia” side event will address crises in West Papua

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WCC. 30 September 2024

A side event to the 57th UN Human Rights Council entitled “Human Rights in Indonesia,” hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and partner organizations on 1 October, will address the dire human rights situation in West Papua, with ongoing violations that include extra-judicial killings, internal displacement due to armed conflict, restrictions on civil liberties, and a growing number of cases of land grabbing.

This event will bring together grassroots representatives and experts to explore practical actions that the UN Human Rights Council and national and international actors could take to address the deepening human rights and humanitarian crises in West Papua.

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal will also present the findings of its July 2024 public hearings, during which it examined a body of evidence on the environmental impacts of development projects and related human rights violations in the region.

In the first six months of 2024, extra-judicial killings linked to the ongoing armed conflict between the Indonesian security forces and the West Papua National Liberation Army (OPM-TPNPB) have been recorded. A surge in armed conflict has been reported in the period April-June 2024 which has continued to drive internal displacement among the Indigenous Papuan people. As of September 2024, 79,867 people are internally displaced with no access to basic necessities such as food, healthcare services and education, and limited access to employment opportunities. If they return to their villages and homes, they are confronted with a heavy security presence, and constant intimidation and surveillance.

A growing number of cases of land grabbing have been reported from the regencies of Merauke, Mimika, Deiyai, and Sorong in the period April-June 2024, reflecting a growing trend of private investors capturing land and natural resources without obtaining free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous Papuans.

There is an urgent need for the Indonesian government to immediately address the conflict and associated human rights violations, abuses, and impunity through sustainable solutions based on the principles of human rights.

Peter Prove, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), will moderate the discussion. 

“The Indonesian government provides very limited transparency regarding the situation in West Papua, and even less access to the region,” he said. “Accordingly, the WCC is grateful that through cooperation with its civil society partners we can bring information regarding the longstanding humanitarian and human rights crisis endured by the Indigenous Papuan people to the attention of the Human Rights Council, and to the wider international community. We continue to hope that by sharing this information, the long overdue concern of the international community may yet be galvanized.”

Join this event live , Tuesday, 1 October, 13:00 CEST 

(Meeting ID 3353 -CR25  “Human Rights in Indonesia”, Meeting number: 2744 604 7986 Password: ufTQvPJJ877)