1. BAGIR: 4 lines, 11 counts
1. BAGIR: 4 lines, 11 counts
Chief Justice gives investors go ahead for int'l arbitration
(UNEDITED. The idea of the whole story is that Bagir says if multinational companies are not happy with the Indonesian judicial system, take yoUr disputes with local companies to international arbitrage).
Chief Justice Bagir Manan signed a green light for investors to bring their dispute with local partnership here to the international arbitrage.
"If any parties --both foreign and locals here, are in dispute, we leave it to them whether they will bring the case to our national court or to international arbitrage to settle it," Bagir told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday after briefing tens of candidate judges at the Supreme Court.
"The parties made a commitment on their joint agreement contract. So I guess it has nothing to do with their lack of trust to our national court," Bagir added.
In line with the promised disbursement of some US$3.14 billion in loans and $586 million in grants, creditors in the Consultatives Group on Indonesia (CGI) recently urged the country to accelerate its judicial reforms, as well as a comprehensive reform strategy with clear milestones to establish rule of law and reduce corruption in the courts.
For the first time the CGI also discussed corruption issues while underlined that many investors have lost its trust to local courts and prefer to settle dispute with its local partnership to international arbitrage due to massive corruption in the courts.
A controversial case of PT Manulife Asuransi Jiwa Indonesia is only example on how the national legal system has failed to protect foreign investment.
Even former president Abdurrahman Wahid at the time ordered the Attorney General's Office to terminate the investigation on the criminal suit against the major Canadian insurance company, saying that "the case not only damaged Indonesia's relations with foreign creditors but also ran against national interests."
2. MUKERNA: 2 lines, 21 counts
PKB plan extraordinary party congress
The National Awakening Party (PKB), under the chairmanship of Matori Abdul Djalil, plans to organize an extraordinary congress before March in an attempt to strengthen his grip on the party, which has had a split leadership for the past four months.
All 27 regional chapters of the party, which took part in the ongoing national working meeting here, demanded that the congress be held to resolve the leadership dispute in the party, according to acting secretary-general Abdul Khalik Ahmad.
Matori is leading the minority camp in the party, which relies on the support of millions of members of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization.
The other camp is led by former foreign minister Alwi Shihab and relies heavily on the patronage of Abdurrahman Wahid, the former NU chairman who was Indonesia's president until his dismissal in July.
Matori dissented from the party line when he endorsed the election of Megawati Soekarnoputri as president in July to replace Abdurrahman. He had since been rewarded with the post of minister of defense.
Although the majority in the PKB has since rejected his leadership, he continues to command a small, but loyal, group of supporters, who turned up in full force at this week's meeting.
3. ENVIRON: 4 lines, 11 counts RI, Norway launch joint development initiatives
The government, in cooperation with Norway, kicked off on Tuesday an integrated program aimed at ensuring continued growth while at the same satisfying the needs of environmental protection in Riau province.
The holistic nature of the program, which allows both industrial and environmental needs to be taken into account, solicits the participation of all community levels in the province and was launched with the recent regional autonomy initiative in mind.
Funded by the Norwegian government, the program also seeks to introduce conflict-solving mechanisms with a focus on poverty alleviation through community development.
The five-year program will be guided by an outline already drafted by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and Indonesia's State Ministry for the Environment.
The resumption of the program on Tuesday was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding by State Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim and NORAD Director General Tove Strand.
A total budget of 20 million Norwegian kroners (some US$2.22 million) will be donated for the program and managed by the Directorate for Nature Management, which comprises of stakeholders of the project.
4. POLITIK 4 lines, 12 counts Activists set non-violent political agenda
A rare meeting of activists from political and Islamic-based organizations agreed on Tuesday to develop an agenda of political participation that was strictly nonviolent.
The participants came from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB).
The participating nongovernmental organizations were the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Muhammadiyah, the Ka'bah Youth Movement, the Nation's Vanguard, and the Pancasila Youth.
The agreement, known as the Jogja Commitment, was forged amid frequent street protests in Yogya and elsewhere involving youth groups, which often turn violent. Usually, such street violence occurs during election campaigns -- the next is only two years away.
The activists also committed themselves to supporting a campaign for constitutional reform, better law enforcement and economic development.
However, the participants have yet to set out a clear-cut action plan on what they would do to minimize violence in their activities.
"In an effort to achieve civilized behavior in politics, we shall set up a strategic coalition at both national and local levels to cultivate nonviolent politics at all levels of society," said the declaration read out by Sayuti Asyatri from PAN during a media conference at Yogyakarta Radison Hotel.
The dialogue was organized by Gadjah Mada University's department of social and political sciences.