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.