1. ENVI (1 X 30)
1. ENVI (1 X 30)
"Govt lacks will to reduce pollution"
Environmentalists have said the government must pay more attention to the environment in its development policies, in order to reduce pollution problems at home before it is too late.
"The way the government manages the government is way off track," executive director of the Indonesian Center of Environmental Law (ICEL) Wiwiek Awiati told the Jakarta Post on Thursday.
She said the government was not sufficiently aware of the environment, as evident from its weak environmental policies and poor enforcement of the law against those violating environmental regulations.
"Law enforcement against polluters cannot be upheld, and environmental legislation lacks power to deter them here; therefore, many polluters remain untouchable," she said.
The US$1 million fine imposed on plantation firm PT Adei Plantation for clearing land using slash-and-burn methods was encouraging, but not enough, said Wiwiek.
"What about air, water and waste polluters?" she added.
Wiwiek was responding to the World Bank report on the environment in Indonesia, which said the country was under threat from air, water, solid and hazardous waste pollution.
The Environment Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), which is expected to take a leading role in environmental conservation as a result of its authority to approve environmental impact assessments (Amdal), was powerless, she said.
Worse still, the government managed to allocate only a small budget to the Office of the State Minister of the Environment, thus limiting its scope to chase polluters, she said.
The monitoring of companies that are prone to polluting the environment remained insufficiently thorough, which left the government with inadequate evidence to sue them.
Senior official at the Office of the State Minister of the Environment Masnellyarti Hilman admitted that limited funding was the main obstacle to her office's efforts.
"We even have difficulty in monitoring environmental quality at the sites of large companies such as Newmont Minahasa Raya, Freeport Indonesia and Toba Pulp Lestari," she said.
Wiwiek said there were many confusing regulations related to the environment, which caused conflict between environmental and industrial interests.
Law No 41/1999, which bans opencast mining in protected forest, is still expected, by mining companies, to be amended.
Indonesian Forum on the Environment (Walhi) executive director Longgena Ginting agreed with Wiwiek.
He claimed that environmental management by the government in the last seven years had deteriorated, in view of the huge number of incidents involving pollution and environmental disasters.
Ginting even accused the current government of being a regime without an environmental agenda.
Wiwiek suggested that the government start improving the environment by implementing a system of linked licenses for companies, ranging from operating to environmental licenses.
"Thus, if a company pollutes the environment, the state minister of the environment revokes the environmental license, and the other licenses are automatically revoked, too," she said.
The government should also establish under one roof an environmental enforcement body, comprising civil servants, police and prosecutors, to help simplify the process of legal action, she said.
For the sake of justice, the Supreme Court ought to establish a special court for environmental cases due to the huge impact of pollution on people and the environment.
"The public must also continuously monitor law enforcement on polluters," she said.
She added that companies that managed to protect the environment deserved incentives.
2. IMAM (3 X 14)
Amrozi refuses to testify in Samudra trial
Another show of defiance marked the trial of Imam Samudra on Thursday when Amrozi bin Nurhasyim refused to testify against the defendant, making him the second key witness to adopt the stance.
"I don't want to take an oath and I refuse to give any testimony," Amrozi said.
On Wednesday, Amrozi's older brother Ali Gufron refused to testify against Imam Samudra, the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings, in which at least 202 people perished, mostly foreigners.
Following the tactic previously employed by Gufron, Amrozi based his refusal on Article 168 of the Criminal Code.
The article stipulates that any person who is related to the defendant or is being prosecuted in the same case as him, has the legal right not to testify against him.
Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron have been indicted with the same primary charge of planning and organizing the bombings, an offense that carries the death penalty.
Presiding judge I Wayan Sugawa showed his irritation with Amrozi's refusal by trying to corner the witness into saying which section of Article 168 he had based his stance on.
After thinking the question through for a moment, Amrozi, who was apparently unaware that the article comprised three different sections, gave a short reply.
"Well, Article 168, in that article," he said.
Citing the Supreme Court decision dated March 21, 1990 on admissible exceptions to the article, Sugawa tried in vain to force Amrozi to testify.
Losing his patience, Sugawa ordered the prosecutors to approach the bench and submitted Amrozi's police interrogation file (BAP). He also asked Amrozi to approach the bench to confirm the authenticity of the document.
Realizing that the judge was going to take the file as evidence in place of testimony, Samudra's lawyers voiced their objection. Sugawa angrily overruled the motion.
Amrozi responded by immediately returning to his seat, looking Sugawa straight in his eyes before reiterating his stance.
"I will not testify. Period," he said angrily.
Chief prosecutor I Nyoman Dila later read the summary of the interrogation file.
According to the file, Amrozi had confessed that there were several planning and preparatory meetings prior to the bombings. Those meetings were conducted at different places in Sukoharjo and Surakarta.
"The file is not true because I was coerced into signing it," Amrozi said.
Amrozi was among the five witnesses summoned to testify at Thursday's trial. The trial will resume next Wednesday.
Separately, the trials of 12 other defendants in the Bali bombings were held at five different venues at Denpasar Public Court.
3. INFO (2 X 21)
"No need to set up information commission"
Television industry figures argued on Thursday that disputes between the public and the state over access to information should be solved through the State Administrative Court rather than an information commission.
The secretary-general of the Television Community (Komteve) organization, Helmy Johannes, and the secretary-general of the Indonesian Television Journalists Association (IJTI), Rahman, said that setting up a new commission would be a waste of money.
"We already have too many commissions. It would be better if the dispute over information be brought to the State Administrative Court," Helmy said during a hearing with members of the House of Representatives' special committee for the deliberation of the freedom of information bill.
"It would only place an additional burden on the state budget," Rahman said.
The television industry figures were invited to provide input for the legislators in their deliberation of the much-awaited freedom of information bill.
Article 29 of the bill states that the proposed information commission would be an independent body tasked to settle disputes via mediation or adjudication.
The information commission would be set up at national, provincial and regency levels.
Although opposing the establishment of the information commission, the television industry figures agreed that there should be some information exempted from the public domain.
But, Helmy said, the proportion of information disclosed to the public must be greater than that exempted from disclosure.
According to Helmy, the freedom of information bill must ensure public access to information.
The information that could be exempted from the public domain included security information, commercial information, and information about the location of oil wells.
In addition to limits on access to specific information, the legislators are also preparing an official secrets bill to protect state secrets from the public.
Activists grouped under the Coalition for Freedom of Information have expressed fears that the official secrets bill will affect public access to information, and has repeatedly called for this bill to be incorporated into the freedom of information bill.
Despite suggestions from the coalition, the House has decided to discuss the two bills separately.
The chairman of the House committee in charge of deliberating the freedom of information bill, Paulus Widiyanto, said recently that the official secrets bill would be discussed after the freedom of information bill.
"A consultative meeting of faction leaders has agreed to discuss the secrets bill as soon as the deliberation of the freedom of information bill has finished," Paulus said.
4. UU10 (1 X 36)
House plans to revise population law
The House of Representatives Commission VII on health and population is proposing a revision to Law No. 10/1992 on population growth and family welfare.
Commission chairman Posma Tobing told The Jakarta Post Wednesday that the amendment was necessary as the current law did not fit with regional autonomy, which came into effect in 2001.
"The law was drafted when the country was adopting a centralized system, therefore most policies came from the top."
He said that after the inception of regional autonomy there was the possibility that regional administrations were ignoring population issues as central government control relaxed.
Citing an example, Posma said the role of the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) at regional level had been considerably reduced as it used to carry out programs at the behest of the central government.
Posma said population was a national issue and should be of concern to each regional administration in the country.
The current law did not enable the country to deal with global issues related to population, particularly gender issues, men's participation, reproduction rights and infertility, Posma said.
"Our country has pledged to comply with several recommendations on global issues agreed in international forums on population, including in the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 and the Millennium Development Summit in New York in 2000," Posma said.
The absence of a special institution and officials responsible for population and family planning were another flaw in the existing law.
The draft amendment will involve population experts, including BKKBN deputy chairman Siswanto Agus Wilopo, Demographic Foundation chairperson Srihariati Hatmadji, Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) medical legal committee chairman Herkutanto and Center of Population Study and Policy vice president Sukamdi.
Posma said the team was expected to complete the draft law in September.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world.