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.