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INFID News New staff at INFID Secretariat Genevieve Cecile Carriere will be
working at the INFID Secretariat for two years as a volunteer from Australian
Volunteers International. She is the new Officer for International Relations
and English Language Advisor. She is responsible for INFID's application for
ECOSOC Consultative Status and has the responsibility of improving INFID's
communication capabilities as well as representing INFID at national and
international events as requested by the Executive Secretary. INFID Related Issues World Bank/IMF Laksono Widodo, an analyst at
securities firm ING Securities, said that Indonesia did not need to wait
until the end of 2003 to free itself from the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) economic program as long as the government can maintain the country’s
current positive progress in the macroeconomic area. By ending ties with the
IMF, Indonesia would improve its sovereign rating and could be more
independent and self-reliant to pursue its own economic policies, Laksono
said. Other experts have said that the government might have to extend the
IMF program again if it wants to obtain another debt rescheduling facilities
–deemed crucial to ease the pressure on the state budget- from the Paris Club
for 2004 and beyond. Anton Gunawan, an economist at Citibank, said that
achieving a stable macroeconomic condition was not enough to justify the
country leaving the IMF reform program. To graduate from the Fund, the government
must prove it has the political will and discipline to continue implementing
the reform program, he said. Analysts have also said that
government’s plans to restructure the government’s bank recapitalization bond
would not be of much help in resolving the country’s domestic debt. They said
the move would only allow the government to extend the maturity period
without actually reducing the value of the bonds. Criticism also comes from the
World Bank. Mark Baird, the Bank’s chief representative in Indonesia,
expressed disappointment with the pace of structural reform, especially in
the judiciary. He warned that this was limiting Indonesia’s ability to
generate economic growth, attract investment and reduce poverty. Mr. Baird,
who is retiring in September, said that corruption was probably the country’s
most serious economic problem. He admitted that not even the World Bank’s own
projects in Indonesia were immune from corruption. See Mark Baird’s farewell
remarks at: http://www.infid.be/farewellbaird.html. Sources: JP 27/08 28/08, WSJ
28/08, NYT 28/08 General News Indo-Malaysia Kuala Lumpur’s policy of deporting
and canning of thousands of illegal immigrants has soured KL-Jakarta ties. Indonesian
business leaders and politicians give the assurance that bilateral ties have
not been damaged but are privately unhappy with what they see as Malaysia’s
harsh treatment of illegal foreign workers in the country. An anti-Malaysia
protest took place on Aug. 26 outside the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, which
resulted in an immediate response by Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid
Albar advising Malaysians not to travel to Indonesia. People’s Consultative
Assembly (MPR)’ speaker Amien Rais welcomed the travel advisory, saying it as
"a good thing". "Malaysia has to be careful, and to realise
that every action will get reactions," said Rais, who earlier warned
that Malaysia was "playing with fire" over its tough new
immigration policy. Legislator Rodjil Ghufron, from the National Awakening
Party, said Rais’ criticism did little to help the workers. He said most
Indonesians who are still in Malaysia blamed their own government for not
lobbying hard enough on their behalf. Under Malaysia’s new penalties,
illegal immigrants could face five-year jail terms, fines up to RM10,000 and
caning of up to six strokes. At least 17 Indonesian illegal workers have died
in overcrowded refugee centres on
Borneo after fleeing the tough immigration polices. The victims were among
22,000 illegal workers stranded in tents and government buildings in Nunukan,
a port town in East Kalimantan. Indonesian-Malaysian economic ties
(in 2000): - Two-way trade surplus for
Indonesia of US$ 716.1 million - Malaysian investment in
Indonesia stands at US$7.859 billion - Around 600,000 Indonesians
working in Malaysia Sources: ST 27/08, AP 27/08 28/08,
JP 28/08 Fires in Borneo Southeast Asia will suffer more
dry weather and smoke from fires in Indonesia before monsoon winds offer a
reprieve in November, Singapore’s National Environment Agency said. Haze from
forest and ground fires in Borneo has disrupted air traffic in the region and
caused respiratory illness among residents in Central and West Kalimantan for
more than a month. Indonesia’s leading authority on forest fires said on Aug.
27 that the blazes in Borneo and Sumatra could sound the death knell for
those islands’ tropical forest. World Bank has predicted that Sumatra’s
forest would be gone by 2005, and the same might be true for Kalimantan, said
Bambang Hero Saharjo of Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia’s top
institution for plant sciences. Sources: Reuters 27/08, AFP 27/08,
SCMP 28/08 Corruption The Berlin-based group
Transparency International - which has been compiling the corruption index
(CPI) since 1993 - studied public perception of corruption in 102 countries
and found that 70 nations scored less than five points out of a possible
"clean" score of 10. Indonesia scored less than two points and
ranked 7th in the Top 10 Most Corrupt Countries. Transparency International
defined corruption as the abuse of public office for personal gain, taking in
practices such as kickbacks and bribes. Source: TG 28/08 Regional News Aceh Co-ordinating Minister for
Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Aug. 26 that
the Indonesian government was planning to sue Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leader
Hasan Tiro should the Aceh peace process end in deadlock. According to
Susilo, Hasan Tiro has repeatedly hampered the peace talks. Because Hasan
Tiro is a Swedish citizen, the government will urge the Swedish government to
mete out legal punishment to him, Susilo added. In response to Susilo’s statement,
Swedish Ambassador to Indonesia Harald Sanberg conveyed the support from the
Swedish government to the existence of the unitary state of Indonesia and
praised Indonesia’s efforts to end the conflict in Aceh. But he stated that
his government might not take any legal action against its citizen Hasan Tiro,
as long as he does not violate any law in Sweden. Sources: JP 27/08, Xn 27/08 Maluku Two Christian separatist leaders
on trial for subversion on Aug. 26 challenged Indonesia’s official history in
a formal objection to their treason trial and blamed the sectarian violence
in Maluku on the military and on the Java-based Islamic militia Laskar Jihad.
They also said more than 10,000 people had died in the religious conflict
since January 1999, considerably more than the official figures. Alex
Manuputty, leader of the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), and senior Front
official Samuel Waileruny, face up to 20 years in jail over four charges,
including two of treason. Ja’afar Umar Thalib, the head of the Laskar Jihad,
is also on trial in a separate Jakarta court for inciting violence in Maluku.
But unlike Manuputty and Waileruny, Thalib is not in custody. Sources: AFP 26/08, SCMP 26/08 Abbreviation AFP Agence France-Presse Stichting TitanE |
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