[Kabar-indonesia] Indo News - 4/7/03 (Part 2 of 2)

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- Indonesian Muslims Hear A Plea For Peace 
- Maluku, Poso remain ‘unsettled' 
- Voter registration will not run smoothly in conflict areas 
- Philippine police link five Indonesians to bombing
- War, SARS hit Bali revival
- East Timor sentences for crimes against humanity
- Preparing for the future
- Jakarta considers nuclear power plant
- Dim prospects for Indonesia's power sector
- Indonesia's meat imports hit by SARS fears 
*****************************

Vol. 9, No. 2076W - The American Reporter - April 6, 2003 
Reporting: Indonesia
Indonesian Muslims Hear A Plea For Peace 
by Andreas Harsono, American Reporter Correspondent
Jakarta, Indonesia 

Jakarta -- A leading Muslim scholar from the Sudan has injected some high-
octane political thinking into the furious debate going on here over the 
possible imposition of Islamic law, or sharia, saying that the concept is 
incompatible with democracy and the principles of modern statehood. 

Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, who now teaches in Atlanta, said in his public 
lectures here that Indonesian scholars should learn more about sharia and do 
comparative studies on other Islamic countries where it was officially 
implemented, such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, and countries where 
sharia had been being campaigned and partly imposed, such as Sudan, Algeria, 
Nigeria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. None of them is democratic. 

"Most advocates of the sharia do not know its content. But they made others 
hostage to their sharia campaigns. It's you who have to learn the content and 
speak out, be straightforward," An-Na'im told a workshop of Muslim scholars on 
Friday. 

Indonesia is host to the largest Muslim population in a single country in the 
world. An-Na'im's speeches are intellectually relevant here, where sharia is 
one of the most important ongoing public debates in post-Suharto Indonesia. 
During former President Suharto's 32-year authoritarian rule, any debate on 
whether Indonesia should change its secular state ideology either toward Islam 
or socialism, was swiftly repressed. 

After Suharto was forced to step down in 1998, Indonesia immediately began a 
promising but very difficult process of restoring democracy. 

Advocates of sharia also turned up, ranging from political parties that choose 
legal and democratic ways to promote their ideas to the Islamic militants, such 
as Laskar Jihad, Islam Defenders Front, Indonesian Mujahidin Council, and 
Jamaah Islamiyah, that advocate violence to achieve their goals. More than a 
dozen of these militants were involved in the Bali bombing last October that 
killed 192 people. 

An-Na'im came to Indonesia earlier this month at the invitation of the State 
University for Islamic Studies in Jakarta, one of the largest state-financed 
universities in Indonesia. He gave lectures in crowded theaters and classrooms 
both within and outside the university grounds, and granted media interviews 
over a two-weeks period. 

"It's incredible. An-Na'im gave incredible input to not only the modernist 
Muslims, but also our colleagues from Hizbut Tahrir whose [sharia] arguments 
were proven to be weak," said Nong Darol Mahmada of the Liberal Islam Network. 

Hizbut Tahrir is a Middle East-based political organization. Its Indonesian 
branch advocates sharia through public rallies and campaign. They argued that 
the Indonesian government should run the economy according to Islamic 
principles. Their well-known slogan is "sharia is the answer." 

Reared in a Sudanese village down the Nile River from Khartoum, Dr. An-Na'im 
earned law degrees from the University of Khartoum, Cambridge and Edinburgh 
University, and is currently a professor of law at Emory University in Atlanta. 
He is the author of "Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human 
Rights and International Law" (Syracuse University Press, 1990). 

He began his involvement with sharia in the 1970s, when he joined a reformist 
movement in Sudan. The Republican Brothers fought for the country's political 
independence from Britain (which Sudan achieved in 1956) and then became a 
social movement calling for reform of Islam. 

In 1983, 50 members of the Republican Brothers, including An-Na'im, were 
imprisoned. He remained in jail for 18 months. Soon after he and the others 
were released in 1985, their leader, Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, was executed. "The 
trial was only one hour," An-Na'im said. Three months later An-Na'im left 
Sudan. He has not returned to Sudan since that time due to the potential for 
persecution against him. 

Ismail Yusanto of the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, who attended a workshop 
organized by Mahmada's organization, argued openly with An-Na'im, saying that 
sharia provides jurisprudence as an alternative to capitalism. Yusanto said the 
gold-based Saudi "dinar" currency might replace the current money system, 
adding that dinar is free from depreciation, unlike the system which lead to 
the Asian economic meltdown five years ago. 

Calculated in dinars, the price of a goat during the Prophet Mohamad period is 
more or less the price of a goat today. One dinar is equals 4.25 grams of gold, 
or about $5.40 at Jan. 19 price of $356 per ounce. 

Hizbut Tahrir also advocates the establishment of a "khilafah Islamiyah" -a 
global Islamic state composed of all the Muslims in the world. Yusanto said the 
recent establishment of the European Union, where the currency is united and 
the borders are opened, should illustrate that in the future European states 
are going to be even more closely united. Why not Muslims? Why can't 
Indonesians, for instance, go to Malaysia freely? 

An-Na'im responded by saying, "What is Islamic about the dinar?" He told 
Yusanto that the dinar was adopted in the Middle East from the Roman Empire. 
Human history has shown that valuable minerals had been used to accommodate 
trading among people long before the Roman Empire. Gold was used to back world 
currencies until the end the World War II. 

"The concept of the sharia was developed in a different world, the pre-colonial 
world. Like it or not, the world we live in today, the post-colonial world, is 
not the world of our dreams. It's not the world that we have lost," said An-
Na'im. 

He said many sharia advocates have a romantic feeling about the glorious days 
of the Prophet Mohamad as well as the other Islamic sultanates. The long 
history of Islam, however, showed that not a single Islamic state has ever 
imposed sharia in the way modern sharia advocates propose, which is to equate 
faithfulness to God with observance of public order. 

An-Na'im repeatedly said that secularism is a part of Islam's history. No pre-
colonial Islamic state ever imposed rules that equated submission to God to 
submission to public order. But he admitted that secularism is seen negatively 
in many parts of the Islamic world due to the ties of secular Islamic states 
with dominant post-colonial powers like France, Britain or America. 

His speeches, generously peppered with Arabic proverbs, also used many 
classical interpretations of the Koran to buttress his arguments, fascinating 
both opponents and friends with his vast knowledge of Islam. 

The Indonesian debate over sharia actually began in the 1940s. In the months 
preceding Indonesia's independence on Aug. 17, 1945, Indonesian leaders worked 
to formulate a constitution for the planned republic. The most debated issue 
was whether the state should impose different rights and duties on citizens 
according to their religion. 

Muslim leaders drew up a draft wherein the state would be based on belief in 
God with "the obligation to carry out the sharia for the followers of Islam." 

This draft, also known as Jakarta Charter, was rejected by the secularists and 
the non-Muslims, which led to its exclusion from the Constitution. For the 
Islamists, the failure became a painful reminder of other Muslim defeat. 

President Sukarno, himself a nationalist-secularist, was elected Indonesia's 
first president. He also did not tolerate the sharia campaign during his rule. 
Suharto replaced Sukarno in a bloody coup in 1965. Suharto also propounded 
Indonesia's own secularist ideology, Pancasila. 

Interestingly, during the post-Suharto period, the Nahdlatul Ulama and the 
Muhammadiyah, the two largest Muslim organizations in Indonesia, which once 
campaigned for the adoption of sharia in the 1940s and '50s, now openly oppose 
it. Their current leaders say that because Islam fights for universal values, 
sharia need not be imposed as it was in the Mecca and Medina of the 8th 
Century. 

An-Na'im called on his audience, who seemed to largely agree with him, to be 
straightforward in challenging sharia advocates. He demonstrated his point by 
confronting, case by case, every question posed by the sharia advocates who 
came to his lectures. 

"How will you deal with the Christians? Although their number is only several 
percent of the population in Indonesia, but that means millions. Please be 
serious. You're dealing with people's lives," An-Na'im told his audience, 
recalling the deadly civil war that Sudan had seen after implementing the 
sharia in September 1983. 

The price of advocating sharia can be high. Gen. Jafa'ar Nimeiri, who is not a 
devout Muslim but a master of political maneuvers, took power in Sudan in 1969, 
backed by the military. An uprising threatened his power in 1976, prompting 
Nimeiri to build a coalition with Muslim cleric Hasan al Turabi of the Muslim 
Brotherhood. 

But soon, sharia amputations and hangings contributed to the popular non-
violent overthrow of Nimeiri in 1985. As for Turabi, he became a very powerful 
person in Sudan between 1989 and 2001, when he was arrested by his own 
lieutenants.
-- Andreas Harsono, a longtime AR Correspondent, won the Neiman Fellowship for 
International Journalists in 1999-2000. He is based in Jakarta. 
-- Copyright 2003 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jakarta Post.com
National News
April 07, 2003
Maluku, Poso remain ‘unsettled' 
Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon/Jakarta

Security authorities will continue to disarm civilians in Maluku and Poso in 
anticipation of the 2004 general election and the planned gubernatorial 
election in Maluku.

Pattimura Military Commander Maj. Gen. Agus Tadi said in Ambon on Saturday that 
despite the 15-month-old agreement to end the three-year-old conflict between 
Muslims and Christians, the situation in the province was still a cause for 
concern because many civilians still possessed arms and explosives that they 
had either made themselves or stolen from security personnel. 

"Despite the calm situation, many people, especially former militiamen, 
presumably possess homemade and conventional arms and explosives that could be 
used should the situation turn tense in the future," he said at a media 
conference here on Saturday. 

Agustadi, also chief of the operation to restore security and order in the 
province, said that searches for arms would be conducted in anticipation of the 
next gubernatorial election and the 53rd anniversary of banned South Maluku 
Republic (RMS) separatist movement on April 24. 

"The two events could revive the conflict because the situation in the province 
has yet to be brought fully under control," he said. 

The government has postponed the gubernatorial election indefinitely because, 
despite the peace agreement, the situation in the province has yet to fully 
return to normal. Herman Sarundayang has been appointed the acting governor to 
replace Saleh Latuconsina, whose term of office ended last December. 

Gubernatorial succession was one of factors that caused the conflict to erupt 
on Jan. 19, 1999. The conflict, which claimed more than 6,000 Muslim and 
Christian lives and displaced more than 750,000 people, ended with a peace 
agreement signed by the two conflicting factions in Malino, South Sulawesi, in 
February 2002. 

The separatist movement's reappearance in 2000 prolonged the conflict as 
several RMS figures were arrested and later brought to court. 

"Like previous years, RMS supporters are expected to raise the RMS flag to mark 
the celebration their organization's anniversary," said Agustadi. 

He added that security authorities had yet to recover more than 500 rifles and 
guns stolen by militiamen of the two former conflicting groups from military 
arsenals during the conflict. 

Brig. Gen. Taufik Ridha, chief of the Central Sulawesi Police, said in Palu, 
the capital of Central Sulawesi, that the situation in Poso was still fragile 
since many people still possessed homemade arms and explosives. 

"Security authorities will continue to conduct the operation to restore 
security and order in the regency and to encourage all refugees to go back to 
their home villages," he said. 

He said security needed to be enhanced so that the 2004 general election could 
be secured. 

He added that the security restoration operation that was backed by the local 
military would continue, while the task force representing the former 
conflicting parties was still evaluating the implementation of the Malino peace 
agreement for Poso signed on Dec. 20, 2001. 

He called on the task force to complete its main mission to encourage 
reconciliation among the conflicting groups in the regency so that people 
taking refuge outside the regency would return home. 

"Many refugees have declined to go back home because reconciliation has yet to 
be conducted in their home villages," he said. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jakarta Post.com
National News
April 07, 2003
Voter registration will not run smoothly in conflict areas 
Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) is planning for flexibility in the time 
frame of the national census and the voter registration process in conflict-
torn areas, an official says.

Agus Suherman, chief of the national census and the voter registration process 
at BPS, said that in the province of Aceh, for example, the event could turn 
political as many people might refuse to participate, slowing down the process. 

"We are well aware that people may be reluctant to participate in the 
demographic data gathering, as they might be afraid of the possible 
consequences. This has occurred in the past, when people in Maluku and Papua 
refused to register. 

"Therefore, we have agreed with the General Elections Commission (KPU) to 
review the time frame of the census and the voter registration process," he 
told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. 

Agus added that BPS would try and persuade citizens in the conflict areas of 
Aceh, Papua, Maluku and Poso in Central Sulawesi to take part in the 
registration. 

The bureau also plans to ask for assistance from the office of the Coordinating 
Minister for Political and Security Affairs to ensure the safety of each and 
every BPS field worker as they fulfill their duties in the conflict areas. 

"In Aceh, we will also request the assistance of the Joint Security Council," 
he said. 

BPS, representing the KPU, is in charge of conducting the national census and 
voter registration process within this month. 

The compiled data from the census and the registration will be used by the KPU 
as a single database for the 2004 elections. 

Indonesia will have its first direct legislative election on April 5, 2004, 
followed by the direct presidential election, which looks to take place over 
two stages as no party is likely to win an outright majority of votes. The 
government has proposed that the first stage of the presidential election be 
held on July 5. 

Approximately 230,000 field officials are conducting the census and 
registration across the country. An estimated 130 million people are expected 
to turn up for the elections. 

According to BPS data, the number of voters in Aceh has reached 1.73 million, 
or 40 percent of the total population, while Papua has 1.69 million voters, 
Maluku 1.14 million and Central Sulawesi 2.01 million. 

Agus also said that the bureau expected to find several obstacles in conducting 
the census and registration in the regency of Belu, East Nusa Tenggara, which 
had suffered from floods and landslides that had claimed 52 lives thus far. 

"We have not started the voter registration process in East Nusa Tenggara, 
especially in the areas hit by natural disasters. We realize that the census 
and the registration are not on their list of priorities at the moment. We will 
give them more time (to recover) before commencing with our tasks," he said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Philippine police link five Indonesians to bombing
07 Apr 2003 10:54:33 GMT
Manila, April 7 (Reuters)

Philippine police said on Monday they were looking for five Indonesians 
suspected of being involved in last week's bombing at a ferry terminal in the 
southern Davao City that killed 16 people and wounded 50.  

Police said the five are believed to be members of the Jemaah Islamiah, a 
Southeast Asian group seeking a strict Muslim state, which Western intelligence 
officials have linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. 

''We have reports that these Indonesians were involved,'' police intelligence 
chief Robert Delfin told reporters. He declined to elaborate. 

Delfin said two of the Indonesians were sighted in Davao City before the 
bombing at Sasa wharf on April 2. 

He said police are looking at the possibility the five belong to the same cell 
of the Jemaah Islamiah involved in bombings on the resort island of Bali in 
Indonesia last October that killed 202 people, nearly half of them Australian 
tourists. 

Delfin said the five Indonesians are also associated with members of the 
special urban terrorist action group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front 
(MILF), one of four groups fighting for a separate Islamic state in 
predominantly Catholic Philippines. 

Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has blamed the special urban group for the latest 
bombing in his city. 

Police say hardliners in the MILF, with about 12,000 members, were trying to 
ruin attempts to rekindle peace talks between Manila and the rebels. The MILF 
has repeatedly said it was not involved in the latest Davao bombing. 

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned on Monday about foreigners ''involved 
in terrorist conspiracies.'' 

''This is a matter of national security and we will not engage in diplomatic 
niceties or accommodations of suspected personalities,'' she said in a 
statement. 

Arroyo also urged the MILF to prove that they were not involved in the latest 
bombing incident. 

''We will not allow the government to be caught in a squeeze play between 
terrorism and the peace process,'' she said. ''Terrorists cannot hide behind 
pretensions to peace. We will expose them and throw the full weight of the law 
against them.'' 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australian Financial Review (via Joyo Indonesia News)
April 7, 2003
War, SARS hit Bali revival
Andrew Burrell in Jakarta and Lisa Allen

The war in Iraq and the SARS epidemic have emerged as the latest serious 
threats to Bali's beleaguered tourism industry, although Australians appear to 
be less daunted than Europeans and Americans about returning to the island.

Despite the global uncertainty over Iraq, Qantas has added extra flights to 
Bali and Australian travel agents are reporting heightened interest in travel 
to the tropical playground.

Bali Tourism Authority chairman I Gde Pitana told The Australian Financial 
Review: "Already people are forgetting the Bali bombings. But the war in Iraq 
and the SARS virus are my new enemies."

He said tourist arrivals had dropped to 1500 a day, compared with 2400 a day 
before the start of the war. Travellers' fears about the SARS virus, which is 
causing major damage to Asia's tourism industry, could also be a factor in the 
recent decline. 

Mr Pitana said 30 per cent of Bali's tourists came from Singapore, where many 
of the SARS cases have been recorded. 

European tourists have been cancelling trips to Bali since the launch of the 
Iraq war, over fears associated with their flights passing over the Middle 
East. 

Americans have stayed away in droves since last year's nightclub bombings which 
killed more than 200 people, mainly foreigners.

Bali launched a massive campaign to lure tourists back to Bali after the 
October terrorist attacks. 

Last month, before the onset of war, Indonesia's Tourism Minister, I Gde 
Ardika, predicted the number of foreign tourists visiting the island would 
return to the normal level of about 5000 a day by December.

Bali's bid to revive its tourism industry has been hindered by the refusal of 
Australia and other nations to lift their travel advisory warnings.

Australian travel group Flight Centre said that despite the warnings, 
Australians were showing renewed interest in travelling to Bali, with inquiries 
rising 50 per cent since December.

Arrivals could still meet a predicted rise to 3000 by June, but it depended on 
how long the Iraq war lasted, Flight Centre general manager Sue Rennick said.

Qantas cut back air services after the Bali terrorism attacks, but has since 
increased capacity, with extra services starting from next week.

"We are operating three weekly Sydney-Denpasar services and one each from 
Darwin and Perth," a Qantas spokesman said. 

"However, from next week we will add second weekly services and increase 
capacity on the Sydney route. 

"These changes are reflective of demand as we see it." 

The chief executive of Qantas offshoot Australian Airlines, Denis Adams, said 
last month that the airline would begin services to Bali from Sydney and 
Melbourne.

He said that by the end of July Australian Airlines would operate three 
services a week from Sydney to Bali, and one service a week from Melbourne. 

New Bali operator Air Paradise is operating flights from Melbourne and Perth to 
Bali and is expected to increase flights to other Australian cities.

Changes to travel insurance since September 11 meant that tourists could still 
get cover to Bali, but it excluded acts of war, terrorism, airline and tourism 
operator collapses, Ms Rennick said. 

However, the premiums cover unforeseen eventualities including medical costs, 
cancellation charges and loss of luggage. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Last Update: Monday, April 7, 2003. 3:00pm (AEST)
East Timor sentences for crimes against humanity

An East Timorese court has sentenced a former militia leader to 12 years jail 
for crimes against humanity committed in the months before and after the 
country's independence vote in 1999.

Jose Cardosa Fereira, who led a militia group in the country's west, was found 
guilty of murder, rape and torture against East Timorese civilians who 
supported independence.

He is one of 17 suspects convicted in East Timor over the violence.

Fereira reportedly told the court after his sentence that he accepted the 
punishment as a consequence of the choices he had made in the past.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Asia Pacific/Radio Australia
07/04/2003
Preparing for the future

President Xanana Gusmao concedes security will be a concern when United Nations 
peacekeepers pull out of East Timor.

The troops are due to leave next June, almost five years after the nation 
gained independence from Indonesia. 

The President told Asia Pacific's Linda Lopresti that a national policy is 
needed to protect East Timor’s borders from the militias who are already 
threatening to make a comeback.

GUSMAO: What we need is national policy on conservation. 

I believe that you know I am (in favour of) an amnesty after the trial, and I 
went a few times to West Timor, talking to the people, our people, and they put 
the problem to me like this: We believe that you want to do better than the 
other institutions. 

This is why I don't believe in security in terms of security itself. Security 
depends on many other conditions. 

The one that I said, another one is social conditions, social in terms that if 
we have enough jobs for the people, jobless people - essentially the youth - 
maybe we can say that we are ready. 

That is why we’ve already talked about this issue with the special 
representative of Secretary-General. 

The problem is not only thinking about downsizing or the withdrawal, but how to 
prepare not only our police, but also our army, to face the inevitable 
withdrawal.

LOPRESTI: Should the United Nations stay longer, is that a possibility that you 
might be lobbying for?

GUSMAO: I would prefer to say it’s better to focus the attention on the 
preparation ourselves, rather than waiting for a delay of the withdrawal.

LOPRESTI: You spoke earlier about reconciliation; in the last few months we've 
seen the echelons of the Indonesian military and militias indicted by the 
United Nations for their crimes in East Timor, before and after the 
independence vote in 1999.

And I know that you're a man who prefers to look at the future rather than the 
past, and you've said your focus is not on past human rights violations but 
rather human rights needs for the future. 

But is that not going against the popular expectation that justice must be done?

GUSMAO: No. It is not like this. 

I told you before that we only sent to trial two militias in three years. 

It is an ambition, we feel ourselves to be capable (of trying) the Indonesian 
generals.

We recognise that we don't have any capability, any means to get the militias 
back to East Timor to face trial, that is something that is - why I continue to 
say an international tribunal is not our priority. 

If we cannot do it with our own people, we prefer to ask the international 
community to help us put an international judge in East Timor - something that 
is a little bit beyond our capacity now.

LOPRESTI: President Gusmao, you said earlier that East Timor is an evolving 
nation and it relies heavily on foreign aid, I guess, as well as handouts from 
the United Nations.

Is there a danger that East Timor could become a dependent society, given the 
pullout of United Nations troops next June?

GUSMAO: It will depend mostly on those of us who govern right now - the 
government and the legislators of parliament. 

Of course we must be more proactive in terms of trying to solve our own 
problems.

When I say there is a lack of jobs, it means that we have to make more efforts 
in shaping investment law. 

People are living in bad conditions and we must do something in terms of 
planning.

This shames us, our capacity to respond to the needs of the nation, our 
capacity to look forward and try to understand our potential, our needs, the 
needs of our people.

LOPRESTI: Australia was once viewed as the most likely economic saviour of East 
Timor. 

Under the deal struck between East Timor and Australia over the oil fields in 
the waters between Australia and East Timor, East Timor will get a share, an 
anticipated 70 billion dollars, but under the deal will only get an initial 15 
billion spread over 20 years because of some hard bargaining by Australia. 

Are you disappointed at the way Australia has handled the matter?

GUSMAO: Of course I should say, first of all, that our government, we accepted.

But as Timorese we were a little bit disappointed, because we took the friend 
that Australia and Indonesia to negotiate the question, the area.

LOPRESTI: We spoke earlier of the difficulties of the past twelve months and 
you've had some difficulties with the government of East Timor, Prime Minister 
Alkatiri. 

Has that improved somewhat, do you feel that the government's now working more 
efficiently?

GUSMAO: No difficulties, it is more the expression of the separation of the 
institutions. 

I always tell them that if we try to walk together it is my duty to say what I 
don't agree (with) on behalf of the people. 

If they do something good, yes, I will be the first one to applaud, but the 
government must do its best to serve the people.

LOPRESTI: President Gusmao, you said once you'd prefer to be a pumpkin farmer 
or a photographer than the president of East Timor. Does that still hold, 12 
months on?

GUSMAO: I still think I want this, this possibility. Unfortunately there was 
too much pressure to accept, and I felt that I should.

But if I can be free to run my pumpkin farm and to do something that in other 
ways can help civil society to change their mentality in the future, to look at 
their own duty as citizens, instead of only demanding rights.

We have too much to do and sometimes I feel that outside, maybe I could help 
better.

LOPRESTI: The people of East Timor, though, were clearly elated when you put 
your hand up to be president. Will you be running again?

GUSMAO: I am in the process of counting down. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Age (Melbourne)
Jakarta considers nuclear power plant
April 8 2003
Jakarta

Indonesia and South Korea are considering co-operating to build a $A334 million 
nuclear power plant in Madura Island just off the densely populated province of 
East Java.

"South Korea is very enthusiastic in co-operating with us in the construction 
of a nuclear power plant. They are even willing to bear the entire necessary 
investment," Research and Technology Minister Hatta Rajasa was quoted as saying 
in Bisnis Indonesia. 

Mr Rajasa said the plant would have a capacity of 200 megawatts. The minister 
said the plant should come into operation in 2015 if the Government decided to 
go ahead with the project. 

The Government previously shelved plans for a nuclear power plant on the north 
coast of densely populated Central Java province following protests from 
environmentalists and the 1997-98 financial crisis. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Asia Times Online
April 7, 2003
Dim prospects for Indonesia's power sector
By Bill Guerin 

JAKARTA - Eddie Widiono Suwondo, president of state power utility Perusahaan 
Listrik Negara (PLN), is struggling to bring the virtually bankrupt monopoly 
back into the black. Ironically, he has had help from the onetime arch-enemies 
of PLN - the independent power producers (IPPs) who in effect own and run PLN's 
monopoly power-supply network. 

In the early and mid-1990s, the Suharto government signed contracts with 27 
IPPs. The government suspended most power projects in 1997 and urged PLN to 
renegotiate the contracts. This led to long disputes between the company and 
the IPPs. 

PLN has now completed contract renegotiations with 20 of them in deals, which 
will all attenuate the company's severe financial burden. 

The virtual force majeure caused by the plunge of the rupiah against the US 
dollar in late 1997 set PLN on a fast track to its current perilous state. 
While its revenue is in rupiah, it pays for its oil and gas and private power 
in dollars, as well as most of its borrowings. 

Twenty IPPs have finally agreed to cut their power price to below 5 US cents 
per kilowatt-hour, which is lower than PLN's current selling price of Rp488 
(5.42 cents) per kilowatt-hour. 

Six out of the seven remaining contracts, all geothermal power projects. Wayang 
Windu, Sarulla, Kamojang, Bedugul, Dieng and Patuha power plants, are expected 
to be resolved by the middle of this year. The Karaha Bodas project remains in 
jeopardy after years of legal wrangling between its contractor and the state-
owned oil and gas company Pertamina. 

The Asahan hydropower plant, the Sibayak geothermal power plant and the Cibuni 
geothermal power plant were all renegotiated last December. 

Power from Asahan will now cost PLN 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, from 7 cents 
under the old contract, and from Sibayak and Cibuni there has been a reduction 
from 7 cents to 4.7 cents and 4.45 cents respectively. 

Widiono said last week that he would adopt tough policies in facing the 
critical years ahead and his first priority was to turn the company's poor 
financial performance around so to allow it to finance new investments in power 
generation and transmission. 

PLN has made no new investments since 1998 due to a total lack of funds 
exacerbated by an almost total lack of commitment from the three 
administrations since former president Suharto stepped down in May 1998. 

Since then PLN has been operating at a loss partly because the government has 
been progressively cutting electricity subsidies - a policy forced on it by the 
International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Badly shaken by last September's fiasco when most of greater Jakarta was 
plunged into darkness for hours, the government is at last addressing major 
issues holding back PLN. 

Rotating power cuts have been in place since the blackout resulting from a 
break in the transmission line feeding power from the giant 3,400-megawatt coal-
fired Suralaya complex, west of Jakarta. 

The country will suffer a serious power supply problem in 2004 and 2005 unless 
there is sufficient new investment in the power sector to generate more 
electricity amid fast-rising demands. 

PLN's own master plan shows that electricity demand will grow by 8 percent 
annually. In order to cope with this $28.5 billion will need to be invested in 
new power generation, transmission and distribution investment up to 2010. 
Without this investment, the country will suffer a major power crisis. 

Additional power demand until 2005 in Java alone is projected to be between 
11,000 and 12,000 megawatts, and about 5,000-6,000MW outside Java. 

The peak load in the Java-Bali grid can reach 16,000MW against an installed 
generating capacity of less than 18,800MW. PLN calculates a minimum power 
reserve margin of 30 percent to avoid extended blackouts in parts of Java 
during peak demand periods. 

The decades of successful industrialization and development during Suharto's 
New Order has left the community almost wholly dependent on power. 

Unfortunately the national power distribution structure has a large gap between 
Java-Bali and other areas. The so-called electrification ratio - a measure of 
the percentage of the population with access to power - has reached 59.4 
percent in Java and Bali this year. Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and the 
eastern regions, including Papua, come in at 53.1 percent, 46.6 percent, 47.2 
percent and 33 percent, respectively. 

As the lights fade on new foreign investment prospects in Indonesia salvation 
for the beleaguered PLN is also at hand from the country's oldest ally - Japan. 
Japan is one of Indonesia's largest foreign investors and trading partners. The 
Jakarta Japan Club (JJC) said last month it would try to assist PLN by 
improving its financial soundness and increasing the capacity of existing power 
plants. 

JJC members are all Japanese businesses operating in Indonesia and are 
concerned about a secure power supply for the large number of manufacturing 
projects in Indonesia. 

At the end of the month both countries inked a yen loan deal worth US$616 
million to be used to expand the generating capacity of both the Muara Tawar 
and Muara Karang gas-fired power plants, just outside metropolitan Jakarta. 

The 30-year loan, $465 million for the Muara Karang plant and $152 million for 
Muara Tawar, has a 10-year grace period and carries a 1.8 percent interest 
rate. 

The agreement will enable PLN to raise the power generating capacity of the 
plants. When finished the capacity of the Muara Tawar power plant will be 
1,225MW and Muara Karang will generate 720MW, more than double its existing 
300MW capacity. 

Construction of the rusting shell of the 1,200MW Tanjung Jati B power plant in 
Jepara in Central Java is also set to resume this month, after a tough two-year 
round of negotiations. 

Hong Kong-based Hopewell Holdings Ltd's chairman Gordon Wu has been trying to 
get rid of his white elephant for almost two years. The Hong Kong-based 
infrastructure company owned 80 percent of the Tanjung Jati B project in Java. 

Recently Wu announced he had sold. Hopewell will get US$215 million and the 
obligatory Indonesian "partner" in the project, 20 percent stakeholder PT Impa 
Energi will get about US$53 million. The remaining US$38 million will be used 
to pay outstanding contractors' bills. 

The Tanjung Jati project began in 1997 with Hopewell as developer and Japanese 
trading giant Sumitomo Corp as the constructor. Sumitomo decided later to take 
over the leadership of the project and will now lead the construction due for 
completion by 2005. 

Funding will come from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and 
a syndicate of other Japanese-based financial institutions. The government will 
provide some modest financial support to guarantee the state retains part 
ownership with Sumitomo. 

Once construction is completed, the power plant will be leased to PLN for 20 
years, and after that the utility will fully own the power plant. 

Financing for yet another plant has been restructured recently. The US Export 
Import Bank (USEXIM) will lend US$381 million direct to the Paiton power 
project that was first commissioned in 1999 but delayed because the government 
needed time to approve the funding for it. 

USEXIM, along with the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation, Nippon 
Export and Investment Insurance of Japan and the US Overseas Private Investment 
Corp are the major lenders to the project. 

In addition, commercial banks from the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia 
and other Asian countries and bondholders will play a minor role. 

Industry analysts say this particular deal will act as a catalyst for US-
Indonesia bilateral energy talks, which have been stalled for several years. 

Paiton, mainly owned by Edison Mission Energy, GE Capital and Mitsui & Co, owns 
and operates a 1,230MW coal-fired power plant in East Java, the largest 
independent power project in Indonesia. 

PLN also claims it is trying hard to improve its efficiency. Part of this 
strategy is to use more gas than oil as a source of energy to generate power. 
Poor planning and judgment by bureaucrats and international agencies over the 
years have allowed Pertamina, the state oil and gas giant, to call the shots 
throughout the energy sector. 

PLN's production costs are high and their rate of 7 cents per kilowatt-hour is 
higher than in some other Southeast Asian countries, where the rate is between 
5 and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour but fuel components are considerably cheaper 
than in Indonesia. In Malaysia, for example, the state electricity utility buys 
gas for $1.60 per million British thermal units (MMBTU), while PLN has to pay 
state oil and gas company Pertamina $2.50 per MMBTU. 

Last year PLN lost some Rp4.47 trillion (US$502 million). Accumulated losses 
since 1997 amount to Rp45 trillion ($5.05 billion). The government decision in 
2001 permitting quarterly 6 percent increases in electricity prices was yet 
another an integral component of the recovery plans. 

PLN has raised electricity rates by an average of 6 percent every three months 
since then so that by 2005 it can reach the commercial rate level of 7 cents 
per kilowatt-hour. The current rate is about 5.24 cents per kilowatt-hour after 
PLN raised its rates this year. 

The subsidy has been reduced from about Rp800 billion a year pre-crisis to 
about Rp200 billion this year. 

The current price level of Rp488 per kilowatt-hour is equal to about 5.42 
cents, still lower than production costs. Tariffs do not properly reflect the 
regional costs of production. Logically the additional subsidies required for 
such a policy should be borne by the government, not PLN, but there is no sign 
of the government moving towards any sort of composite energy plan that would 
address such needs. 

Also, this year's first hike in electricity prices coincided with the 
government's decision to raise fuel prices by up to 22 percent, and telephone 
charges by an average of 15 percent, prompting strong criticism from various 
quarters, including street protests by students and workers (see Mega price 
hikes fuel Indonesia's discontent, January 15).  

For the first time ever industrial users are being wooed, with Energy and 
Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro promising last week that they 
would get a 2.5 percent discount on the next 6 percent rise in tariffs due out 
soon. 

The idea is to prompt such users to analyze their consumption patterns and 
shift operations from peak time to other times. 

This assumes that the PLN infrastructure and transmission system is capable of 
responding to changed demand cycles. This is far from the case at the moment. 
Insufficient capacity and problem of increasing demand has been exacerbated by 
transmissions bottlenecks. 

Though PLN has enough installed capacity to just about meet demand for the time 
being, transmission bottlenecks mean that it is unable to transmit excess 
supply from East Java, where it is available, to West Java, where it is needed. 
For example, the Paiton complex, a mix of state and private coal-fired units on 
the East Java coast, is capable of producing up to 3,200MW of electricity. Of 
this amount, however, only up to 2,000MW has ever been utilized (even during 
periods of peak demand), with 1,400MW dispatched to West Java through the North 
Route 500-kilovolt transmission line and 600MW consumed locally in East Java. 

The lack of a meaningful energy policy in resource rich Indonesia, with its 
abundant reserves of natural gas, and the government's failure to develop the 
potential of natural gas has cost PLN dearly. 

One example alone highlights the folly. A 1,300MW plant in Central Java, Tambak 
Lorok, runs on oil and because of this costs PLN an estimated Rp600 billion 
($58 million) a year more to run than the entire 3,200MW Paiton complex. 

There are still palpable dangers of major power blackouts across the board, 
leading to social unrest or worse and a disruption of the economy. Three 
decades of growth under Suharto means that electricity is even more vital now 
than ever to the community. Not just the industrial sector, but home industries 
and small factories, even in the most rural areas, depend on power. Blackouts 
and rising costs hit them where it hurts most. 

The stakes could hardly be higher. No power means no growth and high costs of 
electricity impact negatively on the efficiency of the whole economy. Major 
industrial users are already being asked to either halt production during the 
peak hours of 5-8pm, or to run their generators during that period - or even to 
feed some of their surplus into the PLN grid. This is meant to reduce peak 
loads by 300MW this year and up to 400MW in 2004. 

The light at the end of this particular tunnel is far from visible at the 
moment. 
-- (©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Asia Pulse/Antara
April 7, 2003
Indonesia's meat imports hit by SARS fears 

Jakarta - The Indonesian food sector, especially eggs and imported meat, is 
suffering from the fallout of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) 
panic. 

The Indonesian association of poultry farm companies (GAPPI) said market demand 
for chicken eggs declined 40 percent after the outbreak of SARS in neighboring 
countries. 

GAPPI chairman Achmad Dawami said demand for eggs had already declined since 
early last month, especially from restaurants and hotels that have suffered a 
sharp decline in number of guests as a result of the Iraq war. Reports of SARS 
deepened the slump, Dawami said last weekend. 

Meanwhile, Thomas Sembiring, chairman of the Indonesian association of meat 
importers (Aspidi), said demand for imported meat dropped sharply over the past 
month. 

Sembiring said 10 percent of 30,000 tons of meat imported by Indonesia is for 
hotels and restaurants.