CFC recycling to help ozone recover

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is providing hundreds of chloroflurocarbon (CFC) recycling machines to businesses as part of attempts to end the use of CFCs in Indonesia.

 So far, 500 of 900 CFC recycling machines given to the country by multilateral donors have been distributed to car air conditioning repair shops across Indonesia.

 “We have handed out 198 machines (to shops) across Jakarta where chloroflurocarbons were being used illegally. Now we are seeking eligible recipients for another 288 machines,” Kusmulyani, an official from the State Ministry for the Environment’s ozone protection division, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

 The machines, which are worth Rp 35 million a piece, are capable of recovering, recycling and recharging the CFCs produced by the air conditioners of cars.

 Each machine is estimate to reduce CFC imports by one kilogram a year.

 “We are optimistic we can stop CFC imports by December 2007, a targeted,” Kusmulyani said, adding that many importers used fake documents to bring the substance into the country.

 The government believes that around 4,000 tons of CFCs are illegally traded in Indonesia every year, far higher than the 400 tons annual quota set in an international agreement.

 Indonesia does not produce the ozone-depleting substance and the country relies on imports from China and India.

 CFCs, which are used to cool refrigerators and air conditioners, remain popular here because they are cheaper than the more ozone friendly hydroflurocarbon (HFC).

 Indonesia has ratified the Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol on ozone layer protection and is obliged to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances.

 Such chemicals are commonly used in foam production, refrigeration, fire extinguishers and aerosols. CFCs are some of the 96 ozone-depleting substances set to be phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which has now been ratified by almost every country in the world.

 Indonesia has received millions of dollars from multilateral donors to fund the phase-out, which also includes a deadline on the use of hydrofluorocarbons. By 2040, the more ozone-friendly substance will not be used here any more, with an even safer alternative chemical to replace it.

 The Indonesian government has said that between 1995 and 2004, 7,119 tons of ozone-depleting substances, were phased out, mainly CFCs.

 The ozone layer is located in the stratosphere, around 15 to 60 kilometers high. It screens out some of the dangerous ultraviolet rays that the sum emits. Widespread use of CFCs around much of the world throughout the 20th century led to a large hole developing in the ozone layer above Australia, Antarctica and the South Pacific. Residents of the affected area have higher rates of skin cancer and cataracts.

Australia in particular has the world’s highest rate of melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer.

Workers’ right to unionize still shaky in Indonesia

Director on trial for graft

Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The director of state fertilizer company PT Pupuk Kaltim, Omay K. Wiraatmadja, was charged Monday with the alleged embezzlement of Rp 10 billion (about US$1.1 million) of the firm’s money. 
  
 Prosecutors told the South Jakarta District Court that from 2001 to 2005, Omay illegally used the company’s money to finance the renovation of his private house. They also alleged that he rented luxury cars and bought cellular phones for his relatives and friends.  

 “The defendant enriched himself, other people and a corporation, causing state losses,” prosecutor Ninik Mariyanti said.

 PT Pupuk Kaltim was established on Dec. 7, 1977 through a government regulation. In 1997, the government appointed PT Pupuk Sriwijaya coordinator of state fertilizer companies, including PT Pupuk Kaltim.

 A board of directors meeting on June 29, 2001, allowed the company to give money to board members for the renovation of their private residences.

 In a meeting on Nov. 3, 2004, the company allocated Rp 180 million per year for the renovation of Omay’s home in Bandung.

 The 2001 meeting also agreed to provide Omay with two cellular hones and a satellite phone. Omay, however, it is alleged, requested more phones for his family and friends. The company, the indictment said, allocated Rp 12.5 million to pay his phone bills, which are said to have amounted to much more.

 Prosecutors accused Omay of receiving Rp 6.1 billion from the policy he and the board directors set in 2001. Members of the company’s board of directors are believed to have reaped Rp 3 billion in total.  
 Omay’s lawyer, Alamsyah Hanafiah, said in a statement that PT Pupuk Kaltim was no longer a state company because the government had divested its shares in the company and invested in PT Pupuk Sriwijaya.

 “Under the 1998 Justice Minister Decree, PT Pupuk Kaltim is no longer a state-owned company,” he said. “The term ‘state losses’ as mentioned in the anti-corruption law cannot be applied to PT Pupuk Kaltim,” he added.

 Presiding judge Sri Mulyani adjourned the trial until Nov. 6. 

Spillway to speed up Lapindo mud dumping

Judicial bodies told to end rift, speed up reform

Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Rivalry among officials of the Supreme Court and Judicial Commission must end or judicial reform will remain an empty slogan, analysts say.
In the latest incident highlighting the bitter conflict, Chief Justice Bagir Manan has rejected an invitation from the Judicial Commission to attend an recruitment interview of nine justice candidates this Tuesday and Wednesday.
“By declining to honor the commission’s invitation, Bagir is adding fuel to the fire,” Bivitri Susanti of the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
Azlaini Agus, a member of the law commission at the House of Representatives, deplored Bagir’s tactics, saying he should have accepted the invitation as a token of goodwill to improve the relationship between the two institutions.
The conflict between the Supreme Court and the Judicial Commission started early this year when the media reported that the commission made public a list of 13 problematic justices. Five of the justices reported the commission to the police for defamation.
Forty justices later filed a request for judicial review with the Constitutional Court to strip the commission of its oversight power. To the surprise of the public, the request was granted.
The Supreme Court has since been slammed for its alleged resistance to reform by frowning upon external oversight.
The two are preparing revisions to the Judicial Commission Law that was passed in 2004. Commission chief Busyro Muqoddas said he would file for legislative review with the House for greater or “proportional” authority.
The government had earlier declined the commission’s request to be given more power through the enactment of a regulation in lieu of law, saying there was no compelling reason for the President to issue such a regulation.
The House has promised it will endorse the Judicial Commission’s request and has put it on its priority list in the 2007 national legislature program.
Bivitri said the Judicial Commission still played an important role in the process of judicial reform as it had the authority to recruit justices for the Supreme Court.
Harmony between the commission and the Supreme Court is then even more imperative to ensure that the justices recommended by the commission receive full support from the justices in the Supreme Court.
“The disharmony would halt case distribution and increase the political rift in the recruitment process. The justice candidates may have to wait longer to be elected as the old justices have not yet retired,” she said. “I’m afraid they will expend their energy fighting and not for reform,” she added.

New Cabinet need doubted by lawmakers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The President’s newly established advisory team will only  confuse and undermine the work of Cabinet ministers, who should be replaced if they are not doing their jobs, opposition lawmakers say.
The new work monitoring unit, headed by seasoned bureaucrat Marsillam Simanjuntak, was created with a Sept. 29 presidential decree and is tasked to review and advise the President on investment, government bureaucracy, small and medium-sized businesses, state-owned enterprises and law enforcement.
Lawmakers said Friday creating the new team implied Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had little trust in his ministers and could not depend on them to ensure that his policies were properly implemented.
Economist and lawmaker Dradjad Wibowo said the team, working directly under the supervision of the President with in a ministerial-level body, would hamper coordination between ministers and coordinating ministers.
The three coordinating ministers — for the economy, political, legal and security affairs and for the people’s welfare — function to synchronize and monitor the work and policies of other Cabinet ministers.
“Why didn’t (Yudhoyo-no) make Marsillam a coordinating minister? Minis-ters and director generals, for example, will have to answer to the coordinating ministers and probably again to the team,” Drad-jad said.
Tjahjo Kumolo, who leads the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction in the House of Representatives, said the team would cause inefficiencies as it would conflict with the work of the state minister for state enterprises, the state minister for administrative reforms and the National Investment Coordinating Agency.
“If the ministers are unable to implement the President’s vision and programs, and work slowly, they should just be replaced,” he said.
Another working unit, he said, would only lead to more bureaucracy.
A politician from Yudhoyono’s Democrat Party, Anas Urbaningrum, said the working unit would need a strict and crystal-clear job description if it were to succeed.
“One of the huge problems in our bureaucratic system is lousy coordination. With a clear job description and authorities, we shouldn’t expect the team to fail,” he said.
Anas said the new team should not “compete” with ministers because this would spark friction in the Cabinet and in the administration as a whole.
There are no details yet as to how the team will work with Cabinet ministers.
Marsillam has declined to comment about the team’s role, saying it did not deserve publicity.
Dradjad said if the new team was to have distinctive function, it should emulate the work of the West Wing in the U.S. White House.
“They (West Wing appointees) work as the President’s analysts and policy scrutinizers before and after (policy) implementation. They don’t conflict with Cabinet ministers,” he said.

Laikan village and the failure of transmigration

This is the final in a series of three articles written by The Jakarta Post’s Ridwan Max Sijabat on the government’s changing transmigration policies. He was recently invited by Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno to visit resettlement sites in South Sulawesi.

The village of Laikan lies some 70 kilometers south of Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi. It is the least developed village in Takalar, a regency with a population of more than 1,000 families, mostly farmers and fishermen.
The annual per capita income in the village is Rp 3.6 million (US$300), placing its residents well below the poverty line.
Most of Laikan’s work force consists of elementary school graduates and dropouts.
The population is a mix of indigenous locals and resettlers from Java and surrounding regencies.
Like other regencies in the province, the main crops are maize and cassava. Farming is possible only during the rainy season between November and March because there is no irrigation system.
Drinking water is scarce in Laikan during the dry season, when the women travel at least five hours by bicycle to collect water from neighboring villages because local wells are drying up.
The infant mortality rate is high. The local administration says three babies have been reported dead so far this year.
Television is the only mode of entertainment and not every family has their own set.
In Laikan, the women outnumber the men, not because the divorce rate is high but because most husbands work in Makassar as laborers.
“Most men have migrated to Makassar to work on construction projects or become becak (padicab) drivers. Many others work as street vendors and beggars there,” Takalar regent Ibrahim Rewa said during a recent meeting with visiting Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno.
The people’s lifestyle is in stark contrast with the regent’s. Ibrahim lives in a large and comfortable official residence, drives a Toyota Fortuner sports utility car and works in a luxurious office in Takalar.
The regent threw a lavish party to greet the minister at his residence while some 50 meters away, 47 transmigrant families waited, stranded, at the local Manpower and Transmigration office. The resettlers from Java had been forcibly evicted by the locals, who claimed the property provided by the government was their ancestral land. The resettlers were asking the government for Rp 3 million for each desperate family to buy tickets back to their home village to Central Java.
The local administration of Takalar, which split from the Gowa regency in 2000, began accepting transmigrants in 2001 in the hopes of accelerating economic development in the new regency and improving the welfare of the locals.
In cooperation with the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and the Marine Resources Development Ministry, the local administration brought in 100 families from neighboring regencies in 2001 to cultivate seaweed on the regency’s coast.
In May, they wooed another 51 families from Central Java. But the project has been a great failure. The immigrant farmers are struggling to deal with the numerous social, economic and environmental problems in their new home.
Zulkifli, an informal leader in Laikan, called on the government to make available adequate money to save the resettlement program.
“The government has to settle the land conflict between the newcomers and natives. Then the resettlers and natives have to be trained in seaweed farming and fishery techniques. An irrigation system has to be built to support the transmigration program,” he said in a dialog with the minister.
The Takalar regency has great potential for seaweed farming and fishing but the government has yet to pay serious attention to develop its economic potential, he said.
Zulkifli accused the regent of politicizing development programs in the regency with the purpose of winning re-election in the upcoming election.
Ibrahim promised to asphalt the roads that linked remote villages, build the irrigation system and purchase tractors by the end of the year to help accelerate economic development in the village.
His promise was too late, however, for the majority of the Javanese transmigrants, most of whom have moved back to Java, unable to deal with the hardship in Laikan.
The government is now working on a new approach to transmigration in the hopes of avoiding such failures in the future.