Letter: A license to kill orangutans

Orangutans in Indonesia are following the same path toward extinction as the equally magnificent tigers, rhino and elephants. How can I be so sure?

One needs only to do the simple math.

Even before the impact of the bushmeat trade (see “Orangutans killed for meat in Kalimantan”, Nov. 2) was known, the Indonesian government acknowledged that at least 3,000 orangutans had been killed each year since the 1970s.

It has to be said that no one really knows for sure how many orangutans are deliberately killed each year, but few would dispute a figure closer to 5,000. With less than 50,000 orangutans remaining in Kalimantan and Sumatra combined, the mathematics are very simple. In 10 years, orangutans could be all but extinct, particularly in Kalimantan.

Ten years from now there may still be a few orangutans remaining in isolated forests in Sumatra, but the more likely outcome will be. If you want to see Indonesia’s only great ape, you will need to visit a zoo, and anyone familiar with conditions in Indonesian zoos would not wish that upon even their worst enemies.

At a conference in December 2007, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono — while accepting millions of dollars of US aid to protect both forests and orangutans — proclaimed to much fanfare, “The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests ... to save the orangutan we have to save the forest.” But since then he has done neither.

Things have gone from bad to disastrous, and predictably, there is nothing to show for the US$10 million-plus of American taxpayers’ money either.

Since that conference, the decline in the orangutan population has, if anything, accelerated and shows no sign of slowing.

There is no conservation plan or government policy worth giving the time of day to, and no law enforcement. Just imagine, since the 1970s, some 200,000 legally protected orangutans have been killed, but there has never been a single prosecution. This says all there is to say about the attitude of the government toward protecting both orangutans and their habitat.  

Indonesia without tigers, elephants, rhinos, orangutans and a great many other species, may be unthinkable, but that does not make it any less likely.

Based on population statistics and not emotions, the demise of these species is all but guaranteed. What will the President and his ministers then say to any child enquiring, “Why did you not save them when there was still time to?”

Only the President knows why. Instead of protecting these unique species and their habitat for future generations to experience, he sits and presides over this never-ending environmental disaster we see exposed in the newspapers every day, while doing nothing to stop it.

Sean Whyte
England

Letter: Invest in education, not tower

According to the news media, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal plans to build the world’s tallest building in Jeddah less than two years after the Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai.

An investment firm agreed to a US$1.2 billion deal to build the Kingdom Tower, which would exceed three thousand feet and be the world’s tallest building.

The reality is that, due to a lack of spending on education and research, the Muslim and Arab world is passing through worst stages of its history.

Poverty, hunger, political uncertainty and a lack of medical facilities have become part and parcel of the lives of their people. Several African countries are also passing through the worst drought in modern history.

Due to a lack of higher education and research facilities, thousand of young talented people are going to western countries in search of better futures and jobs. Modern countries are getting the benefit of their talents and abilities.

According to UNESCO’s latest figures, Islamic Asian countries spend less than 0.1 percent of their total income on research work, which is five times less than African countries, which are spending 0.5 percent of their total income.

No universities in Islamic countries are included in world top 500 universities. The realty is that the world’s tallest building in Dubai will not stop the downfall of the Dubai economy.

Instead of spending huge amounts of money on high-rise buildings and other luxuries, higher spending on education, universities and research centers can provide better opportunities to younger generations and can also bring economic revolution in Islamic countries.

Khawaja Umer Farooq
Jeddah

Letter: Time for a rethink of the Papua strategy

The threat of the military approach in Papua (The Jakarta Post online, Aug. 4) only further alienates Papuans from the rest of the country and adds fuel to the fire.

If a crime has been committed, then it should be a police matter, not an excuse for more military offensives to antagonize and intimidate more communities. And who is it that always automatically labels perpetrators of any violence as “separatist rebels”?

It is in their interest to justify their continued activities in the province to keep labeling even common criminals as “separatist rebels”. Just like in the 1960s when anyone Soeharto didn’t like was, without any evidence, labeled a “communist” and killed or exiled. Now the TNI labels them “separatist rebels”, often without any evidence.

Papuans have a good reason to feel they are being treated as third-class citizens in a country with so much of its focus and spending in the western half of the archipelago. There are still those in Jakarta that see Papua as a colony to be exploited. Whilst those attitudes persist, Papuans will understandably carry resentment and weigh up their options.

Papuans only need look across the border into what they see as a proud, prosperous and independent Papua New Guinea, where their fellow Papuan traditional landowners share directly in the benefits of the mining boom. No amount of military crackdown in Papua Province will kill off the hopes and aspirations of the Papuan people, rather, only encourage them to “think outside the box” that they find themselves in.

A far better strategy would be to pull the military out of their current provocative role and for the civilian government to pay a lot more attention to building a strong community through genuine sharing in the benefits of development.

Under Indonesian law, Papua’s provinces have a right to autonomy, but they keep saying it is not working and they are still being dictated.

Former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid started a whole new positive mood in Papua. Megawati became captive of the TNI and allowed a reversal of the Gus Dur process and things drifted back to the Soeharto era military strategy. And SBY has allowed things to just drift along as the TNI wishes.

It is time to start treating Papuans and Papua with greater respect and equality, as partners, as brothers and sisters in RI. Building a proud and happy community will be the only way to win over Papuans from thinking greater autonomy or even independence. So why not start now.

Nairdah
Sydney

Letter: Dialogue is better than force

| Mon, 04/11/2011 11:52 AM | Readers Forum

The use of power often provides nothing but death and destruction. The recent situation in Libya is again showing the double standards of the US and its allies.

According to the media news, France and Italy have already accepted the Libya opposition interim national council and have vowed to provide more support to Libyan rebel forces. Britain also announced it would provide communication equipment to anti-government forces in Libya.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also urged Libyan President Qaddafi to step down in the interests of his country. Antigovernment forces in Libya now also get military training and weapons from western countries.

NATO is also targeting the military and other targets loyal to the Qaddafi government in Benghazi and other cities of Libya.

Despite foreign and internal pressure, however, Qaddafi has refused to step down and end his 43-year-long tenure.

Rebel forces also said they would not accept any solution that included Qaddafi and his sons in future government. Due to daily fighting, the country’s oil production is already at a crisis point, and its economy is suffering badly. Unfortunately, ordinary people are caught between Qaddafi and foreign forces and are also paying a high price. The killing of ordinary people in NATO air strikes is becoming part of the daily routine.

Even the country’s main oil facilities are not safe from the NATO attacks and oil production has suffered badly because of the unrest. Libyan oil prices on the international market have already touched US$120 per barrel and small and poor countries are paying a high price.

Khawaja Umer Farooq
Jeddah

Letter: Invaluable lessons from Japan

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 03/30/2011 8:47 PM | Readers Forum

Here is a forwarded email that I received recently on how the Japanese faced the calamities that befell them after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, further compounded by the nuclear crisis.

The contents were so inspirational that I thought them fit to share with the readers of The Jakarta Post.

The calm: Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

The dignity: Disciplined queues for water and groceries, not a rough word or a crude gesture.

The ability: The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

The grace: People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody get something.

The order: No honking and no overtaking on the roads, just understanding.

The sacrifice: Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the nuclear reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

The tenderness: Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

The training: The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do and they did just that.

The media: They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins; no silly reporters, only calm reportage.

The conscience: When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.

Isn’t it amazing to know how the Japanese managed to embed such gracious discipline and unique national character even in these dire circumstances?

Surely, each one of us and the whole world can learn from the Japanese culture!

D. Chandramouli
Jakarta

Letter: Simple solution in crossroads

| Wed, 03/30/2011 8:48 PM | Readers Forum

On one of my rare visits to Jakarta, I noticed the traffic situation was definitely getting worse, and this makes me believe that the city administration and traffic police do not have the will to solve the problem and will just let motorists muddle their own way home.

The authorities keep coming up with schemes that cost lots of money, which makes everyone suspicious, and never implement simple, cost-effective solutions.

Just see what happens in many intersections. At a Lebak Bulus crossroad near Pondok Indah in South Jakarta for example, traffic moved very slowly. When the traffic lights turned green, only one or two cars could move, as the main street was already blocked by motorists. It makes traffic lights totally ineffective and a waste of electricity.

Now there is a very simple and cost effective way to solve the situation which most of the world has already applied. Just go to the hardware store and buy yellow paint and paint an illegal stopping box across the crossroads with resulting fixed fines for offenders.

You do not need a policeman there. Just install a camera which gets plate numbers of offenders plus date and time and send the fixed fine by post to the offenders. If you impose financial penalties strictly, it should instill discipline.

By applying such a simple solution, I believe it would help to ease problems in crossroads.

Cliff
Bogor

Letter: BIN to watch over us: Why not?

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 03/30/2011 8:45 PM | Readers Forum

The intelligence bill is currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives. The bill, which was drafted in 2003, will grant the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) the authority to arrest, detain, wiretap and monitor media channels including social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The human rights activists are the frontline groups who oppose the articles, since it will make BIN a superbody with the authority to abduct people who are critical of government. This may be based on our traumatic history under an authoritarian regime.

Are we, the Indonesian people, worried about this too? It is not because I am not pro-democracy, but frankly, considering an escalation of the violations, terrorism, and threats to civil society nowadays, these articles in the draft bill deserve to be considered. We should see any threats toward some figures as equal to threats against the state that was founded as a home for all. The last cowardly act was the terrorism whereby bombs were sent in packages disguised as books.

Although the draft bill would allow the intelligence agency to intercept the communications of anyone deemed a threat to the state without a court order, including tapping their telephone cells, text messages, emails and even to monitor social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, we don’t need to panic, reactive or quickly accuse the state of violating the freedom of expression.

With everyone now so freely opening their mouths to speak anything and write anything, whereby the people can no longer distinguish the appropriateness of content, any measures to drive our democracy’s journey back to the right line is needed. Some people only take the freedom as one of elements of democracy as the base to speak loudly, harshly and even, if necessary, to threaten others who are not in the same position as them.

Of course, not every criticism or outspoken statement is dangerous, because the healthy democracy breathes checks and balances to achieve the matured democracy. However, to understand any statements containing threats to the state is very tangible.

A conversation on radio recently on the discourse of BIN monitoring on Facebook and Twitter received support for the plan, considering the tendency of netters to use unhealthy and provocative words and statements posted on the social networking media. If a Twitter accountholder has thousands of followers, can we guarantee that these followers are able to filter such provocative words?

Some of us may feel inconvenienced that our account could be watched, or our cellular phones tapped. But, as the radio broadcaster asked, “Who are you to be so worried about being monitored by BIN? Don’t be [fool yourself into thinking BIN would care about you].” It made sense. Why would BIN monitor you if you don’t pose any threat to the state? The public reaction to the plan may too excessive, when usually we only post such comment about our petty daily routine.

BIN surely needs an umbrella law to shelter any measures that deal with threats against the state. Sadly, the democracy and freedom of expression has tightly roped the state apparatus. Several times the government has received threats, but the state always shows indecisiveness. It is not clear whether the government is too weak, or afraid about violating human rights.

Recently, there have been rumors about an alleged movement planned by retired military generals using Islamic hardliner groups to overthrow President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

As reported by Al Jazeera, the group would amass millions of Muslims on May 20 (coinciding with National Awakening Day) in a protest to topple the President.

Whether or not this was just a rumor, one thing is for sure: The weaker the government in upholding law and order, the braver they will be.

Titus Jonathan
Serpong, Banten