Anti Beggars by-law

One of the purposes of fasting during the month of Ramadhan is to enable Muslims feel the suffering of poor people and show sympathy by giving charity.
For which purpose, several institutions have been given authority to collect the charities and to channel them to the poor people.

However, there are some people who want to give their charity directly to the poor among others to beggars. That is why, there are so many beggars on the streets of Jakarta during Ramadhan, most of them are organized by certain people who arrange the travel of those beggars from their homeland in other provinces among others Central Java.

In order to prevent those beggars from coming to Jakarta, two years ago the municipalty government and Parliament of Jakarta have passed a by-law in 2007 which forbid people from giving money to beggars, which carries a punishment of Rp 20 million (US$ 2,000) fine or 60 days in jail.
During the first ten days of Ramadhan, 12 Jakarta citizens have been arrested for giving money to beggars. Besides, the Jakarta Social Agency has gathered 850 beggars, including 83 infants.

The enforcement of this by-law is supported by the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) on one condition i.e. its enforcement should be carried selectively in the sense that people who donate to others who are really in need should not be arrested. MUI has even issued a Fatwa Haram for Beggars.

Meanwhile, a civil rights movement i.e. Urban Poor Consortium rejected this by-law, they said that such law can only be applied when there is no more poverty in Jakarta.

For details on the above, please click here, here, here and here.

Considering the above, I felt that the timing for enforcement of above by-law is inappropriate, because during Ramadhan people are supposed to be more tolerant and forgiving toward others. However, considering the by-law has already exists its enforcement should inevitably be carried outn step by step.
Firstly, it should be accompanied by taking firm action against those responsible for bringing those beggars to Jakarta. Afterwards, there should be integrated efforts between the central government, the Jakarta government and government of the provincce where those beggars orginated, to prevent the beggars from leaving their villages i.e. by providing more job and/or money making opportunities for them.

Photo: Courtesy of Weelinx

No Islands are for Sale

" Three Indonesian islands will be sold to foreigners " that's what the Indonesian media reported recently.

The report said that a Canadian based website www.privateislandonline.com has advertised the sale of islands located on the west of Sumatra island, i.e. Macaroni island, 15-acre, US$4 million; Siloinak island, 24-acre, $1.6 million; and Kandui island, 26-acres, US$8 million.

I was very shock to hear the news because the Indonesian Agrarian Law forbid the sale of land to Foreigners. So I checked the above website and found two things: First it clearly stated that foreigners are not possible to purchase island in Indonesia, they can only Rent, or alternatively they can buy partial shares of a company that manage the island. Secondly, there is only one island offered i.e. Siloinak Island; whilst the other two are not islands, i.e. Macaroni is name of a resort at the North Pangai Island, and Kandui is the name of resort at Karangmajat Besar Island.

Further, the Secretary of State Hatta Radjasa has denied the news, and so has an official of the Mentawai Regency which goverened the islands.

For details on the above, please click here, and here.

I am very glad that the media report regarding the sales of islands has not been true, therefore no laws have been violated.

Photo: Courtesy of Detik

Stealing Tiger's Fur from a Zoo

The Sumatra Tigers are on the brink of extinction because of rapid deforestation, poaching and clashes with humans.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the numbers of Sumatra Tigers have decreased very rapidly from around 1,000 in the 1970s to less than 400 today.

Due to which facts, I always thought that the best place for endangered animals like those Tigers would be a Zoo where they can live and breed more peacefully under close supervision.

However, I now realize that my perception about the Zoo has been wrong, that was after I read the news about the killing of a female Sumatra Tiger at a Zoo in Jambi Province at the Indonesian Island of Sumatra, stolen the Tiger's Fur & Bones, leaving behind only the intestines.

From TV news reports, I learned that the killers came to the Zoo and gave the Tiger a piece of poisoned Meat, after that they cut it and took away the skin and bones, and about the possibility of involvement of the guard of the Zoo.

For details on the above, please click here and here.

It is very sad to know that anyone would ever want to kill the endangered Tiger. And the sadest thing is that the killing was done at a Zoo where the Tiger is supposed to be safely guarded by authorized security officers.

Maintaining Cultural Products

I believe that every country in the world has specific cultural products such as Traditional Dances, Songs, Dress etc. that should always be maintained.

In recent years, Indonesia has been protesting against the frequent use of it's Traditional Songs, Dances, Batik, Keris, etc. by Malaysia in their tourist promotion campaigns in international TV stations.
The latest one being the protest made by President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono against the use of Balinese Pendet Dance by Malaysia in their Tourist promotion in Discovery Channel.

In order to understand what is actually happening, I will provide a bird's eye view about Indonesia & Malaysia as follows :

Indonesia, 240 million people consisting of more than 300 ethnics living in more than 13,000 islands, has a lot of cultural products. But, considering the collective characteristics of its people, many of traditional songs, dances, puppets, etc. were regarded as collective proprietary of the society and many of their creators were unknown.
Malaysia, 28 million people consisting of Malays(53%), Chinese(26%), Indians(7%) and others, has also mixed cultures. Many of the Malay originated from various islands in Indonesia, i.e. Sumatera, Sulawesi, Java, Bali etc. who bring their culture with them when they migrate to Malaysia. As a result, their language is similar to Indonesian language, their cultures are quite the same e.g. Batik, Songs etc. and their food is quite the same i.e. Rendang, Curry, Laksa etc.

Last night, the Minister of Culture & Tourism told MetroTV that Malaysia has violated Indonesia’s right on those specific cultural products. He said that Malaysia must respect Indonesia’s ownership of those cultural products because they belong to specific regions in Indonesia, like Pendet Dance is a holy dance in Bali, Wayang puppet show in Java.
At the same TV show, Rheinald Kasali said that Malaysia was able to do that because Indonesia has not maintained and protect those cultural products. As an example he said that Malaysia has conducted 6 seminars about Batik showing that many countries have their own Batik. He also said that our government should protect those cultural products i.e. by providing them Legal Protection.
The Minister said that his office is currently making an inventory on cultural products that should be protected, and will obtain Legal Protection for them with the Department of Law & Justice.

They both agreed that Indonesia’s current budget for Tourist Promotion i.e US$ 15 million is very low compared to Malaysia’s US$ 50 million and Singapore’s US$ 60 million has caused Indonesia only able to get around 6 million foreign tourists compared to Malaysia’s 20 million. The Minister said that the budget shall be increased every year.

In reaction to the above protests, Malaysia's Interim Charge d'Affair in Jakarta said that Malaysia never intend to claim the Pendet Dance as their own.
Further, the Discovery Channel has stopped showing Malaysia's said promotional film.

For details on the above, please click here, here, here, here , here, here, here and here.

Considering the above, I felt that the use of Indonesia's cultural products by Malaysia can happen because we have not maintained them properly, this can be seen from the fact that we do not know the writers/creators of many traditional Songs, Dances, Plays, etc. Due to which fact, the government must take a leading role in maintaining ownership i.e. by finding out who are their writers/creators, and promoting them continuously in Indonesia and abroad.

Photo: Courtesy of Detik.

Female Circumcision

According to the tradition among Muslim society in Indonesia, males and females should be circumcised.

For the males, circumcision is carried out when he is between 4 to 9 years old, by cutting a small piece of skin that cover the upper part of a penis.
While for females, circumcision is carried out when she was still few days old, with a prick of a needle on the upper part of her clitoris.
And circumcision could only be done based on the consent of the child's parents.





http://www.indonesiamatters.com/1626/fgm/

Female Genital Mutilation
March 3rd, 2008, in News & Issues, by Patung
Foreign efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation.

United Nations

On February 27th ten United Nations agencies pledged to engage in a renewed effort to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM), or female circumcision, within a generation.

UN Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro said:
If we can come together for a sustained push, female genital mutilation can vanish within a generation.

In Indonesia only the populist press seemed to take an interest in the story with a Surya headline screaming "The United Nations Bans Female Circumcision": [1]

MUI
Prof Dr Chuzaimah T Yanggo, the head of the Youth and Women's section of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), said of the United Nations:

What do they think they're doing, it's not their business. Religion cannot be interfered with by men.

He She said the Health Department had already agreed with the MUI that there was a right way, and several wrong ways, to carry out "khitan". The right way was to "open" the "upper part", the clitoris, a little, by making a small cut, while the wrong ways involved cutting off the whole organ or making substantial cuts, and these were forbidden.

Chuzaimah said the UN was confused about circumcision because it heard stories from Africa, where the practice was more extreme.

Java

Meanwhile the East Java secretary of the MUI, Prof Dr Hj Istibjaroh, said female circumcision was neither required nor forbidden but:

In general it is done.

The purpose was to reduce the sex drive of women, he said, while the purpose of male circumcision was to increase sex drive.

FGM
April 2006, Bandung. [2]

He said among the women's wing of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the Muslimat NU, female circumcision was something thought not worth debating.

Endang Sri of the Indonesian Midwives Association (Ikatan Bidan Indonesia (IBI)) in Surabaya, East Java, said however that the practice was not allowed.

When parents requested it the IBI simply performed a washing of the area. She said requests to have girls circumcised in Surabaya were rare these days, and came mainly from the northern part of the city, presumably from ethnic Madurese people. [3]



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/24/BAFF19D286.DTL
Genital mutilation grounds for asylum bid
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 25, 2009


(08-24) 16:37 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A Northern California family whose daughter underwent forced circumcision in Indonesia is entitled to seek political asylum in the United States, a federal appeals court said Monday.
________________________________________
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco criticized immigration officials who, in ordering the family deported, decided that the girl had suffered no serious harm when her genitals were mutilated as a newborn.
Any form of female genital mutilation is "horrifically brutal" and amounts to persecution under established precedents in federal courts and the Justice Department's immigration courts, the court said.
The 3-0 ruling gives Bob Benito Benyamin, his wife, Anabella Rodriguez, and their three daughters another chance to challenge deportation to Indonesia, where the oldest daughter underwent forced circumcision at 5 days old in 1992 at the orders of a grandmother. The family said she has felt pain from the procedure ever since.
The family entered the United States legally in 1999 and applied for asylum in 2002 after Benyamin's business visa expired. They live in the Sacramento area, their lawyer said.
Federal courts have granted asylum to women who fled their countries after being genitally mutilated or threatened with mutilation. In this case, the parents argued that one of their younger daughters would face ritual mutilation if deported to Indonesia, and that sparing her from deportation would be meaningless if the rest of her family was deported.
In denying asylum, immigration judges cited a State Department report that said female genital mutilation as practiced in Indonesia "involves minimal short-term pain, suffering and complications."
Contrasting the procedure to a court's description of mutilation in Ethiopia, where the genitals are cut with knives and recovery takes 40 days, immigration courts said the Indonesian girl had not been persecuted and that neither she nor her family was entitled to asylum.
But the appeals court said its rulings and a World Health Organization report have found that even in its least drastic form, the genital mutilation of women and girls causes physical and psychological harm and the risk of serious complications.
An immigration review board's "attempt to parse the distinction between differing forms of female genital mutilation is ... a threat to the rights of women in a civilized society," Judge Margaret McKeown said in the court ruling.
The court returned the case to the immigration board to decide whether the younger daughter faced a likelihood of genital mutilation in Indonesia. If so, the board must decide whether the entire family is eligible for asylum or whether the parents and their daughters might instead be sent to Venezuela, the mother's native country. The younger daughter was born there.
Robert Ryan, an attorney in San Francisco who represents the family, said the court had corrected a series of legal errors by the immigration judges, including their downplaying of the older daughter's trauma.
"There's no such thing as mild female genital mutilation," he said.


http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13194813?nclick_check=1
SF federal appeals court orders reconsideration of mutilation asylum case
Associated Press
Posted: 08/24/2009 04:02:30 PM PDT
Updated: 08/24/2009 04:02:30 PM PDT


SAN FRANCISCO — A federal court is ordering the U.S. government to reconsider the asylum claim of an Indonesian man whose daughter suffered female genital mutilation as an infant while still at the hospital.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected Monday the Bureau of Immigration Appeal's denial of the application Bob Benito Benyamin submitted for himself and his family.
The three-judge panel rejected the BIA's reasoning that female circumcision as practiced in Indonesia is of a "less extreme variety."
Benyamin is a Muslim married to a Catholic. Their daughter underwent the mutilation when she was five days old, without her parents' consent. The couple have another daughter. They fear for her safety, and they fear persecution for being a mixed-religion household.

Thank God it's Ramadhan

The holy month of Ramadhan always brings happiness for me, whereby I would be fasting from dawn to dusk every day for one full month, refrain myself from eating & drinking during fasting; and avoid thinking, feeling, doing, saying bad things. As a result, I can expect that after Ramadhan I would be healthier because of regular eating & drinking, slimmer and more wiser.

Last night, the Minister of Religion Maftuh Basyuni has announced that this year’s fasting month of Ramadhan will start tomorrow, Saturday, 22 August 2009.

But this year's Ramadhan is quite different from the past, whereby two largest Muslim organizations in Indonesia i.e. Nadhatul Ulama & Muhammadiyah, tend to be different in starting the Ramadan, this time they both have finally agreed to start on the same day. Beside both of them, there are 3 smaller organizations which have also agreed on the date i.e. Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia, Al Irsyad and Persatuan Islam.

Further, there are other developments which are very good for Indonesia i.e signs of reconsiliation among Indonesian leaders which is shown by the congratulations given by the losing candidates of the presidential election i.e Jusuf Kalla/Wiranto, and Megawati/Prabowo, to the winner i.e. incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono and his running mate Boediono.

For details on the above, please click here, here and here.

Considering the above, I hope that this year's Ramadhan will strongly motivate the Indonesian Muslims to be more broad minded, have more respect on other people, think more positive and work much hard together, so that every problems can be solved much easier & faster. That way the development of Indonesia can be carried out a lot much faster.

Marhaban ya Ramadhan, Welcome Ramadhan.

Photo: Courtesy of Noorhadi Saleh/Foto Kita

Indonesia' s 64th Annniversary

2,827 Divers celebrated Independence Day under the sea in North Sulawesi.

Since early this morning, people all over Indonesia celebrated the 64th. anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Indonesia.

The celebration was conducted in many ways; for example in central & local government offices they were conducted formally like the one at the Presidential State Palace.
Beside that, there were many other ways to celebrate which are less formal, like hanging the Red & White Flag from a 140 meters hill top in Entekrang, South Sulawesi.

The most spectacular one was the one held under the sea in Manado, North Sulawesi, whereby 2,827 people from all over Indonesia and other countries dived for more than 25 minutes 19 meters under the sea off the Malalayang beach near Bunaken. The huge number of Divers that took part in the event broke record of the Guinness Book of World Records, i.e. when 950 people dived in Maldive.

For details on the above, please click here, and here

I felt very happy to know that so many Indonesians gathered happily with very high nationalistic spirit to celebrate Independence Day. I hope that spirit would be maintained in regular daily activities, so that Indonesia can develop a lot much faster.

Photo: Courtesy of Antara