IBRAHIM ISA'S -- SELECTED NEWS & VIEWS MONDAY, 07 May 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------- YOUNG FARID FIRMANSYAH WORLD CHESS CHAMPION INDONESIA IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK PELAKSANAAN OTONOMI DAERAH SEBATAS SLOGAN SBY'S RESHUFFLE -- YUSRIL I MAHENDRA & HAMID AWALUDDIN -- EXIT TURKEY, -- INDONESIA'S UNEASY TIES WITH SECULARISM --------------------------------------------------------------- YOUNG FARID FIRMANSYAH WORLD CHESS CHAMPION JAKARTA: National Master Farid Firmansyah has claimed the Under-15 world champion title at the 2007 third World Student Chess Championships in Halkidiki, Greece. Last year, Indonesia's Aston Taminsyah won the world champion title for the Under-9 division. Farid (elo rating 2011) dashed the hopes of the host country's Kazantzidis Ilias (2098) in the ninth round. Earlier on Friday, the Indonesian also defeated Greek Galopoulos N. (2069). Farid collected a total of 8.5 points, followed by Plavidis Antonios (2174) with 7 points. Meanwhile, Indonesia's Chelsie Monica Sihite and Masruri Rahman were forced to bow out by their opponents. Playing at the Under-13 class, Chelsie lost to Daciu Dana of Moldova while Masruri was defeated by Yukses Atila Koksal of Turkey. -- JP
INDONESIA IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Indonesia is on the right track to once again becoming one of Asia's fastest growing economies, but still has a lot to do if it wants to rival China and India, say analysts from UBS AG. According to UBS, Indonesia should promote exports and investment based on its comparative advantages in natural resources, complementing the needs of Chinese and Indian industry, while at the same time gradually building up its own industrial base. UBS senior economist for Southeast Asia Philip Wyatt said Indonesia had lately been experiencing more favorable macroeconomic conditions, particularly as regards inflation, and the savings and investment ratios. "But Indonesia must remember it is trying to catch up with fast-moving giants, so it must do more," Wyatt said during an investor forum organized by the Swiss-based investment bank Wednesday. While Indonesia had managed to reduce inflation and its key interest rate recently, Wyatt pointed out that inflation in China and India was running at 5 percent at the most. In Indonesia, however, the government was predicting inflation of around 6 percent and a central bank key rate of 8.5 percent for this year. In fact, Indonesia has just emerged from a recent inflationary spike. By comparison, both China and India have more stable inflation records. This is significant bearing in mind that inflation expectations affect the personal savings and investment ratios -- respectively, the proportion of income being saved, and that being used for more growth-spurring investment and consumption. China and India have personal savings ratios of between 0.5 and 0.4, and investment ratios of between 0.4 and 0.3, while Indonesia is stuck at 0.3 and 0.25, respectively. Despite the bad news, Wyatt said Indonesia did have a number of trump cards up its sleeve. With vast supplies of commodities, such as natural gas, coal, metals, rubber and crude palm oil, Indonesia has been enjoying growing exports on healthy global demand and prices, and is already a main raw materials supplier to both Chinese and Indian industry. Indonesia is the second largest coal supplier to China after Vietnam, while India's Tata Group recently invested in a local coal mining firm to secure supplies for its steel mills. Compared with China and India, Indonesia also has a higher external trade ratio -- the comparison between the volume of exported goods and that supplied to the domestic market. But UBS noted that structural rigidities, such as those in the labor, fiscal and investment fields, were hampering export growth and needed to be addressed. UBS chief economist for Asia Jonathan Anderson said almost all countries in the region would feel the heat from China as an exporter of low-end manufactured goods. Accordingly, Indonesia needed to focus more on its agricultural sector, and develop added-value exports. He said 7 or 8 percent growth would be feasible if Indonesia took such a path, which would enable the country to develop resources-based, labor intensive industries. However, in order to do so, proper supporting policies would first need to be put in place. --------------------- PELAKSANAAN OTONOMI DAERAH SEBATAS SLOGAN REPUBLIKA ONLINE, 07 MEI 2007 Jakarta-RoL-- Sejumlah politisi dan ekonom menilai pelaksanaan otonomi daerah dalam enam atau tujuh tahun terakhir ini masih sebatas slogan dan bahkan ada kecenderungan untuk kembali ke sistem yang sentralistis seperti sebelumnya. Hal itu dikemukakan anggota DPR dari F-PAN Drajat Wibowo, Wakil Ketua DPD Irman Gusman dan ekonom Faisal Basri saat berbicara dalam peluncuran empat buku panduan "Pembangunan Ekonomi Lokal di Era Desentralisasi" di Jakarta, Senin. Menurut Drajat, saat ini pemerintah pusat justru banyak melahirkan peraturan perundang-undangan yang justru menghambat terobosan-terobosan kreatif yang dilakukan Pemda. "Bahkan ada kecenderungan pemerintahan sekarang ini untuk mengembalikan pola-pola pemerintahan yang sentralistis," katanya. Drajat kemudian mengungkapkan adanya fenomena bahwa banyak pejabat eselon satu dan dua di lingkungan Depdagri yang bisa dengan mudah mementahkan berbagai inistif atau terobosan Pemda yang diajukan ke Depdagri untuk mendapatkan persetujuan sebelum dilaksanakan. Contoh lainnya adalah ketika daerah mengajukan permohonan ijin ke Depkeu agar dapat meminjam dana dari luar negeri, proses persetujuan itu sedemikian berbelit dan menyulitkan. "Sementara pemerintah pusat 'seenak udelnya' saja jika meminta persetujuan DPR untuk mengajukan utang luar negerinya. Tidak jarang permohonan ijin itu hanya dengan selembar kertas pemberitahuan saja," kata Drajat yang juga anggota Komisi XI DPR RI itu. Lebih lanjut Drajat mengungkapkan keberadaan PP No 65/2001 tentang Pajak Daerah merupakan contoh kongkrit betapa Jakarta belum rela memberikan kewenangan pada daerah untuk mengatur urusannya sendiri. Dalam PP tersebut berbagai aspek terkait penentuan pajak, seperti obyek pajak, tarif pajak atau wajib pajak diatur sepenuhnya oleh pusat dan daerah tinggal mengikuti semua ketentuan yang telah digariskan tersebut. "Semua aspek sudah diatur dan hampir-hampir ruang gerak bagi Pemda tidak ada lagi. Akibatnya banyak Pemda yang akhirnya membuat inovasi kebijakan yang aneh-aneh dan akhirnya semua menjadi kontra produktif," katanya. Senada dengan Drajat Wibowo, Irman Gusman mengakui masih banyaknya produk-produk kebijakan yang mengarah pada upaya-upaya mengembalikan kewenangan secara sentralistis. Ditegaskannya bahwa persoalan utama tersendatnya pelaksanaan otonomi daerah tersebut bukan di daerah melainkan di tingkat pusat sendiri. Secara khusus Irman menyindir DPR sebagai salah satu pihak yang tidak ikhlas dalam komitmen melaksanakan otonomi daerah dan desentralisasi ini. "Mereka (DPR) yang membuat UU dan pastinya semuanya bisa didesain agar tetap memberikan keuntungan kepada pemerintah pusat di Jakarta," katanya. Menurut Irman, daerah lebih tahu untuk mengurus kebutuhan mereka sendiri dan Jakarta sebaiknya hanya berkonsentrasi mengurus hal-hal tertentu seperti masalah pertahanan dan luar negeri saja. Sementara itu Faisal Basri menyebut, otonomi daerah di Indonesia adalah yang paling bobrok pelaksanaannya di dunia. Pemerintah pusat, kata ekonom itu, tidak memberikan apa-apa kepada pemerintha daerah kecuali otonomi politik sebagai pemanis belaka. Menurut dia, dalam pelaksanaan otonomi daerah itu idealnya mampu memunculkan basis-basis pertumbuhan ekonomi di berbagai daerah. Selain itu, pemerintah pusat juga berharap agar daerah tidak lagi bergantung kepadanya serta munculnya iklim saling bersaing antar daerah dalam menjual produknya masing-masing. Buku Panduan Terkait dengan berbagai problematika era desentralisasi itu, dua lembaga Jerman, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) dan Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) menerbitkan buku panduan "Pembangunan Ekonomi Lokal di Era Desentralisasi" yang terdiri dari empat seri buku. Buku-buku tersebut menyajikan berbagai informasi dan pengalaman praktis untuk kalangan parlemen ditingkat provinsi dan kabupaten serta para penasehat lokal mengenai pengembangan dan penguatan ekonomi serta pemerintahan daerah. Informasi-informasi itu dirangkum kedalam empat seri buku berjudul "Iklim Investasi Daerah", "Ekonomi Partisipasi", Regional Marketing" dan "Akses Keuangan UMKM (usaha menengah, kecil dan mikro)". Tidak hanya memotret, seri buku tersebut juga memberi panduan untuk menata dan meluruskan bagaimana desentralisasi itu seharusnya dilakukan dengan mengambil dua lokasi percontohan, yakni di Solo (Jateng) dan Makassar (Sulsel). Melalui dua contoh itu digambarkan bagaimana daerah seharusnya menjadi ramah investor atau Pemda sebagai ujung tombak otonomi daerah lebih baik membangun iklim investasi dari pada melakukan investasi. Selain itu, dalam seri buku tersebut juga diperkenalkan konsep pembangunan kawasan investasi berpola cluster seperti yang digunakan Amerika. Konsep tersebut terbukti efektif dalam membangun jaringan dan pengembangan investasi dibandingkan dengan pola berpencar. antara ----------------------- NEW MINISTERS IN SBY GOVERNMENT EXIT STATE SECRETARY YUSRIL I. MAHENDRA & MINSTER OF JUSTICE AND HUMANRGITHS HAMID JAKARTA (JP): President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced Monday that five new figures replaced the existing ministers in his cabinet. Justice and Human Right Minister Hamid Awaluddin was replaced by the House of Representatives faction chairman of Golkar Party Andi Mattalata. Transportation Minister M. Hatta Radjasa lost his position to member of the National Transportation Safety and Security Evaluation Team Jusman Syafei Djamal. However, Hatta was appointed to fill the post of State Secretary, which is formerly held by Yusril Ihza Mahendra. Former rector of Surabaya Institute of Technology Mohammad Nuh was named to replace Sofyan Djalil as Communication and Information Minister, who moved to a new post as State Minister for Stateowned Enterprises, replacing Sugiharto. The National Awakening Party secretary general Mohammad Lukman Edy became State Minister for the Development of Disadvantaged Regions, replacing Saifullah Yusuf, and Deputy Attorney General Hendarman Supandji replaced Abdurrahman Saleh as Attorney General. (***) ----------------------- TURKEY, -- INDONESIA'S UNEASY TIES WITH SECULARISM Daniel Hummel, Jakarta (The Jakarta Post, 07 Mei 2007) More than a million people protested the nomination of Abdullah Gul, the current Foreign Minister of Turkey, as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) choice for president. The protesters's opposition to sharia and a military coup d'etat bear witness to a divide in Turkey that has existed since even before the republic period following 1923. This divide doesn't exist in Turkey alone, but throughout the Muslim world including Indonesia. First to avoid labeling this as a battle between Islam and secularism, the issue rests on Turkey's view of a new way forward without alienating its citizenry. Statistics on Turkish society as well as the visibility of many movements within it indicate that the populace is beginning to appreciate Islam more than it has in the past. This increased appreciation may have given most of the support to the AKP and thus placed them as the majority in the parliament. The protesters may have focused on this as many believe the party leans towards Islam. Whatever the reason this uneasy sentiment cast at Islam is the result of the flat-lining of global Islamic power. The Ottoman Turks, the predecessors of the current republic, developed first under Osman in the 14th century. Osman on his death bed told his son and successor, Orkhan, that he was to "cultivate justice and thereby embellish the earth. Rejoice my departed soul with a beautiful series of victories... propagate religion by thy arms. Promote the learned to honor, so the Divine Law shall be established." (Quoted from The Ottoman Centuries by Lord Kinross) The Ottomans then went on to enter Europe and conquer Constantinople, making it Istanbul under Mehmed II in 1453. Mehmed II established secular state law, but this law was always subject to review by the chief mufti or Islamic religious leader, and could be rejected upon contradiction with the tenets of Islam. The administration of the empire was left to a meritocracy of slaves that were educated at the Palace School in Islam, the liberal arts, physical arts, and math. Mehmed II also pursued the military sciences and the arts, and his economic policies were deeply based on the Islamic system of wakaf (endowments) and these, along with guilds, allowed the empire to flourish. As the empire expanded it was welcomed by many Orthodox and Protestant Christians who were often oppressed by Catholic rule in Europe. Tolerance under this Islamic state was renowned while different religious communities formed self-governing units living under their own laws. This system was directly derived from that established by the Prophet Muhammad in Medina. Europe both feared and admired the Ottoman Empire. Ten Sultans passed before it began to collapse, making it official when under Mehmed IV a second attempt was made on Vienna to the demise of the Turkish army. This situation persisted until the 19th century when after the religious establishment weakened the philosophies of Europe took over. Many Turks began to support the nationalist (secular) dream. This culminated in the early 20th century when the Turks suffered their final defeat in World War I and Ataturk rose as the new leader of the Republic of Turkey. His rise saw a lashing out against the only thing that could upset a nationalist state, Islam. Almost everything Islamic was forbidden, thus bringing to a close the last Islamic power in history. Meanwhile, Indonesia on the other side of the Islamic world from Turkey also had bouts between secularism and Islam. Under Sukarno in 1945 a preamble to a future constitution allowed for inroads of sharia, which was later struck out because of fears of succession by the eastern Indonesian provinces which were predominantly Christian. The removal did not matter in this regards because five years later the Republic of South Maluku was declared and had to be quelled by the Indonesian forces. The Constitution of Indonesia remained the same, but still possessed more religion within it than that established in Turkey. Secularism really didn't hit Indonesia until Soeharto in 1965, when the military and therefore the civil administration became dominated by nominal Muslims and non-Muslims. The enforcement of SARA policy (prohibition of ethnic, religious, racial, and inter-group discussions) and the violent actions taken towards Islamic movements witnessed in 1984 can be easily mirrored with Ataturk's Turkey. The creation of a highly centralized nationalist government under such circumstances replicated in many regards the Turkish problem. The Muslim-majority nations of today like Indonesia and Turkey continue to run under systems largely imported and the people after so many years are not content living within them. This means the Islamic states are the most unstable and also the most oppressive of their own people to maintain control. This oppression precipitates the act of "brain-drain", the flight of intellectuals from Islamic countries to Western countries. This causes the lack of scientific and intellectual progress in the Islamic world. This also causes terrorism. In contrast with Soeharto, who replaced religion with nationalism only, Ataturk also replaced religion with science. The replacement has paid off educationally for the Turks. That is one-half of what made the old Ottoman Empire great and stable, the other half, the drive of religion, is still missing. This gap is being felt in Turkish society as well as Indonesian society. The absolute secularists push for secularism and the dismissal of Islam may push Turkey into a more dangerous place, a place Indonesia is avoiding for now. The writer, who holds a BA in international relations from Pennsylvania State University, is working with Trisakti University in Jakarta in its Islamic Economics and Finance program.
