International
Indonesia Today
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
7
Indonesia to review special autonomy for Papua Agence France-Presse
JAKARTA - Indonesia next year plans to review Papua’s special autonomy, a report said Sunday, amid increasing demands for a referendum on the region’s self-determination.
AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (L) shakes hands with his North Korea counterpart Pak UiChun (R) during their meeting at the Foreign Ministry office in Jakarta on August 2, 2010. Pak met his Indonesian counterpart after his four-day trip to Myanmar.
Luwak coffee sales up following ‘’haram” edict Antara
LIMA, West Lampung Indonesia’s largest Muslim scholars “haram” edict on Luwak Coffee, “helps boost” the sale of specially processed coffee by 30 percent. “Instead of avoiding Luwak coffee’s ‘haram’ edict, people are getting more curious about it,” said a local coffee dealer Wahyudi Santoso, here Monday. The publication on the “haram” edict gives a positive impact on powdered Luwak coffee sales. “The public’s response is shown at a fair in Lampung, in which people wanted to know more about the mongoose (luwak) husbandry to the coffee powder making process, the sale of the product increased by
up to 70 kilograms, or more than 30 percent,” he said. Previously, Luwak coffee business dealers were worried that the edict might decrease their sales, but what happened was the opposite, it increased and trigged them to improve the quality of the product. West Lampung’ Luwak coffee has the best quality beans in the world; it is also exported to Korea and Taiwan, which raised the number of consumers even further. Lampung’ Luwak coffee powder prices reached Rp750.000 per kilogram, and the coffee beans are priced Rp200.000 per kg. Previously, West Lampung District Chief Mukhlis Basri said that Luwak Coffe from West Lampung is the best in Indonesia, because the
coffee consumed by Mongooses (luwak) is derived from high quality coffee. “Besides, the producers also paid good attention to the coffee powder processing and packaging, so that quality can be maintained,” he said. Mukhlis also said that luwak coffee became a leading commodity of West Lampung. “The coffee has become a competitive commodity in West Lampung district, which made the coffee producers to become increasingly curious of the commodity as their main source of income,” Mukhlis said. Coffee farmers should be smart in seizing the golden opportunity, and it is also very important for the producers to maintain quality,” he said.
IIMS clinches RP2.4 trillion in transactions Antara
JAKARTA - The Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS) 2010 wound up on Sunday with Rp2.4 trillion in car sales transactions clinched during the 10-day expo. “We are satisfied at the IIMS’s achievement this time,” Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Motor Vehicle Producers (Gaikindo) Sudirman MR said. The transactions rose 41 percent compared to last year and outstripped the Gaikindo-set target of Rp2 trillion, he said.
The increase was in line with the automotive growth which reached 76 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period last year, he said. “The number of cars sold in the expo is 10,087, while the number of visitors is 279 thousand compared to 241 thousand last year,” he said. He said car sale volume during the 10-day expo rose 50 percent from last year when car orders reached 5,518 units. Compared to last year, the number of sole authorized agents and
automotive supporting industries taking part in this year’s expo also rose to 22 and 181 respectively, he said. Hopefully, the success would encourage domestic car producers and sole authorized agents to contribute to the development of the national automotive industry, he said. In addition, he added the automotive industry would hopefully become one of the engines of the national economic growth. “If the automotive industry grows well, more and more workers will be employed.”
The proposed review follows President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s order on Thursday for an audit of special autonomy programmes, amid complaints that they had failed to reduce poverty in Indonesia’s easternmost territory, which borders Papua New Guinea. “If it’s stagnant and there is no progress, then we have to know why,” Yudhoyono said. “We will conduct an audit to find out what has gone wrong, whether it is the management, the budgeting, the supervision or its efficiency.” He added that, among Indonesia’s 33 provinces, Papua received the most money from the state budget. The “comprehensive review” would cover areas including the implementation of regional administration and accountability of performance, Home Affairs Ministry official Sumarsono was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post. “The parameters of the evaluation are now being prepared,” said Sumarsono, who oversees regional administration and special autonomy matters, adding that the central and Papuan governments would determine the parameters. In July, thousands of Papuans rallied to urge the provincial parliament to demand a referendum on self-de-
termination and reject its special autonomy. The rally in the regional capital Jayapura urged Papua’s provincial parliament to hold a plenary meeting to declare that special autonomy was a failure, according to protest leader Markus Haluk. Haluk also said the Indonesian government and Papuans, who are indigenous Melanesians, needed to establish a dialogue, with the UN or a neutral country acting as mediator. An upper house of tribal leaders, the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP), voted in June to reject the autonomy status, which was introduced in 2001 after the fall of former President Suharto’s military dictatorship in Jakarta. MRP chairman Agus Alue Alua said an audit would only confirm the central government’s failure in improving people’s welfare in Papua. Papua has gripped by a low-level insurgency for decades and despite Indonesia’s vast security presence in the region Jakarta remains extremely sensitive to any signs of separatism. Indonesia has sent mixed messages about its willingness to loosen its grip on Papua, offering talks with separatist rebels on one hand while jailing and killing their leaders on the other. Access to the area by foreign journalists has been restricted.
Indonesia inflation puts pressure on rates Agence France-Presse
JAKARTA - Indonesia’s annual inflation rate climbed to its highest this year in July due to rising food prices, officials said, putting pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates this week. The Consumer Price Index accelerated 6.22 percent in July compared to a year earlier, up from 5.05 percent in June. “This is the highest inflation so far this year,” statistics agency chairman Rusman Heriawan told Dow Jones Newswires. Analysts said the higher-than-expected inflation increased the possibility of an interest rate hike. “Year-end inflation will likely be
above the government’s upper range of four to six percent,” Standard Chartered economist Eric Sugandi said. “This certainly opens the door for a rate hike.... Bank Indonesia may even start hiking this week.” The central bank will meet Wednesday. It has maintained its benchmark rate at a record low of 6.5 percent since August 2009. In other economic news, the trade surplus shrank to 580 million dollars in June from 2.47 billion dollars in May due to a recovery in imports and a decline in exports, the statistics agency said. Imports rose 16 percent from the previous month and 47 percent from a year earlier to 11.71 billion dollars.