Tag: Indonesia

50 Yahudi Indonesia Jamu Ulama Muslim, Diplomat Amerika, Sempena Perayaan Seder

Merdeka.com: 50 orang Yahudi Indonesia berhimpun dalam perayaan Seder, yang merupakan sebuah tradisi makan malam bersama yang dilangsungkan setiap tahun sejak berabad lamanya.

Antara yang diundang ke majlis yang diadakan di Indonesia pada Jumaat lalu (22 Apr) termasuklah Timbalan Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat (AS) Antony Blinken dan beberapa orang ulama Muslim.

Ustaz Suhai Suat, salah seorang ulama Muslim yang menghadiri majlis jamuan tersebut memberitahu rancangan televisyen Israel Channel 10 bahawa semua agama di dunia ini mempunyai tujuan yang sama, iaitu keamanan.

“Maka itu kita tidak sepatutnya mengancam antara sesama manusia,” menurut Ustaz Suhai.

MENGENAI KAUM YAHUDI INDONESIA

Antara ulama lain yang turut hadir ke majlis perayaan tersebut termasuk Ketua Umum Ikatan Mubaligh Seluruh Indonesia, Kiayi Haji Yayan Hendrayana, serta Ketua Umum Gerakan Pemuda Islam Indonesia (GPII), Encik Karman.

Menurut Encik Blinken seperti yang ditukil oleh laman Times of Israel: “Lelaki dan wanita yang berbeza kepercayaan agama dapat berhimpun untuk meraikan perayaan tradisional Yahudi di negara yang majoriti penduduknya beragama Islam. Ini adalah sesuatu yang amat baik.”

Majlis perayaan Yahudi yang disambut meriah itu menandakan sesuatu yang penting di negara tersebut, hanya tiga tahun setelah anggota pelampau Islam memberikan tekanan kepada pihak berkuasa supaya menutup satu-satunya saumaah (synagogue) di ibu kota Indonesia itu, lapor Times of Israel.

Yahudi Indonesia kebanyakannya merupakan keturunan kaum Yahudi Iraq dan Belanda yang berhijrah ke sana sejak tahun 1920-an.

Memandangkan agama Yahudi tidak diiktiraf di Indonesia, kad pengenalan mereka lazimnya diletakkan sebagai beragama ‘Kristian’.

MENTERI ISRAEL: ADA KERJASAMA RAHSIA INDONESIA-ISRAEL

Bulan lalu, Perdana Menteri Israel Benjamin Netanyahu bertemu dengan beberapa wartawan Indonesia di pejabatnya di Baitulmakdis.

Beliau mengatakan, sebenarnya banyak hubungan dua hala terjalin antara Indonesia dengan Israel.

“Banyak sekali kesempatan untuk menjalankan kerja sama dua hala, terutama dalam bidang teknologi air dan teknologi tinggi,” ujar Encik Netanyahu kepada wartawan dari pelbagai wartawan media Indonesia.

Menurut media Israel lagi, pada awal bulan Mac, Timbalan Menteri Luar Israel Tzipi Hotovely memberitahu parlimen Israel bahawa Tel Aviv mempunyai hubungan rahsia dengan Jakarta.

Namun demikian, pemerintah Israel melarang Menteri Luar Indonesia Retno L. P. Marsudi masuk ke wilayah Ramallah untuk melantik Konsul Kehormatan.

Menurut pihak Israel, ia tidak mengizinkan Menteri Luar Retno masuk ke Israel kerana beliau bukan sekadar mahu ke Baitulmakdis sahaja, tetapi dipercayai ada rancangan lain.

Source: http://berita.mediacorp.sg

April 27, 2016
Zero Chance Of Haze Like Last Year In region

There is “zero chance” that any haze this year will be as severe as last year’s episode — where air quality hit hazardous levels and forced the closure of schools in Singapore and in the region — the head of an Indonesian agency recently set up to restore degraded peatland has boldly promised.

Acknowledging that fire prevention had not been a focus previously, Mr Nazir Foead, who was making his first overseas speech since taking the reins at the Peatland Restoration Agency, said “we are not in the denial stage anymore, we’re in the stage of correcting the mistakes of the past”.

“There will be hotspots, I cannot deny,” he added. “There will be fires, but the scale of the fires that create haze that choke the Indonesian public and our neighbours will dramatically be less.”

Mr Nazir, a former environmental activist, was addressing an audience of agroforestry and business players and non-governmental organisation representatives at the 3rd Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources organised by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs think tank on Friday (April 15).

Asked if his prediction of less severe haze was too bold, Mr Nazir said things are very different this time round. Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday issued a moratorium on new permits for oil palm plantations, and had vowed in January to sack local military and police chiefs for uncontrolled fires in their provinces, for example.

“I cannot emphasise how seriously now Indonesia is preparing actions, programmes, changing policies to prevent fires from happening,” he said, at the event held at the Ritz-Carlton, Millennia Singapore.

The scale of the disaster last year, which affected tens of millions of people and cost Indonesia up to 475 trillion rupiah and Singapore about S$700 million, shocked the Indonesian government and sparked determination to not allow history to repeat, he added.

The haze episode in Singapore was protracted last year, lasting from September to November. The Pollutant Standards Index levels breached 2,000 in Central Kalimantan and Indonesians fled their homes for other cities, while in Singapore, the PSI crept to hazardous levels (above 300), causing schools to close on Sept 25.

The Peatland Restoration Agency was formed in January, with Mr Widodo setting the target to restore 2 million hectares of peatland in seven provinces. The agency has mapped out 2.26 million hectares of dry or canalised peatland that has been burnt frequently in recent years. Of this area, 360,000 hectares is conservation land. The remainder are in cultivation areas — three-quarters are concession areas awarded to companies and one-quarter is community land.

Of 2.6 million hectares that was burnt last year in Indonesia, nearly 1 million was peatland.

Mr Nazir’s agency aims to re-wet the peatland — carbon-rich wetlands that burn easily when drained — and provide alternative livelihoods to communities by identifying crops such as sago palm that grow well in wet conditions.

Peatland restoration in Riau province’s Meranti Islands was launched a few days ago, and Mr Nazir said peatland maps of four districts will be available in about three months.

His “dream” is to make the information publicly available. Asked about legal concerns previously cited, that have prevented Indonesia from publicly disclosing the concession maps of companies, Mr Nazir said it is something government institutions need to dicuss internally. “What I see (is), there is no national secret in providing the information of the concessions (to the public),” he said. Instead, companies and land managers would know they are being watched and be motivated to do right.

“When companies do good, communities and smallholders, the government has to think how to give incentives to do better, and let the public also see what is happening on the ground. That can only happen if we expose the maps,” he told reporters.

His agency has its work cut out, working with 12 ministers and seven governors and ensuring quality dams are built to raise the water table, among other tasks. But Mr Nazir reckoned the toughest challenge will be getting companies that have not adopted sustainability measures on board. “There might be corporations that might think (it’s) not my problem, it’s the community that burns the land.”

After mapping out the 1.9 million hectares of peatland in cultivated areas at a suitable scale, his agency will engage companies on restoration plans. Pulp companies commonly grow acacia on rather dry land but Mr Nazir said switching to species that grow well on wet peatland would be ideal.

Source: TODAY Online

April 17, 2016
Suspected Terrorists In Indonesia Planned To Detonate Bombs In Java, Sumatra

Indonesian police have arrested nine suspected Islamic State supporters who were allegedly preparing terror attacks for later this month.

Police said members of the terrorist cell may have been planning a New Year’s Eve attack in Jakarta.

In a series of raids across the island of Java, Indonesia’s special anti-terror unit uncovered bomb-making materials and a black IS-style flag.

The arrests followed a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police and coincide with meetings to be held today in Jakarta between Australian Attorney-General George Brandis, counter-terrorism minister Michael Keenan and senior Indonesian politicians.

Those arrested include a teacher at an Islamic school and one of his students.

National police chief Badrodin Haiti said anti-terror police from unit Densus 88 acted after information received from the Australian Federal Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He said the men appeared to have prepared imminent attacks in Java and Sumatra.

The first arrest was made on Friday in the West Java city of Banjar.

That led to more raids across Java, including one on Saturday night in central Java, where police said they found bomb-making materials including fertiliser, ball bearings, nails and electronic switches.

Police would not say where the attacks were intended, but they noted they found a map of greater Jakarta with the bomb-making materials.

Authorities warned Indonesians to be wary of a likely terror threat over the next 10 days, even after the weekend raids.

Security stepped up to safeguard churches

Indonesia saw a spate of militant attacks in the 2000s, the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists.

Police have been largely successful in destroying domestic militant cells since then, but officials now worry about a resurgence in militancy inspired by groups such as Islamic State and Indonesians who return after fighting with the group.

Authorities plan to deploy more than 150,000 security personnel and several religious organisations to safeguard churches and public places around the country during Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations, the country’s military chief said on Friday.

Security and surveillance had already been stepped up in some areas following the attacks in Paris last month that killed 130 people and for which Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

Indonesia is home to an estimated 25 million Christian people, roughly 10 per cent of the total population.

They live mostly on smaller, more remote islands, not on the two most populated islands of Java and Sumatra.

Source: www.abc.net.au

December 21, 2015
Indonesia Introduces Strict Anti-Gay Law, Gay Sex Punishable With 100 Strokes Of Cane

Strict laws against homosexuality have come into effect in the conservative Indonesian province of Aceh.

Gay sex between Muslim men or women, both locals and foreigners, can now be punished with 100 strokes of the cane.

The law, passed in 2014 but only now being enforced, has faced opposition by rights groups.

The strictly Muslim province has become increasingly conservative in recent years and is the only one in Indonesia allowed to implement Sharia law.

Under the new laws, adultery also carries a possible penalty of 100 strokes. Those who accuse someone of adultery without proof could themselves face 80 lashes.

“The law is to safeguard human dignity. It is to protect Aceh’s Muslims from committing immoral acts,” provincial Sharia chief Syahrizal Abbas told the AFP news agency.

But Ismail Hasani, from human rights group the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, criticised the law as “cruel, inhumane and against the constitution”.

Gay sex is not illegal in the rest of Indonesia.

Aceh has allowed brought in its own laws ever since reaching an agreement with the national government in 2001 to end a separatist movement.

The province has recently seen a deterioration in relations between the Muslim majority and smaller religious groups such as Christians.

Churches have been destroyed in violent protests in recent weeks or have been demolished by local authorities who said they lacked proper permits.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

October 24, 2015
Indonesian Coordinating Minister For Politics, Law and Security: Singapore’s One Aircraft Offer Is “Insulting”

JAKARTA — Singapore’s offer in September of only “one aircraft” to Indonesia to help fight forest fires that have caused thick haze to descend around the region was “insulting”, said Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

Speaking in an interview last Friday (Oct 16) with the country’s Tempo magazine, Mr Luhut defended Indonesia’s perceived tardiness in putting out the fires and in accepting foreign aid.

“During the dry season, peatlands tend to be very flammable. When we bombard the land with water to put out the flames, they just come out again. So I get a headache when people get upset. What are we supposed to do?” he replied when asked why this year’s forest fires are worse than those of last year’s.

“Then someone asks why we didn’t accept the assistance offered earlier. There are many reasons for that. Firstly, we wanted to try and do it on our own. Secondly, we didn’t realise the process would be so long. Thirdly, (Singapore) offered only one aircraft. It was insulting.”

In September, Singapore offered a C-130 aircraft for cloud-seeding operations, a Chinook helicopter with a water bucket for aerial fire-fighting, and up to two C-130 aircraft to ferry the Singapore Civil Defence Force fire-fighting assistance team.

Mr Luhut’s comments in the latest issue of the magazine came after Indonesia finally accepted help from Singapore on Oct 7 after repeatedly declining offers of help for weeks. Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen had even flown to Jakarta at the end of September to meet his Indonesian counterpart at one of the meetings. During his visit, Dr Ng also met Mr Luhut.

On October 11, aircraft from Singapore and Malaysia began water-bombing missions to put out the raging fires in South Sumatra.

Singapore sent a Republic of Singapore Armed Forces (RSAF) Chinook helicopter with a 5,000-litre heli-bucket and 34 SAF personnel to help fight the ongoing forest fires, together with a six-man Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team from the Singapore Civil Defence Force. Two RSAF C-130 aircraft were also deployed to transport SAF and SCDF personnel.

In an interview on Oct 7, Indonesian Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung told CNN Indonesia that Jakarta had earlier rejected Singapore’s offers of assistance because it was concerned that the city state would claim credit for solving the problem, despite being worried about the rapidly deteriorating situation.

In the Tempo interview, Mr Luhut also pledged to confiscate the land and revoke the licences of big companies that practise illegal burning next year.

“This haze problem is also about injustice. When a company controls 2.8 million hectares of land, where is the justice? Then there are those who own 600,000 hectares of land but own not a single fire extinguisher. Should the government be dousing fires all the time? If we call it a national disaster, they will benefit by it.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

October 22, 2015