Alaksir Jakarta blog

This news piece below is a direct translation from this original article in Indonesian by okezone.com.

The news about East Java Islamic scholars mulling over a religious edict on Facebook use is apparently not true. Administrator of Lirboyo Islamic boarding school (”pesantren”) Idris Marzuki denied the accuracy of the news.

In fact, Marzuki said he did not know the person who claimed to be Lirboyo school’s spokesperson, Nabil Haroen, who announced previously that a fatwa on Facebook was forthcoming. “There’s no such thing. I don’t even know this Nabil,” said Marzuki when contacted by okezone at East Java, Friday (May 22).

Marzuki admitted that there was a meeting of scholars in East Java to talk about contemporary issues faced by the Muslims, but it wasn’t meant to talk about Facebook. “We finished the meeting last night, but there was no talk about that issue,” he said.

Previously, The Associated Press reported that a meeting among Indonesian Islamic scholars was to issue a fatwa concerning the use of social networking on the Internet, reasoning that using such service could lead to illicit sex, which is forbidden by Islamic teaching.

The AP piece claimed that the source of the report was a spokesperson for the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school named Nabil Haroen, but school administrator Idris Marzuki said that he did not know Haroen.

Did you hear about the recent MUI frenzy over the swine thing?

No, it doesn’t have anything to do with the flu. Instead, the knowledgeable scholars heated up the op-ed section of local newspapers by fussing about meningitis, particularly the Mencevax ACWY meningococcal meningitis vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline that was recently reported to contain a type of porcine enzyme called trypsin.

As it were, foreigners entering Saudi Arabia are required to be vaccinated against meningitis, because the country has seen a number of outbreaks of the contagious disease in the past. However, it is said that no meningitis vaccine is free from materials derived from swine.

Alas, the ever alert Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Assessment Board of the MUI (”LPPOM MUI”) found out that, well, the vaccine contained the swine-derived trypsin, and promptly blasted out the Pig-Signal to warn the faithful who are currently making their preparations for this year’s hajj season.

But surely, somebody else would have already known about this, right? Right.

The MUI had questioned the vaccine producer about the treatment in 2007, at which time the Health Ministry’s consultative assembly on health and Shariah law found material from pigs in the vaccine.

And they did something about it, right? Right.

GlaxoSmithKline responded to the inquiry by producing a vaccine free of pig-derived material.

In fact, …

In February 2009, the Belgian company declared that “no trypsin [or other materials of porcine origin] is used in the production of the new Mencevax vaccine.”

And in a statement signed on Monday, the company’s local unit also declared that as of 2009, no animal-derived materials were being used in the production of the vaccine, which is sold in 59 countries, including Muslim nations like Malaysia, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In addition, even though trypsin was in fact used in producing the vaccine, Head of Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (”BPOM”) Husniah Rubiana Thamrin Akib said during a hearing with the parliament that the enzyme would only be used in the early production process, and the final product would no longer have it.

So what’s the fuss all about? Mr. Nadratuzzaman who heads LPPOM MUI said:

The one saying that the vaccine is good is the manufacturer. They have to be audited. We should come to their manufacturing facility so we can see all the manufacturing processes from start to finish. We can’t just accept what they say.

Of course, he would also want the government to foot the bill, because GSK’s manufacturing facilities are in Belgium. While you’re at it, why not add in some allowance too to make the trip more enjoyable.

Let me just share a story I heard from a very old friend about an Islamic sage who had to lead a group of religious students on their trip to a conference in Europe. Once the conference was over, the group went to a dinner in a fancy local restaurant, courtesy of the host. None of them understood what was on the menu because they didn’t understand the local language. So the sage just pointed at a fulfilling-looking meal someone was having at a table next to them.

A serial nitpicker among the sage’s students couldn’t help but raised an issue with what the sage did. So he went and whispered to another student next to him that the meal might contain pork, and if the sage ate it, he would be committing a sin. The other student started to feel uneasy and talked to another student about it, and it went on as the meal arrived on their table.

One of the students finally asked the host if the meal did indeed contain pork, and the host confirmed it. When the student who asked the host told the sage about it, the sage had almost finished his meal, and said, “Well you’ve ruined the fun. Now we sin, because we know the meal contains pork.”

The moral of the story is: Don’t be a nitpicker, just shut up and take things in good faith.

There’s been much attention given to the Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars (MUI) by the media lately, with its recent decision to issue fatawa (sing.: fatwa) on a number of issues, including yoga and smoking, and its inclusion in Transparency International’s latest survey on corruption and bribery perception as a public service institution that is prone to receive bribe money.  I think a little discussion on this is merited.

First of all, though, a little disclaimer: I feel neither preference nor rejection toward the MUI.  The fact that it was established originally as a way for Suharto’s New Order regime to ward off muslim dissent and add some kind of legitimacy to its autocratic rule means that part of its natural tendency is to view disagreement as a threat.  But by the same token, it also means that the council has to a degree discouraged political Islam, which is a good thing, at least as long as there is a committed secular government above it.

But we are now by and large a free electoral democracy, which means there will almost definitely be strong resistance if somebody in the government happens to come up with the good idea of subjugating the MUI.  And I don’t think anyone in the foreseeable future will be brave enough to do this.

Now for a little backgrounder, the MUI comprises representatives from Islamic organizations across the country, but how it recruits its members is a mystery in itself.  That’s right, the council actually receives public money through the Ministry of Religious Affairs, but is being run virtually without any accountability to the public.  How do they get away with it?  Well basically by just simply saying that they’re accountable only to God.  Now who’s going to argue with that?

Of course in the past how the councilors were recruited always involved heavy screening by the government who also discouraged any open and transparent process in the way the organization is being managed.  Sadly, the disbandment of the Suharto regime did not lead the council to reform its elitist organizational approach.  This is something that they need to think deeply about if they still wish to be heard by the people it’s supposed to represent.

And that brings me back to the media spotlight on the MUI’s latest annual meeting, which resulted in fatawa on smoking, voting, yoga, abortion, underage marriage and vasectomy.  My first impression on this is most media reports and commentators are overestimating the influence of the council.  For example, this report from The Guardian says:

“The council’s ruling is not legally binding but most of Indonesia’s Muslims, who make up 90% of the country’s 234-million population, are likely to follow the decree.”

Or the BBC, which even calls the MUI “the top Islamic body in Indonesia,” and goes on to say that “most Muslims consider it a sin to ignore [the MUI's edicts].”  Time magazine is painting a pretty scary picture by calling its article on the subject “Indonesia’s Fatwa against Yoga,” bringing to mind images of bearded men rallying in the streets while angrily chanting death to yogis.

Around the blogosphere, commentators are aptly critical about the fatawa, saying that the MUI is excessively encroaching on non-religious matters, but also overestimate their impact.  For example, Chris Taylor at Everything Indonesia is pointing out that there are many more important things that the MUI should be concerned about than forbidding yoga.  There is also Harry Nizam who is worried that the fatawa will influence people in the rural areas, because the MUI, in his words, is “the highest Moslem religious authority.”  Some other commentators are aghast that the MUI dares to forbid muslims from staying home during the election day, such as Parvita.

First, from a purely religious perspective, a fatwa, whether by the MUI, the Malaysian Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan (National Fatwa Council), Bin Laden or even any of your instant internet mufti is just that; a fatwa.  It is a religious opinion of a mufti (fatwa giver) who is asked about a particular matter that would only be considered binding on all muslims if the overwhelming majority of Islamic scholars with valid credentials agree with it.  In other words, a fatwa is about the same as an expert witness’ answer about a question relevant to his expertise that is posed to him during the course of a trial.

In the rare case that a fatwa is agreed upon by the majority of Islamic scholars with verified credentials, it is codified in the Sharia, and this is what sunni muslims refer to as ijma, the third source of the Sharia law under sunni Islam.  But again, in response to a fatwa, any muslim is free to choose whether to follow it or not.  K.H Mustofa Bisri, or cordially known as Gus Mus writes a good brief discussion on this at the NU-affiliated Ansor website here (in Indonesian).

Now saying that the MUI is the “top” Islamic body in Indonesia is also misleading.  It is not, and there isn’t any.  To Western journos, it might be a bit difficult to comprehend the nature of religious authority in Islam and differentiate between sunni and shiite Islam.  Yes, shiite Islam has a concept of religious authority similar to papacy in Roman Catholicism, where the Ayatollah holds supreme authority over all religious matters of the believers.  But the sunnis actually don’t have the same hierarchical rigidity, and religious authority for them is actually much more decentralized.

It’s also not true that most Indonesian muslims adhere to everything the MUI says, except probably for their annual decisions about when to celebrate the Eids and their halal certification, and this is especially true for rural Indonesian muslims.  Traditional communities have always had their own local religious authority, such as pesantren leaders, the kiyais and community elders, and they are the authorities that most people will listen to.  It’s instructive to learn that the two biggest Islamic organizations in the country, the traditionalist Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and even the more scripturalist Muhammadiyah have been critical against the MUI fatawa.  Both organizations have real scholars whose opinions are actually heard by Indonesian muslims.

There is the case of the country next door, Malaysia, which had issued its own fatwa forbidding yoga last year.  But unlike in Malaysia, there is no separate Sharia law in the Indonesian system where fatawa issued by the country’s Fatwa Council can be legally enforced.  In the country, no fatwa by the MUI will have more meaning than the bearded clerics’ ramblings unless the government legislates it–and thank god for that.

On another recent issue involving the MUI, namely the inclusion of the council in Transparency International’s (TI) survey of corruption perception and bribery index, the council’s spokespeople frankly have succeeded in making themselves look even more stupid in the way they respond to the issue.

The way the recent release of TI’s latest survey is covered by a section of the media is that the MUI is identified to be one of the most corrupt public service institutions by the TI survey’s respondents.  For example, Time magazine writes thus:

“The credibility of the council was called into question earlier in January, when Transparency International Indonesia accused the institution of being one of the most frequent takers of bribes in the country, particularly in the issuance of halal stickers for food and beverage products.”

Or Detik.com, which titles its news item on the survey release “Survei TII: MUI Sering Disuap” (TII Survey: MUI often Bribed).  The impression you might get from these reports is that the MUI is pretty high up in the list of most bribery-prone public service agencies in the country.  To the religiously faithful who are flaunting “Islam is the solution to all problems” mantra to the masses, the thought of pious scholars receiving bribe money for stamping halal certificates on their client’s products would be outrageous, which is most likely why some journos chose to focus on MUI’s inclusion in the survey.

But if you take a look at the real report, the story is actually a bit more nuanced.  The survey documentation says this about the objective of the so-called Bribery Index:

“To measure prevalence level of bribery in 15 public institutions based on businesspersons experience.”

…which does not explain the rationale for specifically including the 15 institutions in the survey.  In fact, if you look further down, you still won’t find any explanation of how TI selects these 15 institutions to be in the survey.

But in fact, there are other public service agencies which have been known to be prone to bribery that TI did not include in the survey.  For example, officers at the civil registry office have been known to ask for “grease money” to speed up providing legal documents from birth certificates, marriage to the hideous SBKRI citizenship certificate, which used to be required of Chinese Indonesians.  Also absent from the survey questionnaire is the Religious Affairs Office (the KUA), whose priests charge much higher–anywhere from Rp500 thousand to Rp2 million depending on how wealthy the couple looks–for marrying people than the official price–which ranges from Rp30 to Rp150 thousand, depending on who you ask.

My point is the 15 institutions included in the survey were selected arbitrarily by TI.  They might have intended these institutions to be some sort of sample of all public service agencies in Indonesia, in which case the MUI should actually be proud for being the ‘least’ bribe prone institution in the country, because it is ranked precisely at the bottom.

And yet, most likely without bothering to have a look at what the survey is all about, the MUI chairman Amidhan fumed in response to the news about the survey, calling it “slanderous and misleading.”  He says:

“There’s no bribery.  What do they mean by bribery?  This is slanderous and misleading.  The MUI is a religious institution and this is false.  They should expose the facts instead of making hasty statements.  They can’t do this.”

Being defensive is never a good way to deal with criticism.  It implies a corrupt, judgmental mentality, and this is the kind of image that the MUI chief is projecting about the council.  It would be wise for them to use some of the money they get for dispensing halal certificates, whether legitimately or not, on media and communications training, or better still, personality training.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presided over a ceremony that marked the much awaited opening of the free trade zone within Batam, Bintan and Karimun islands on Monday.

Batam island, part of the Riau Islands Province, was designated as a bonded zone by a Presidential Decree of 1992, but its legal status as a full-fledged free trade zone was only recently formalized in 2007, and later government regulations that validated its implementation.

The area’s economically strategic location at the gateway through the Malay Straits had been acknowledged since the early 1970s, but poorly coordinated development efforts and power struggles with within the government over the control of the area hampered its true potential as the nation’s growth center.

With an average of 30% in annual growth of new investments, Batam today serves as a major logistics and manufacturing base for prominent global industrialists including McDermott International, AT&T, Bechtel, PerkinElmer, Seagate Technology, Babcock & Wilcox, Matsushita, Hitachi, Sanyo, Nippon Steel, Hyundai, Sony and Philips.  Hosting about 1.5 million visitors each year, it is also the second most popular international tourist destination in Indonesia after Bali.

Batam shipyard at Batam City.

Indonesian flagship airliner Garuda Indonesia Airways will delay holding an IPO it originally scheduled for Q3 this year.  The company’s CEO Emirsyah Satar cited unfavorable market conditions as the reason for the delay.

Garuda originally planned to use the initial offering to raise funds to settle its debts amounting to about Rp5 trillion and to finance its purchase of new fleets.

Fifty new Boeing 737 NGs are planned to arrive at company hangars this year and ten new Boeing 777-300Rs next year, which Satar said will not be delayed as the company has another financing strategy.

Boeing 737 NG (photo boeing.com)	Boeing 777-300R (photo boeing.com)

Satar added that Garuda estimates a 24% growth over 10 million last year due to the addition of 18 new routes served by the carrier.

PT Telkom Tbk. this year will be focusing on optimizing its Flexi CDMA network throughout Indonesia, according to company spokesperson I Nyoman G. Wiryanatha.  According to him, the CDMA network provider has already achieved 95-98% call success rate, thanks to its ambitious expansion over the last few years.

Wiryanatha added that the company’s network optimization project will begin from East Java, as the province contributes significantly to the company’s national revenue structure.  Telkom Flexi currently has a subscriber base of over 4.3 million in East Java, making it the third biggest cellular provider in the province.

According to the Bank Indonesia Governor, there is no reason for the Indonesian central bank to intentionally delay divesting from its subsidiaries as mandated by Law No. 3 of 2004 on Bank Indonesia.  The transitional period within which the central bank is required to divest from its subsidiaries stipulated in the Law will expire this year.

He said, “We are going to speed things up.  We are not trying to delay this thing deliberately.  In fact, the sooner the better.”

According to Boediono, the central bank and government authorities are currently working to determine the best procedures to carry out the divestment process.  He promised that the divestment will take place this year.

As of end of 2007, Bank Indonesia owned 55% of PT Jaminan Kredit Indonesia, a government-owned credit underwriter focusing on small businesses and cooperatives.  Their ownership was further diluted to 22% following the government’s initiative to inject Rp1 trillion to the company to expand credit to small businesses.  The central bank also owns 82.22% of PT Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia, a government-owned financing company also focusing on small businesses and cooperatives.  In addition, it also partly owns the Indover Bank, which was recently declared bankrupt by a Dutch court decision due to lackluster performance amid a growing crisis.

Property insurance and reinsurance are starting to tighten up policy sales as the threat of widespread flood reemerges.  Reinsurance companies have begun reining in treaty (policy) limits and increasing deductibles, while insurance companies scale back from underwriting new policies, according to a spokesperson of the Indonesian General Insurers Association (AAUI), Julian Noor.

Noor fears that insurers would eventually stop covering flood risks.  He said there are three things that exacerbate flood in Jakarta: coastal flood tide, actual degree of precipitation in Jakarta, and that in areas surrounding the city.  Given these three factors, widespread flood throughout the city will almost be certain.

Insurance and reinsurance companies suffered approximately Rp4 trillion in losses due to the major flood in Jakarta in 2007.

New investors are still willing to set their foot here in the land of floods and earthquakes.  December last year saw 12 new investors–six of whom Indonesian and the other six foreign–entering into an agreement to invest at the Jakarta Nusantara Bonded Zone (KBN).  The KBN is a government owned company that runs manufacturing bonded zones at Cakung, Marunda and Tanjungpriok, all in North Jakarta.

The new investments are worth US$14.8 million in total, and will create an estimated 7 thousand new manufacturing and logistics jobs.  One of the new investors is a garment manufacturer under the South Korean chaebol, Hansol, which will be investing in a new 5,500 hectare manufacturing facility here, after divesting from its Guatemalan operation.

According to Operations Director at KBN, Eddy Ihut, only three companies operating within the KBN zones have had to lay off their employees since the current crisis began, which is a pretty impressive performance these days.

A total of 155 companies operate within the KBN; 120 of which are export-oriented manufacturers and 35 provide logistical services.  Most of the products manufactured here are exported primarily to other Asian countries.

Jakarta office rats, clocking in and clocking out won’t be the same as they are now.  After forcing our kids to forget about breakfast start school at 6.30 in the morning, next month the city administration is going to start regulating office hours around the city.

As a prelude to this, next week you will start seeing propaganda communication materials designed to make you conform with the new rule.

If it is news to anyone, traffic in this city is getting out of control, and this is probably the first time the governor will have to do something about it, as he will very likely face the political consequence of not doing anything about the traffic gridlock in the next election.  At least Deputy Governor Prijanto admits this much:

“I have to persevere to enact this regulation, because this is the trust given to me.”

Is he saying that Governor Fauzi Bowo is charging him with taking care of the traffic business?  Hear that?  That’s the sound of the Governor saying, “Gotcha!”

Well at any rate, if this thing gets a go ahead, this is how office hours will be arranged next month:

Private sector offices in Central and North Jakarta will start at 7.30 am, because according to government consultant PT Pamintory Cipta, 45.28 percent of offices at Central Jakarta and 47.64 percent at North Jakarta already begin their office hours at 7.30.  For those at West and East Jakarta, office hours will start at 8.00 am.  59.93 percent offices at West Jakarta and 61.34 percent at East Jakarta won’t have to change anything.  South Jakarta offices will have to start their office hours at 9.00 am, and almost 51 percent offices there won’t need to change anything.