Shake-Up: From
the fuel subsidy to executions, the new president has stirred debate
Jakarta Globe, Kennial Caroline Laia, Jan 02, 2015
Jakarta. In the just over two months that he has been president, Joko Widodo has earned both plaudits and criticism for some of his policies, most of them a complete 180 on his predecessor’s take on the same issue.
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| President Joko Widodo arrives for the 12th Asean India Summit at Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on Nov. 12, 2014. (EPA Photo/Rungroj Yongrit) |
Jakarta. In the just over two months that he has been president, Joko Widodo has earned both plaudits and criticism for some of his policies, most of them a complete 180 on his predecessor’s take on the same issue.
One of his
most attention-grabbing moves was to order the sinking of foreign fishing
vessels caught poaching inside Indonesia’s maritime borders.
Since then,
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has enrolled the Navy
to round up 19 boats and sink five of them.
The policy
has drawn praise, with observers saying the administration needs to get touch
on fish poaching if it is to turn Indonesia into a global maritime fulcrum as
Joko envisions.
“It’s
necessary to sink those illegal vessels,” says Hikmahanto Juwana, an
international law expert at the University of Indonesia.
Under the
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration, he says, “fish poaching as a problem
was hardly looked into by the government.”
“There are
many boats that continue to poach our sea resources, and we’ve done little
about the problem,” he says. “So now, by sinking these boats, our government
wants to convey its stance that Indonesia will never compromise with any
foreign boats that steal our fish.”
Hikmahanto
says the sinking of the vessels will not damage relations with the countries
where the boats are registered, because Indonesia’s response is targeted toward
an illegal act being committed in its own waters.
“We are
dealing with illegal fishing boats that violate our maritime territory, not the
countries where those boats come from,” he says.
He adds,
though, that over the next few years, the government will need to make its
policy clear to other countries to prevent unwanted diplomatic rows.
“What’s
being done now must be continued. We cannot be discriminatory in selecting the
boats,” Hikmahanto says.
“In
addition, it is best for the Foreign Ministry to inform other countries around
the world that we have this policy in place so there won’t be any
misunderstanding. Ideally, these other countries must start prohibiting their
fishermen from poaching in Indonesian waters.”
A less
flashy though far more impactful policy move under Joko has been the raising of
subsidized fuel prices as part of an effort to trim the burgeoning subsidy and
allocate the savings to more productive programs.
The hike,
Joko calculated, would save the state around Rp 100 trillion ($8.04 billion).
On Nov. 18,
less than a month since his inauguration on Oct. 20, Joko duly raised the pump
price of the widely used Premium brand of low-octane gasoline, from Rp 5,500
per liter to Rp 8,500 per liter. The price of subsidized diesel sold under the
Solar brand also went up, from Rp 5,500 per liter to Rp 7,500 per liter.
But on
Wednesday, the government announced that there would be another price
adjustment — downward this time, in light of the falling price of crude oil.
As of the
first day of 2015, Premium has been tamped down to Rp 7,600 per liter, and
Solar to Rp 7,250 per liter.
The move
seems to have vindicated critics of the initial hike, who said at the time that
there was no urgent need to raise pump prices just them with the world oil
price on a decline since June this year.
Another
controversial issue in the past couple of months has been Joko’s insistence on
not just maintaining by actively implementing the death penalty, which was
rarely employed during Yudhoyono’s second term as president.
Joko
previously claimed that five death row inmates who had exhausted all avenues of
appeal would be put to death in December. The Attorney General’s Office, which
is responsible for arranging executions, later said that only two of those
inmates would face the firing squad that month.
The AGO
typically carries out executions in secret and down not announce whether they
have been carried out until well after the fact.
As of
Thursday, there was no word yet on whether the two executions, set to take
place in Batam, Riau Islands, and Cilacap, Central Java, had been carried out.
Rights activists
have accused Joko of reneging on campaign promises to champion human rights.
“Joko has
[...] violated the spirit of human rights in our country,” says Hendardi, from
the Setara Institute, a rights and democracy advocacy group. “Joko shouldn’t
continue this policy. It is against global opinion.
“The
government will be better off reviewing capital punishment for drug convicts,”
he adds.
“It is
useless and wouldn’t serve any deterrent effect for drug dealers. There are no
statistics showing that capital punishment discourages drug dealing,” Hendardi
says.
Haris
Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras), says Joko has “no understanding on human rights.”
Related Articles:
AGO Adds Another Death Row Inmate to Imminent Execution List
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| President Joko Widodo, center, talks to the head of Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, Soelistyo, left, and Chief of the Sea Security Coordinating Agency, Vice Admiral Desi Albert Mamahit, right, shortly before a news conference about missing Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ 8501 in Jakarta, on Dec. 29, 2014. (EPA Photo/Bagus Indahono) |
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