Indonesia: Governor promises arrests for those who carry out ‘Ramadan raids’

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama takes the oath of office to become the governor of Indonesia's capital Jakarta. Pic: AP

SELF-PROCLAIMED "religious police" that carry out illegal Ramadan raids on restaurants and night clubs will be arrested, said Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama on Thursday.

Ahok has assured the public that the so-called moral police, also known as ormas (mass organizations), will be arrested by police should they attempt raids during the holy month of Ramadan.

According to Berita Jakarta, he said: "The police chief have already guaranteed it. If they (ormas) do any raids, they will be arrested. All of them arrested."

"The chief of police has already affirmed it, so there will be no raids. That is the task of the police," he added.

Indonesia has a number of ormas, or mass organizations, that take it upon themselves to raid venues they deem to be unholy or disrespectful of Ramadan. Groups such as the Islamic Defense Front (FPI) in Jakarta and Wilayatul Hisbah in Aceh regularly organize the raids on "sinful" bars, hotels, and even on inappropriately dressed people.

In June 2015, the FPI promised not to conduct any raids, but called on the authorities to "do their job so we don't have to" during the holy month.

Their announcement came after an illegal raid against gambling and prostitution in Central Java during Ramadan 2013, which led to the death of a motorist who was hit by an FPI car at the scene. Two members of the group were arrested and sentenced to four months in prison for the incident, reported Tempo.

Zainal Abidin Petir, head of the FPI's Central Java faction, laid the blame squarely on the authorities, saying: "The sweeping raid was conducted since law enforcers ignored gambling and prostitution practices."

Ahok's promise may be met with skepticism considering his position has been strongly opposed by Muslim hardliners in the country. In 2014, he became the first Christian to be sworn in as Jakarta's governor in 50 years, a position that hardliners insisted should have been reserved for a Muslim.

Source: Indonesia: Governor promises arrests for those who carry out 'Ramadan raids'

Chong Wei closer to sixth Indonesian Open title, world number one spot

JAKARTA: National badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei edged closer to his sixth Indonesian Open title and the world number one ranking after moving into the quarterfinals in Jakarta today.

The current world number two will wrest the top spot from China's Chen Long who is not competing in the tournament, if he moves into the final, while his path to the title also looks clear since his arch rival Lin Dan of China was ousted in the second round by little known Jonathan Christie of Indonesia.

Lin Dan rather lost tamely to Jonatan 21-12, 21-12.

Chong Wei, eyeing the country's and his first gold medal in the Rio Olympics in August, has 88,953 points, just 3,241 points behind Chen Long but winning the title would give Chong Wei 11,000 points and propel him to world number one.

In today's match, Chong Wei took just 31 minutes to sweep past Hong Kong's Angus Ng Ka Long 21-10, 21-13 and set up an exciting clash against China's rising star Wang Zhengming at Istora Senayan, to morrow.

Meanwhile, the country's top men's doubles pair Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong edged compatriots Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong 22-20, 22-20 in an all-Malaysian second round encounter.

The duo face China's Chai Biao/Hong Wei in the quarterfinal.

The country's top women's doubles pair Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei also moved in the quarterfinals after beating Indonesia's Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii 21-17, 21-19.

Hoo/Woon are scheduled to meet another Indonesian pair Anggia Shitta Awanda/Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istirani.
Source: Chong Wei closer to sixth Indonesian Open title, world number one spot

Coffee murder: Indonesian minister signed guarantee Jessica Wongso wouldn't be executed

An Indonesian Cabinet minister personally signed a letter guaranteeing an Australian permanent resident accused of poisoning her friend with cyanide will not face the death penalty.

Accused: Jessica Kumala Wongso. Photo: Jakarta Post

Wayan Mirna Salihin, allegedly poisoned with cyanide in Jakarta. Photo: Facebook

Jessica Kumala Wongso, is accused of murdering her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin in Indonesia. Photo: Courtesy Detik.com

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Jakarta: An Indonesian Cabinet minister personally signed a letter guaranteeing an Australian permanent resident accused of poisoning her friend with cyanide will not face the death penalty.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly confirmed the Indonesian government had provided written assurance that Jessica Kumala Wongso will not be executed if found guilty.

"Yes, I was the one who guaranteed it," Mr Yasonna told Fairfax Media.

"We have written the letter. We co-ordinated it with the Attorney-General and the Jakarta Police Chief."

Ms Wongso, an Indonesian with permanent residency status in Australia, has been accused of the premeditated murder of her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, with whom she had studied in Australia.

Ms Salihin died of cyanide poisoning on January 6 after drinking a Vietnamese iced coffee that Ms Wongso had ordered for her at an upmarket cafe in a Jakarta shopping mall.

The death penalty is the maximum sentence for premeditated murder in Indonesia.

Indonesia asked the Australian Federal Police for assistance investigating the case given Ms Wongso worked for NSW Ambulance until late last year and the two women had studied together at Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney and Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

However under the AFP guidelines on international police assistance in death penalty situations, ministerial approval is required if a person has been detained, arrested, charged or convicted of an offence that carries the death penalty.

The AFP faced criticism for handing over information to Indonesian authorities about the Bali nine, which led to their arrests for heroin smuggling in 2005. The coordinators of the Bali nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in Indonesia last year.

New guidelines for the AFP's role in cases involving the death penalty were introduced in 2009 after a federal court exonerated the AFP from acting unlawfully in the Bali nine case but argued new protocols were needed.

The Australian Attorney-General's office said the Indonesian government had given an assurance to the Australian government that the death penalty would not be sought or carried out in relation to the alleged offending.

"We provided the guarantee otherwise it was impossible that they [Australia] accepted our team [to go] there," Mr Yasonna said.

However Professor Tim Lindsey, the director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at Melbourne University, questioned the reliability of the agreement between the two countries.

"I think it's not much of an assurance at all in legal terms … you could imagine a situation in which she could still be executed."

Dr Lindsey said there was a separation of powers between the legal system and the government in Indonesia. "The government can't give any undertaking that would bind judges," he said.

"Even if the prosecutors do not seek the death penalty, judges can certainly ignore that."

Dr Lindsey also said that Ms Wongso would not be able to sit indefinitely on death row as guidelines required prisoners to be executed once they had exhausted their legal options.

"If the letter was a promise to grant her clemency that would have to come directly from the president and even then it would be very dubious as he can only exercise that power after an application is made and he has received advice from the Supreme Court.

"He probably would not be bound by the letter.  As a matter of law, it's a very strange agreement and I don't know it's really reliable."

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The story Coffee murder: Indonesian minister signed guarantee Jessica Wongso wouldn't be executed first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Source: Coffee murder: Indonesian minister signed guarantee Jessica Wongso wouldn't be executed

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Source: 'Indonesia an ideal market for Indian investors'

Detroit Pushes Sales Tax For Ambitious Regional Transit Plan

Our weekly "New Starts" roundup of new and newsworthy transportation projects worldwide.

Detroit Pushes a Sales Tax to Fund Regionwide Transit PlanThere's a new regional transportation agency in Metro Detroit, and it's charged with the same task as the old one was: creating a seamless regionwide mass transit network. The only difference is that this time, it might actually get the money needed to do the job.

Crain's Detroit Business reported May 28 that the Regional Transportation Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) presented a plan for a property tax intended to fund the construction of bus rapid transit and commuter rail lines in Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties over the next 20 years at a news conference announcing its master transit plan on Tuesday.

The tax, which RTA CEO Michael Ford told Crain's would be between $1 million and $1.2 million, would fund the construction and operation of three bus rapid transit routes along major Detroit-area thoroughfares, a fourth connecting Ann Arbor with Ypsilanti, and a long-discussed commuter rail line connecting Detroit and Ann Arbor. The tax would need to be approved by voters in the four counties in November; if it is placed on the ballot and approved, property owners in all four counties would be required to pay it, in contrast to a current tax that funds suburban Detroit bus service and contains an opt-out provision.

The RTA's proposed lines would also connect with service currently operated by the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT), the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) and the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority as well as the Q-Line modern streetcar currently being built by M-1 Rail. A portion of the tax would go towards the cost of operating the DDOT and SMART sytems, and a unified fare card good for all services in the region is also part of the master plan being developed by the RTA.

SMART is what's left of the prior effort to create a regionwide mass transit network. The agency was established as the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) in 1967 in order to develop and run a unified mass transit system, including a network of rapid transit lines and a downtown people mover, for Detroit and its suburbs. But as it lacked taxing power, SEMTA was never able to make good on its plans. The city of Detroit pulled out of the authority not long after its creation and eventually took over construction of the people mover in the wake of delays and cost overruns.

St. Petersburg Builds Tram Link to AirportAccording to a news item in Railway Gazette International, St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, will build a fast tram line to connect its airport with the city's metro system.

The line will cover the 11 km (6.83 miles) between Kupchino station at the southern end of metro line 2 and Pulkovo Airport in 20 minutes (average speed: 33 km/h or 20.5 mph). The line will be equipped with low-floor trams with a top speed of 50 km/h (31 mph).

What's equally fast about the tram line is the speed with which it will be built: Officials hope to open the line for service in May 2017. The line's estimated construction cost is 29.2 billion rubles ($443 million U.S.).

The line is being built to handle a projected doubling of passenger traffic at Pulkovo from 17 million passengers annually now to 35 million passengers by 2039.

Australian Academics Help Indonesian Engineers Develop Transit ExpertiseThe 15.7-km (9.75-mile) metro now under construction in Jakarta will now provide educational and technological benefits along with the congestion relief it promises to Indonesia's crowded capital city.

The education and technical benefits come in the form of assistance from Monash University in Australia. As reported in Railway Gazette International, the university in Melbourne will collaborate with metro builder MRT Jakarta on the development of infrastructure projects, starting with the initial metro line. The university's Institute of Rail Technology will also help MRTJ develop in-house technical skills as well as offer technical assistance and professional advice to the agency. The university and the agency will also jointly develop technical standards and quality assurance protocols for future rail transit projects.

Work on the initial line of the Jakarta metro began in the fall of 2013, and the line is scheduled to open for revenue service in 2018. The Japanese government provided the financing for the line's construction, and Japanese firms are carrying out the construction work in partnership with local companies as well as supplying the rail cars.

Know of a project that should be featured in this column? Send a Tweet with links to @MarketStEl using the hashtag #newstarts.

Next City contributor Sandy Smith is an associate editor at Philadelphia magazine. Over the years, his work has appeared in Hidden City Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other local and regional publications. His interest in cities stretches back to his youth in Kansas City, and his career in journalism and media relations extends back that far as well.

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Source: Detroit Pushes Sales Tax For Ambitious Regional Transit Plan