Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Starting early

http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/605/47/

New programs of compulsory religious education for Muslim children in West Sumatra have received little publicity outside that province. Is this a new phase in the Islamisation of Indonesia?

Virginia Hooker and Yasrul Huda

Islamic education starts early
Although it is still dark, the mosque is filling with primary school-aged children hurrying to be seated on the floor before 6am. It is the last Sunday in the month and the turn of Baitul Haadi mosque, Kampong Baru, Padang, to host the other four groups which form its neighbourhood cluster for ‘didikan subuh’ (dawn schooling). A student in his twenties from Padang’s Imam Bonjol State Islamic Institute (IAIN) welcomes the children. He then hands the microphone to the 11 year old boy who will be the master of ceremonies for the next hour. There is a slight commotion as the last group of children file into the mosque and take their places.


The only adults present are a few mothers and grandmothers at the back of the mosque and the young male teachers, some smoking clove cigarettes, at the front. The atmosphere is informal, but all the children wear a uniform of white tops and green trousers or long skirts, with caps for the boys and white head-coverings for the girls. At these children’s meetings no screen separates girls from boys, but all the boys are in the front rows.

Led by the young master of ceremonies, the children recite the first words of the Qur’an, the Bismillah (In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate), slowly and firmly. This is followed by another boy giving a powerful recitation of a short passage from the Qur’an, delivered with great professionalism into a hand-held microphone. Linked to a public address system, his ornamented and rhythmic recitation is relayed to the whole neighbourhood. One of his fellows then reads an Indonesian translation: didikan subuh aims to teach children to understand the meaning of the Arabic verses they recite.

The master of ceremonies invites the children to stand and repeat the didikan subuh pledge and sing their special song which describes the unity and equality all the children feel as they join together to strengthen their religion. The 99 names of Allah are sung by a quartet of boys. A girl and boy each recite the six principles of Islam (belief in the unity of God, the angels, the prophets, the revealed books from God, and the hereafter). Another boy takes the microphone, pauses with closed eyes and hand held to ear to deliver, with ringing accuracy, the call to prayer. After more religious songs, a 12 year old girl presents a well-structured, five-minute talk about the dangers of drugs.
The final section of the meeting begins with one of the older men sitting with the boys at the front of the mosque asking the children the purpose of didikan subuh. Sensing the end of their session, the children are restless, but listen politely. The mayor, he explains to them, wants all in Padang to have strong akhlak (ethics, morals) and it is didikan subuh which helps children develop Islamic values. Didikan subuh, he continues, builds a sense of community and the monthly meeting brings different groups together. Although from different mosques and prayer-halls, he emphasises, they are all didikan subuh children. And the pre-dawn prayer (subuh) is healthy because it is performed in the coolest part of the day. Performing it helps make today better than yesterday. After sharing plates of biscuits and glasses of water the children leave the mosque and return to their homes. It is just after 7am.

The mayor’s vision
The central government in Jakarta has enacted legislation for Muslims which covers family law, wealth tax (zakat), Islamic banking, and conduct of the pilgrimage to Mecca (haj). This is the limit of officially sanctioned syariah law. The regional autonomy laws enacted in 2000 have provided a legal basis for locally drafted regional regulations. Although authority over religion is specifically retained by the central government, local politicians in several provinces (West Java, South Kalimantan, Gorontalo) have bypassed this restriction and issued syariah-inspired local regulations to control the public behaviour of Muslim residents.


In West Sumatra, each of the 14 districts in the province has passed a range of local regulations. Those concerned with Islam fall into four categories: prevention and elimination of immorality; Islamic dress for men and women; payment of religious tax; and Qur’anic education. Padang, a municipality, has the power to formulate its own regulations and its mayor may also enact mayoral decrees.

The current mayor of Padang is Fauzi Bahar. He was appointed to the position by the provincial legislature in 2004, before direct elections for local leaders were implemented. The mayor, a former sports teacher and naval officer, is extremely energetic and a strong orator. His vision is to make the City of Padang the leading economic centre and trade gateway for western Indonesia by 2008. In his speeches he emphasises that the traditional Minangkabau world view is central to Padang’s socio-economic progress. This ‘Minangkabau philosophy’ is summed up in the saying: Adat basandi syarak dan syarak basandi Kitabullah (traditions are founded on Islamic law and Islamic law is founded on God’s Book), usually abbreviated to ABS-SBK. It is repeatedly referred to in all aspects of public life in West Sumatra. Although the saying has been around for at least a century, regional autonomy has given it a new lease of life. In its current wording, ABS-SBK clearly identifies the Qur’an as the basis not only of Islamic law, but also of Minangkabau traditions and customs. Local leaders - political, religious and traditional - support the philosophy as an expression of ethnic as well as religious identity. No-one (including the tiny non-Muslim minority) has publicly contested or suggested an alternative to ABS-SBK as the symbol for Minangkabau-ness.

As the mayor states in a glossy book published in 2007 to celebrate the last three years of his leadership of Padang, the philosophy is not just ‘sweet words’. He has introduced compulsory wealth tax (zakat) payments for all civil servants in Padang (2.5 per cent is deducted from their monthly salaries at source). He has persuaded branches of Bank Nagari (which is owned by the local government) to program their ATMs to receive zakat deposits. The collected zakat is used to assist the needy in Padang as identified by neighbourhood leaders. The mayor also funds a program to build and upgrade mosques and prayer-halls so that they can be used as centres for community religious activity. And he has personally initiated a series of special religious education programs for all school-aged children.

The didikan subuh program is one of three compulsory out of school religious activities for the Muslim children and teenagers of Padang. The mayor and other Minangkabau leaders claim that young people need protection from the temptations of modern life. They are the future of the nation and of Padang and the mayor’s three programs, he states, are designed to equip them for life with the values of Islam. The second program is wirid remaja (Qur’an reading for teens). Teenagers have to attend sessions on the first and third Thursday of each month between about 6.30am and 7.30am in their local mosque or prayer-hall. Sections in local Padang newspapers feature reports of wirid remaja meetings where teenagers discuss the benefits of meeting their friends in a religious setting. They learn to recite zikir (chanting phrases containing the names of God) and practise presenting talks at a more advanced level than the primary school children of didikan subuh.

The third component of the mayor’s program is pesantren Ramadan (religious schooling during the fasting month). In 2005, he made attendance at pesantren Ramadan compulsory for all Muslim children in Padang. The mayor says he was inspired to implement this program after visiting Cambodia and seeing that Buddhist men must spend one year as novices in a monastery before marrying. Although Padang children do not get one unbroken year of intensive religious study like the Buddhists of Cambodia, they do get 60 hours every Ramadan during each year of their school careers. The mayor estimates that over their 12 years of schooling, the children will spend a total of 720 hours of intensive study of Islam. According to him, this is equivalent to the Buddhist experience in a monastery.

Legislating against social ills
Regional autonomy has given local leaders and politicians in West Sumatra (as elsewhere in Indonesia) the opportunity to express socio-economic concerns in local terms. Freed from the development rhetoric of the New Order, leaders in West Sumatra have mined the rich oral traditions of Minangkabau culture for terms in which to express anxiety about the future of that culture. The Minangkabau philosophy, ABS-SBK, is the phrase which has the widest currency. It is used like a talisman against the evils brought by western influences which reach Minangkabau children and teenagers through the media and the internet. In public speeches and the local press, senior figures make the case that ‘social ills’, which range from immoral behaviour, gambling, consuming alcohol and watching pornography, are assailing the young and can only be cured by strong Islamic values. The mayor of Padang claims that his programs were developed in response to these community concerns. He has implemented them through two mayoral decrees of 2004 and 2005.


In 2007 a new regulation on compulsory Qur’anic education, sponsored by the governor of West Sumatra, was passed by the provincial legislature. Applicable to the whole province, the regulation (No. 7 of 2007) aims to ensure that all Muslim schoolchildren and tertiary level students will be able to read and recite the Qur’an and understand its meaning. The regulation outlines the targets children and university students must achieve and the certificates they will need to move through the various levels of schooling. Applicants for civil service positions must pass a test in Qur’anic recitation and if they fail must agree to undertake six months study. Funding for Qur’an education programs is the responsibility of the regional government and society, with further details on the budget to be forthcoming from the governor.

Islam as instrument
Many citizens of West Sumatra are dismayed that their province, which produced so many outstanding nationalists, writers and religious scholars, seems now to have ‘fallen behind’. One of the causes, they feel, is the breakdown of the traditional system of religious learning which used to be practised in every village and provided Minangkabau children with a proper sense of morality. Other citizens believe that the ‘decline’ can be attributed to socio-economic factors, but they dare not argue against programs to strengthen Islamic values. The power of the ABS-SBK mantra, which interweaves religion, ethnicity and Minangkabau traditions, remains paramount. Minangkabau-ness rests on ‘Kitabullah’ (God’s Book) which underpins Minangkabau tradition. And God’s Book provides the values which form pious individuals who in turn build strong and stable societies. This is the line of reasoning promoted by the mayor and built into his programmes for Qur’anic education.

It is noteworthy, therefore, that in the preamble to the governor’s recent law concerning Quranic education (No. 7 of 2007), immediately following the ABS-SBK rationale for Qur’an education, a second rationale is given. It reads: ‘Qur’anic education is part of basic human rights whereby every human being has the right to protection for individual development, to have an education, to develop their intellect, and improve their quality of life so they have [Islamic] faith, are pious, responsible, have noble morals and are happy and secure.’ The aims of the mayor’s decrees and of the governor’s regulations are unobjectionable – to produce better Minangkabau citizens and individuals whose right to religious education is protected. From the doctrinal point of view, however, the effect of these regulations is to reduce Islam to a tool for social and personal development; it is not to glorify Allah and attempt to understand the magnitude of His omnipotence. Nor are the regulations framed in terms of an Islamic state.

The regulations do make Qur’anic education compulsory for Muslim children with testing and documentation needed to prove progress and attainment of set goals. This is indeed ‘Islamising’ children born to Muslim parents. The compulsory nature of Qur’anic learning is new, as are the stated aims of the regulations. There is no mention of an Islamic state or syariah law or special powers for religious scholars. In its present form, the Qur’anic education regulations and programs in West Sumatra focus on increasing knowledge of the Qur’an to learn its values, and in so doing, to strengthen traditional Minangkabau values.

Regional autonomy provides a new context for Islam. It has enabled a new form of Islamisation. Ostensibly it promotes greater religiosity expressed in local ethnic (Minangkabau) terms. At the same time, it allows the present leaders and politicians to dictate ‘an Islam’ which meets the needs of their time and place. The results of this instrumentalist approach to Islam - that is, the adult attitudes and behaviour of the didikan subuh children - will be seen over the next decade. The self-confident youngsters conducting their own Sunday school programmes will develop their own ideas about their ethnic identity and their personal piety which they can express through the ballot box. ii



Virginia Hooker (Virginia.Hooker@anu.edu.au) retired as professor of Indonesian and Malay early in 2007 and is now a visiting fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. Yasrul Huda MA (yasrulhuda@yahoo.com) is deputy dean of the Faculty of Syariah, IAIN Imam Bonjol, West Sumatra. Their research (together with that of MB Hooker) into the implementation of Islamic law is funded by an Australian Research Council grant.
Inside Indonesia 90: Oct-Dec 2007

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Study Targets Food Security in Timor Leste

Four International Agencies Conduct Baseline Survey Involving Thousands of Residents

30 Oct. 2007, Dili, Timor Leste – Four international agencies havejoined together to conduct essential research into the food securitysituation in Timor Leste. Concern Worldwide, CARE, Oxfam and ChristianChildren's Fund are examining the ability of residents in seven rural districts to access enough food to meet their daily nutritionrequirements and to live active, healthy lives. The study's findings will support the work of the European Union-funded Food SecurityProjects, which will be implemented from 2007 to 2010 by all fouragencies. The projects aim to increase the food security of EastTimorese communities.
The baseline survey began in mid-July and is expected to be completedby the end of 2007. It focuses on 1,200 households in Bobonaro,Liquica, Manatutu, Covalima, Oecussi, Manufahi and Lautem districts.Each agency is responsible for 300 households. The research involves family and community questionnaires that solicit quantitative andqualitative data. The survey gathers details on demographics,literacy, housing and living conditions, asset ownership, food production, diet diversity, income sources and other factors. The objective is to learn more about food accessibility, use of food forsustenance or income generation, consumption patterns, and coping strategies during times of shortage. The four agencies expect to use the information to inform and measure the effectiveness and sustainability of their current projects, to establish indicators totarget vulnerable families, for use in designing future work, and to assist the European Union and the Government of Timor Leste with policy development and planning for food security and rural development.
By working together to produce an accurate picture of the food security situation across seven districts, the agencies will be ableto design future projects that work with the communities to addresstheir needs. The agencies will share the results of monitoring and evaluating the projects and develop best practices to provide sustainable solutions to food insecurity in the future.
"By understanding the current food consumption habits and malnutrition levels of a community, projects could be designed to help produce awider variety of crops with higher yields. This would improvenutrition and provide income from surplus produce," said CARE CountryDirector Diane Francisco.
More than three-quarters of rural East Timorese households depend on subsistence farming for survival. Alternate sources of food areextremely rare or non-existent. The incidence of poverty in TimorLeste continues to be one of the highest in Asia. Some 41 percent ofEast Timorese live below the poverty line and nine out of 10 peoplesuffer food shortages for at least one month every year, according to United Nations reports.
"These statistics underscore the importance of food security in TimorLeste, and the survey's timeliness and relevance," said ConcernCountry Director Clare Danby.

For more information, contact:Concern Assistant Country Director Tapan Barman at +670-7230963CARE's Media Manager Karina Coates at +670-7231711Oxfam's Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Security Coordinator EllenoraLynch at +670-7231939 Christian Children's Fund's Food Security TeamLeader Carlos Basilio at +670-7322105

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Government plans to plant 79 million trees by year-end



Headline News
October 04, 2007

Adianto P Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is embarking on a massive tree-planting campaign ahead of what will be the largest-ever global climate change conference in Bali in December.

Indonesia's reforestation efforts have a national and international component.

"The Bali conference is about strategic momentum for us and showing the international community that Indonesia is willing to revive its forests," Soetino Wibowo, a senior adviser to the Forestry Ministry, told reporters Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar will be appointed president of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for a one-year term at the December meeting.

The ambitious reforestation program, which aims to reduce the impact of global warming, will see trees planted throughout all of the country's 33 provinces within a two-month period.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will officially inaugurate the campaign, planting 1,000 trees in Cibadak village, Bogor, on Nov. 28. The program is scheduled to begin in mid October and continue through the end of November.

To meet program targets and ensure coordinated efforts, Forestry Minister M.S. Ka'ban has already contacted governors, regents and mayors throughout the country.

"We will utilize public lands such as schools, places of worship, housing complexes and offices," Soetino said.

"We will display photos of the tree-planting activities during the UNFCCC conference."

He said the tree seedlings would be supplied by forestry offices, state-owned forestry companies Perhutani and Inhutani, and non-governmental organizations.

UNFCCC is currently the highest decision-making authority on global climate change issues.

The 191 countries that are signatories to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change will be represented at the two-week conference from Dec. 3 to 14.

Forest issues are expected to be among key topics discussed during the meeting.

Indonesia currently has 120 million hectares of forests -- more than any other country except Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wahjudi Wardojo, director general of forestry research and development at the Forestry Ministry, said 11 tropical forest countries had agreed to stop the loss of forest cover and take other measures to deal with climate change.

The agreement was made at a meeting led by President Yudhoyono in New York on Sept. 24.

The 11 countries are Indonesia, Brazil, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Columbia, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Peru.

"We are committed to cooperating among our nations to slow, stop and reverse the loss of forest cover and to promote the rehabilitation of degraded forest lands, forest management and conservation," a joint statement released by the forested countries said.

It calls for transfer of technology and for richer nations to help build the capacity of poorer ones, some of which -- like Indonesia -- have vast forest areas.

Wahjudi, who attended the meeting in New York, said the Bali conference was expected to discuss the financial ramifications of the multilateral forest conservation scheme.

He referred to formation of a coalition enabling a "bargaining position to push rich nations to fund reforestation efforts".

Minister Rachmat earlier predicted that Indonesia could reap US$10 per hectare of conserved forests.

Planting trees keeps carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere.

Adviser on partnership issues to the Forestry Ministry, Sunaryo, said one tree could prevent between 50 and 150 tons of CO2 from being released.

On the other hand, experts warn that the loss of Indonesia's forests, including due to slash-and-burn agricultural methods, will increase CO2 emissions and speed up global warming.

Due to rapid deforestation, environmental NGO Wetland International has said Indonesia is the world's third largest greenhouse gas-emitting country, after the United States and China.


Sunda Strait bridge step nearer reality



Headline News October 04, 2007

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Sunda Strait

The governors of Banten and Lampung agreed Wednesday to build a bridge across the Sunda Strait to connect Merak Port in the western part of Java to Bakauheni Port in the southern part of Sumatra.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiah, Lampung Governor Sjachroedin Z.P., and representatives of the consortium that will construct the bridge Wiratman Wangsadinata of Wiratman and Associates and Tomy Winata, the owner of PT Artha Graha Network.

Governor Sjachroedin said he hoped the bridge would be able to alleviate chronic traffic congestion at the Merak-Bakauheni ferry crossings.

"The number of vehicles crossing from port to port increases daily ... it's the main cause of traffic congestions at the two ports," he said in his speech at the signing ceremony on the Tunas Wisesa 03 ferry near Sangiang island, which is located between Merak and Bakauheni ports.

He added the addition of ports alone would not be enough to solve the problem.

Governor Ratu Atut said the agreement was a step toward conducting a pre-feasibility study this year, which is expected to be completed by 2009. It will take three more years to conduct the feasibility study before the construction process can begin in 2012. The entire project is expected be completed in 2025.

Around 20 to 30 passenger ships, most of which are more than 20-years-old, transport about 350,000 people and 25,000 vehicles between Merak and Bakauheni every day.

The suspension bridge is expected to cost around US$10 billion and will have six lanes for vehicles and two railway tracks. The bridge will be raised 70 meters above the surface of the sea and will span 30 kilometers over three small islands: Prajurit, Ular, and Sangiang.

Head of the National Development Planning Board, Paskah Suzetta, who also attended the signing ceremony, said the bridge was a public-private partnership, therefore the funding would be divided between the state budget and the private sector.

He said it would be possible to involve foreign loans.

"We won't close the door to foreign investors, as long as the project can provide a return. But we will try not to do that at first," Paskah said.

The concept for the bridge first emerged in the 1960s, but it was dropped due to a change in political leadership. When B.J Habibie became Research and Technology Minister in the 1980s, the idea was again heard but never implemented due to the 1997 economic crisis. The plan re-emerged when engineering professor Wiratman sounded it in 1997.

As the bridge is located in the Sunda Strait, which is prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, its construction would include four important phases involving hydrographic, oceanographic, geologic, seismological, climatological and environmental aspects.

"The biggest natural challenges are earthquakes and wind speed. We will examine the maximum wind speed reaching critical points in the pre-feasibility study, " Wiratman said.

He said the bridge, which would stand only 50 kilometers from the active Krakatau volcano, would be constructed from flexible but strong materials to withstand earthquakes and strong winds.