At 107, Livermore centennial lightbulb is still a real live wire

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lightbulb5-2008may05,0,3217216,full.story

COLUMN ONE

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Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times

Tom Bramell, a former Livermore fire chief, gazes reverently at the longest burning lightbulb in the world. The bulb uses four watts of power, and its carbon filament is protected by an airtight seal.

The low-watt firehouse bulb has been burning continuously since 1901. It's generated awe and respect, even among the boosters of a Texas rival.

By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 5, 2008

LIVERMORE, CALIF. -- Five years after his retirement, ex-firefighter Tom Bramell still likes to visit Station No. 6 for old times' sake, whistling in amazement at all the changes -- the strange faces and slick high-tech engines.

But one thing remains exactly the same, and it's what Bramell misses the most about his firefighting days. The sturdy little object hangs from the ceiling in the firehouse's engine bay, emitting its familiar faint orange glow.

He calls it the long-lived lightbulb of Livermore.

That's actually something of an understatement.

At 107 years and counting, the low-watt wonder with the curlicue carbon filament has been named the planet's longest continuously burning bulb by both Guinness World Records and Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

As objet d'art and enduring symbol of American reliability and ingenuity, it's been lauded by senators and presidents.

It boasts a website -- www.centennialbulb.org, drawing a million hits a year -- a historical society and even a webcam that allows curious fans to check on it 24 hours a day.

The Livermore lightbulb, you see, never gets turned off, which many suspect is the secret to its longevity.

Hanging 18 feet above the floor at the end of a black cloth-covered cord, the little light with the filament the width of a No. 2 pencil lead is unprotected by any lampshade.

Firefighters won't even dust it. Touch it, jokes one captain, and "you get your fingers chopped off."

They guard their light with a surge protector and have a diesel generator and a battery as backups. To them, the bulb is the embodiment of their always-on-duty ethic.

For years, Bramell was known around the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department as the keeper of the bulb, the unofficial curator and caretaker who fielded queries from the public and visits from tourists. Over time, he developed a boyish wonder at its craftsmanship and spunk. From a vantage point directly beneath the bulb, Bramell says, its filament even spells the word "on."

Livermore's bulb has burned for nearly a million hours. Even now, in its old age, Bramell will stack it against any New Age fluorescent, halogen or high-pressure sodium bulb out there.

"That bulb predates the atomic bomb and the birth of the automobile," said the onetime deputy chief. "I thought that for sure it was going to go out 35 years ago, but it fooled me. It fooled everyone."

Bramell said there are numerous theories on the bulb's longevity. "Most people just consider it a freak of engineering," he said. "But I believe the bulb has stayed alive so many years because the makers gave it a perfect seal, so no air gets inside the bulb to help disintegrate the carbon filament. This bulb operates in a vacuum and it doesn't burn hot. That's the secret."

In 1901, when the tiny bulb was first screwed into place inside a so-called hose cart house, it cast its light on a simpler era.

Back then, horse-pulled carts carried water to fires. The bulb burned day and night, hanging at eye level from a 20-foot cord. Its job: to break the darkness so firefighters responding to calls wouldn't have to fumble to light the wicks of their kerosene lanterns. Manufactured by the Shelby Electric Co. of Shelby, Ohio, the bulb soon outlived its maker, which closed in 1914.

Later, in the main firehouse, it illuminated more modern rigs as horses were replaced by gas-fed engines.

It didn't always receive kid-glove treatment.

Climbing atop their engines, firefighters returning from World War II and Korea often would give the bulb a playful swat for good luck. The next generation -- the Vietnam veterans and the younger kids -- used it as a target for Nerf basketball practice.

Then, in 1972, a local reporter checked records and interviewed old-timers to trace its history. Firefighters suddenly realized they had a treasure.

"The good-luck slaps and target practice stopped," Bramell recalls. "We figured, 'Wow, maybe we should take care of this bulb.' "

The bulb was soon featured in the book "On the Road with Charles Kuralt." "In a time when gadgets are forever falling apart or burning out or breaking up, it was kind of nice spending a day watching a dusty, 71-year-old lightbulb just go on and on," the newsman wrote. "If you're ever in Livermore and need reassurance, we recommend it."

Thousands took his advice, traveling to the East Bay community of 80,000 to see the bulb and sign its guest book. "Beats Vegas!" wrote one. And another: "How many firemen does it take to change a lightbulb in Livermore? None, it never needs changing."

Bramell has heard from ministers who sermonized about the bulb's enduring reliability and residents who say they use it as a litmus test for new friends: Those who "get" the light's significance show the wisdom and good judgment for lasting ties.

"This fragile thing that wasn't meant to last has outlived the company that made it, people who first screwed it in, people who have written about it and who have kept watch over it," said Edward Meyer, vice president of exhibits and archives for Ripley Entertainment. "They made this bulb right."

Several times, the last a few years ago, Ripley's offered to buy the bulb. The city's answer is a no-brainer: "Fat chance."

In July 1976, Livermore held its collective breath when it moved the bulb a short two miles from the old Fire Department headquarters to Station No. 6. There was a police escort -- sirens blaring, lights flashing.

Most nervous was the city electrician, faced with the delicate task of actually handling the bulb. For the trip, he built a wooden bulb box lined with cotton, Bramell said.

They moved the bulb, socket and all, cutting the cord to 4 feet. At the new site, as dozens looked on, the electrician made the connection and said a prayer.

Nothing happened.

"There was a gasp," Bramell said. "Folks said, 'What on earth have we done?' Then the electrician jiggled a switch and the bulb came on. And it's stayed on ever since."

In all, the bulb was out for 22 minutes -- a short period, the Ripley's folks say, that does not mar its continuous-use record.

There are doubters who question its pedigree, competitors who wait patiently for the light to flicker and die. There's Bud Kennedy, for example, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Before Livermore's light was documented, the Texas bulb known as the Palace Theater Light was considered the world's oldest. It even received annual birthday wishes from radio host Paul Harvey.

Then Livermore and a "smart-aleck" reporter went and ruined things, Kennedy wrote in a 2001 column. So Fort Worth residents watched and waited -- ready, as one resident said, to yell "yee-hah!" when Livermore's light went dark.

"As far as I'm concerned, those bulb brains in Livermore can take their Centennial Light and go straight to . . . " Kennedy wrote. "Wait. They're already in California."

Kennedy visited the bulb last year, planning "to kick the wall and see if I could jiggle it out of its socket."

But being in its presence softened him. "The guys there consider the bulb a point of pride, as a symbol of firefighters everywhere," he said. "Who can argue with that?"

When the bulb turned 100 in 2001, Livermore officials threw a birthday party that drew 600 celebrators, many in turn-of-the-century attire.

Now they look forward to a 200th birthday bash.

"You want that light on," said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Zolfarelli, the new bulb keeper. "As long as it doesn't go out on your watch. Nobody wants to be onboard when that happens."

john.glionna@latimes.com

Intolerance in Indonesia

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120880837027832281.html

OPINION

By SADANAND DHUME
FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
April 22, 2008

In the global debate about the compatibility between Islam and democracy, Indonesia is often held up as an example of the possible. Ten years after General Suharto's downfall, the world's most populous Muslim country has institutionalized free elections and the peaceful transfer of power, nurtured a lively press, and rolled back a panoply of racist laws that once targeted the country's ethnic Chinese minority. But the ongoing persecution of the Ahmadiyya, a small Muslim sect founded in late 19th century India, underscores Indonesia's – and the Muslim world's – trouble guaranteeing a bedrock democratic value: freedom of conscience. Without it, the country's proud claim to be the world's third-largest democracy will remain lacking.

The most recent assault on the Ahmadiyya comes from a government body that manages to sound Orwellian and Kafkaesque at the same time – the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society. Last Wednesday this august grouping recommended a ban on Ahmadiyya in Indonesia. The reason: Though Ahmadiyya Muslims revere the prophet Muhammad and follow the Quran, they also contend that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908), was a prophet as well. This contradicts the mainstream Islamic assertion that all divine revelation ended with Muhammad, the so-called – and it might be noted, self-proclaimed – "seal of the prophets."

Since arriving in Indonesia in the 1920s, Indonesia's tiny Ahmadiyya community, a fraction of the country's 200 million Muslims, had lived peacefully. Ahmadiyyas tend to emphasize education and reject the idea of violent jihad. But in 2005, the Council of Indonesian Ulama, a collection of powerful mullahs, dusted off an obscure 25-year-old religious ruling, or fatwa, and declared the community to be "deviant and misled." Since then mobs have sacked Ahmadiyya mosques while police stood by, local governments have flouted federal laws and imposed bans on Ahmadiyya worship, and leaders of a thuggish vigilante group, the Islamic Defenders Front, have publicly called for the sect's followers to be murdered. Through all this, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has dithered, preferring not to stick out his political neck for an unpopular cause.

Mr. Yudhoyono ought to know better. What's at stake is not merely the safety and well-being of a somewhat offbeat religious group but a much more fundamental question: What kind of country does Indonesia want to be? Will it be, as its founding fathers envisioned, a land where people of all faiths live as equals, or one where non-Muslims and heterodox Muslims are effectively second-class citizens? Will it be a country that respects an individual's right to worship as he pleases, or indeed not to worship at all, or one where such matters are determined by safari-suited officials and bearded clerics? Will it be ruled by the law or by the mob?

For now the signs don't augur well, for ironically the deepening of Indonesian democracy has gone hand in hand with a darkening intolerance. As the country's famously easygoing brand of folk Islam gives way to a triple-distilled orthodoxy imported from the Middle East – among the more noxious side-effects of globalization – the live-and-let-live attitude that underpinned Indonesian pluralism has come under sustained assault. In 21st century Indonesia, non-Muslims and heterodox Muslims can find themselves jailed for such medieval-sounding offenses as "being heretical," "tarnishing the purity of Arabic," or "denigrating religion." Christians often bear the brunt of these new attitudes. Christian groups estimate that 110 churches were forcibly closed between 2004 and 2007 alone, and permission to build new ones is increasingly hard to come by.

Belligerence toward religious minorities at home has gone hand in hand with a heightened sensitivity to insults, real and imagined, to Islam abroad. As though to make up for lost time, Indonesia has propelled itself to the front rows of the global culture wars between Islam and the West. During the cartoon crisis of 2006 the Danish embassy in Jakarta was among the first attacked. The following year mobs converged upon the offices of a toned down (no nudity) local edition of Playboy and forced it to relocate to the Hindu island of Bali. Earlier this month, Indonesia briefly blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube and the social networking site MySpace for allowing users to watch the movie "Fitna," Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders's much-derided anti-Islam screed.

As Indonesia mulls the fate of its Ahmadiyyas, its leaders ought to draw lessons from others' mistakes. In 1974 the charismatic Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto sought to appease Pakistan's strident Islamists by declaring the Ahmadiyyas to be non-Muslims. Bhutto's placing of petty politics above principle is now generally regarded as a turning point in his country's long slide toward obscurantism and lawlessness. If this isn't enough, those perpetually exercised about guarding Islam's "image" ought to consider the irony that it is in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Washington, rather than among their co-religionists in Karachi, Riyadh or Jakarta, that Ahmadiyya Muslims can live with dignity and practice their faith without fear.

Mr. Dhume is a fellow at the Asia Society in Washington, D.C. His book about the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia, "My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with an Indonesian Islamist," will be published by Text Publishing in Australia in May.

Nationalism vs. Islamism in West Java election?

http://www.thejakartapost.com/node/166571

Ahmad Junaidi , Jakarta | Thu, 04/17/2008 11:17 AM | Opinion

Barack Obama's recent comments about small town working-class voters can be used to understand Ahmad Heryawan and Dede Yusuf's win in the West Java gubernatorial election.

The strong Democratic Party's U.S. presidential candidate stated: "It's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to... religion... as a way to explain their frustrations."

Indonesians, including the Sundanese -- the largest ethnic in West Java -- are now economically frustrated: Increasing prices of staple foods, kerosene shortages, long queues to buy cooking oil, high unemployment -- the list goes on.

Then, new faces -- Heryawan, nominated by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and Dede, a former action film star and legislator of the Muslim-based National Mandate Party -- offer the "audacity of hope".

In their television campaign, Heryawan and Dede use -- it's not clear whether they actually have permission to do so -- a picture of Obama and say: "It's time for the youth to lead."

Meanwhile, the grand old parties, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) came with old faces. Golkar supported Danny Setiawan, the incumbent West Java Governor, while PDI-P, chaired by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, endorsed retired general Agum Gumelar.

Unlike the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election in which the two parties managed to win Fauzi Bowo, they could not come up with a candidate in West Java.

The nationalist parties did not learn from their success in defeating PKS in the Banten gubernatorial election and Tangerang regent where Ratu Atut and Ismeth Iskandar were elected as governor and regent respectively.

Many cities in West Java such as Bandung, Bekasi and Bogor are strongholds of the PKS. Directly-elected Depok Mayor Nurmahmudi Ismail was the party's former president.

Regencies in the provinces, such as Indramayu, Tasikmalaya and Cianjur, have recently approved sharia-inspired bylaws --although some non-governmental organizations criticized the regulations for violating women's rights.

Peaceful demonstrations joined by hundreds, up to thousands of students and mosques activists who demanded the establishment of caliphs regularly took place in those cities.

The rallies' participants mostly were not aware of the bloody history of caliphs as stated in a new translated book Kebenaran yang Hilang (The Missing Truths) by slain Egyptian author Farag Fouda.

They ignore the facts that three of the four caliphs, Umar, Ustman and Ali were killed. The youth supporters do not know that the absence of control over political power -- check and balances -- had created chaos in the succession in their favorite political system.

The fundamentalists do not believe vox populi, vox dei (The voice of the people is the voice of God), instead they prefer vox ulema, vox dei.

The West Java floating masses are surely not aware of the exclusive ideology of PKS. The party's cadres cleverly do not wear religious clothing, and instead promote anti-corruption policies.

The recent arrest of Al Amin Nasution of the United Development Party (PPP) -- which supported Agum Gumelar -- could be seen as evidence that the behavior of the New Order parties under the corrupt regime of Soeharto can still be found.

The Corruption Eradication Commission caught Al Amin red-handed for bribery at the Ritz Carlton Jakarta. Media reported the commission also nabbed a prostitute with the legislator.

The public still clearly remembers the Golkar legislator who was caught literally naked in a sex video with a dangdut singer last year. Yahya Zaini then resigned as a member of the House of Representatives.

The current media blow up on padlocked masseuses may also motivate voters to chose candidates espousing better morals: Heryawan and Dede.

If it was a soccer game, Danny (Golkar) and Agum (PDI) would be badly injured before entering the soccer field to face young and energized players. Their faces would be covered with s---t thrown by the spectators.

Many of the "floating masses" are those who were described in a book titled Who Speaks for Islam?, co-authored by John L. Esposito -- a growing number of Muslims who love democracy, reject violence but hate secularism. Muslims who love American food and blue jeans, but hate corrupt and hypocrite candidates, especially nominees from the two pillars of the New Order regime: Golkar and the military.

The West Java election will probably affect the presidential elections next year. Whoever the candidate supported by PKS is, he -- the party dislikes the idea of a female president -- would have more of a chance to win the race. And the president is expected to share his power with the party and acted as a devout Muslim.

Many more sharia-inspired bylaws would be approved by the regional councils and the much-opposed anti-pornography bill would be passed into law. The initiatives would not necessarily come from PKS cadres as many opportunist legislators, mostly from the Golkar party, support the bylaws, believing them to be a quick way to lure back voters.

In the future, more dangdut singers, not only Inul Daratista and Dewi Persik, could be banned because of their erotic dancing, and more masseuses could be padlocked. Again, it should not be blamed on PKS cadres.

The writer is a journalist at The Jakarta Post. He can be reached at junaidi@thejakartapost.com

Dumb and dangerous

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/04/11/editorial-dumb-and-dangerous.html

Editorial:

Fri, 04/11/2008 12:32 PM | Opinion

The first thought that came to mind when the government said it planned to block Internet sites that host the anti-Islam documentary Fitna was: What a dumb idea. Those who understand how the Internet works know full well that you cannot censor this medium, unlike television, radio and newspapers. You can block particular sites, but those who look hard enough can find Fitna, the hate documentary produced by a Dutch politician, elsewhere in the ever-expanding virtual world.

Sure enough, in the past few days, those trying to access YouTube from Indonesia found the site was no longer accessible.

YouTube, one of the most popular file-sharing communities on the Internet, hosts the film. The government gave it a few days notice in demanding the removal of the film from YouTube and other similar file-sharing sites. When this demand went largely ignored, Indonesia-based ISPs, at the behest of the government, started blocking access to YouTube and other sites on Wednesday.

Voila, the Indonesian government makes its first foray into censoring the Internet. What a futile effort. What it has done is not quite censoring, for Fitna can be still found on numerous other websites and blogs. Instead, the government has deprived Indonesians access to one of the world's most popular file-sharing communities. This is like the Indonesian expression, "to catch a rat, you burn down the entire rice barn. The rat escapes, and you are left with a razed barn".

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is one of the latest wonders of the Internet. It allows people around the globe to share videos of all kinds. Yes, there are the hate documentaries, far worse than Fitna, posted there.

But by and large, this file-sharing community does more good than harm. Indonesian artists seeking to penetrate the global film industry have a chance to break the mold through this medium. Talents that otherwise would have been ignored can now find space, and perhaps their big break, through YouTube.

Education, the dissemination of information and exchange of cultural products are just some of the areas that benefit tremendously from sites like YouTube.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must have received some frighteningly dumb advice when he, at a press conference, demanded that YouTube remove Fitna from its site. There was no way YouTube would have complied, and besides, now that the site is blocked, people can still get hold of the film.

It is not clear who the President was trying to appease. The religious conservatives? They too are among the prime beneficiaries of YouTube. What the President has done is to alienate millions of Indonesians, particularly the young generation, who find file-sharing communities on the Internet not only useful but an indispensable part of their lives. If Barack Obama is appealing to the young Internet generation to vote in this year's presidential election in the United States, Yudhoyono seems to be doing exactly the opposite.

Those dumb advisers could not have been completely ignorant of the ineffectiveness of Internet censorship. The fact that they went ahead, and the President took their advice, sends a disturbing sign that they are not only dumb, but also dangerous. It shows a mindset that takes us a decade back to the era of censorship.

We see the signs in the present administration's efforts to restore some form of control over the media. The plan to review the 1999 Press Law, the latest draft of the Criminal Code that reinstates restrictions on freedom of expression and the new law on the cybermedia with its censorship clauses all point to an administration ever eager to give itself some control over what society reads, listens to and views.

Indonesia's commitment to freedom of expression and the right to information, both of which are guaranteed in the Constitution, are now being put in doubt. When Indonesia hosts the next Global Inter-Media Dialogue in Bali, President Yudhoyono will have to answer a lot of questions about his own personal commitment to guaranteeing freedom of expression in Indonesia.

Hypocrisy all around

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/04/12/hypocrisy-all-around.html

Sat, 04/12/2008 11:17 AM | Opinion

A bid by the Batu administration in East Java to curb prostitution by asking masseuses to wear a padlock on their pants not only serves as an insult to women but most of all exposes our hypocrisy.

Requiring masseuses to wear a padlock would not curb prostitution or uphold public morality; it would only make our country an international laughingstock.

We share the opinion of our minister for women's empowerment, Meutia Hatta Swasono, that this odd practice insults women and unfairly portrays masseuses as prostitutes.

If the aim of the policy is to prevent prostitution and promote tourism, as reported by the media, then this surely is the wrong way to go about pursuing these goals.

However, we disagree with Minister Meutia's proposal to improve monitoring of massage parlors by installing CCTV cameras. CCTV inside massage parlors? If that happened, no one would visit them.

There must be a better way to supervise massage parlors and curb prostitution, besides requiring masseuses to wear padlocked pants or installing CCTV cameras.

To curb prostitution, we must first understand and accept the problem.

First, it's impossible to eliminate prostitution simply because there is always a demand, and even a growing demand, and supply.

However, we act as if we can eliminate the sex industry. We declare prostitution illegal and our law enforcers close down some places of prostitution and round up streetwalkers.

Yet, prostitution is still here and thriving in places like Jakarta and Bali. There are still many locations, including massage parlors, offering sexual services.

Indonesia has even earned the reputation as one of the best countries in the region for sex tourism. It is an unwanted recognition, yet we cannot deny that many people do come to Indonesia for that purpose.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla himself once suggested the country promote the women of Puncak, West Java, to attract tourists from the Middle East.

However, the biggest consumers of the prostitution industry here are Indonesians. That is why most major cities in the country have illegal red-light districts. Ask any taxi driver and they will know exactly where to go.

We are always in a state of denial. We like to portray ourselves as a religious society, and we don't want to believe that red-light districts exist in the country or that the number of commercial sex workers is increasing. We are hypocrites.

There is also a big question that should be answered. How do the operators of prostitution dens and pimps survive the raids by law enforcers and the sweeps by overzealous religious groups.

Some would say that to survive in the industry, you have to "cooperate" with the law enforcers and the religious groups, who often act as protection rings. Money, of course, is key to this cooperation.

The picture is bleak and we must recognize this if we want to address the problem. We cannot eliminate prostitution, at the same time we cannot legalize it because it is still too sensitive an issue. At the least, then, me must regulate it.

Countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore all treat prostitution as illegal but they recognize and regulate the industry.

Regulation is especially necessary to protect sex workers from exploitation and denial of their rights, and also to prevent the spread of diseases and HIV/AIDS. Also, the government can impose hefty taxes on businesses or people offering sexual services for money.

But regulating the sex business requires courage and leadership. It's difficult, but possible. We have precedence for this. Former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, defying protests from various quarters, established an official red-light district in Kramat Tunggak, North Jakarta. The area is now occupied by an Islamic center.

Ali Sadikin is to this day the only head of local government who has correctly addressed the issue of prostitution. Now with decentralization, local heads of government have greater say in their local affairs, and therefore they have a greater opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Ali Sadikin.

Let's hope heads of local governments are not only zealous about drafting and imposing sharia-inspired bylaws, but also dare to regulate, and not negate, the sex business.

Timor-Leste's Displacement Crisis

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT

Timor-Leste's Displacement Crisis

Dili/Brussels, 31 March 2008: If Timor-Leste, which was rocked with violence in 2006 and whose president was seriously shot earlier this year, is to avoid conflict in future, it needs to do more and faster to solve a festering problem that has kept a tenth of its population displaced.

Timor-Leste’s Displacement Crisis,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, explores why 100,000 people remain displaced, two years after political and sectarian violence drove them from their homes. It notes that some of the IDPs fear renewed violence; some have no home to return to, or are unable to reclaim their property because of inadequate property registration and dispute-resolution mechanisms; others stay in camps for the free rice.

Like the recent rebel attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta, the IDPs are a direct result of the 2006 crisis, and a reminder that the problems which led to that crisis – including problems within the security forces and sectarian antagonism – have not been tackled.

“The IDP camps in Dili are not just a humanitarian disaster zone, but also a visible reminder of the failure of the government and international forces to create a secure environment”, says John Virgoe, Crisis Group’s South East Asia Project Director. “Resolving the displacement crisis is essential if Timor is to move beyond the 2006 conflict”.

The government finally has a plan – the national recovery strategy – which contains many of the elements needed to promote IDP returns. But only the first pillar – rebuilding houses – is funded in the 2008 budget. No money has been provided for the equally important non-infrastructure elements, such as bolstering security, livelihood support, reconciliation and social safety nets. These elements are important to reduce the risk that social jealousy will obstruct the resettlement process and to promote reconciliation within communities.

The strategy also excludes important issues. It does not address options for rebuilding those properties – the majority – that are the subject of ownership disputes. Timor badly needs a functioning land and property regime. Its absence, coupled with the general pressure on housing, lay behind many displacements, with people taking advantage of the 2006 chaos to chase neighbours out of their houses. Draft land laws exist, but successive governments have considered them too controversial. They need to be passed, but, important as it is, land law reform will take time and alternative solutions are needed for IDPs whose houses are the subject of ownership disputes.

The recovery strategy also overlooks the need to bring arsonists and the authors of the 2006 violence to justice – important for deterring future displacements. None of those responsible for the violence are behind bars, and several remain in senior leadership positions.

“Arson and displacements have become almost routine events in Timor-Leste,” says Robert Templer, Crisis Group’s Asia Program Director. “The cycle of impunity must be broken, and potential arsonists need to feel that they may face punishment for their actions”.

---

Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) +32 (0) 2 541 1635
Kimberly Abbott (Washington) +1 202 785 1601
To contact Crisis Group media please click here
*Read the full Crisis Group report on our website: http://www.crisisgroup.org

Pollution From Chinese Coal Casts a Global Shadow

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/business/worldbusiness/11chinacoal.html?ex=1307678400en=e9ac1f6255a24fd8ei=5088partner=rssnytemc=rss

The Energy Challenge

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Coal has given parts of China a Dickensian feel, with miners coated with black soot and air that is thick with pollution.

By KEITH BRADSHER and DAVID BARBOZA

Published: June 11, 2006

HANJING, China — One of China's lesser-known exports is a dangerous brew of soot, toxic chemicals and climate-changing gases from the smokestacks of coal-burning power plants.

The Energy Challenge
The Cost of Coal

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Coal-burning factories like the Gu Dian steel plant have given Shanxi Province in China a Dickensian feel.

In early April, a dense cloud of pollutants over Northern China sailed to nearby Seoul, sweeping along dust and desert sand before wafting across the Pacific. An American satellite spotted the cloud as it crossed the West Coast.

Researchers in California, Oregon and Washington noticed specks of sulfur compounds, carbon and other byproducts of coal combustion coating the silvery surfaces of their mountaintop detectors. These microscopic particles can work their way deep into the lungs, contributing to respiratory damage, heart disease and cancer.

Filters near Lake Tahoe in the mountains of eastern California "are the darkest that we've seen" outside smoggy urban areas, said Steven S. Cliff, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California at Davis.

Unless China finds a way to clean up its coal plants and the thousands of factories that burn coal, pollution will soar both at home and abroad. The increase in global-warming gases from China's coal use will probably exceed that for all industrialized countries combined over the next 25 years, surpassing by five times the reduction in such emissions that the Kyoto Protocol seeks.

The sulfur dioxide produced in coal combustion poses an immediate threat to the health of China's citizens, contributing to about 400,000 premature deaths a year. It also causes acid rain that poisons lakes, rivers, forests and crops.

The sulfur pollution is so pervasive as to have an extraordinary side effect that is helping the rest of the world, but only temporarily: It actually slows global warming. The tiny, airborne particles deflect the sun's hot rays back into space.

But the cooling effect from sulfur is short-lived. By contrast, the carbon dioxide emanating from Chinese coal plants will last for decades, with a cumulative warming effect that will eventually overwhelm the cooling from sulfur and deliver another large kick to global warming, climate scientists say. A warmer climate could lead to rising sea levels, the spread of tropical diseases in previously temperate climes, crop failures in some regions and the extinction of many plant and animal species, especially those in polar or alpine areas.

Coal is indeed China's double-edged sword — the new economy's black gold and the fragile environment's dark cloud.

Already, China uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined. And it has increased coal consumption 14 percent in each of the past two years in the broadest industrialization ever. Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China that is big enough to serve all the households in Dallas or San Diego.

To make matters worse, India is right behind China in stepping up its construction of coal-fired power plants — and has a population expected to outstrip China's by 2030.

Aware of the country's growing reliance on coal and of the dangers from burning so much of it, China's leaders have vowed to improve the nation's energy efficiency. No one thinks that effort will be enough. To make a big improvement in emissions of global-warming gases and other pollutants, the country must install the most modern equipment — equipment that for the time being must come from other nations.

Industrialized countries could help by providing loans or grants, as the Japanese government and the World Bank have done, or by sharing technology. But Chinese utilities have in the past preferred to buy cheap but often-antiquated equipment from well connected domestic suppliers instead of importing costlier gear from the West.

The Chinese government has been reluctant to approve the extra spending. Asking customers to shoulder the bill would set back the government's efforts to protect consumers from inflation and to create jobs and social stability.

But each year China defers buying advanced technology, older equipment goes into scores of new coal-fired plants with a lifespan of up to 75 years.

"This is the great challenge they have to face," said David Moskovitz, an energy consultant who advises the Chinese government. "How can they continue their rapid growth without plunging the environment into the abyss?"

Living Better With Coal

Wu Yiebing and his wife, Cao Waiping, used to have very little effect on their environment. But they have tasted the rising standard of living from coal-generated electricity and they are hooked, even as they suffer the vivid effects of the damage their new lifestyle creates.

Years ago, the mountain village where they grew up had electricity for only several hours each evening, when water was let out of a nearby dam to turn a small turbine. They lived in a mud hut, farmed by hand from dawn to dusk on hillside terraces too small for tractors, and ate almost nothing but rice on an income of $25 a month.

The Er Pu coal mine in Shanxi Province, China. Coal use in China exceeds that of the United States, the European Union and Japan combined.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Wu Yiebing, seated left, with his wife, Cao Waiping, right, their daughter, Wu Caoying, far left, and a family friend, center. Coal has given the family as much electricity as it needs, but a smog of sulfur particles hovers above their small town.

Today, they live here in Hanjing, a small town in central China where Mr. Wu earns nearly $200 a month. He operates a large electric drill 600 feet underground in a coal mine, digging out the fuel that has powered his own family's advancement. He and his wife have a stereo, a refrigerator, a television, an electric fan, a phone and light bulbs, paying just $2.50 a month for all the electricity they can burn from a nearby coal-fired power plant.

They occupy a snug house with brick walls and floors and a cement foundation — the bricks and cement are products of the smoking, energy-ravenous factories that dot the valley. Ms. Cao decorates the family's home with calendar pictures of Zhang Ziyi, the Chinese film star. She is occasionally dismissive about the farming village where she lived as a girl and now seldom visits except over Chinese New Year.

"We couldn't wear high heels then because the paths were so bad and we were always carrying heavy loads," said Ms. Cao, who was wearing makeup, a stylish yellow pullover, low-slung black pants and black pumps with slender three-inch heels on a recent Sunday morning.

One-fifth of the world's population already lives in affluent countries with lots of air-conditioning, refrigerators and other appliances. This group consumes a tremendous amount of oil, natural gas, nuclear power, coal and alternative energy sources.

Now China is trying to bring its fifth of the world's population, people like Mr. Wu and Ms. Cao, up to the same standard. One goal is to build urban communities for 300 million people over the next two decades.

Already, China has more than tripled the number of air-conditioners in the past five years, to 84 per 100 urban households. And it has brought modern appliances to hundreds of millions of households in small towns and villages like Hanjing.

The difference from most wealthy countries is that China depends overwhelmingly on coal. And using coal to produce electricity and run factories generates more global-warming gases and lung-damaging pollutants than relying on oil or gas.

Indeed, the Wu family dislikes the light gray smog of sulfur particles and other pollutants that darkens the sky and dulls the dark green fields of young wheat and the white blossoms of peach orchards in the distance. But they tolerate the pollution.

"Everything else is better here," Mr. Wu said. "Now we live better, we eat better."

China's Dark Clouds

Large areas of North-Central China have been devastated by the spectacular growth of the local coal industry. Severe pollution extends across Shaanxi Province, where the Wus live, and neighboring Shanxi Province, which produces even more coal.

Not long ago, in the historic city of Datong, about 160 miles west of Beijing, throngs of children in colorful outfits formed a ceremonial line at the entrance to the city's 1,500-year-old complex of Buddhist cave grottoes to celebrate Datong's new designation as one of China's "spiritually civilized cities."

The event was meant to bolster pride in a city desperately in need of good news. Two years ago, Datong, long the nation's coal capital, was branded one of the world's most-polluted cities. Since then, the air quality has only grown worse.

Datong is so bad that last winter the city's air quality monitors went on red alert. Desert dust and particulate matter in the city had been known to force the pollution index into warning territory, above 300, which means people should stay indoors.

On Dec. 28, the index hit 350.

"The pollution is worst during the winter," said Ji Youping, a former coal miner who now works with a local environmental protection agency. "Datong gets very black. Even during the daytime, people drive with their lights on."

Of China's 10 most polluted cities, four, including Datong, are in Shanxi Province. The coal-mining operations have damaged waterways and scarred the land. Because of intense underground mining, thousands of acres are prone to sinking, and hundreds of villages are blackened with coal waste.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

In Shanxi Province houses are coated with soot, miners' faces are smeared almost entirely black, and air is thick with the smell of burning coal.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Pollution from China will contribute to a big increase in global warming.

There is a Dickensian feel to much of the region. Roads are covered in coal tar; houses are coated with soot; miners, their faces smeared almost entirely black, haul carts full of coal rocks; the air is thick with the smell of burning coal.

There are growing concerns about the impact of this coal boom on the environment. The Asian Development Bank says it is financing pollution control programs in Shanxi because the number of people suffering from lung cancer and other respiratory diseases in the province has soared over the past 20 years. Yet even after years of government-mandated cleanup efforts the region's factories belch black smoke.

The government has promised to close the foulest factories and to shutter thousands of illegal mines, where some of the worst safety and environmental hazards are concentrated. But no one is talking about shutting the region's coal-burning power plants, which account for more than half the pollution. In fact, Shanxi and Shaanxi are rapidly building new coal-fired plants to keep pace with soaring energy demand.

To meet that demand, which includes burning coal to supply power to Beijing, Shanxi Province alone is expected to produce almost as much coal as was mined last year in Germany, England and Russia combined.

Burning all that coal releases enormous quantities of sulfur.

"Sulfur dioxide is China's No. 1 pollution problem," said Barbara A. Finamore, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council's China Clean Energy Program in Washington. "This is the most serious acid rain problem in the world."

China released about 22.5 million tons of sulfur in 2004, more than twice the amount released in the United States, and a Chinese regulator publicly estimated last autumn that emissions would reach 26 million tons for 2005, although no official figures have been released yet. Acid rain now falls on 30 percent of China.

Studies have found that the worst effects of acid rain and other pollution occur within several hundred miles of a power plant, where the extra acidity of rainfall can poison crops, trees and lakes alike.

But China is generating such enormous quantities of pollution that the effects are felt farther downwind than usual. Sulfur and ash that make breathing a hazard are being carried by the wind to South Korea, Japan and beyond.

Not enough of the Chinese emissions reach the United States to have an appreciable effect on acid rain yet. But, they are already having an effect in the mountains in West Coast states. These particles are dense enough that, at maximum levels during the spring, they account at higher altitudes for a fifth or more of the maximum levels of particles allowed by the latest federal air quality standards. Over the course of a year, Chinese pollution averages 10 to 15 percent of allowable levels of particles. The amounts are smaller for lower-lying cities, like Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

China is also the world's largest emitter of mercury, which has been linked to fetal and child development problems, said Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington.

Unless Chinese regulators become much more aggressive over the next few years, considerably more emissions could reach the United States. Chinese pollution is already starting to make it harder and more expensive for West Coast cities to meet stringent air quality standards, said Professor Cliff of the University of California, slowing four decades of progress toward cleaner air.

Nothing Beats It

China knows it has to do something about its dependence on coal.

The government has set one of the world's most ambitious targets for energy conservation: to cut the average amount of energy needed to produce each good or service by 20 percent over the next five years. But with an economy growing 10 percent a year and with energy consumption climbing even faster, a conservation target amounting to 3.7 percent a year does not keep pace.

All new cars, minivans and sport utility vehicles sold in China starting July 1 will have to meet fuel-economy standards stricter than those in the United States. New construction codes encourage the use of double-glazed windows to reduce air-conditioning and heating costs and high-tech light bulbs that produce more light with fewer watts.

Meanwhile, other sources of energy have problems. Oil is at about $70 a barrel. Natural gas is in short supply in most of China, and prices for imports of liquefied natural gas have more than doubled in the last three years. Environmental objections are slowing the construction of hydroelectric dams on China's few untamed rivers. Long construction times for nuclear power plants make them a poor solution to addressing blackouts and other power shortages now.

For the past three years, China has also been trying harder to develop other alternatives. State-owned power companies have been building enormous wind turbines up and down the coast. Chinese companies are also trying to develop geothermal energy, tapping the heat of underground rocks, and are researching solar power and ways to turn coal into diesel fuel. But all of these measures fall well short. Coal remains the obvious choice to continue supplying almost two-thirds of China's energy needs.

Choices and Consequences

China must make some difficult choices. So far, the nation has been making decisions that it hopes will lessen the health-damaging impact on its own country while sustaining economic growth as cheaply as possible. But those decisions will also add to the emissions that contribute to global warming.

The first big choice involves tackling sulfur dioxide. The government is now requiring that the smokestacks of all new coal-fired plants be fitted with devices long used in Western power plants to remove up to 95 percent of the sulfur. All existing coal-fired plants in China are supposed to have the devices installed by 2010.

While acknowledging that they have missed deadlines, Chinese officials insist they have the capacity now to install sulfur filters on every power plant smokestack. "I don't think there will be a problem reaching this target before 2010," said Liu Deyou, chief engineer at the Beijing SPC Environment Protection Tech Engineering Company, the sulfur-filter manufacturing arm of one of the five big, state-owned utilities.

Japan may be 1,000 miles east of Shanxi Province, but the Japanese government is so concerned about acid rain from China that it has agreed to lend $125 million to Shanxi. The money will help pay for desulfurization equipment for large, coal-fired steel plants in the provincial capital, Taiyuan.

The question is how much the state-owned power companies will actually use the pollution control equipment once it is installed. The equipment is costly to maintain and uses enormous amounts of electricity that could instead be sold to consumers. Moreover, regulated electricity tariffs offer little reward for them to run the equipment.

In 2002, the Chinese government vowed to cut sulfur emissions by 10 percent by 2005. Instead, they rose 27 percent. If Chinese officials act swiftly, sulfur emissions could be halved in the next couple of decades, power officials and academic experts say. But if China continues to do little, sulfur emissions could double, creating even more devastating health and environmental problems.

Even so, halving sulfur emissions has its own consequences: it would make global warming noticeable sooner.

China contributes one-sixth of the world's sulfur pollution. Together with the emissions from various other countries, those from China seem to offset more than one-third of the warming effect from manmade carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, according to several climate models.

But the sulfur particles typically drift to the ground in a week and stop reflecting much sunlight. Recent research suggests that it takes up to 10 years before a new coal-fired power plant has poured enough long-lasting carbon dioxide into the air to offset the cooling effect of the plant's weekly sulfur emissions.

Climate experts say that, ideally, China would cut emissions of sulfur and carbon dioxide at the same time. But they understand China's imperative to clean up sulfur more quickly because it has a far more immediate effect on health.

"It's sort of unethical to expect people not to clean up their air quality for the sake of the climate," said Tami Bond, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Hunt for Efficiency

The second big decision facing China lies in how efficiently the heat from burning coal is converted into electricity. The latest big power plants in Western countries are much more efficient. Their coal-heated steam at very high temperatures and pressures can generate 20 to 50 percent more kilowatts than older Chinese power plants, even as they eject the same carbon-dioxide emissions and potentially lower sulfur emissions.

China has limited the construction of small power plants, which are inefficient, and has required the use of somewhat higher steam temperatures and pressures. But Chinese officials say few new plants use the highest temperatures and pressures, which require costly imported equipment.

And Chinese power utilities are facing a squeeze. The government has kept electricity cheap, by international standards, to keep consumers happy. But this has made it hard for utilities to cover their costs, especially as world coal prices rise.

The government has tried to help by limiting what mines can charge utilities for coal. Mines have responded by shipping the lowest-quality, dirtiest, most-contaminated coal to power plants, say power and coal executives. The utilities have also been reluctant to spend on foreign equipment, steering contracts to affiliates instead.

"When you have a 1 percent or less profit," said Harley Seyedin, chief executive of the First Washington Group, owner of oil-fired power plants in Southeastern China's Guangdong Province, "you don't have the cash flow to invest or to expand in a reasonable way."

A New Technology

The third big choice involves whether to pulverize coal and then burn the powder, as is done now, or convert the coal into a gas and then burn the gas, in a process known as integrated gasification combined combustion, or I.G.C.C.

One advantage of this approach is that coal contaminants like mercury and sulfur can be easily filtered from the gas and disposed. Another advantage is that carbon dioxide can be separated from the emissions and pumped underground, although this technology remains unproven.

Leading climate scientists like this approach to dealing with China's rising coal consumption. "There's a whole range of things that can be done; we should try to deploy coal gasification," said Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations-affiliated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The World Bank in 2003 offered a $15 million grant from the Global Environment Facility to help China build its first state-of-the-art power plant to convert coal into a gas before burning it. The plan called for pumping combustion byproducts from the plant underground.

But the Chinese government put the plan on hold after bids to build the plant were higher than expected. Chinese officials have expressed an interest this spring in building five or six power plants with the new technology instead of just one. But they are in danger of losing the original grant if they do not take some action soon, said Zhao Jian-ping, the senior energy specialist in the Beijing office of the World Bank.

Another stumbling block has been that China wants foreign manufacturers to transfer technological secrets to Chinese rivals, instead of simply filling orders to import equipment, said Anil Terway, director of the East Asia energy division at the Asian Development Bank.

"The fact that they are keen to have the technologies along with the equipment is slowing things down," he said.

Andy Solem, vice president for China infrastructure at General Electric, a leading manufacturer of coal gasification equipment, said he believed that China would place orders in 2007 or 2008 for the construction of a series of these plants. But he said some technology transfer was unavoidable.

Western companies could help Chinese businesses take steps to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, like subsidizing the purchase of more efficient boilers. Some companies already have such programs in other countries, to offset the environmental consequences of their own carbon-dioxide emissions at home, and are looking at similar projects in China. But the scale of emissions in China to offset is enormous.

For all the worries about pollution from China, international climate experts are loath to criticize the country without pointing out that the average American still consumes more energy and is responsible for the release of 10 times as much carbon dioxide as the average Chinese. While China now generates more electricity from coal than does the United States, America's consumption of gasoline dwarfs China's, and burning gasoline also releases carbon dioxide.

An Insatiable Demand?

The Chinese are still far from achieving what has become the basic standard in the West. Urban elites who can afford condominiums are still a tiny fraction of China's population. But these urban elites are role models with a lifestyle sought by hundreds of millions of Chinese. Plush condos on sale in Shanghai are just a step toward an Americanized lifestyle that is becoming possible in the nation's showcase city.

Far from the Wu family in rural Shaanxi, the Lu Bei family grew up in cramped, one-room apartments in Shanghai. Now the couple own a large three-bedroom apartment in the city's futuristic Pudong financial district. They have two television sets, four air-conditioners, a microwave, a dishwasher, a washing machine and three computers. They also have high-speed Internet access.

"This is my bedroom," said Lu Bei, a 35-year-old insurance agency worker entering a spacious room with a king-size bed. "We moved here two years ago. We had a baby and wanted a decent place to live."

For millions of Chinese to live like the Lus with less damage to the environment, energy conservation is crucial. But curbing that usage would be impossible as long as China keeps energy prices low. Gasoline still costs $2 a gallon, for example, and electricity is similarly cheap for many users.

With Chinese leaders under constant pressure to create jobs for the millions of workers flooding from farms into cities each year, as well as the rapidly growing ranks of college graduates, there has been little enthusiasm for a change of strategy.

Indeed, China is using subsidies to make its energy even cheaper, a strategy that is not unfamiliar to Americans, said Kenneth Lieberthal, a China specialist at the University of Michigan. "They have done in many ways," he said, "what we have done."

Keith Bradsher reported from Hanjing and Guangzhou, China, for this article and David Barboza from Datong and Shanghai.

Justice for Suharto-Era Crimes Still Matters

http://www.feer.com/forum/?p=111

The FEER Forum

February 14, 2008

Published by admin at 3:49 am under FEER Forum, History, Southeast Asia, human rights

by Joseph Saunders
Much of the commentary since Suharto’s death on Jan. 27 has focused on his economic legacy. Of late, triumphalist accounts seem to be eclipsing more nuanced assessments, as observers debate whether overall economic growth during his 32-year tenure overshadowed the nepotism and corruption that marred his rule. Suharto’s political and human rights legacy, wrongly pushed to the sidelines, is at least of equal importance in assessing his record and the challenges facing Indonesia today.

Democracy was already in retreat during the turbulent last years of Sukarno immediately preceding Suharto’s ascension. In 1965-66, Indonesia was in upheaval. While Suharto brought stability, he did so at enormous cost, orchestrating pogroms that killed hundreds of thousands of suspected communists and sympathizers and unleashed broader violence.

Suharto then proceeded to reshape government in ways that destroyed all hopes of democracy for the entire duration of his rule. While Indonesia is impossibly diverse in ethnic terms and notoriously difficult to govern, Suharto’s approach was to eviscerate the rule of law and make the military his prime instrument of social control. With censorship integral to his rule, he left precious little space even for discussion of his policies. Indonesia has spent much of the past ten years recovering from the consequences.

For the most part, Suharto’s political innovations—such as his amalgamation of societal “functional groups” into an ostensibly apolitical ruling “party” that he himself controlled (the old Golkar)—did not survive his rule. More generally, government institutions languished and their performance plummeted during his tenure. As the Economist noted after his death, government institutions suffered from advanced rot and it is little wonder that the “mafia state” he created could not withstand the 1997 Asia economic crisis.

Suharto’s government did important work in expanding essential social services, such as health and education. But even in such areas caveats are in order. The undeniable benefits of the expansion of schools, for example, should be counterbalanced with consideration of the consequences of his crude imposition of Pancasila ideology and the fear of innovation that sucked the life out of much of the education system.

Under Suharto, institutions essential to democracy were not allowed to grow or flex their muscles and, as a result, atrophied. Sham elections and show trials were all that were allowed, and people knew it.

Indonesia had relatively free parliamentary elections in 1955; it wasn’t until 1999, with Suharto gone, that the country again saw anything comparable. The judiciary was thoroughly politicized under Suharto, its professionalism severely undercut by its blatantly subservient role. Although there was some slow opening toward the end, genuinely independent civil society groups were not tolerated for most of Suharto’s rule; fear of surveillance haunted the press, the campus, and the public square.

The one institution that unambiguously flourished under Suharto was the military, with its political and economic prominence and an organizational structure paralleling the civilian bureaucracy down to the village level. While the military’s political influence is slowly receding today, it remains economically and socially entrenched. Again, Indonesia is grappling with the consequences today, with the fight still on to end the military’s formal and informal economic role and establish genuine civilian supremacy.

Since Suharto was forced from power by street protests in 1998, there has been significant progress in some of these areas: political parties and the press have blossomed, and society is far more vibrant than it was before. One notable area of failure, however, continues to be the independence and vigor of the prosecutorial and judicial systems.

The legal system today would be far stronger if it addressed the institutionalized violence that Suharto made central to government. Together with the security forces and intelligence apparatus, the leadership of which he carefully groomed and then rotated out at strategic moments, he simply crushed political opponents.

Suharto’s “New Order” government turned violence on and off like a spigot, using it to snuff out or discredit popular opposition and public trends he and other officials didn’t like. These included, to take some of the better known examples: demands for far-reaching political reform in the early 1970s, advocacy of independence in East Timor following the Portuguese withdrawal in 1975, the rising assertiveness of criminal elements (“preman”) in Central Java in the early 1980s, calls for cultural autonomy in Papua (Irian Jaya) in the mid-1980s, and rising political dissatisfaction in Aceh in the 1990s. Suharto’s world was one of constant perceived threats that required a heavy-handed response. Often, as in Papua, Aceh, and East Timor, the heavy-handedness contributed to resentments that fueled decades-long rebellions.

But Suharto didn’t kill and repress all by himself. Many who aided him remain in power or have continuing influence today. Even though Suharto is gone, there is a need to put surviving collaborators on trial and let them explain their deeds—and Suharto’s role. Accountability through professional and independent investigations into Suharto-era abuses would not only provide justice for victims, it would be the best shot in the arm for institutions such as the courts that still have a long way to go to fulfill their roles in society. Demonstrating to the public that police, prosecutors, and judges are able to hew to principle even in the face of the continued influence of some Suharto-era military officials and a public understandably focused on economic survival would mark profound progress in Indonesia. To date, there has been almost no progress whatsoever on key cases.

Justice, accountability, and an end to impunity are not just about the past. The clearest indication of the continued hold of Suharto-era thinking and patterns is the still unresolved murder of Munir, Indonesia’s most prominent human rights activist and a savvy political analyst. Munir was crudely assassinated with a massive dose of arsenic while en route from Jakarta for studies in Holland in 2004, seven years after Suharto was forced out. From early on in the investigation, there has been substantial evidence the killing was part of a larger conspiracy involving the National Intelligence Agency but investigators have dragged their feet.

In a positive development, in late January 2008, the Supreme Court sentenced Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, an off-duty Garuda Airlines co-pilot with links to the agency, to a 20-year jail term. Pollycarpus was found to have delivered Munir a poisoned drink while in a Singapore airport transit lounge. But while there is growing evidence that the plan to kill Munir may have been launched at high levels within the agency months before the actual killing, investigators still have not named a single intelligence agency employee as a suspect.

This is sobering. Munir was a hero of the movement that ousted Suharto. His work in 1998 on behalf of “disappeared” student activists whose protests had become a lightning rod for demands for change made him one of the main faces of opposition in the months before and after Suharto’s ouster on May 21, 1998. From that time until his death, Munir was a public figure, internationally acclaimed and nationally recognized for his courage and willingness to stand up to the military and intelligence establishment.

Similarly striking is the lack of prosecutions of security forces for ongoing violations in Papua. Despite dozens of official statements of commitment to taking a new approach in Papua, and positive developments on several fronts, justice has noticeably lagged—to the point where one wonders if it is even part of the equation. Recent Human Rights Watch investigations suggest that special police units, taking over many tasks previously performed by the military, continue to engage in abuses in remote highland regions, but enjoy the same impunity enjoyed by the military under Suharto. The dynamic that poisoned the political climate in Papua under Suharto has not changed in this important respect.Beyond the Munir case and conditions in Papua today are the literally hundreds of thousands of other victims of Suharto-era violence. Still unaddressed are the mass killings of 1965-66, security force impunity for endemic violations in counterinsurgency operations in Aceh and East Timor, past crimes in Papua, killings in Lampung, Tanjung Priok, and other prominent cases.

This too is Suharto’s legacy. The fact that Suharto is now gone should be a spur to delve more deeply into such cases rather than to bury and forget them. Doing so would serve victims of past abuse but also send a signal that the rule of law matters, prosecutors will not let cases languish, and the judiciary has found its feet—in sum, that Indonesia’s fledgling democracy is building a foundation that will last.
Mr. Saunders is Human Rights Watch’s deputy program director. He has lived and worked in Indonesia.