Indonesia

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Indonesia. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

House passes revamped Juvenile Court Law

from the article by Ezra Sihite in the Jakarta Globe: ....Azis Syamsuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission III on legal affairs, said legislators were very thorough and careful in their deliberations on the legislation because the principle of restorative justice that it prioritized over punitive justice was unprecedented in Indonesia’s legal system. In addition to promoting restorative justice, in which the needs of the perpetrator, victim and the victim’s family must be considered in reaching a solution that is aimed at healing rather than punishing, the new law also raises the minimum age at which juvenile offenders may be incarcerated to 14 years old. The previous law set the limit at 12 years old.

Mercy urged for child charged in Jakarta murder

by Ronna Nirmala & Arientha Primanita in the Jakarta Globe: The National Commission for Child Protection on Wednesday said it was working hard to save a 10-year-old boy, suspected of having stabbed and beaten his adoptive mother to death, from serving up to 15 years in jail. East Jakarta Police investigators have said the child, who is originally from Nias and is an orphaned survivor of the 2004 tsunami in Aceh, may face charges for violating the 2004 law on domestic violence.

Purnianti. Protection of Female Victim of Violence in Indonesia

Traditional cultural values and Islamic religious tenets have contributed to women's inferior status in Indonesian society. This has impacted not only their educational, economic, and vocational status, but also made them vulnerable to violence in the home, in the workplace, and on the streets. Women were targets for rape and violence in the social riots on May 14 and 15, 1998. Based on the Presidential Instruction dated July 8, 1998, the Indonesian Government has established the Women's Protection Team Against Violence. Team members consist of government officials, members of Parliament, lawyers, academics, and experts from communities. Short-term protection measures promoted by the team are designed to help victims or their families recover from the damage of violence. These include securing their safety, providing counseling services, legal consultation, medical treatment, hospital services, and religious services. Proposed medium- and long-term measures and programs include expediting the ratification and implementation of several international conventions regarding the victimization of women; reforming national laws that discriminate against women; research programs that examine the root causes of discrimination and violence against women; enhancing the quality and number of women's resources in law enforcement agencies; educational campaigns that promote the equal treatment of women; and stopping the practice of sending women overseas by force to become sex workers. Overall, the thrust of policy development is toward the empowerment of women, the realization of gender equality and justice, the elimination of violence against women, and the advancement of protection of women's rights. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Mudzakkir and Reksodiputro , Mardjono. Victimization in Indonesia: An Expensive Lesson

There is no specific law in Indonesia that mandates state compensation or offender restitution for crime victims; however, the Code of 1981 enables crime victims to ask prosecutors to join a civil suit for damages with criminal charges against offenders. A claim for compensation from the state has also been made possible under this new code; this claim, however, is only available for cases in which the defendant is found not guilty by the court and the court later finds negligent or unlawful conduct by the law enforcement officer. Although national law largely ignores the plight of crime victims, there are many nongovernmental organizations in Indonesia that address crime victims' needs. These organizations have laid the groundwork of selective assistance to victims, but a comprehensive victim assistance scheme is missing. Various recent studies of victimization in Indonesia have further exposed the glaring need for victim services. Research conducted to date has revealed widespread and increasing structural and collective victimization over the last 10 years. Much of this has been due to the 32-year authoritarian and abusive rule of Suharto. These studies of victimization in Indonesia offer promise that the new government will endorse legislation that focuses on the problems of victims. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Bowen, John. The Search for New Sources of Legitimacy in Indonesia after Suharto

After an aborted communist coup in 1965 in Indonesia, General Suharto came to power in 1966-1967. This led to a period of violence and mass human rights violations in Indonesia. Over the decades a certain stability and growth also occurred, but accompanying them were political oppression and corruption. Suharto's rule ended in 1998 after protests and violence against his regime. This has led to more unrest, violence, and human rights violations in Indonesia. As John Bowen comments, Indonesia after Suharto seems plagued by both a massive failure of social order and a severe crisis of political legitimacy. The two are linked for, despite Suharto's slogan of a "New Order," he failed, among other things, to create a legitimate and effective legal system. Against this background, Bowen explores current debates within Indonesia about the legitimacy of various legal and political responses to the crisis. Proposed responses include tribunals to deal with crimes under Suharto, reforms in the justice system, and a devolution of power to local authorities. Bowen pays particular attention to potential tensions between two types of demands: one for a more effective and impartial nation-wide legal system; and the other for greater regional autonomy and recognition of ethnic and religious communities' rights.

von Benda-Beckmann, Keebet. Law, Violence and Peace Making on the Island of Ambon

The island of Ambon is in Molucca province in Indonesia. In January 1999 a fight occurred between a Christian taxi driver and a Muslim youth or youths. While similar fights were not uncommon, they usually cooled down soon. This one did not; rather the fight led to wider conflict. Thus began a long period of intense ethnic-religious fighting and rioting that became a virtual civil war, with much destruction of property and loss of life across Ambon and a set of neighboring islands. Many have attempted to establish peace and a measure of reconciliation. These include religious leaders (both Christian and Moslem), local leaders, influential intellectuals, and high politicians. None have succeeded as of yet. In this context, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann surveys the peace-making process. Admittedly this is speculative, as peace has not been established. Yet von Benda-Beckmann aims in this chapter to contribute to understanding the causes of the conflict and the strengths and challenges of the ongoing peace process in Ambon.

Ford, Michele. Emerging Labor Movements and the Accountability Dilemma: The Case of Indonesia

"This chapter begins by examining the arguments most often made about the differences between labor unions and labor NGOs and the effects those differences have on the nature and extent of their accountability to workers. It then explains the context in which NGOs came to dominate the Indonesian labor movement in the early 1990s and the web of accountability in which Indonesian labor NGOs and unions find themselves today. The chapter concludes by outling the implications of the "accountability dilemma" faced by unions and labor NGOs. It argues that -- despite their formally democratic accountability structures -- Indonesian unions are not necessarily always more accountable to workers than their undemocratic labor NGO counterparts. This suggests that a multidimensional model of accountability is required that recognizes the impact that pressures associated with a particular environment have on labor movement organizations' ability to be accountable to workers." (excerpt)

Raihani. A whole-school approach: A proposal for education for tolerance in Indonesia

Education is a primary way to equip children with the knowledge, skills, and competences necessary to live a life of harmonious relationships with diverse human beings. The escalating violence in the name of religion and ethnicity in Indonesia and other parts of the world is worrying, and one potential long-term solution is to educate school students in tolerance values. In the literature on tolerance education, proposed solutions have been mainly restricted to the analysis of curriculum content and instructional textbooks. This article argues that tolerance education should be approached holistically. This means that research and practices in this area should be directed to looking at the whole school, not just particular parts of the teaching and learning in a school. What is meant by a whole-school approach includes the school’s policies and vision, the quality of the curriculum and teaching, leadership and management, culture, student activities, and collaboration with the wider community, which all together contribute to the promotion and nurturance of tolerance within the school community. This article proposes a whole-school approach to education for tolerance in Indonesia, a country with rich ethnic and religious diversity. (Author's Abstract)

Braithwaite, John and Dunn, Leah and Cookson, Michael and Braithwaite, Valerie. Anomie and violence:Non-truth and reconciliation in Indonesian peacebuilding.

This book argues that between 1997 and 2004, theoretically, Indonesia experienced a period of anomie (Durkheim 1897): a breakdown of the regulatory order that secured the institutional order (the rules of the game). A security sector that pursued its own interests by taking sides instead of preventing violence from all sides was one important part of that wider problem of anomie. This will recur as a problem in the next three volumes of Peacebuilding Compared—on Bougainville, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Abuses by the security forces escalated communal defiance before finally helping to bring violence under control. A Mertonian reading of anomie theory that dissects legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures in a micro–macro way is found to be fertile for understanding the onset of these conflicts. Emulation (modelling) of strategies for seizing illegitimate opportunities contributed to the diffusion of violence. Remarkable accomplishments of the reintegration of combatants from organisations such as Laskar Jihad, in which religious leaders showed great leadership for peace, was a feature of Indonesian peacebuilding. So was reconciliation through sharing power combined with the sharing of work (gotong royong) for reconstruction. The chapter then moves on to consider the complex multidimensionality of the factors that make for both war and peace. This evidence is used to argue for locally attuned multidimensionality and redundancy in peacebuilding strategy. This is the key to managing the inherent risks of violence in the gaming of transitions to democracy. (excerpt)

Ruth-Heffelbower, Duane. Peacemaking in Indonesia.

In 1999, Duane Ruth-Heffelbower took a leave of absence from his graduate faculty position at Fresno Pacific Universityxe2x80x99s Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies to accept an invitation to join the faculty of Duta Wacana Christian University (UKDW) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia under an appointment from the Mennonite Central Committee.

Ruth-Heffelbower, Duane. Local capacities for peace meets conflict resolution practice.

In the 1990s, many universities in Europe and North America instituted peacemaking programs. During the same period, humanitarian aid agencies were wrestling with issues related to relief and development in areas of need and conflict. Duane Ruth-Heffelbower, writing out of his experience as a practitioner in conflict resolution, looks at the spheres of conflict resolution and of relief and development to see how each can illuminate and learn from the other. In particular, he builds on the notion of identifying and dealing with social “dividers�? and “connectors�? – that is, local capacities for conflict, and local capacities for peace – when providing assistance and seeking to resolve conflict in a given situation. Heffel-bower applies these ideas to conflict in Indonesia.

Muhammed, F. "Role of the Informal Justice System in Resolving Indonesia's Crime Problem."

Crime prevention in Indonesia is a function of criminal justice agencies and other government and community security institutions. All crime prevention efforts are arranged according to a self-supporting system of public security and order and are actualized through the idea of area security systems that consist of work, school, and residential areas. Law enforcement is basically only conducted by criminal justice agencies. In reality, however, crime resolution is also affected using unofficial means to resolve conflict, particularly for misdemeanors. The essence of Indonesia's informal system involves unofficial crime clearance, a practice conducted by both the police and the community. The relatively small number of total crimes and low crime rates in police statistics indicate many misdemeanors have been cleared in unofficial ways. The Indonesian culture appears to be conducive to the unofficial approach to crime clearance, particularly with respect to religious values. Additional research is recommended to study the correlation between crime rates and traditional means of social control, religious life, and the effectiveness of unofficial crime clearance in reducing recidivism.

Ruth-Heffelbower, Duane. "Reconciling injustices – A process for Indonesia."

In this essay, Ruth-Heffelbower explains restorative justice for a Muslim audience and proposes a process for reconciliation in response to the conflicts in Indonesia. He sketches the recent history of violence in Indonesia. This leads to a review of the history and theory of restorative justice in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, as well as a diagram and model for peacemaking amidst conflict. The last part of the essay covers Ruth-Heffelbower’s proposals for applying that model to Indonesia.

Muladi. The prospect of alternative sanctions in Indonesia

In looking at the prospects for alternative sanctions in Indonesia, Muladi notes the growing attention in criminology to community-based alternatives to incarceration. Muladi focuses on alternative sanctions intended to satisfy the same goals as custodial sentences, not alternative sanctions with alternative goals (a more radical approach, as he states). This leads to a review of the history of alternatives to custodial sentences in Indonesia and of the advantages of alternative sanctions. Muladi goes on to discuss the implementation of alternative sanctions based on the current Indonesian penal code and then in relation to a draft proposal for that penal code

Ruth-Heffelbower, Duane. Indonesia: Restorative Justice for Healing a Divided Society

The modern Restorative Justice (RJ) movement began in North America as an approach to crime, and in New Zealand as an approach to child welfare issues. Both were based on the communal experience familiar to villagers worldwide. Societies which cannot afford to lock up those who violate societal norms have traditionally used restorative methods to return people to productive life in the community. Over the past 20 years or so certain principles of restorative justice have been recognized. These principles have been applied to criminal behavior, child welfare, school discipline, personnel management, and other areas of human interaction. In this paper the author explores the use of these principles for healing a large and deeply divided society, the country of Indonesia. The paper uses theory developed through years of practical application, and examines current efforts to apply the principles to various aspects of Indonesia's crises.

Peacemaking in Indonesia

In 1999, Duane Ruth-Heffelbower took a leave of absence from his graduate faculty position at Fresno Pacific University’s Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies to accept an invitation to join the faculty of Duta Wacana Christian University (UKDW) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia under an appointment from the Mennonite Central Committee.