Newsletter No. 686
News-Analysis
July 25, 2007

 

INDONESIAN STUDENTS PROTEST JAPANESE-OWNED COMPANY IN NORTH SUMATRA

An article in Tempo Interactive last week (translated by a certain James Balowski) reported that students and activists in the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan demonstrated at the Japanese consulate and the representative offices of PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (PT Inalum) on July 18th. It seems that there is an electricity crisis in the area. Rotating blackouts are said to be frequent, with the latest round starting in July. These blackouts sometimes occur three times a day for periods of up to four hours.

The reason why the students and activists were targeting Japan over this issue is because PT Inalum is a joint venture with the Japanese government, and it is alleged that the Indonesian state electricity company is ensuring that PT Inalum receives full electricity services even as the general public is forced to endure repeated blackouts. A protestor named Harlen was quoted as follows: “Inalum, as a foreign company with massive capital, appears to be neglecting the electricity crisis and leaving the people's homes in the dark.”

The protestors were demanding that PT Inalum be nationalized by the Indonesian government as a step toward resolving the electricity crisis.

In response to these protests (according to a different article in the Jakarta Post) PT Inalum President Kiyoshi Shiomi announced that his company would provide more energy back to the state electricity company to help alleviate the shortages. President Shiomi was quoted as saying, “As part of Indonesian society and a joint venture between Indonesia and Japan, Inalum has its obligation to help defuse the power crisis after getting approval from its shareholders.”

This is expected to alleviate the local electricity problem somewhat, but blackouts are likely to continue at some level.

TOKYO URGES JAKARTA TO RATIFY THE COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY

Right now a delegation from Indonesia is in Tokyo discussing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the Japanese foreign ministry. Indonesia signed the treaty in 1996 but has never ratified it. The Japanese government is urging Jakarta to do so quickly as they are eager to have the treaty come into effect.

The CTBT was opened for signature in September 1996 but will not come into effect until all of the 44 so-called “Annex 2” countries ratify it. Three of these states have not yet even signed the treaty (India, North Korea, and Pakistan). Seven others have signed it but have not ratified it (China, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, and the USA).

Basically the treaty requires countries “not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion, and to prohibit and prevent any such nuclear explosion at any place under its jurisdiction or control.”

GARUDA SAFE ENOUGH FOR JAPAN

The Indonesian national airline Garuda has recently been embarrassed by having its flights effectively banned from both the United States and Europe. There are concerns that Garuda has a very poor management of safety issues and that passengers face an unacceptable degree of risk when boarding one of these flights.

Countries outside of the USA and Europe have been pondering whether they too should ban Garuda flights. Saudi Arabia, for example, is said to be looking closely at this issue.

On the other hand, Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau recently conducted a one-day audit of Garuda and pronounced themselves satisfied with the results.

Garuda has daily flights from to Tokyo via Denpasar and Jakarta and flies four times a week from Jakarta to Osaka. Last year, 387,571 passengers flew on Garuda to Japan. Clearly, the Indonesian company was overjoyed to hear the Japanese decision.

Note: A special thanks to David Adam Stott for forwarding some of the news reports that were used in writing this newsletter.