Indonesia gearing up towards Creative Commons

Sunday, October 25, 2009

One of my colleague leads a Creative Commons Project in Indonesia. Tempo reported that the activists are campaigning the license to law enforcement institutions, before submitting them later to the central government. 

I really hope that their efforts will materialize. I have noted in my last posts that some trivialities under our copyright law might hinder the application of CC in Indonesia.

 

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Revising Aceh's stoning law

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

According to an Aceh legislator:

However, a council member from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Moharriadi Syafari, said the bylaw would come into effect 30 days after it was passed regardless of the governor’s refusal to endorse it.

Syafari advised people who are against the bylaw to apply for judicial review to the Constitutional Court. “If a revision is to be made by the zAceh legislature, it has to wait for a year. That’s the rule,” he said.

The President/Minister of Home Affairs has the power to annul the Qanun based on Art 235(2) of Law 11/2006 on Aceh Government. As far as I know, DPRA/DPRK can revoke Qanuns as they please, without any requirement of one year of enforcement. Or perhaps, I missed something? Please advise...

 

Rules for Dwarfs Risk Regulation of Nanotechnology and its International Context

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

A conference on nanotechnology will be held in Germany 30 November-2 December. According to the website:

We convene actors from Germany, Europe, and the United States to link previously separated regulatory debates. Participants will develop regulatory recommendations for German and European politics in frank and open discussions. This includes the prioritization of regulatory approaches and principles to guide the development of compatible regulatory systems on both sides of the Atlantic.

The price is € 160 including accommodation and meals; a reduction to € 80 is available for students. More detail here.

 

KPK - BP Migas; Conflict of Interest?

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Jakarta Globe reported:

In a move to address persistent allegations of corruption in the multibillion dollar oil and gas sector, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on Friday appointed an officer of the Corruption Eradication Commission to the board of directors of upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas.

Lambok Hamonangan, the director of gratuity oversight at the commission, better known as the KPK, was inaugurated as BPMigas’s deputy for evaluation and legal advocacy, a newly created position.

Mind my ignorance, but wouldn't this leads to conflict of interest?

 

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Calls for premarket registration of nanotech product

EEB calls for premarket registration, stakeholders consultation and adequate legislative framework before a deeper entrance in nanotech market is made. In its brochure, it deems voluntary regulation as unsuccessful. I have yet to see where the failures are, but the EEB claims for lack of participation on the enactments of these codes.

It appears to me that the EEB stance are 'precautionary' in essence and relies more on command-and-control approach in nanotech regulation. The argument may have some merit provided that there are huge uncertainties surrounding nanotech products.

More regulatory framework of precautionary nature may reduce the risk of future market failure. But over-precautions will have implications on the growing market for nanotech.

Read more here.

 

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The new electricity law

Friday, September 11, 2009

The House of Representative recently passed the new electricity bill. The bill is perceived by the media as a real attempt to liberalize the electricity sector in Indonesia. But is it true that the law is an attempt to liberalize the sector? How does the law protect investor?

Under the new law, electricity provision are segregated into generation, transmission, distribution and retail and the private sector is allowed to participate. The question is of course, in which segment can the private sector participate and what are the incentives, rights and obligation?

I will return with the discussion later. In the mean time, you can have a look at the new law here (in Bahasa).

 

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The Social Cost of Cigarette (and its advertisement) in Indonesia

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Pramudya has been very kind in providing us a commentary on the recent Constitutional Court Decision on Cigarette Advertisement in his post. I agree with him that the negative externalities arising out of cigarette must be borne by the consumer and that -- given the explicit contribution to income -- dealing with tobacco industry in Indonesia would not be easy.

A research by Achadi et.al. quoting WHO suggests that around 10% of mortality in Indonesia annually (200,000 deaths) are caused by tobacco. 61% of other deaths are caused by non communicable diseases which may be related to active or passive cigarette consumption. Another shocking discovery quoted by Achadi's research is that more than one in two household in Indonesia has at least one smoker, and 98% of them smokes at home. What this means is that they pollute the air in their home and affects their children.

What are the health cost to children who are passive smoker? A research in the UK shows that at a worst case scenario where everybody smokes at home, the health cost per child would be 16.000 GBP per year. If broken down into the number of cigarettes (20 per day and remember that british cigarettes contained filters, non-cloved and are typically milder than Indonesian), the cost would be around 62 to 92 GBP per cigarette. What it means is that in order to offset the negative adverse effect of a cigarette to children, each will have to be priced around 62 Pounds (or at a current rate, around IDR 1.000.000,00). I think this figure still does not include the opportunity cost for getting sick.

The cost of a Dji Sam Soe cigar is around IDR 750. But that's not the true cost. It will raise health insurance premium, dental care, house insurance premium (cigarette butt is a little friend for the big fire), car insurance, cleaning costs, retirement fund and many other items I cannot list down since I am not an economist. And remember, smoking near babies may cost another 62-92 pounds per cigarette (excluding opportunity costs).

If smokers are unable to pay these costs, this will go to the state's expenditure. Which means, in the end of the day, non smokers will be paying for the true cost of every cigarette through their tax.

I don't smoke but occasionally I bring cigarettes as souvenirs. Makes me feel guilty :(
Okay, from now on, no more cigarette for souvenirs.