,

Untitled

Sunday, April 11, 2010


This announcement below is from Foresight Institute.




Foresight Update 23.39: All conference videos now posted - April 9, 2010

 

Discuss these news stories at http://foresight.org/nanodot.


We are happy to announce that all videos from Foresight 2010, our January conference, are now posted: http://www.vimeo.com/album/176287

There are 17 videos, so in case you'd like some guidance in getting started, consider starting with the top three talks as rated by conference participants:

Special thanks to Monica Anderson, Miron Cuperman, and TechZulu (Efren Toscano) for their work on this project.

If you enjoy the videos and have not yet joined Foresight or donated in 2010, we encourage you to chip in and help fund this work: https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=770119168

We hope to see you at the next Foresight Conference!






 

Site redirected

, , , ,

Religious Freedom in Indonesia Before and after Constitutional Amendments

Saturday, April 10, 2010

After asking permission to the editor, I decided to revise my paper, previously published in a book by Brainbow Press.  The working paper version is available in the SSRN. Abstract is provided below. Do send me email/post some comments. 
 
Download here, or read this SSRN page http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1587256
 
Religious Freedom in Indonesia Before and after Constitutional Amendments

Abstract:     
The Indonesian Constitution is very unique in terms of its relation between religion and the state. It is stated there that that the state is based “…on the belief in the One and Supreme God” but at the same time, it never explicitly mentioned the name of any established religion. Historical interpretation into the constitutional drafting process and revelation from the founding fathers on their understanding of 'God' and religion reveals that the Constitution is neutral with respect to religions and worldviews. However, the Constitution does prefer a theistic worldview over the non theist. The consequences for this is that the state may provide financial and other supports to the followers of religions (provide positive discrimination) but must not interfere with the freedom of followers of any other worldviews to profess their beliefs. Recent amendment to the Constitution reinforces this neutral stance. This would have a significant impact on the constitutionality of blasphemy laws. 
 
Keywords: indonesia, religion, blasphemy, human rights, constitution 
 
Working Paper Series

, ,

UN Water Quality Reader

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Quick blogging.

Click here for the links to publications by UN Bodies on Water Quality issues.

,

EPSCA 10 list of speakers (update 2)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

To give you an update, this is the list of speakers for the upcoming EPSCA 10:

  1. Dr. Evita Legowo, Director General Oil and Gas, ESDM (tent.)
  2. Trijana Kartoatmodjo, Deputy Operations, BPMIGAS
  3. Benny Lubiantara, Fiscal Policy Analyst, OPEC (as Advisor)
  4. Tariq Shafiq, Founding Executive, Iraq National Oil Company (also author of new Iraq oil law, Forum Chairman)
  5. Ittiporn Boonpracong, Deputy Director-General, Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs (Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority)
  6. Faiz Shahab, Commissioner, PT Prime Petroservices
  7. Joseph Amudi Tobing, Senior Legal Counsel, Hess Limited
  8. Peter Godfrey, Vice President (Commercial), Arrow Energy International (on CBM development with PT Medco)
Click here to download the brochure. In order to claim 10% discount from indolawreport, fill in this promotional code  “82410PM-ILR-4Q" in the booking form.

,

Another 149 companies may be implicated in tax crime?

Monday, April 5, 2010

According to the Jakarta Post:

There are at least 149 companies with tax issues related to Gayus, lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo said Thursday after a meeting with National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri.
“I have a list [of the problematic firms]. They relate to Gayus’ case, as indicated by Gayus’ bank account transactions,” Bambang said as quoted by Antara. He said the case, which involves Rp 28 billion (US$3.08 million) in Gayus account, was only a part of a larger crime.
Gayus is likely involved in tax crimes along with hundreds of companies, Bambang added.
Chief detective at the National Police Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said his detectives had begun investigating into hundreds of companies that evaded tax with Gayus’ assistance.

Yesterday, Adnan Buyung has agreed to take on the case on the condition that Gayus opens up. Today, detikcom quoted Constitutional Court chief judge Mahfud MD saying that there is another major corruption case 'ready to blow'. 

Looking at the list, some of the 149 companies are indeed giant businesses with strong political connections.
What do you think?

, , ,

Water Governance in Malaysia

A new paper from Chan (2010) about water governance in Malaysia argues the importance of stakeholder participation, transparency and accountability. Chan opined that the current move towards the centralisation of water services provision in Malaysia should be reconsidered as it well have an impact towards participation and transparency in the water services sector. 

Below is the abstract:

Currently, it is widely believed that many water companies are linked to powerful politicians, making the awarding of contracts, tariffs and other management aspects non-transparent and ineffective. Ideally, politicians that govern should act on the professional advice of the water managers and not the other way around. Another area of water governance that needs to be intensified is the war against corruption. In the water sector, there should also be an all-out war on corruption at all levels of governance, in both the public and private sectors. Government should make all contracts in the water sector awarded through open tender with public consultation to ensure professionalism, fairness, transparency, accountability and good governance. Equally, all contracts and other relevant documents drawn up between the government and private companies should not be "classified" but instead be public documents available to the public for discussion, review and improvement. Another area to ensure better governance is for the government to engage and actively involved all stakeholders in the water sector, especially civil society and NGOs. Finally, the Federal Government should reconsider its plans to centralize the water sector by taking it over from State Governments. This is because, centralization would be contradictory towards involvement of all stakeholders and also pose problems to many states that had already privatized the water sector. Finally, governance of the water sector should be based on Integrated Water Resources Management which is the logical way forward in ensuring sustainable development. 

In my paper for the Journal of Water Law (forthcoming), I discuss in specific the problem of transparency in the water sector and explore how institutions and legal framework could tackle them. I agree with Chan that tarrifs, contracts and tender should be transparent. At page 151 he argued:

To achieve the above objective, the government should make all contracts in the water sector awarded through open tender with public consultation. This would ensure professionalism, fairness, transparency, accountability and good governance. Equally, all contracts and other relevant documents drawn up between the government and private companies should not be “classified” but instead be public documents available to the public for discussion, review and improvement.

The condition is similar in Indonesia. In my March 30th newspaper article, I wrote:

When a Jakarta citizen asks to what rights are they entitled as a water customer, there’s not much that the 1992 and 1993 bylaws can answer because the 1998 privatization has changed the landscape of accountability from Jakarta’s local government and PAM Jaya to its concessionaires.

Some of the answers could be provided in the concession contracts. Unfortunately, the concession contracts are said to contain a confidentiality clause and therefore are never to be found in the public domain.

It appears that both Malaysia and Indonesia faces similar problem with respect to the transparency of contracts and operations. Fortunately, Indonesia have a Freedom of Information Law which will be enforced starting from next month and we do not have (yet-- and hopefully never will have) an Official Security Act  (OSA). I red in Malaysiakini that some of the water deals are actually covered by OSA. 

Read Chan's full paper here