VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Tuesday, held a discussion on an international conference on peace in Afghanistan to be hosted by Indonesia with the Indonesian Ulema Council`s (MUI`s) representatives during a visit to MUI`s office here.

"We have discussed preparations to hold the conference of ulemas from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Indonesia to be held this month," Kalla noted after a meeting with the MUI delegation here.

Kalla said he had yet to elaborate on the day to hold the trilateral clerical meeting. In essence, the meeting was an initiative to restore peace among people in Afghanistan. The meeting could result in agreements of recommendation or a decree to restore peace in Afghanistan.

According to Kalla, the condition in Afghanistan has led to peace but left a weapons dispute. It is marked by Taliban`s decision to consider adopting a political approach rather than a ceasefire.

"Afghanistan has agreed to hold a dialog for peace, and Taliban has agreed to not longer use weapons," he remarked.

Head of Foreign Affairs of MUI K. H. Muhyiddin Junaidi noted that the trilateral ulema meeting will be held on March 15, 2018. However, no names of any members of the Taliban delegation appeared on the list of ulemas.

Indonesia has been chosen by Afghanistan to mediate the matter due to its neutral stance. ( antara ) 

 The government will increase energy subsidy allocation this year as a result of the increase in the world crude prices, which exceed the state budget assumption at US$48 per barrel.

"The energy and mineral resources minister and the state-enterprises minister have calculated the needed subsidy addition yesterday," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Mulyani stated that the increase in the energy subsidies included diesel oil for state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina. It will receive additional subsidy from the current allocation of Rp500 per liter.

The increase in energy subsidies is also related to the adjustment of the coal price in the domestic market (DMO) for electricity-generating plants managed by the state-owned electricity company PLN.

In this connection, the government has also calculated all the state receipt potentials from tax and non-tax sectors, which will be lost from coal exploitation.

"This is because coal companies are forced to sell at the same price as DMO, meaning the market price. We have also computed it," she remarked.

She added that the whole amount of energy subsidy addition will be revealed at the semester report on implementation of the 2018 State Budget that will be delivered to the DPR.

But the minister assured that the increase in the subsidy allocations would not disturb the balance sheets of Pertamina and PLN. It will remain to maintain the budget deficit set at 2.19 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

Current energy subsidies in the 2018 state budget are set at Rp94.53 trillion, consisting of fuel subsidies amounting to Rp46, 9 trillion and electricity subsidies valued at Rp47.7 trillion.

Based on the government`s interim calculations, the increase in subsidies for diesel is projected to reach around Rp700 per liter to Rp1 thousand per liter from the current price of Rp500 per liter. Meanwhile, world oil price reached an average of $61.61 per barrel in February 2018, higher than the assumption of the State Budget of $48 per barrel. ( antara )

The Indonesian government is preparing scholarship for capacity building programs for the Afghans, as part of the country`s contribution in realizing peace in Afghanistan. The scholarships will be provided specifically for mining and religious studies, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) headquarter in Jakarta on Tuesday. "We have agreed to provide scholarship in the mining field for Afghanistan," she added.

The government is cooperating with the MUI to provide 135 scholarships for religious studies. Indonesia has shown support to tackle the prolonged conflict in Afghanistan by building the Indonesia Islamic Center (IIC) in Kabul that offers the Assalam Mosque and other facilities, such as a clinic, library and lodge.

On Feb 28, Vice President Jusuf Kalla has conducted the groundbreaking ceremony of a health clinic at IIC, which will be granted to the Afghan government and can later be used for offering public health services. In addition to that, the Afghan government also asked Indonesia to help increasing exports and imports to raise the competitiveness of their products while strengthening the economic sector of Afghanistan.( antara )

In recent months, arrests of drug abusers and drug dealers in Indonesia have been reported more intensively. The circulation of narcotics in this country is increasingly troublesome. Indonesia is in a drug emergency.

Currently, there is law No. 35/2009 which regulates the narcotics and psychotropic. But the law is considered irrelevant to the current situation of emergency drug in Indonesia. Criminalizing drug users, as stipulated in the law, is less appropriate, as it reduces the success of healing users, and it also leading to overcrowding the penitentiaries.

Director of the Legal Aid Society, Ricky Gunawan argues that one solution is to de-criminalize drug users, as already practiced by Portugal and Slovakia. In both countries, the problem of drug crime can be drastically reduced based on the policy. The use of narcotics should be treated as a health issue, not a legal issue.

Former Director of BNN Enforcement, Benny Jozua Mamoto views that based on the survey of BNN, the success of law enforcers to reveal the smuggling of drugs is only about 10%. He also assessed that the handling of drug crimes should involve all related stakeholders, including those who carry out ongoing and massive prevention and rehabilitation efforts.

On November 2nd, 2017 in Jakarta, the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) and several civil institutions organized a media briefing on the launch of a legal review on 'Strengthening the Revision of Indonesian Narcotics Act'. This review is an input to the revision of the law narcotics and regulations of civil society organizations, such as ICJR, Rumah Cemara, Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, and the network of civilian institution, Coalition 35/2009.

There are three main recommendations of the review of the revision of the narcotics law. The first point is the user's decriminalization; clear restrictions on identifying users and drug addicts; second one is strengthening rehabilitation centers to be opened for users and the addicted and the third point is resolving fair trial issues in criminal justice.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Daily Judicial Monitoring Society of Indonesia, Choky Riska Ramadhan said that his side and a number of non-governmental organizations, such as the Community Legal Aid Institute and the Indonesian Association of Victims of Violence, are making a draft academic revision of the narcotics law. One important point is that drug users need to be rehabilitated medically, not imprisoned. This proposal is supported by Head of Public Relations of the Directorate General of Corrections, Ade Kusnanto. It’s necessary to note that rehabilitation should be accompanied with medical, psychological, and social examination by the assessment team.

All parties really want drug cases in Indonesia to be overcome with coordination of various related agencies. The House of Representatives -DPR urged the government to finalize the academic script and draft revision of the narcotics law. Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Taufik Kurniawan even said that if the government does not immediately complete and submit it, the DPR is ready to take over the discussion of the revision of the narcotics law to suggest the initiative of the DPR.

The viewpoint of the Indonesian nation that declares that war on narcotics abuse is obvious. But there must be a stricter law. If the law No. 35/2009 is not relevant anymore, The DPR has to immediately revise it to accommodate various problems of narcotics faced by Indonesia.