Tempointeraktif.com - The History of Shia in Indonesia

The History of Shia in Indonesia
Tuesday, 04 September, 2012 | 06:51 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:It is difficult to trace when Shia teachings entered Indonesia exactly. However, Prof. A Hasjmy in his book, “Shia and Ahlussunah: Power Takeover since Early Islamic History in the Archipelago,” writes that Shia has existed in Aceh since the 800s, or 173 Hejira in the Islamic calendar.

The teachings were brought by about a hundred traders from the Arab Gulf, Persia and India, that arrived at Peureulak Port on merchant ships from the Kambey Gulf, Gujarat, led by Captain Khalifah.

They were Shiites who were persecuted in their homelands. The ‘Islamic missionaries’ managed to influence Peureulak residents and within only 40 years, or 1 Muharram 225 Hejira in the Islamic calendar, the Peureulak Islamic kingdom was established. The king was Sultan Saiyid Maulana Abdul Azis Syah, a Shiite and descendant of Quraysh-Arab.

PURWANTO

Rights body to summon energy minister | The Jakarta Post

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik will be summoned to discuss the case of PT Triangle Pase Inc., an Australian mining company allegedly operating without a permit in East Aceh, a human rights official says.

“We will summon minister Jero Wacik and representatives from the company as well. The company has allegedly continued operations without approval from the local administration,” National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) official Ridha said after meeting with East Aceh regency officials in Jakarta on Friday.

Local residents reported PT Triangle Pase Inc. to Komnas HAM for continuing operations after its permit expired in February, Antara reported.

According to Terpiadi Madjid, a community leader in East Aceh, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas extended Triangle Pase’s permit without the consent of the local administration.

According to Triangle Energy’s website, the company has applied to renew its production sharing contract (PSC) for an additional twenty years.

Aceh Set To Become A Major Cacao Producer | Atjeh News

Banda Aceh — The district administration of Nagan Raya of Aceh, said it will open 115 hectares of new cacao plantations to make the commodity its biggest export earner.

“The local farmers would operate the plantations,” Akmaizal, head of the Area Expansion and Supervision of the regional Forestry and Plantation Office, said.

The government will support the farmers with high yield seed variety and fertilizers, Akmaizal said on Tuesday.

He said cacao plantations in the regency of Nagan Raya are relatively small compared with other districts in Aceh.

He said the regency of Nagan Raya has only 4,500 hectares of cacao with annual production averaging 400-500 kg per hectare.

The opening of new plantations would make the district a major producer of that commodity.

The district’s production of cacao beans could reach 19,310 tons a year , he said.

Indonesia with annual production of around 550,000 tons, is the world’s third largest producer of cacao beans after the Ivory Coast and Ghana in Africa.

The country’s cacao production center is Sulawesi especially West Sulawesi.

The government has a program to revitalize the country’s cacao plantations with the Cacao National Movement launched in 2008.

With the program the country’s production of cacao beans is expected to reach 1.2 million tons in 2014.

Unlike the two African countries Indonesia will rely more on domestic market to dispose of its cacao beans with the imposition of an export tax on beans.

The export tax aimed at guaranteeing feedstock for domestic industries, resulted in an increase in cacao bean consumption in the country to 180,000 tons in 2010 from 125,000 tons in the previous year.
Last year, the domestic requirement was estimated to reach 280,000 tons especially with falling price in international market.

The price of cacao beans has been reported hitting the rock bottom or the lowest in 32 months on oversupplies.[]

Antaranews

Endangered Sumatran Elephant’s Surprise Birth: It’s a Girl! | The Jakarta Globe

Banda Aceh. A trained Sumatran elephant named Suci has given birth at Conservation Response Unit Sampoiniet in Aceh Jaya, Aceh. 

Wahdi Azmi, field manager for the Aceh branch of Flora & Fauna International, a conservation group, said that Suci gave birth to a female calf early on Tuesday morning. 

CRU staffers were not there to witness the birth of the calf, as Suci, 20, had not been displaying any signs of labor. 

“Yesterday, when the CRU team woke up, they were surprised to see Suci already gave birth,” Wahdi said 

He added that the team thought Suci was 44 weeks pregnant, and elephants generally have a gestation period of 88 weeks, or 22 months, the longest of any land mammal. 

The baby elephant, which weighs about 70 kilograms and stands 80 centimeters in height, is in good condition, according to Wahdi. She has been named Ayu Rosalina. 

According to Wahdi, Suci began mating with a wild elephant that lived in the forest area around CRU Sampoiniet’s Camp 21 months ago. 

CRU is a program collaboration between the local Natural Resources Conservation Agency, Aceh Jaya Forestry Agency, Aceh Protection and Monitoring Program of Flora and Fauna International and a local community ranger institute. 

“The program, which has been running since 2009, is aimed at building community-based forestry security mechanisms and mitigating conflict between the community and wild animals,” Wahdi said. 

The CRU Sampoiniet team has five trained elephants used as rides during forest patrols, but the elephants are also an important tool to raise awareness and provide conservation education. 

The Sumatran elephant has been declared critically endangered, with its population in Aceh estimated at only 500. 

The number of Sumatran elephants in the wild has dropped dramatically in the past four years. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has said the species is now one step away from extinction.

Police Admit Aceh Officers’ Role in Drug Trafficking | The Jakarta Globe

Banda Aceh. Police in Aceh destroyed more than 2,000 kilograms of marijuana on Wednesday and admitted the involvement of their own personnel in the high-volume trafficking of the drug in the province. 

Insp. Gen. Iskandar Hasan, the Aceh Police chief, oversaw the incineration of the 2,361 kilograms of marijuana, 1.79 kilograms of heroin and 6,000 pot plants at the provincial police headquarters. 

He said the drugs, with an estimated street value of Rp 11 billion, were seized throughout the course of the year by police and by customs officers from five suspects, two of whom remain at large. 

Iskandar said the marijuana represented just a fraction of the more than 15,500 kilograms seized from around 700 suspects since the start of the year. 

He blamed the high volume of the drug on the involvement of police, citing the arrest last week of an officer in Medan, North Sumatra, for alleged drug trafficking. 

“The marijuana bosses are exploiting our officers to ensure the smooth flow of their operations,” he said. 

However, he did not say whether his office planned to charge any officers for complicity in trafficking or whether any preventive programs would be put in place. 

The police chief was speaking next to the bales of marijuana, which in keeping with standard police procedure for the destruction of narcotics had been set on fire. 

Last December, Iskandar revealed that up to 1,000 of the Aceh Police’s 13,000 officers had tested positive for drug use, but no charges were ever pressed against them. 

Instead, they were sent on a monthlong reform program. 

The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) lists Aceh as the province with the highest rates of marijuana trafficking and use, and fourth nationwide for all drug trafficking based on estimated street value. 

Basri Ali, head of the BNNP, the provincial office of the BNN, said the situation was “growing dangerous.” 

“What makes it worrying is that marijuana is no longer just being sold in big cities here, but is also available in kampungs,” he said, adding that dealers were increasingly targeting non-traditional users such as schoolchildren and office workers. 

“If this isn’t addressed urgently, the younger generation will be ruined.” 

Suara Pembaruan

Indonesian utility seeks $200m to construct gas-fired plant in Aceh - Energy Business Review

Indonesian utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) announced it was seeking funding to build a $200m gas-fired power plant in Arun of Aceh region in the country.

PLN planning and risk management director Murtaqi Syamsuddin was quoted by the JakartaGlobe as saying that the opportunity has been made available to interested bidders.

"The winner will be announced by early next year, so that the construction can start," Syamsuddin said.

PNL will supervise the construction of the 200MW power plant, while the winner will provide the funding for the engineering, procurement and construction.

Syamsuddin said this project comes amid plans to convert Arun liquefied natural gas plant into a receiving terminal and regasification facility.

In May, the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with oil major BP under which daily 230m standard cubic feet of natural gas will be allocated to PLN.

After completion of the project in 2014, the utility intends to close down the operation of a 150MW diesel-fuel power plant in Aceh.

Aceh’s Delay in Establishing Truth Body a Setback: Amnesty | The Jakarta Globe

The Aceh provincial legislature’s decision to further delay the setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission is a major setback to end impunity in the region, a leading human rights group says. 

Amnesty International has been urging the Aceh parliament and central government to deliver on their promises made in 2005 and commit to ensuring truth, justice and full reparation for victims and their families during the era in which the province was militarized. 

“There has been little progress in ensuring accountability for crimes committed during the armed conflict in Aceh, including murders, rape and other crimes of sexual violence, disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment,” Josef Roy Benedict, Amnesty International’s campaigner for Indonesia, said in a statement on Saturday. 

The organization said that the 2005 Helsinki Peace Agreement and the 2006 Law on Governing Aceh contained provisions for the establishment of a Human Rights Court and an Acehnese branch of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

“However both have yet to be established,” Benedict said. 

Last week, Abdullah Saleh, a member of Commission A of the Aceh provincial council, said that the council would have to wait for the passing of the national truth and reconciliation commission law. 

“We have to delay setting up the commission while we wait for Jakarta to pass the law first,” he said. 

Amnesty said that the establishment of truth commissions did not relieve states of their obligation to bring those suspected of criminal behavior under international law to trial. 

He added that an important step is to understand the circumstances that led to past violations, claiming that learning from the past will ensure that such crimes will not reoccur. 

“All victims of gross human rights violations, crimes against humanity and other crimes under international law have a right to know the truth,” the statement read. 

More than 15,000 people were killed and thousands more disappeared during Aceh’s pro-independence movement from the 1970s to early 2000s. 

The Indonesian Military (TNI) launched a crackdown on separatists until the state of emergency in the province was lifted briefly between early 2000 and 2003. 

In 2003, the TNI again declared Aceh a military emergency zone and moved to quash the pro-independence Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Though fighting flared up again after that, a devastating tsunami in 2004 refocused the country’s efforts toward rehabilitation and eventually led to a peace agreement. 

Amnesty said it met with victims’ groups from Aceh who told the organization they continue to demand to know the truth about the harm they suffered. They want to know the causes, facts and circumstances in which such violations took place. 

The organization also met family members, particularly of those who were killed or disappeared, who wanted to establish the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. 

“They expressed disappointment that they continue to be ignored by the authorities,” Benedict said.