New Law in Aceh Allows Stoning to Death of Adulters

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iK-JIckrgPJ30kN2Erx6IBVBCIcw

I’ll write more about this later, but for now, just want to share. Article from AFP.

Indonesian rights groups condemn new stoning law

By Nurdin Hassan (AFP) – 19 hours ago

BANDA ACEH — Indonesian rights activists condemned as “cruel and degrading” on Tuesday a new Islamic law calling for adulterers to be stoned to death in the country’s staunchly conservative Aceh province.

The law — which also allows punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape, 100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling — was passed unanimously Monday by lawmakers in the region at the northern tip of Sumatra island.

The law replaces elements of Indonesia’s criminal code with sharia, or Islamic law, for Muslims. It allows the death penalty for married people and 100 lashes for unmarried people found guilty in cases of adultery.

“The laws that have been approved in Aceh are cruel and degrading to humanity,” National Commission on Human Rights head Ifdhal Kasim told AFP.

The law undermines the secular basis of Indonesia’s law, Kasim said, adding the rights group was appealing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review the legislation.

“This will bring Aceh back to the past. Throwing stones is like Aceh in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries,” Kasim said, adding the law would likely embolden conservatives pushing for sharia on a national level.

The controversial legal change was passed in Aceh just weeks before a new, more moderate provincial assembly — dominated by the Aceh Party of former separatist fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) — is due to take power.

The administration of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, himself a former GAM fighter, is opposed to the strict sharia law, but has said it is powerless to stop the law, which will come into effect in 30 days with or without his signature.

“(The law) only deals with petty crimes, adulterers, but it doesn’t deal with (significant crimes such as) corrupt officials,” Human Rights Watch spokesman Andreas Harsono said.

“In our opinion it is against the principle of human rights,” he said.

Human Rights Working Group head Rafendi Djamin said the punishments set out in the law were “humiliating and degrading” and a product of politicking among local leaders.

“They’re more interested in private issues than issues of the wider public interest like corruption and measures to empower people who have been suffering in the wake of conflict,” Djamin said.

Arif Budimanta, a senior official of the opposition Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, condemned the law — despite local members having supported it in the Aceh assembly.

“We are deeply concerned about this cruel law as it is against our national ideology and values of pluralism,” he said.

Spokesmen for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a liberal ex-general re-elected by a landslide earlier this year, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ma’ruf Amin, the head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, Indonesia’s top Islamic body, welcomed the new hardline law.

“The Council supports sharia law in areas where it is allowed, like Aceh, which has special autonomy. It’s not a matter of good or bad.

“For Muslims, sharia law is the best and can be implemented anytime, anywhere. As long as there is agreement from everyone, there’s no problem,” Amin said.

Aceh had previously adopted a milder form of sharia law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package from Jakarta aimed at quelling local separatist sentiment.

The sharia code enforced religious observation and offered lighter punishments — including caning — for gambling, drinking and association between unmarried members of the opposite sex.

Separatists in Aceh had been fighting the Indonesian government since 1976 until a peace deal in 2005 in a conflict that claimed over 15,000 lives.

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 234 million people are Muslim, but the country also has significant Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Confucian minorities. Most Muslims practise a moderate form of the religion.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

I live here now

My new home (for the next two days), Jakarta

Another attempt at the secret secret beach

On Sunday Marcus, Simone and I set out to find the elusive secret secret beach. We had REAL directions this time which buoyed our confidence no end.

But before the walk started we had a relaxed and delicious breakfast on Marcus and Simone’s back veranda and had coconuts from the tree that their security guard, the kind hearted Jumadin collected and cut open for us. An excellent way to start a day of rare physical activity to be sure. Jumadin said that coconut water cleans your blood. That sounds like a pretty good thing to happen to your blood right?

We headed out to the same beach we started from last time but this time we were entering the forest from a completely different spot. The beginning of the walk followed a road that was wide enough for cars, and even as it narrowed further up the mountain there was still enough of a track to take a motorbike along.

Simone crossing a bridge

Eventually the vehicle track ended and it was time to enter the forest for real.

Marcus entering the forest

Just prior to this we met a man who had some property along the track and he told us the way to the beach but insisted that it was much further than we thought. The seed of doubt was planted. According to his times we would be struggling to get to the beach and back before dark.

We continued along for a little while until we hit a narrow track on a steep edge that was so dense with vegetation we had to push ourselves through it. At this point our doubts were increasing and enthusiasm waning and eventually we turned back.

On our way back we stopped in for a longer chat with the man who had given us direction.

Directions man

On his property he has fruit trees, tomato plants and some other things I couldn’t identify. He didn’t live on this property permanently, but I think he said he spent a few weeks here and there staying over tending to the farm. He had cacao trees (the seeds/beans of which make cocoa/chocolate)

Seed pod from the cacao tree

And puppies! It’s been too long since this blog has featured baby animals.

Puppies!

We headed back and ended up spending a few hours at the regular secret beach. The secret beach isn’t a secret at all and there are usually groups of young men hanging around (sometimes swimming and sometimes just sitting on the rocks watching the world below). There were lots of guys out that day but miraculously, at one point, we had the beach to ourselves for about half and hour or more.

Our plan next was to return to Joel’s to eat pizza but it was CLOSED! That was a real blow to morale, but we soon found some team building activities to cheer everyone up again.

Simone and Sarah cooperating!

And look who else we met! (that’s Joel’s Restaurant in the background)

Wan, our friend from our previous attempt at the secret secret beach

You may recall Wan from our last walk. He was just about as pleased to see us as we were to see him. We chatted to Wan and some other locals while we waited for our car which arrived as the sun went down. I didn’t do a very good job capturing this, but it gives you a hint.

Sunset over Lampuuk

Hari Meugang Part III (Jess and Sarah’s Saturday Soiree continues)

So, continuing on from yesterday’s story…after enjoying burgers and fries by the pool, Rijal the superstar becak driver picked us up to take us home. After driving for a while we realised we weren’t heading directly home.

“Where are you taking us Rijal?”

“Jalan jalan sore” (which roughly translates as “afternoon drive/stroll”)

Jess had picked up on the very festive vibe earlier in the day (think of that meat market as a supermarket on Christmas Eve) and by 5pm the whole town was feeling silly. The cat calls to our becak were particularly ridiculous. One old man walked up to us while we were stopped in traffic and said simply “You and me? I love you, do you love me?” wiggling his finger back and forth between us both as if to say “don’t you feel the connection baby?” Best part: he was about 170 years old and didn’t seem to mind that he was declaring his love to two girls simultaneously. Instead of being creepy like these shout outs sometimes are, this day they were a bit cheeky and funny, like “it’s Hari Meugang, to hell with being serious!”

After plowing through traffic in the centre of town we headed towards the suburbs by the sea. Everything was destroyed by the tsunami in this part of town and the roads are brand new (well, they’ve probably been rebuilt three times since the tsunami but at the moment they are brand new), so we hooned around on the wide, sealed roads as the sun when down, ducking in and out of small village streets, onto big thoroughfares with beautiful views of the sea and the mountains and the sunset.

This is how much fun it was:

Jalan jalan sore

And then…everything fell into place. It was obvious…Jess had to drive the becak.

Jess is a natural. Could be a good second income.

Jess was an INCREDIBLE becak driver. All was going well until the brand new road ended.

“Jess!! There’s NO MORE ROAD! STOP!”.

“I DON’T KNOW WHICH ONE IS THE BREAK!”

Fortunately, Jess handled the situation amazingly, like a real becak driver (who hasn’t figured out where the break is yet). Jess slowed down and everything was OK. Rijal resumed control of the becak and we continued on our jalan jalan sore. We went to the edge of town where the water meets the hills and Rijal showed us the entrance to a hike through the hills to a secret beach. We drove along a road built on top of a man-made sea wall that looks like it connects villages that were cut off by flooding to the rest of the town (this is 100% speculation, no facts were used to develop this theory). There is water on either side of the road as you ride along it. We saw monkeys and a lot of cows who were lucky to have survived the day (but probably didn’t survive the next). I don’t have any photos of this, sorry. Trust me when I tell you it was pretty darn nice.

THEN (yes, this day really went forever), we drove out of town to the beach where our friends Enda and Jen were having a joint farewell/birthday party. The party was at Joel’s, an icon for the foreign residents of Banda Aceh. We ate wood-fire pizza (but not a lot because we’d only eaten burgers a few hours ago) and drank beer (hence it’s iconic status for foreigners) and got a little bit creeped out by a guy who befriended us. His name was Tom. Was he friends with Enda or Jen? Yes, I am. He just wanted to make friends, but as Rijal put it “he’s a little bit crazy”.

After delicious chocolate and banana cake was served, it was 10.30pm and Sarah was TUCKERED OUT! I was so ready for bed that I hopped on Rijal’s becak and drove it home. Well…I drove it to the end of the street.

As we drove back into town, Jess and I discussed how we were going to handle the separation (our day had started at 7.30am when I arrived at her house for a hot shower and by now it was 11pm). I bid Jess adieu and Rijal drove me home. I went straight to my room and crawled into bed.

***

Epilogue

Jess and I went back to the hotel last night for the massage and facial we’d planned for Saturday…We went in a little highly strung and came out as two very chiiiilllllled individuals. I wish I had a photo of us as we practically sleep walked out of there. But I was too chilled to think about my camera…

Thursday morning thoughts

I had a delicious dinner with other AYADs and our graceful leader Nani last night. We ate at the restaurant at the new Pade Hotel.

Pade Hotel

I am a big fan of the building and hoped the food would be OK. Well…it blew my expectations out of the water! I ate lambchops! real lambchops. And they were delicious! And there was steak! And salmon!

• There is an eagle circling outside my office window. It’s huge.

• Harpsichord is my least favourite instrument. Do others see where I am coming from?

This morning just got better. I wandered downstairs to find something for breakfast and found Dunkin’ Donuts! I ate one and realised that a milo accompaniment would make it that much more special. So I ran to the kiosk next door, bought a couple of milo sachets, had a quick conversation about the correct pronunciation (I say ‘mai-lo’, Indonesians say ‘meelo’) and ran back to the office. As I made it through the door it started to rain. Perfect conditions for milo and donuts were set.

Donut and Milo

THINGS I WANT TO DO IN MELBOURNE.

No.3

No.4

no.5

Want to have a super weekend in Banda Aceh?! Here’s how!

It was a busy weekend in Banda Aceh this weekend. And like the best weekends it lasted for three days. Sunday was Indonesian Independence Day so a public holiday was observed on Monday.

Friday was the 3rd anniversary of the cessation of conflict between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. There were public events all day and I quickly dropped in on one in the afternoon to see one of our NGO partners perform (they have a band). All I found was the Deputy Governor giving a ratherlong speech…and a sign telling me where I could stand.

Pria (men) to the left and wanita (women) to the right. Sex segregation in the middle of the day? Really? When I first saw the sign I hoped it was directions to the bathroom…

Later that night at the same location there was a concert with the very popular and very awesome Acehnese performer, Rafly. The segregation plan failed and there were boys and girls sitting wherever they felt like it. Standing was strictly forbidden though. I guess it might have led to…dancing! Gasp! Rafly really knows how to rock your socks off so it was a killer to remain seated when the music was telling you to shake your bootie. Occasionally some boys lost control and jumped up to dance…but they were very quickly reminded by crowd control to sit down (crowd control=military so you actually have to listen to them).

On Sunday, Independence Day, there were all kinds of festivities around town, including panjat pinang where groups of men from the local area climb a slippery pole to grab the loot at the top (the loot consisted of electrical appliances at the one we saw). A few of us headed to a local park to watch as groups of men tried with varying levels of success to reach the top of the pole. There were two poles, each was smeared in grease and was the height of maybe 6 or 7 men.

Here are some men at the base of one of the poles.

This group have almost made it to the top.

And this guy was the first to reach the top.

He proceeded to detach the boxes and throw them down to the ground. Fortunately the boxes were symbolic. The appliances had been removed before being attached to the pole. A friend of mine saw one of these competitions in which the victor threw down a blender from the top of the pole and it smashed.

On Monday a few of us decided to go for a walk to the secret secret beach. I call it the secret secret beach to distinguish it from the regular secret beach, which is not a secret at all because everyone knows where it is and it’s easy to get there. The secret secret beach actually deserves its name….we walked for a few hours and couldn’t find it.

Here is the wholesome hiking troupe making our way along the track. At this point we were pretty sure we were on the right track because our GPS told us so (that’s right…we even had a GPS and we still didn’t make it!)

We continued along the track but eventually arrived at a cliff that was very clearly a dead end. Fortunately this was the view at the dead end:

Can’t be too sad about finding a view like that.

At this point we were low on drinking water and it was very hot, so like sensible little hikers we turned back. We had received some guidance (relating to both navigation and life) along the way from an old man who stayed in a hut along the track. On our way back we stopped in at the hut for a chat. He was deaf so our communication was limited, but he did give us some life lessons (because what else is an old man in the forest going to do?)

Life lessons from the old man.
1. get married
2. have babies
3. getting married and having babies is good
4. Hedgehog is tasty and good for virility

I was pretty much ready to sign up for marriage and babies by the end of the hike.

Here, Simone and Marcus are sitting in the man’s hut.

Here, Cat is talking to the old man.

A little further on from the old man’s house is a natural well he collects water from. It’s salty so you can’t drink it but it’s perfect for pouring over your head, as demonstrated so beautifully by Simone.

After making it out of the forest we stopped in at the easy-to-find-secret-beach for a quick swim and then headed to Joel’s for drinks and pizza. Marcus ordered our drinks while Simone and I used the showers.

We came back to the table to find (each):
1 big bottle of water
1 pocari sweat (isotonic drink)
1 coke
1 pineapple juice

We were pretty thirsty.

This weekend was probably as good as they get… I reflected on this as I had a hot shower (it was truly glorious) at Marcus, Simone and Cat’s place after returning from the beach. How can you beat that?

Aceh in the news today

Gah, my Aceh Google Alert has so much news today! (google alerts+me=BFF)

Links to the best bits:

I’m trying to recall if I ever met this guy from New Zealand at a party in Banda Aceh. Hot new destination!! Banda Aceh! Sun, surf, relative anonymity!! Perfect for relaxation and police evasion!

A less shady New Zealander residing in Banda Aceh is a HERO! We all knew that about Cas already….But now the Red Cross and the newspaper have confirmed it! (Cas also gave me tips on how to fall asleep once for which I am eternally grateful: Cover your eyes with your hands, lie on your back with your legs against the wall. Both instructions sound ridiculous but I’ll show you in person and it will make sense…and it works).

Andrew Bolt said some stupid stuff about Papuan refugees. The link to Aceh is minor, but I’m glad this ended up in my inbox. It’s like a jolt of caffeine first thing in the morning! Oh Andrew Bolt…I just want to scruff your hair up and give you a Chinese burn.

Care for another reason to dislike oil companies?

Humanitarian aid workers killed in Afghanistan. More here.

Portmanteau

My new favourite word is portmanteau. I think the word itself is pretty great but the meaning/s are also great.

A portmanteau is a suitcase with two compartments, and a portmanteau word is something like a contraction when two words are blended. The word was first used in this way by Lewis Carrol in Through the Looking Glass. I will let Wikipedia explain:

The usage of the word ‘portmanteau’ in this sense first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking-Glass (1871),^[1] in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky:^[9]

• “‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’… You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word”
• “‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau … for you)”.

Indonesians love portmanteau words. They make there way into formal language all the time. I think these examples might be contractions rather than portmanteau words, but I’d rather not be a stickler if being a stickler means excluding myself from using my new favourite word.

For example: partai politik (political party) becomes Parpol. And that’s just the beginning. If a phrase cannot be made into an acronym (also a favourite in Indonesia) it will become a portmaneau word.

An example of something that is half way between an acronym and a portmanteau (can a linguist help me out here?):

Badan Perencanaan dan Pembangunan Nasional becomes Bappenas. Efficient isn’t it!

I think I will create a list of Indonesian portmanteau words. But first I will do some work…

Photography and Documentation Workshop

About two weeks ago we held training on photography and documentation for a group of women involved in one of our projects. The project has gone well so we’re keen to document it as much as possible in the hope that other oganisations will replicate it. I’ll be writing a paper on the whole process but we thought it would be far more fun to give the women involved cameras so they can take photos to reflect on their experiences with the project. We also asked them to write a few pages each on their experiences.

To support the women to do this we decided to have a one-day workshop. We brought in Dea, a wonderful and talented girl from Yogya to teach them the basics of photography and how to use their cameras (cheap film cameras, no bells and whistles). I gave them some ideas for writing about their experiences.

Here I am doing my presentation. My Bahasa Indonesia isn’t good enough to be able to ad lib on the points I was making, so it was a pretty dull presentation. But I think my cute bubbles in a funnel helped matters.

I also spent part of the day drawing the inner-exhibitionist out of this little girl. She started off rather shy…

We’re picking up the developed photos today. We will choose about 25 photos to display at the opening ceremony of the Balai Inong in two weeks time. I’m excited and nervous to see what the results are. Dea, who I mentioned earlier, did a similar project with kids from Yogya after the earthquake in 2006 and made a great book using the kids’ photos. I hope we can do something similar here.

Dropped the ball

I’ve haven’t updated for a week even though there has been plenty of adventure. I’ll give a quick round-up and catch up on details over the next few days.

1. Greg is visiting this week. We met in Medan, stayed in the fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed in (for around $60 per room per night), and eventually made it to Bukit Lawang to see orang utans. It was hard to drag ourselves away from the fancy hotel breakfast and the fancy chairs in the lobby and the fancy blankets they had (in the deluxe suite we were upgraded to because we wanted twin beds)….
2. but the orang utans made it worth the effort. We only stayed one night and set out early in the morning of our second day for a 4-5 hour hike. We saw a peacock that defied gravity and lots of orang utans…then bolted back to Medan to catch a plane to Banda Aceh…
3. …That was booked for the wrong night. When we checked in for flight they kindly let us know that our tickets were for the previous night and that there were no more seats on the last flight for the evening. So we went back to the fancy hotel who booked the tickets for us and let them know of our dilemma. After a bit of fussing about we had seats on a flight the following day and a free room for the night.
4. My wisdom tooth is infected! I have taken a steady stream of panadol for about a week. Is that dangerous?
5. Standing in the rain waiting for a taxi in Medan, I was helping a nice man move a hardwood bench that had tipped over but he dropped it on my finger and my fingernail is now gross. But it seems like it won’t fall off, so worst nightmare no.1 averted.
6. Going to KL again this weekend, for yet another visa run…