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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 33/VII/November2010
Category: LEGAL WATCH
A Chinese bride-to-be who wrote an anti-Japanese message on the microblogging service Twitter has been handed a one-year term in labor camp by local police, who detained her on the day of her wedding.
Authorities in Henan's Xinxiang city on Monday ordered Cheng Jianping, who posts online under the name Wang Yi, to undergo "re-education through labor" for "disturbing social order," a national security police officer confirmed.
Chen Lei, deputy chief of the national security police branch in Xinxiang's Changyuan county, said the sentence was triggered by postings Cheng made online.
Chen's team leader, surnamed Wang, said Cheng had been told she could still go to a court to appeal the sentence, which will run until Nov. 9, 2011.
"She has the right to have a court reconsider this decision, or to ask for an administrative appeal," Wang said.
"She will have her own arguments to make. We are just the enforcers."
Wedding day disappearance
The sentence follows 18 days of concern and speculation among those who knew Cheng, last seen on Oct. 28, which was to have been her wedding day.
Cheng's fiance, who lives in the eastern city of Wuxi, said the couple had already registered for a marriage ceremony, which was scheduled to take place on the day she disappeared.
"We had scheduled for it to take place on that day," Hua Chunhui said.
"But she went to work that day, and then I didn't see her again."
Hua said he had learned the news of Cheng's sentence from her sister.
"I haven't read the official document yet," he said, adding that Cheng had been detained by police once before, when she was living at his Wuxi home, and escorted back to her home province of Henan.
"She was put under house arrest in Henan," Hua said.
He said that Cheng was forced to "take a holiday" with police, who held her in a hotel pending the decision by a re-education through labor committee.
'Angry youth'
He said the sentence was sparked by an Oct. 17 retweet which called on the nation's "angry youth" patriotic movement to charge in and smash the Japanese pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, which ended in October.
"Angry youth! Charge!" Cheng added to an original tweet by Hua.
Hua's tweet read: "Actually with these anti-Japanese demos, the smashing of Japanese goods and so on is nothing new. It was done many years ago by [former Nanjing University professor] Guo Quan. If you really wanted to kickstart things [add energy] it would be better to fly to Shanghai and smash the Japanese pavilion at the World Expo."
Chinese authorities have moved to calm tensions amid a wave of anti-Japanese protests over a simmering territorial dispute sparked by Japan's detention last month of a Chinese fishing boat captain in the East China Sea.
Japanese Prime Minister Kan has called the protests ?regrettable? while the Chinese government described the anti-Japanese sentiment as ?understandable."
The sometimes violent demonstrations were believed to be the largest in more than five years, and included protests and marches in Chengdu, Xi?an, Zhengzhou, and Hangzhou.
Few characters
Li Jinfang, a rights activist based in Hebei province's Baoding city, said all Cheng had done was add a few characters of comment to an existing post mentioning smashing Japan's World Expo pavilion, before retweeting it.
"It was something like, 'come on angry youth, let's get smashing!'," Li said.
"There was no due process. The police just decided to send her to labor camp for a year," she said.
"I think the re-education through labor system should be abolished," Li added. "It means that they can take away a person's freedom whenever they like, without any formalities or any judicial process at all."
Reform through labor can technically be handed out as an administrative sentence for up to three years without recourse to a court, but recent guidelines typically limit the term to two years.
RFA 15 November 2010
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 33/VII/November2010
Category: BOOK REVIEW
 IRFAN Kortschak is a tall, pony-tailed Australian of Czechoslovakian lineage with a fine ability to allow otherwise voiceless people a clear means of expressing themselves and making themselves heard. As I told him at the time of the publication of his previous book about Indonesia, Nineteen, a look into the lives and struggles of 20-minus one men and women in the informal sector, a jamu lady, a blind masseuse, a former political prisoner from the dark days of '65-66, a tahu gejrot vendor amongst them, he puts me in mind of the late Studs Terkel, famous American oral historian.
Kortschak has the finest of touches. Never either sensationalizing or sentimentalizing his subjects, he brings out here the lives of a selection of Indonesian individuals who have suffered great misfortune one way or the other and who have more or less been cast down the memory hole.
One story in particular horrifies: Santi, an Ambonese grossly disfigured for life since her husband returned home one night drunk, hit her and then poured kerosene over her before setting her alight and holding a plastic bucket over her head so that the plastic melted down her face and chest. With astonishing bravery?we see from the judicious photos how awful the injuries are?she says, ?I am not ashamed of myself.?
I defy anyone to read this and not wonder at the endurance of spirit and then to wonder what sort of a world it is in which the Pentagon can budget US$708 billion for 2011 and such a woefully wronged woman cannot be afforded the very best plastic surgery there is.
Santi?s case is an argument for the creation of a public fund paid for out of taxation and general subscription from which the costs of specialized medical care can be provided. In other words, it makes the creation of socialized medicine in Indonesia all the more urgent.
As indeed is another of Kortschak?s examples, that of Nurbaidarmi, an Acehnese who broke her spine in a fall in her teens and being paralyzed was reduced to a pitiful state in which she constantly wet herself and had to change her clothes several times daily. In this instance, she became the beneficiary of the arrival in Aceh post-tsunami of an enlightened NGO, Handicap International, which was able to provide her not only with a functional wheelchair but also adult diapers.
This latter provision has enabled her to move around in public and to take up work as a voluntary teacher.
This young lady?s spirit is strong. She has discovered a talent for drawing and has thus become something of an attraction for local children. I cannot help feeling that she might find a market both inside and outside Indonesia for her art.
Both of these two cases illustrate the necessity of outreach programs and from my reading of them both illustrate the sloth, insensitivity and inefficiency of government health and social welfare bureaucracies in this country.
Empowerment is a deeply attractive idea, giving to the newly empowered the kind of self-esteem and self-confidence which by dint of social status or circumstances they have been lacking. How to achieve this? One very interesting example we see here is that of the Sundanese Day-Laborers? Union, a body that undertakes to organize a notoriously difficult section of the workforce, unattached farm workers.
This grouping comes across as having a highly democratic spirit and ethos through which the men are encouraged to learn to speak out and express themselves critically, which the semi-feudal mentality of the rural masses of Java and Sunda?the so-called wong cilik?has always stifled.
The author went to see how this philosophy was put across in a remote rural community, Sarimukti outside Garut in West Java. ?In 2003 during a conflict over land rights, the small landholders and landless day-laborers in Sarimukti decided they needed a school. Without government support or funding, they worked with the day-laborers? union to establish their own.?
This school cuts right across the educational grain here in encouraging students to speak openly to teachers and to put across complaints?respectfully, of course?to teachers. Indonesia?s notoriously bureaucratic education system could very well do with being swept with just such a new broom!
Not surprisingly, the book looks at the lives of lepers and the struggles they have for social acceptance, likewise at those of drug users?the examples chosen of these have been lifted into the sunlight through music and it is something of a refreshing turn to find that for once Corporate Social Responsibility, a hackneyed, often self-serving affair, has played a positive part, courtesy of General Electric?and prostitutes.
The author visited a very large brothel complex in Singkawang in West Kalimantan to interview the young and not-so young women involved in ?the oldest profession?. Again his skill in bringing out candid stories is very evident. It comes as no surprise to someone like myself who has had more than a few beers in Jakarta?s Blok M to find that the largest contingent is from Indramayu.
Here we hit upon an essential problem. Many of these ?girls? were married at 13 or 14, and became mothers shortly thereafter. I find myself saying that unless and until there is enforcement of a proper minimum age for marriage well above 13 then there is a dreary inevitability about this trajectory of life for so many poor girls from rural areas.
The Bajau are widely known but little understood in Indonesia. Also called ?Sea Gypsies?, this ethnic minority also battens its females down to a restricted role of family custodianship and early marriage but Kortschak has found one young woman, Erni, who has bucked the trend and found her way against a great deal of initial family opposition to university in Kendari.
And on to the music circuit as a singer of dangdut and songs in her own otherwise disdained Bajau language. We should read this as a fine example of cultural empowerment.
When I picked up the book and saw that it had been written under the aegis of a government program I feared that the writer might have worked under constraint. I am pleased to say that fear is misplaced. For a second time, I would like to take my hat off to Irfan ?Tim? Kortschak and to encourage him?his Bahasa Indonesia is obviously good enough?to diversify into radio a la Studs Terkel.
By: David Jardine
Tempo No. 12/XI/17-23 November 2010 photo: INVISIBLE PEOPLE; POVERTY AND EMPOWERMENT IN INDONESIA
Author: Irfan Kortschak
Published by: National Program for Community Empowerment
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 )
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 33/VII/November2010
Category: INTERVIEW
Feisal Abdul Rauf:
 THE imam of the Al-Farah Mosque in New York City, USA, is generally known as a moderate Muslim man. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has written more than a few books on the ideal Muslim community. Yet he is now the target of intense criticism over his Cordoba House project, a new Islamic community center. At the heart of the nationwide dispute in the United States, is that Cordoba House will be located a few blocks from Ground Zero, the site of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center bombing which killed more than 2,700 people.
A number of American media have referred to the project as the Ground Zero Mosque. Rauf claims the project?s detractors come from anti-Islamic groups, who spread alarm and fear without explaining the real objectives of the project. The most vocal critic is the Reverend Terry Jones, who gained the world?s spotlight by threatening to burn the Holy Qur'an during the recent Idul Fitri commemoration.
Despite the obstacles, however, Rauf plans to go ahead with the project. The 15-story building, estimated to cost US$100 million to build, will be more than just a center of Islamic culture. Rauf says it will be opened to communities of all religions. Interestingly, Rauf has indicated that he intends to build Cordoba House not just in New York but in other locations as well. ?Perhaps the next one will be in Indonesia,? said Rauf.
Two weeks ago, Rauf visited Indonesia at the invitation of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to deliver a lecture to his cabinet members and other government officials at the palace. Rauf also spoke at a number of university campuses. But he did spare some time to speak at length with Tempo reporters Yophiandi Kurniawan, Yandi M. Rofiyandi and photographer Dwianto Wibowo. Excerpts:
What is the purpose of your visit to Indonesia?
I was invited by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He has been following our crisis during the past summer over our attempted project to build a community center in Manhattan. The story became big in America. President Yudhoyono was very concerned about this and about the Rev. Jones incident. I received a personal letter from him through Ambassador Dino Pati Djalal, in which he offered suggestions and comments on how we could modify the projects so it would be more appealing to the Americans. He also expressed his concerns about Islamophobia. He also invited me at that time to visit Indonesia and to give a presidential lecture.
How do you see Indonesia?s Muslim society?
The Indonesian Muslim society is wonderful. There is a wonderful cross-section of opinions. You have some excellent thinkers, brilliant people, brilliant minds. It has its own custom, a very rich culture. You know, I grew up in Malaysia for 10 years, so I am no stranger to Indonesian culture, to batik, Bengawan Solo and all those lovely songs. You also have a very strong sense of who you are as a people. The Indonesian people are very passionate and yet they are very soft and gentle. Indonesians take Islam very seriously. Indonesia is seen by many people in the world as a country whose particular understanding of Islam can be effective and able to shape what is now developing globally, on the issue of Islam.
In your lecture, you said that Islam must respect local customs.
What scholars of Islamic law have said is that the Qur'an talks about the eternal definition of iman or faith, about what God expects of human beings. The Sunnah expresses those commands and expands them further and it talks about the expression of this value in the Arab context to some extent, if possible, in the universal context. When you read the writings of Islamic scholars, they also mention that anything which is part of the customs of the people, but is not in contradiction with the Qur'an and the Sunnah, has the power of law. That is when we talk about adat (customs). In Malaysia, you have adat Melayu. So if the adat does not contradict the Qur'an, it is considered acceptable as law.
Historically, Islam spread from the Hijaz to Egypt, Africa, Turkey, Persia, India, Indonesia, where each of these places have their own culture. But they became Muslim within their own culture. Islam came and they expressed the Islamic principles within the culture of the people.
So how to apply it in the American context?
Muslims here pray wearing sarongs, batik or nice clothing. In different countries you see a different way of being Muslim. This is all syariah. You can be 100 percent Muslim through Indonesian clothing, in Indonesian institutions, by Indonesian style of singing, Indonesian culture. This is part of our history, part of our jurisprudence. So now we have to develop our laws, develop our understanding of how to express Islam in America, not to bring it in 100 percent the way Muslims practice it in Egypt. That would be strange. So our goal, our job, is to bring Islam in the context of American culture.
How do you see Islam in America today?
It is a work in progress. It is something that we have to develop, an understanding of Islam which is American. So the way Americans can see Islam is like something that is local. When Indonesians think about Islam, do you think of Islam as an Arabic religion? No. You think of it as an Indonesian religion. It is an expression. Like in Malaysia for example, when I was a young boy, when a person becomes a Muslim they say, ?masuk Melayu? (becoming Malay), they do not say ?masuk Islam? (becoming Muslim) because for them, being a Malay is being Muslim. This was not the case at all 800 years ago, when Malays were Hindus, like in Bali. How do these changes happen? It happens because when Islam began to be practiced in Malaysia it became an expression of their own lives. So now we have to create an American Muslim culture. This does not happen overnight. So the genius of Islamic history is that we express Islam in the culture of our people. It is what we have to do. It is going to take time to do this, but it is what is needed.
You mean that Islam needs time to grow in the West, including in America?
Of course. This has happened before in Egypt, in Persia, in India, in Indonesia, so this will happen in America. This is the part I am involved in. Our history is like that. So why should it be any different? It takes time, it does not happen in a week, in a month or in a year.
What will happen to your plan to build an Islamic community center next to Ground Zero?
Insya Allah (God Willing) it will happen.
Does this show that Americans?New Yorkers in this case?do not accept Islam?
The fact is that we have the right to build the center and we have been supported by the community. The community has voted four times for it overwhelmingly. All the politicians supported it. The mayor, Michael Bloomberg [who is Jewish] has been strongly supportive of our center. Other religious leaders, Jewish and Christian leaders have supported it. So we have the support of our community at all levels, including the US President. The opposition came from a few people who have an anti-Islam sentiment, who utilized the media to somehow create fear. But anytime we were able to explain what we were trying to do, people supported us. There are Christians, there are Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, even atheists. The atheists said that they want to be part of our movement. There are a lot of people who want to see harmony in religious communities.
Are politicians the ones using the media to create fear?
It was a combination of some people who were trying to win the mid-term elections. But it was not many, only a few people who tried to utilize this. And there is certainly a small number of people who are not comfortable with Islam and feel threatened by it.
The Manhattan Mosque is also located near Ground Zero, has it been affected by the controversy?
My mosque is also near Ground Zero, just 12 blocks away, around 2 kilometers. We have been there for the past 25 years. We have been good neighbors with the community and we have had no problem.
What do you think of those Republicans who opposed the construction of the center, and who have now won in the mid-term elections?
The vast majority of the Republican Party is not against us. They are very supportive of religious freedom because it is a very fundamental right in America. No serious politician can be publicly against religious freedom. The people who were against us are only a small fringe. Most of the people who took a very strong position against our project did not win in the elections.
When will the center be built?
If we manage to collect a US$50 million fund right now, we can have it built in three years' time. But we have not actually begun a campaign to collect the funds because we have a lot of things to sort out. We have to finalize architectural plans. That alone can take a year and a half easily. And then once the money is collected, it takes at least two years to build it.
Is the building open to people of different faiths?
Oh yes. Our plan is to build a Cordoba House. The idea of Cordoba House is a center open for everyone. The name is not an Islamic Center, but Cordoba House. It is like the YMCA, a center which is open to everyone and will have athletic facilities: a swimming pool, basketball courts and educational programs for lecturers, swimming courses, cooking classes and an auditorium. So it is like a social center. We are located in the Tribeca area. Robert de Niro started the Tribeca Film Festival and they very often look for places to show special films. So we want to be part of that community in terms of the culture of the community, the culture of New York.
Will there be a place for worship?
Yes, I also want to have this culture of worship. We will have a couple of floors for Muslims to pray in, because we take our prayers very seriously. We will also have places for other faiths to pray as well. We have not yet decided if there is going to be a church, but we will have a place where other people can pray for sure. That is part of our plan. We will also have a memorial for the 9-11 victims. This will be a cultural center which emphasizes both the idea of worship as well as the idea of people getting together to know each other. When you are together and you have a relationship between Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Christians and other religions, you develop ties and this makes people feel invested together in their society. This is how to build good relationships within different communities. This is what the Qur'an asks us to do. The Holy Book wants us to meet and know each other, to socialize, because when you develop friendships, you will develop partnerships, you will develop bonds. These bonds are important. So our dream is to see Cordoba House everywhere, in New York, in Jakarta, in Mumbai, in Jerusalem, in London, everywhere in the world.
How long have you felt that you need this movement?
I have been working on the Cordoba Initiative since after September 11. People asked me what they can do to improve the relationship between the West and the Muslim world. So we developed the Cordoba Initiative and we launched the Cordoba Movement. Everywhere I go, people ask what they can do, so right now we are trying to rally all groups to support us. People want to improve things but they do not know exactly know what to do so we will give them things to do or ideas and projects to work on. Our board, our staff, our projects involve people of all religions.
How do you face the public when your message is being misinterpreted?
Well, that?s the thing. My friends even said [to the critics] that of all the people you criticize, this is the person that you have been working with. He has been working with us, we have been doing projects together, how can you call him names? See, the reason that this project is come into being is because of the support. If not for the fact that I have been working with the local community, with religious leaders and with politicians with peace, you would not have heard of it.
How did this Cordoba House idea come about and why is it located near Ground Zero?
I have been thinking about this for 20 years. On the matter of location, it is just a product of circumstance. I have been imam of the New York mosque since 27 years ago. For 25 years we have been 12 blocks away from Ground Zero. It is a small building and in the last four years there is no longer enough space. The community is growing. So one of the people in our congregation looked for a property in the neighborhood, found it and bought it in July last year. After that, I told him that this should be a perfect place to have this center and he said it was a great idea. We have been working on it since.
Rev. Terry Jones, who planned to burn the Qur'an, opposed your idea to build Cordoba House. Have you ever met him?
No. First of all his idea was preposterous. When Sarah Palin suggested that maybe he should not burn the Qur'an if we were to move the location, created a hostage dynamics. So my friends, the Evangelical leaders, people I have known for many years, called me up and said ?Listen, we do not know who this person is and we don?t want you to meet him.? So the issue was intercepted. They called me around a week before September 11 when tension was growing. They were concerned that this thing could lead to demonstrations. People are emotional, they can do crazy things. So he was coming up on September 11 and my Evangelical friends, who are real leaders of Evangelical Christians in New York and Washington, DC, met him and they convinced him to back off. This is why I say, that it is important for us to have relationships with other religious leaders because when such things happen, they are the ones who can actually control their own community.
There have been many interfaith dialogs initiated, but the West still seems to fear ?jihad,? which they think can lead to extremism and fundamentalism. What do you think?
The words fundamentalism, terrorism are just ideas. You have to deal with people, with issues. The people who have these ideas usually have certain issues, concerns or frustrations. You have to understand their issues and you solve them. People are not fundamentalists or terrorists by nature, just in theory. There are issues that they have, usually political, economic or societal issues. So it is about addressing those issues.
Do the issues you mention include the Palestine-Israel conflict?
Of course. You have the Israel-Palestine conflict, you have the situation in Iraq, in Afghanistan. These are the issues that are sources of the problems. If you address these problems, the political problems, the social problems, you can solve what people see as extremism and fundamentalism.
Yet these problems were started by the West.
Of course there is a historical aspect to every problem in any country. But you have to look at the current reality and what can be done to solve problems. In general, all I?m saying is that in many of these problems, the religious communities have something important to say. And if they can be brought to be part of the solution, that is what is important. President SBY said yesterday ?I want to be part of the solution.? This is what is important. What people are looking for now are problem solvers.
Do you think President Barack Obama?s plans to reduce conflict between the West and the Muslim World can be realized?
Insya Allah. I can?t predict the future. But what we pray for is a stable Iraq. Every country wants to be politically stable, economically prosperous and have good relations with its neighbors and other countries. That is why we want to bring together the people in our movement, to push for stability, for the betterment of the human race and condition.
How do you see the current US role in resolving the Palestine-Israel conflict?
Many people believed that any peace between Palestine and Israel would require the involvement of the United States. That is why we are very supportive of President Obama?s very strong and robust attempts to try and seek a solution. We certainly recognize that the solution to this conflict would be a major factor in improving relations between the West and the Muslim World and we would like to see that happen.
Do you see any significant differences in the approaches taken by Obama and George Walker Bush?
The most significant thing about President Obama is that he made a very strong attempt to push for a settlement. And we hope that something will happen. There are discussions right now between Palestine and Israel and we hope something will come out of it.
And what do you think of the domestic political support on this issue now that the House is dominated by Republicans?
We hope that the US Congress and its leaders will recognize the importance of pushing towards peace. We hope that it will happen.
***
Feisal Abdul Rauf
Place & Date of Birth
Kuwait, 1948
Nationality:
American
Education:
- BSc in Physics, Columbia University
- MSc in Plasma Physics, Stevens University Hoboken-New Jersey
Career:
- Imam of the Al-Farah Mosque, New York City
- Real Estate Businessman
By: Yophiandi Kurniawan, Yandi M. Rofiyandi and Dwiant
Tempo No. 12/XI/17-23 November 2010 photo: Tempo/Dwianto Wibowo
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 32/VII/November2010
Category: ARTS
 Artist Sin Rithy has already sold eight paintings from his exhibition of 19 canvases at Villa Langka in Phnom Penh. The graduate of Phare Ponleu Selpak deals with themes of belief. Photo Supplied
YOUNG Cambodian artist Sin Rithy, 21, has already sold eight paintings from his first solo exhibition at Villa Langka on Street 282.
The former arts student at NGO Phare Ponleu Selpak in Battambang drew his inspiration from both positive and negative Cambodian beliefs, he explained.
"If somebody believes in something too strongly, it may end dramatically. I want people to think before believing in something," he said.
His acrylic paintings on canvas explore people's beliefs about their ancestors as well as animals and the sun. Nineteen of them are on show at Villa Langka until November 19, with prices between $350 and $600.
"Sin Rithy is sometimes shocked that Cambodian people are bogged down in beliefs which sometimes are harmful to them," added Isabelle Drouillard, responsible for visual arts at Phare Ponleu Selpak.
Sin Rithy entered the NGO's art school, dedicated to children that face deep social issues, when he was eight and left a year ago. For nine months, he then worked on paintings for his exhibition, but let the NGO deal with the whole organisation.
"He is now independent, but he still needs some help," Drouillard said. Exhibitions were a good way to show the artist's work and to sell a few paintings. "With the money they earn, they can buy canvas and brushes of better quality. This enables them to leave the nest and to become more confident."
The NGO's school in Battambang educates 1,200 children and 450 extra students also attend specialised art classes there.
By: Emilie Boulenger
Phnom Penh Post 09 November 2010
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