Penghargaan Oktovianus Pogau 2020

Yael Stefany Sinaga dan Widiya Hastuti dari Suara USU di Medan

Sambutan dari Atmakusumah Astraatmadja

mantan Ketua Dewan Pers, direktur eksekutif Lembaga Pers Dr. Soetomo, dan 

redaktur pelaksana harian Indonesia Raya

Pemberian Penghargaan Oktovianus Pogau untuk keberanian dalam jurnalisme dilakukan secara virtual hari ini dengan Atmakusumah Astraatmadja memberikan sambutan.

Seandainya pada hari ini, Jumat 28 Agustus 2020, sempat berkunjung ke Medan, saya akan senang sekali bila dapat berdiskusi dengan Rektor Universitas Sumatera Utara Runtung Sitepu, mengapa ia menolak penampilan cerita pendek mengenai tekanan batin yang diderita kalangan LGBT dalam siaran Suara USU, media komunikasi massa online kampus yang dikelola oleh para mahasiswa di universitas tersebut, pada edisi 12 Maret 2019. Malahan, pada bulan Maret itu pula, Rektor memberhentikan seluruh pengelola media massa ini, bukan hanya pemimpin redaksi sebagai penanggung jawab utama bagi isi atau konten siaran itu.

Gugatan hukum oleh para pengasuh Suara USU terhadap pemberhentian mereka di Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara di Medan ditolak oleh hakim dengan pertimbangan bahwa persoalan ini merupakan otonomi kampus. Agaknya Pengadilan tidak mensejajarkan media massa kampus atau media massa mahasiswa dengan media pers, melainkan dengan media hubungan masyarakat. Isi dan tujuan media humas ditetapkan oleh lembaga atau perusahaan yang menjadikan media itu sebagai corong pihak penerbit, bukan terutama mewakili kepentingan publik seperti yang menjadi tujuan media pers.

Yang menyedihkan adalah bahwa karya yang demikian kreatif ikut lenyap dari pengamatan para peminat masalah LGBT untuk dapat melanjutkan diskusi mengenai isu yang kontroversial ini.

Walaupun cerita pendek karya Yael Stefany Sinaga yang disiarkan oleh Suara USU, berjudul “Ketika Semua Menolak Kehadiran Diriku Didekatnya,” hanya sebuah karya fiktif, akan tetapi struktur dan bahasa yang digunakannya terasa seperti karya jurnalistik sastrawi yang faktual. Mungkin ada di kalangan media pers umum dari media arus utama (mainstream) yang berminat melanjutkan pembahasan tentang isu LGBT dengan mengutip cerita pendek ini dan dilengkapi dengan tulisan opini yang mendalam.

Upaya Yayasan Pantau, yang dipimpin oleh Andreas Harsono, untuk memberikan Penghargaan Oktovianus Pogau 2020 bagi keberanian para pengasuh Suara USU dalam jurnalisme untuk mengembangkan kebebasan berekspresi dan menyatakan pendapat patut dihargai. Anugerah ini diserahkan kepada Yael Stefany Sinaga, pemimpin umum, dan Widiya Hastuti, pemimpin redaksi media massa online kampus itu yang pernah terbit sebagai media massa cetak.

Indonesia: Freedom of Religion or Belief

A Gafatar religious group farm house was burned down in Kalimantan, 2016.

JAKARTA -- In January 1965, President Sukarno wrote the blasphemy law, declaring “six protected religions” –Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism— in Indonesia and to punish anyone who is defame one of those religions with a jail term, maximum five years. His administration never used that toxic law. President Suharto administration, which ruled between 1965 and 1998, used that law only 10 times. 

In 2004, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono came to power, his administration was to use the law frequently, jailing 125 individuals during his decade in power. In 2006, Yudhoyono also introduced the “religious harmony regulation," starting another set of discrimination against religious minorities in Indonesia in building or renovating their houses of worship. 

In 2008, I joined Human Rights Watch, putting attention on these rising discrimination against religious minorities. I learned a lot from these field trips and research. I especially learned about the discriminatory regulations including the 1965 blasphemy law and the 2006 "religious harmony" regulation. I also put attention on some state institutions which facilitate religious discriminations in Indonesia: Ministry of Religious Affairs (1946), the blasphemy law office (1952), the Indonesian Ulama Council (1982) and the Religious Harmony Forum (2006). 

Here're several of my writing and interviews. 

Interviewing an Ahmadiyah Muslim on Lombok Island in 2009.

Court Ruling a Setback for Religious Freedom

Blasphemy law puts religious minorities at risk.

Human Rights Watch, April 19, 2010

No Model for Muslim Democracy

The New York Times, May 21, 2012 

In Religion’s Name

Abuses against Religious Minorities in Indonesia

Human Rights Watch, February 28, 2013 

Sufi Muslims Feel the Heat of Indonesia’s Rising Intolerance

The Jakarta Globe, August 15, 2013

Interview: Indonesia Divided

Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss the spiritual makeup of Indonesia, its government, the violence committed against groups, and how the outside world can lend a helping hand.

The Agenda with Steve Paikin, TVO April 15, 2014

Undoing Yudhoyono’s Sectarian Legacy

New Mandala, May 13, 2014 

Interview "Religious Harmony Versus Religious Freedom in Indonesia"

New York University, February 23, 2016

Persecution of Gafatar Religious Group

Thousands were forcibly evicted from their farms in Kalimantan, relocated, detained.

Human Rights Watch, March 29, 2016

Interview "Religious Harmony" Regulations Creating Dissonance in Indonesia

Carnegie Council, May 11, 2016

Indonesia Religious Discrimination Harms Education Rights

Jakarta Globe, 2016

Jakarta Governor Basuki T. Purnama.

Indonesia's courts have opened the door to fear and religious extremism

By jailing the Jakarta governor Ahok for blasphemy, judges have sent a chilling message to moderates and non-Muslims 

The Guardian, May 10, 2017

Interview: Indonesia Convicts Jakarta's Christian Governor of Blasphemy

NPR: All Things Considered, May 9, 2017

The human cost of Indonesia’s Blasphemy Law

Indonesia at Melbourne, October 25, 2018 

Review: ‘Race, Islam and Power’ A troubling tour through a pained land

The Jakarta Post, May 6, 2019

Indonesia’s Journalists Grapple with Islamism

Reporters in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country are navigating — and too often abetting — a rising trend of reactionary Islamism.

Foreign Policy in Focus, August 21, 2019

Catholics celebrated their Sunday mass in a temporary church in 2016.

Indonesia: Draft Criminal Code Disastrous for Rights

Remove provisions harmful to women, minorities, free speech

Human Rights Watch, September 18, 2019

Indonesian Woman Tried for Blasphemy Over Mosque Incident

Suzethe Margaret brings dog and faces 5 years in prison

Human Rights Watch, October 11, 2019

Indonesia to Expand Abusive Blasphemy Law

Human Rights Watch, October 31, 2019

Indonesia’s ‘Religious Harmony’ Regulation Brings Anything But

The Jakarta Post, April 11, 2020 

Dari Facebook Martin Aleida soal "Race, Islam and Power"

Martin Aleida 

Tiga minggu saya kehilangan kesempatan untuk membujuk tulang punggungku di kolam renang, karena tak bisa mampir di kediaman Andreas Harsono. Nyeri tak terobati. Namun hati dia beri kesempatan mengapung di dalam 280 halaman buku yang dia rangkai dalam 15 (lima belas!) tahun. 

Putra Jember yang ber"agama"kan jurnalisme itu membawa saya dalam pengembaraan yang jauh untuk mengenali sudut-sudut negeri yang pantainya tak sempat saya singgahi, walau sebagai wartawan saya sudah pernah mendarat di daratan sejauh benua Amerika. 

Andreas, lewat kata-katanya di buku terbitan Monash University, Australia, ini seperti membawa masing-masing sejumput tanah dari pulau-pulau yang daratan dan pantainya berdarah-darah oleh konflik yang mempermalukan mereka yang menunggangi "nasionalisme" untuk merebut atau mempertahankan kekuasaan. 

Konflik, seperti yang ditulis Andreas, yang disutradarai kekuasaan yang "tidak mampu" atau "tidak ingin" melerainya untuk tujuan kekuasaan walau itu berarti hilangnya riburan, ribuan nyawa, saudaranya sendiri.

"Andreas Harsono is a human rights defender .... He dares to take the risk - of arrest, detention, even murder - to write what he believes and how Indonesia should act on these human rights abuses. This book is all about that." Begitu blurb yang ditulis Filep Karma, putra Papua dan aktivis kemerdekaan Papua Barat, yang pernah dipenjara 11 tahun di Jayapura. Karma benar: Andreas pernah dicari sampai Jakarta oleh dua orang dari wilayah konflik dengan membawa parang panjang. 

Andreas menulis dengan ketajaman mata dan hati. Kaya dengan detail dan melengkapinya dengan riset kepustakaan, memberikan teladan bagaimana seharusnya kata-kata harus dijaga dengan tidak pernah meninggalkan kesan bias, dosa utama dalam "agama" yang bernama jurnalisme.

Berenang di lembar-lembar buku ini mungkin banyak pembaca yang tidak sadar, paling tidak saya, bahwa Hatta menolak Piagam Jakarta (yang kemudian oleh kaum intoleran menjadikannya berhala yang mencemari Pancasila). Saya juga diingatkan bahwa Hatta tidak setuju Irian Barat dimaksukkan sebagai bagian dari wilayah Republik.

Saya terperanjat manakala Andreas menyebutkan Z. Afif di antara sumber dari mana dia memahami nasionalisme Aceh. Z. Afif, anggota Lekra, kawan saya. Dia menulis kecaman terhadap Manifes Kebudayaan di Harian Rakjat sebelum G30S. Saya ingin mengatakan kepada kawanku itu, apakah dia tidak sudi memperkaya pikiran dan sikapnya, karena Goenawan Mohamad dalam kuliah umumnya di Teater Utan Kayu pertengahan 2019 menjelaskan bahwa Manifes itu tidak ditujukan kepada sesiapa kecuali SOKSI (bukan Sobsi!) yang mengharapkan dukungan dari GM dan teman-teman seniman-budayawannya dalam menghadapi situasi politik pada saat itu. 

Afif terdampar sebagai eksil di Swedia (di mana Andreas menemuinya) tak lama setelah dia ikut dalam perayaan lahirnya Republik Rakyat Tiongkok, 1 Oktober 1965. 

Wahai kawanku Afif, sejarah terkadang berkelok di luar kesadaran kita. Ketika saya melakukan riset eksil di beberapa negara Eropa barat, saya sedikit pun tak tersentak ketika semua eksil yang saya temui menghukummu dengan kata-kata mirip sumpah-serapah karena Afif berpihak dan dekat dengan Hasan Tiro, ketika pemberontak itu sama seperti engkau meminta suaka di Swedia. Para pengecammu masih terkurung dalam tempurung cara berpikir yang terlambat setengah abad. 

Terima kasih, Andreas, ini salah satu buku yang tak satu kata pun saya tinggalkan karena kemajalan kata dan pikiran. Sungguh catatan perjalanan yang membawa saya untuk mengenal tumpah darah saya yang selalu berdarah-darah. Karena imajinasi dan keinginan untuk membawa cahaya kepekaan kemanusian, dan bukan senjata, untuk menerangi terowongan yang gelap ini, masih belum berbunga. Bukumu menenteramkan, melebihi kecipak air di kolam renangmu. Salam sehat. 

Indonesia’s harmful restrictions on foreign journalists, academics

Andreas Harsono

The Jakarta Post

Kate Walton wanted to cook klepon and she tweeted it – showing a bag of flour, pandan, coconut etc. – and Indonesians on social media were buzzing!

A white Australian woman in Canberra could make klepon, the pandan-flavored rice balls filled with palm sugar and coated in grated coconut.

She tweeted a photo of her father: “Dad was very impatient for the klepon to cook.”

Walton, 32, speaks fluent Indonesian, writes about Indonesia, has many Indonesian friends, and loves Indonesian food and culture.

She was banned from entering the country she had lived in since 2011 when immigration officials deported her in June 2019 after she was seen taking photos of a street protest in Jakarta.

She left behind her partner and their cats in Jakarta. Walton is not the only one. Several Australian journalists and academics are on the Indonesian government’s visa blacklist, meaning that their decades of research and linguistic skills go to waste.

Immigration officials stopped two others last year. One is Ross Tapsell, an expert on Indonesian media at the Australian National University. And the other is Dave McRae from Melbourne University, a writer on sectarian violence around Lake Poso, Sulawesi.

Social-cultural visas

American environmental editor Philip Jacobson in the Palangka Raya prison in January 2020.

They traveled to Indonesia on social-cultural visas, rather than on the specific visas required for academic research.

Immigration officials deported a US environmentalist, Phil Jacobson, from Indonesia earlier this year over a visa violation. The authorities detained him for three nights in January 2020, seized his passport, and accused him of using a business visa to work as a journalist in Palangka Raya.

Following the involvement of the US embassy, Jacobson was deported back to the US.

In 2014, the Indonesian authorities convicted Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois, two French journalists from Arte TV, of journalism activities without the appropriate visa and jailed them for 2.5 months in Jayapura, Papua.

In 2015, Rebecca Prosser and Neil Bonner, two British journalists from National Geographic, were jailed for three months on Batam Island, near Singapore, on similar charges.

Every country is entitled to protect its borders, enact immigration laws and regulate visas. But Indonesia’s 2011 Immigration Law is especially harsh.

Any foreigner “who deliberately misuses or engages in activities inconsistent with the intent and purpose of the residence provided to him” can be punished with up to five years in prison and fined up to Rp 500 million (US$35,000).

The law also criminalises “every person who orders or provides an opportunity for foreigners to abuse or engage in activities inconsistent with the intent or purpose of the residence provided to him”.

Meanwhile, getting a journalist visa or a research visa for Indonesia is very complicated.

18 units in ‘clearing house’

Journalists’ applications go to the Foreign Ministry, which will take it to a “clearing house” involving 18 working units from 12 government bodies.

The bodies include the Religious Affairs Ministry, the State Secretariat (the Bureau for International Technical Cooperation), the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, the National Police, the Communication and Information Ministry, the Home Ministry, the Law and Human Rights Ministry with two participating units (Immigration and Trafficking of Migrants), the State Intelligence Agency, the Strategic Intelligence Agency and the Coordinating Political Legal and Security Affairs Ministry.

The clearing house serves as a strict gatekeeper, often denying applications outright or simply failing to approve them, placing journalists in a bureaucratic limbo.

At times the process has operated as a de facto ban on foreign journalists. Sensitive subjects that delay or deny applications include Papua, religious freedom, environmental sustainability and LGBT rights.

The clearing house system means any one ministry or bureau has veto power, which generally means that the most media-adverse department carries the day. Foreign researchers also have to go through a rigorous vetting process to get a research permit and then a visa.

It involves a clearing house at the Research and Technology and Higher Education Ministry with representatives from intelligence and security agencies.

The permit process seems to be even stricter now with the 2019 Science and Technology Law, which contains draconian criminal sanctions. The effect of the new law will be to discourage foreign researchers from coming to Indonesia, which would be detrimental to scientific advancement and international collaboration.

Extra sensitive in Papua

In places such as Kalimantan or Papua, officials are extra sensitive when seeing foreigners in their cities. In 2016, when Kate Walton was running a training programme in Timika, Papua, for an international development agency, she was detained and questioned for about five hours, despite having a visa that specified she could work in Papua.

She told me that the immigration officials thought she was “doing research illegally”.

In 2018, immigration and military officials detained and questioned a BBC correspondent, Rebecca Henschke, for 17 hours in Timika even though she had a journalist visa and a travel permit to be in Papua. Exhausted, she and her BBC crew abandoned their reporting plan.

I know Kate Walton, Phil Jacobson and other scholars and journalists well. They may have revealed uncomfortable truths about Indonesia but they also love this country very much.

We need people who will speak the truth. The health of a democracy depends on the quality of its journalism – local, national and international media – and its openness to academic research.

The Indonesian government should reform its laws to simplify the process for journalists and researchers to enter the country.

And in the interim, President Joko Widodo should encourage government officials to allow entry to journalists and academics, even those who have something critical to say about the country.

Andreas Harsono works for Human Rights Watch. He is a founding member of the Alliance of Independent Journalists, also sits on the board of the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation, the binational Fulbright Commission for Indonesia. 

Rapid test pertama di apartemen, individu pertama terkena Covid19

Bikin rapid test di apartemen kami diadakan pertama pada 19 Juni 2020 khusus buat lantai dimana ada seorang perempuan meninggal sehari sebelumnya. Kami masih menunggu hasil swab test terhadap jenasah tsb saat rapid test dibikin. 

Ini tindakan berjaga. Belum tentu terkena coronavirus 2019 --biasa disebut Covid19-- tapi apartemen memutuskan pakai prosedur ketat.

Hasilnya, ada empat karyawan yang hasil tes darah menunjukkan ada tingkat antibodi yang menguatirkan. Istilahnya, reaktif.

Mereka semua dirujuk ke puskesmas untuk dilakukan swab test. Hasilnya, tiga orang negatif dan satu orang positif. Kami ketahui antara tiga hari sampai tujuh hari sesudah swab test.

Khusus yang positif dirujuk ke Wisma Atlet untuk dilakukan isolasi. 

Lisna Kurnia, seorang perempuan umur 58 tahun dari Garut, yang baru beberapa hari bekerja di rumah tetangga satu lantai kami, meninggal dunia pada 18 Juni 2020. Jenazahnya ditemukan kaku sekitar pukul 8 di kamarnya. 

Belakangan sesudah ibu Lisna dimakamkan, hasil tes keluar bahwa beliau meninggal bukan karena coronavirus. Kami lega. 

Cukup mengejutkan bahwa ada karyawan positif terpapar coronavirus. Namun kesehatan dia prima. Penghuni apartemen gantian kirim makanan dan minuman ke Wisma Atlet. 

Dia menduga dia terkena virus di Pasar Palmerah karena sehari dia bisa berada di pasar tersebut beberapa kali buat belanja. 

Dugaan tersebut masuk akal karena Pasar Palmerah dikunci total pada 25 April 2020. Pasar tersebut, yang biasanya ramai dan bikin macet, mendadak sunyi sepi. 

Dari hasil tes massal, memang ditemukan puluhan pedagang dan karyawan pasar yang tertular virus. Mereka semua dibawa ke rumah sakit dan isolasi. 

Si karyawan tinggal di Wisma Atlet selama enam minggu ketika dinyatakan sudah negatif dan bisa kembali ke apartemen. 

Saya sempat tanya bagaimana pengalaman tinggal di Wisma Atlet.

"Bosan," katanya.