Vol 7, No 3: December 2018

Right to Housing for Tsunami Victims

 

               This December 2018 coincides with the 14th memorial of the Aceh tsunami disaster. The natural disasters of the earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra have destroyed buildings and property belonging to residents. In fact, in areas such as Banda Aceh, Meulaboh, and Lhokseumawe, government agencies almost flattened the land and destroyed important documents. Victims who are currently surviving natural disasters have generally lost their homes as residential buildings. Those who become victims and families must leave assets and property. However, by law, the existence of a tsunami does not mean that disaster victims have lost their land rights before the disaster became theirs. This is because earthquakes and tsunamis are natural disasters beyond human will. In addition, in Law Number 5 of 1960, it did not recognize the abolition of land rights due to natural disasters. Unless the land of the affected population is not destroyed, it means that there are still measures that the victim might try to regain his land.

            According to the Deputy Chairperson of the National Land Agency (BPN), Maria SW Sumardjono, natural disasters that occurred will not necessarily eliminate land rights. The initial steps regarding land ownership in the post-earthquake area began with the rescue of documents belonging to the Land Office in 11 regions in Aceh. Completeness of supporting data is used to avoid double ownership of one area / area of land. However, Maria added that until there were two or more people fighting over the same land area it could be reached by mediation. Land ownership after the earthquake, the state can not directly control the land even though the landowner has passed away. Land ownership should be returned to the community, even to areas that are still inhabited by indigenous peoples. Because the rights of indigenous peoples are known as communal systems where the land cannot be separated from the existing indigenous people.

Vol 7, No 2: August 2018

The Rise of Creative Industry with Technology Platform

 

Creative industry was introduced by John Howkins in which economy growth is dependent on new ideas. This concept has performed answers concerning to industrial-based economy and has shifted from industrial economy (manufacture) to creative economy (intellectual as main asset). Having obtained a minimum level of sophistication, each nation’s continued success and competitiveness will turn on added value and novel thinking. As developing countries, Government of Indonesia has seriously paid attention on creative industry sectors since 2009 through President Instruction Number 6 of 2009  on Development of Creative Economy in Indonesia. Since then, between 2010 and 2013, the creative industry also has seen its share of positive growth at a rate of approximately 5.6 percent.

The enhancement of this industry has been more massive since the birth of financial technology (fintech), specifically peer-to-peer lending (P2P lending), which is backed by technological developments, is a breath of fresh air offering financing solutions through platforms that may make micro sector, small, and middle economy operations easier. As an intermediary channel between borrowers and lenders, P2P lending is the bridge that will be able to answer the business needs of the creative industry to stay afloat. It is a strategic instrument to combat unemployment and alleviate poverty. Nevertheless, the creative economy phenomenon that is a kind of changing economic climate will affect how communities function and how business is conducted, influencing the nature of the legal assistance for every person of this industry. This consideration is especially important in transactional law, where increasing do-it-yourself resources are available to business owners and entrepreneurs, creating a misleading perception that they can handle legal matters on their own without the assistance of legal professionals. Additionally, some entrepreneurs may be unaware of the benefit that preventative legal work can provide their businesses.

Vol 7, No 1: April 2018

Power of Big Data In Election

In the era of digitalization and technology growing rapidly, the winning strategy of the democratic party in Indonesia is not just enough to rely on conventional strategies. Social media invasion and technological sophistication is considered as influencing people in assessing political parties, politicians, the regional head candidates or the presidential candidates, moreover  the use of technology also influences politicians to learn the character of the electorate or society. Nevertheless, in the era of traditional democracy, politicians usually analyze the potential for vote acquisition by district. For example, by dividing an electoral district and constituency by majority-minority. After having and applying the big data, politicians can use and apply it to map demographics, the history of the voter contributions in politics, the voter political views to trivial matters such as media consumption, social media activities to home or vehicle ownership status. Moreover, the utilization of big data in cyberspace as one way of winning the regional head elections, the legislative elections, and the presidential elections must be a new strategy of winning at this time.

Utilization of digital technology by utilizing big data consisting of billions of megabytes of data in cyberspace to win the regional head elections, the legislative elections, and the presidential elections should start we use. The use of technology will make political campaigns more rational, because data and analysis are valid. The use of  facebook data by Cambridge Analytica to win Donald Trum in the United States Presidential  Election 2016, became one of the evidence of the effectiveness of big data in the arena of political struggle. In fact, in previous surveys Hillary Clinton's popularity as a major competitor. Trump has proven the power of big data from facebook to win the US Presidential Election. Although, finally facebook affected by negative impact due to data leaked users who are used for political purposes. In the United States the use of big data in the US presidential election is not a new news. In the 2004 US Presidential election campaign, George W. Bush had used the big data in his political campaign strategy. The same thing was applied by Barack Obama. In fact, the Obama campaign team formed a team of data analysts consisting of 100 analyst staff to ensure voter targets.Other countries have also used big data in their elections. In Kenya's elections in 2013, Uhuru Kenyatta took Cambridge Analytica to process voter data to deliver the right target campaign. India and Malaysia will also use big data in the country's elections.

In Indonesia big data utilization to win election will not be difficult to implement. Especially at this time, smartphone users in Indonesia reached 160 million users. Active social media users in Indonesia reached 130 million people with average surfing in social media from 23 minutes to 3 hours per day. In Indonesia the potential of big data has not maximally utilized yet. In fact, who can take advantage of big data will excel in any field, whether business, intelligence, politics and other fields. The data can be processed into one of the main weapons in winning various battles, including political battles.

Vol 6, No 3: December 2017

Making Sense of Electronic Money Issues

In a globalized era, there is nothing more convenient than electronic payment when it comes to choosing among available payment options, commonly known as electronic money (e-money). In Indonesia, the total transactions are still dominated by fund transfers, payments of government securities and the use of debit and credit cards. However, e-money has the potential to increase financial inclusion. Indonesia's financial inclusion rate had risen to 36% in December 2014 from 20% in 2011. By August 2016, e-money transactions had already reached 6.6 trillion rupiah  which is 94% of 2016's figure, according to Bank Indonesia (BI). While the bank has generally been supportive of e-money as a means of promoting financial inclusion, it faces the challenge of ensuring online security, with the increase in electronic transactions in Indonesia. In light of evolving technological innovation and information systems in Indonesia, especially those related to e-commerce and the financial technology industry, the Indonesian government seeks to more properly regulate electronic payment systems and transactions in Indonesia.

Currently, Bank Indonesia has restricted the services of the four platforms on last October  as they were still not registered as electronic money operators. As a security system, the restrictions were necessary to manage the licensing process and protect consumers. To provide e-money products and services, a company must be licensed by the central bank as the national payments system authority. Based on central bank regulations, e-money businesses should secure a license from Bank Indonesia for various payment system service providers such as: Principal, Issuer, Acquirer, Clearing Operator and Final Settlement Operator. The central bank first introduced regulations for e-money in 2009 (PBI Number 11/ 12/ PBI/ 2009). They went through two rounds of revisions, in 2014 and 2016, to keep up with developments in the digital economy. In addition, BI was criticized for stating that bank customers would be charged top-up fees to cover maintenance costs of the cashless system. In setting the fee ceiling, BI has freed issuing banks to determine whether they would charge top-up fees to their own customers or not. As a result, on September the central bank has issued its regulation on electronic money (e-money) card transactions, the Bank Indonesia Board of Governors Regulation Number 19/10/PADG/2017 on national payment gateways, which, in effect, allows banks to free their customers from paying the recently debated top-up fees. Since e-money began growing in popularity and can be assumed as a support for further economic growth and financial inclusion, one thing that should be primarily consideration is the regulations have to catch up with rapid developments of online currencies. By far, it seems the growth of e-commerce businesses was faster than the development of regulations, for instance, there are lack of regulations that consider of more spohisticated instruments such as crypto currencies, bitcoin or altcoins which it becomes extremely difficult to account for transactions made using existing cryptocurrencies, a mode of exchange that is complex and (in some cases) impossible to track. Improvements in the legal, regulatory, and institutional environments—which tend to be useful for development in general—can have a favorable effect on financial inclusion. Also, policy makers can promote financial inclusion by supporting innovative business models that increase the outreach and lower the cost of payment and financial services.

 

Vol 6, No 2: August 2017

Accelerating Fisheries Sector
   
The past two years have seen dramatic political changes with respect to Indonesia’s maritime policies and marine capture fisheries governance. Indonesia’s fish resources have been exploited with limited or no concern for sustainability due to large Illegal fishing presence which also facilitated other abuses, namely wildlife trafficking, drug smuggling , and exploitation of forced labor on fishing boats. One of the most important issues to watch going forward is whether the minister provides a plan for meeting the dual goals of increasing fisheries production to meet ambitious government targets while simultaneously improving sustainable resource management. Clearly, the retention of control of the management of fisheries is essential for the purpose of meeting domestic political objectives. We need better scenarios for key political will and the new legally binding laws and regulations. One crucial step for this matter is that encourage national fisheries sector to reach its sovereignty and restrict any foreign interference on fisheries sector.

            Currently, there are two critical regulations issued to support and accelerate fisheries sector. The National Fisheries Industry Acceleration Program has been included in Presidential Decree No. 3 of 2017 and focusing on sustainable fishing and aquaculture, zoning and region development,  and fisheries product processing industry.  In accordance with institutional and financing, there is Presidential Regulation No.  44 of 2016 that strongly constitute foreign direct investment  (FDI) on fisheries sector. Certain types of activities are fully or partially restricted when it comes to FDI. Businesses which are not regulated in this Presidential Regulation are open for Foreign Capital Investment. One more highlighted issue that has to be main focus of fisheries policy is the global recognition of national fisheries management. By current condition, the marine stewardship council, an international certification program, is one goal that determine whether fisheries standards have been implemented or not, such as sustainable fish stocks, minimizing environmental impacts, and effective management. Access to fishery resources in the sea is the traditional livelihoods asset of households in coastal fishing communities in Indonesia. The nature of fisheries sector is a shared resource, once it lost, then this would be a loss to all.

 

 

 

 

Vol 6, No 1: April 2017

The United Kingdom raised its terrorism threat level to "critical" -- the highest level -- for the first time in a decade. This is due to the terrorism attacts on May 28, 2017. Police identified 22-year-old Salman Abedi as the suspected suicide attacker who detonated a bomb as throngs of teenagers poured out of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, killing 22 people. This accident reminds us of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 in New York that made Washington fought against terrorism and listed this issue in a top political priority for the international community. On 28 September 2001, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1373 under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which calling upon states to implement more effective counter-terrorism measures at the national level and to increase international co-operation in the struggle against terrorism. The Resolution created the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) to monitor actions on this issue and to receive reports from states on measures taken.  When all nations have started to focus their power and resources on protecting and preserving human life instead of taking it, the world is remained to see the true efforts to be made in countering terrorism.

It has been strategy and serpentine tactics of governments to create a problem then offer the solution. As we are witnessing all over the world, the Middle East in particular, the disparity and gap between government and its people have became so colossal to the degree of incurable, unless any drastic measures are taken immediately. Poverty, lack of education, religious persecution, radicalism, economic turmoil, social suppression, and oppression of refined liberties and freedoms – specifically the minorities - sows the seeds of terrorism, and thus counter-terrorism. There is a disturbing trend of more and more restrictions of citizen’s freedoms. People are being stripped of their rights in the name of security. What greater right is there than a right to life? And so-called counter-terrorism takes more life annually than terrorism itself. In addition to civilian casualties, governments insidiously conspire to abuse other basic rights in the name of fighting terrorism; they tightened security to an unreasonable degree, impose petty rules and regulations, and censor the masses, hence, creating police States devoid of freedom and instilled with fear - the perfect breeding grounds for terrorism. Thus, we are faced with a vicious cycle: counter-terrorism breeds more terrorism, then more terrorism breeds more counter-terrorism, and so on.