In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

After a series of reports emerged across the archipelago in recent weeks of children being arrested and prosecuted for petty crimes, Indonesians are raising questions about the state of juvenile justice in the country. The first was a confounding case that resonated around the globe: a 15-year-old boy from Central Sulawesi was incarcerated and tried last month after a police officer accused him of stealing a pair of used flip-flops worth about $3. Claims emerged that the boy was badly beaten by police during interrogation, and the officer who reported the minor was formally punished. The case galvanized the Indonesian public, and infuriated citizens collected over a thousand of pairs of sandals and dumped them on the steps of police stations across the country.

Days later, news surfaced of a teenager from West Timor who was put on trial for stealing bouquets of flowers from his aunt, and a Balinese teenager who was tried for stealing a wallet containing Rp. 1,000 (around 10 cents). The cases prompted similar outrage and hatched wry campaigns from a frustrated public, with citizens gathering flowers and coins to mock law enforcers for their heavy-handedness.

Juvenile inmates wait to be inspected at Indonesia's Tangerang Juvenile Prison, located just outside Jakarta. The prison is considered to have the best rehabilitation program and most spacious facilities for young detainees in Indonesia. Photo: Leo Sudaryono.

Sadly, such cases are not uncommon here. If you are a child over the age of eight, are Indonesian or just happen to be in Indonesia, and take someone’s property – intentionally or not – and are then reported to the police, there is a high chance you will be prosecuted. According to UNICEF, around 80 percent of children over age eight who were reported to police ended up being tried, with 91 percent of them spending between three months to three years behind bars. Today, there are 5,515 child inmates in Indonesia, 85 percent of whom are in adult detention facilities.

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On Monday, Malaysia’s High Court acquitted opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy charges after a highly publicized and controversial 2-year trial. As Malaysia looks to elections in 2013, which are widely expected to be called later this year, In Asia‘s editor, Alma Freeman, interviews Herizal Hazri and Nurshafenath Shaharuddin in The Asia Foundation’s Malaysia office for insight into how the verdict could affect elections, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s recent democratic reforms, what this says about the independence of Malaysia’s judiciary, and more.

How is Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal being received among the public in Malaysia?  

Overall, the verdict has been received positively by the public in Malaysia. Opinions on what positive effects Anwar’s acquittal could have on the political discourse in the country vary depending on political sympathies: pro-Anwar responses generally hail it as a sign for future reforms and Anwar’s innocence in the matter, while pro-establishment responses mark the verdict as a sign of already existing judicial independence and the liberal-mindedness of the Najib administration. For the general public who are not aligned to either Anwar or Najib’s administration, the verdict presents a hope for a more transparent and mature democracy in Malaysia.

Prime Minister Najib said that the verdict exhibits the independence of Malaysia’s judiciary, and that it “will help extend this transparency to all areas of Malaysian life.” What are your thoughts on this?

It is always reassuring to know that the prime minister is focused on reforms, and there have been bold decisions made recently that could promote better transparency in Malaysia, such as the repeal of the Internal Security Act and three Emergency Ordinances, as well as the formation of the Electoral Reform Select Committee. Certainly, and no doubt, Malaysia is transforming. However, I don’t think Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal should be viewed as an example of the prime minister’s democratic reforms efforts. This verdict came from the strength of the judiciary’s ability to be impartial in exercising its responsibility to uphold law in Malaysia.

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Earlier this year, Sumaiya Akhter, a 12-year-old resident of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, hanged herself from her ceiling fan with a scarf. She had been verbally harassed by Selim, an older neighborhood boy, on the way to and from school every day. Sumaiya told her parents, but just prior to her death, her mother scolded her for what was happening, and she likely had nowhere else to turn.

In an effort to reduce long tensions between police and communities, the Bangladesh Police created a nationwide network of Community Policing Forums. Above, police and community members participate in a recent forum.

Regrettably, Sumaiya’s case is not an isolated incident. Crime in Bangladesh is on the rise overall, and this kind of gender-based violence is also becoming more common. According to the Bangladesh Police, between 2001 and 2010 there was a 42 percent increase in reported crimes, including narcotic-related offences (a 394% increase), child abuse (306%), and cruelty to women (25%). Many observers cite the strained relationship between the police and community members as a large factor contributing to this surge. Tensions and misunderstandings are exacerbated by a long history of distrust resulting from the application of a legal code that dates back to 1861 when the British were in power. At that time, the objective of the police was to defend British colonial rule rather than to serve and protect citizens. Unfortunately, some of these same ideas about policing continue to be applied today.

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Having worked with Indonesia’s higher education sector since 2000, I have come to believe that studying abroad is as close as one may come to a “sure thing” in Indonesian developmental assistance. Indonesian students and professors studying abroad are exposed to new educational techniques and knowledge, and will take that expertise home with them either (as graduates) to their new workplace or (as professors) to an educational system sorely in need of innovation. The likelihood that those individuals become leaders in their fields rises exponentially – and, as a result, they have the potential to bring great economic and intellectual benefit to Indonesia. In fact, almost 50 percent of the ministers in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s current cabinet spent some time studying overseas.

Above, students mingle after class at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Indonesia's student population in higher education has witnessed an explosive 35 percent increase in just six years.

Indonesians who study overseas, most of whom do so in the United States, Australia, the UK, or the Netherlands, carry their experiences – the vast majority of them overwhelmingly positive – with them for the rest of their lives. It is reflected in their work and their conversations; it becomes a part of them and thus the environment they interact with. It is arguably the ideal of what we mean when we speak of long-term impact and sustainability. Absent such exposure, perceptions of the West are often left to be derived from some combination of anti-Western rhetoric, syndicated TV shows, and internet conspiracy theories.

Yet the number of Indonesian students studying in the United States has fallen to half of what it was 10 years ago. That number, and the number of visiting professors, should ideally be increasing dramatically every year, and developmental projects should be making sure that happens. But despite some recent efforts, such as an increase in funds for U.S.-Indonesian Fulbright exchanges, the majority of these developmental opportunities remain untapped.

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Law has little meaning when it is not widely understood. Concepts like “conflict of interest” or “integrity” are used repeatedly in theories and explanations of law, but they are not self-explanatory. Perhaps nowhere is this more the case than in Timor-Leste, where rule of law is in the early stages of institutionalization and not well-understood by most citizens. And, until now, there were no legal texts focused on the laws of Timor-Leste. Professors were dependent on foreign law texts, primarily from Portugal or Indonesia.

Attendees at the launch of Timor-Leste's first law text focused on the laws of Timor-Leste in both official languages – Portuguese and Tetum – and the working language, English. Until now, there were no legal texts focused on the laws of Timor-Leste. Professors were dependent on foreign law texts, primarily from Portugal or Indonesia.

Last month, The Asia Foundation, in partnership with Stanford Law School, the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), and USAID, launched the new nation’s first law text focused on the laws of Timor-Leste in both official languages – Portuguese and Tetum – and the working language, English.

The launch of the text, An Introduction to Professional Responsibility in Timor-Leste, is a culmination of a two-year-long program, the Timor-Leste Legal Education Partnership (TLLEP), which aims to make Timor-Leste’s laws more broadly understood, clear, and equally binding to the governing and governed alike through texts that clarify existing law. It is the first in a series of texts, some of which are already completed in draft form. The texts explain legal concepts in clear, simple language (in local languages) with real-life examples that allow citizens to understand often-complex legal concepts, and give the next generation of leaders the tools to strengthen the rule of law. The content carefully analyzes the regulations of civil servants, public prosecutors, public defenders, magistrates, and private lawyers.

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Francia came to Tala Leprosarium from her hometown of Camarines Sur in Bicol region as a leprosy patient when she was 17 years old. Before she contracted leprosy, she had worked as a domestic helper. When I met Francia at Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, a former leprosarium and grantee of The Asia Foundation’s partner organization, Give2Asia, Francia was teary-eyed as she related how she was orphaned at such a young age. Surprisingly, she said she was “glad” to have been a leprosy patient, as this was how she found her way to the leprosarium which has become home to her for almost 30 years. She now lives with other former leprosy patients in a Gawad Kalinga home in Tala, Caloocan. (Gawad Kalinga, which means “to give care” in Filipino, is a Philippine-based poverty alleviation and nation-building movement whose mission is to build homes for the poor.) Unmarried at 47 years old, she looks to her life as a patient assistant as a vocation.

As patient assistants at Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, both Francia and her friend Caesar receive an allowance of a little under $10 a month from the hospital, $16 a month from the local government for their care-giving services, and a cash/food ration of $1.5 a day from the hospital. They support doctors and nurses with fellow leper patients and provide care and moral support to patients who have been shunned by society. Despite having been fully cured, Francia still bears the psychological scars from her disease. As a person with a disability, she yearns for the time when former leprosy patients can mingle and live with family members and be accepted fully by society.

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In this new video, Nepal Country Representative George Varughese describes The Asia Foundation’s approach to community mediation in Nepal, and includes footage of mediators and disputants engaged in an actual mediation session. Nepal’s citizens face both a weak and inaccessible formal justice system and inadequate means of resolving local disputes. Mediation is able to fill this void in judicial assistance by providing immediate, affordable, and locally accessible dispute resolution services. Since 2001, The Asia Foundation has worked intensively to develop interest-based mediation and is currently a recognized leader in community mediation in Nepal. Mediation in Nepal offers a space to resolve interpersonal and collective disputes, which transforms adversarial tensions into relationships based on mutual respect.

A robbery suspect lies naked and writhing on the cement floor of a Manila police precinct with his genitals bound while a plainclothes policeman pulls a rope and whips him. All the while a uniformed officer stood by and watched. The torture was recorded on video via a mobile phone and was leaked to the internet and aired over the biggest television station in the country on Aug. 17, 2010. The identity of the torture victim was never known as his body was never recovered, though several families claim the man to be a relative based on his physical appearance in the video. The policemen involved who were then suspects for the crime were immediately relieved, but just one year after, they were seen reporting back to work, while an indictment by the justice department was issued only a month ago.

In another case, the provincial coordinator of the party list group Bayan Muna was leaving home to take his 12-year-old son to school on July 5, 2010, in Leno, Aklan, when a gunman shot and killed him and then fled on a motorcycle. An arrest warrant was issued by a regional trial court against the alleged perpetrator, but the Philippine National Police has not served it due to the legal machinations of the accused – consisting of several motions for reconsideration and a motion to hold in abeyance the service of the warrant of arrest. Thus, the accused remains at-large.

After a clash with the New People’s Army in late August 2010 and on Sept. 1, 2010, in a barangay in Surigao del Sur, soldiers conducted a massive military operation in the area that forced the community to evacuate to a safer place. In the course of the military operation, two farmers went missing. Despite extensive efforts by the community to search for the two disappeared, the farmers haven’t been seen since.

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During my recent visit to Laos, I couldn’t help but notice the abundance of newspaper headlines proclaiming the country’s economic success stories. Firm phrases such as “World Bank predicts Lao economic growth at 8.6 percent,” “Vietnam & Laos boost rubber cooperation,” and “New Laos airline preparing for takeoff,” stood out at stands and shops everywhere I passed.

In recent years, Laos has experienced steady economic growth and development. Above, the Lao capital Vientiane buzzes with nighttime activity. Photo by Michelle Chang.

While this is positive news anywhere these days, and certainly for one of the world’s few remaining Communist-run countries, what seemed to be missing from the front pages altogether was any mention of Laos’ progress in governance and law – imperative for continued progression in economic and social developments. Much progress has been made in legal and judicial reform, but the current capacity of the Lao legal system has some room for improvement.

With the passage and formalization in 2010 of the “Master Plan on Development of the Rule of Law in Laos toward 2020,” Laos has begun building the legal framework necessary for addressing citizen freedoms and social justice. Still, rule of law in Laos is at an embryonic stage, and where written, legal frameworks or policies may exist, they still sometimes lack the effective mechanisms in place for successful, real implementation. Even where well-constructed laws exist, very few Lao citizens are aware of them or lack the knowledge, confidence, and trust in the system to utilize it to address their problems. Programs that help educate citizens about the legal system have helped, but education alone cannot give vulnerable people the confidence and trust they need to speak up about legal problems and claim their rights. Data show that villagers often do not access legal resources that are in fact available for various reasons, including partial knowledge of their rights and the law as well as low levels of trust in the system.

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After years of waiting and hoping his mother would legally transfer the portion of family land due to him, the resentment had built up. Athula, the youngest of a poor family of seven, finally decided to take his mother, Soma to court. Their relationship worsened to the point where they were no longer speaking. But when he filed the complaint with the police, they referred the dispute to a mediation board instead of the courts. Athula was beyond skeptical. When he sat down before the mediation board he said, “Don’t waste your time. Just give me a non-settlement certificate and I will take the case to court.”

As mobile phone penetration continues to climb in Sri Lanka, SMS technology is playing a more active role in delivering information. Above, a community mediator participates in an SMS training course.

But the group of mediators was determined and unwilling to let this case go to the courts – where they said it would languish, get delayed, be left unresolved, or at worst, lost. They decided to speak to Athula’s mother directly. She said the reason she had put off transferring the land was because she wanted to collect some money to get the deeds prepared, rather than let Athula pay for it. She didn’t know she had created such resentment in Athula because they’d stopped talking. There was an emotional reconciliation between the two and the dispute was settled with Athula stating that he was happy to wait until his mother was ready to transfer the land. Four months later, Athula returned to the Mediation Board to say that his mother had presented him with the deeds to his land, and to thank the mediators for their part in healing a long and painful rift.

Although Athula’s conflict may seem small, these kinds of disputes can tie up the courts, become extremely costly, and can escalate to affect the wider community. As the formal courts in Sri Lanka are weighed down by excessive case loads and limited capacity, court cases like these routinely drag on for years. High litigation costs also make access to courts prohibitive for most Sri Lankans. It was clear that a less costly, more reactive alternative mechanism for dispute resolution was needed.

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