W

hile a limited Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month has yet to reach its ultimate goal of enhancing the government’s performance, a series of events and testimonies in the past week have only added to the list of homework the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration must do and settle in an attempt to jack up its steadily declining image.

One big issue of concern is the on-and-off volatile condition in Papua and West Papua provinces, which has been triggered by the unequal treatment that Papuans have long endured and the unsatisfactory distribution of wealth in the two resource-rich provinces. The presence of US copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia in Papua has been the central issue behind all security developments in the western half of Papua Island, home to Papua and West Papua provinces, with the mining company being the main contributor of revenue for both provinces.

The recently held third Papuan People’s Congress, which pronounced the establishment of a West Papuan state, and the increasing calls for the government to renegotiate its second 30-year contract with Freeport have apparently provoked resentment in the region, which has led to a dozen fatalities in the past few weeks.

While the National Police have deployed reinforcements to Papua in the wake of Awes’s murder, President Yudhoyono set a clear guideline on Thursday for handling security disturbances there, asking the security forces to avoid using excessive force to end the spiraling violence in Papua and West Papua. “We have tried to solve the problem using a security approach, but that did not work. Now we will focus on the prosperity of our brothers and sisters,” the President said at a Cabinet meeting in Jakarta.

The government’s confidence in settling the Papua problems this time has received a boost from the United States. On Sunday, the visiting US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta assured that the US supported Indonesia’s stance on Papua while praising Indonesia’s handling of the strike at US gold and copper giant Freeport. The US support for Indonesian handling of the Papua problems was, however, not a stand-alone commitment as lawmakers at the House of Representatives eventually approved on Tuesday the Defense Ministry’s request to take up the US offer of so-called “grants” of 24 second-hand F-16 jet fighters after almost a year of political bickering with the government.

“We’ve agreed to approve the deal but with a set of conditions,” House legislator Yorrys Raweyai said. “All the planes have to be upgraded from Block 25 to Block 52; all components needed for the upgrade have to be produced here in Indonesia; and the upgrade must be procured through the foreign military sales scheme that prevents the role of brokers.”

Block 52 is the highest upgrade level that enables the jet fighters to have bigger thrust and advanced avionic and electronic systems.

Besides Papua, issues of state leadership ahead of the 2014 presidential election have gained ground lately. It was People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Taufiq Kiemas who on Monday called on the country’s younger generation to take the chance to contest the 2014 election and specifically asked “old faces”, including his wife, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, not to run in the upcoming election.

Still, Taufiq’s statement, which was made days ahead of the 83rd commemoration of Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge) on Friday, is perhaps only applicable to PDI-P. The party has been intensively grooming the couple’s daughter Puan Maharani for top political posts in the future. Other parties apparently have made their own definitions of “young leaders” in their preparations for the 2014 election. One of them is the Golkar Party. A three-day national leadership meeting concluded on Friday with mounting support for party chairman Aburizal Bakrie — not a young candidate — to contest the 2014 election on Golkar’s ticket. The party will decide on Aburizal’s nomination in its special national leadership meeting in October next year.

Apart from politics, issues of good governance and anticorruption also stole the show in the past week.

An official who prosecuted several top officials for crimes including corruption and murder was sentenced to prison on Tuesday for doctoring the indictment of convicted Gayus H. Tambunan. The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced prosecutor Cirus Sinaga to five years’ imprisonment on Tuesday for altering Gayus’ indictment to help the rogue taxman evade corruption charges.

Meanwhile, President Yudhoyono inaugurated on Tuesday senior prosecutor Muhammad Yusuf as the new chairman of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) and central bank senior official Agus Santoso as his deputy. Both Yusuf and Agus will lead the agency until 2016.

The PPATK was formed in 2002 after Indonesia was listed by the international community as a save-haven for money launderers. Its authority, however, is limited to analyzing financial reports, while investigation duties are in the hands of the National Police, the Attorney General’s Office, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).

An unfavorable development, however, lingers on Indonesia’s prospect in the upcoming Southeast Asian Games. The country’s squad has decreased its medal target, citing missed practice sessions due to delays in completing venues in Palembang, South Sumatra.

“We will persist with our overall target of 155 gold medals. However, 135 is more realistic, considering the condition of the venues at the moment,” Indonesia squad captain Tono Suratman said on Wednesday.

— Imanuddin Razak