The Jubilee Blog

Debi’s Back from Indonesia!

If you’ve been keeping up with our spankin’ new blog, you know that our own Debayani “Debi” Kar has made her way back to the states after participating in the International People’s Forum (IPF) on the IMF and World Bank in Batam, Indonesia.

While there, Debi attended seminars, coordinated press conferences, and brainstormed with other NGO reps, many who also work on debt cancellation issues.

In yesterday’s staff meeting, Debi shared some of the experiences she didn’t write about in her blog, such as how heavily guarded the IPF conference center was in Batam (they had automatic rifles) and some of the fun she and other activists gathered at the IPF managed to have after long days spent in plenary sessions, press conferences, and steering committee meetings.

But stories, photos, and new strategies that tackle the challenge of debt cancellation aren’t the only thing she’s brought back with her. Photos of what she saw in Indonesia and T-shirts from KAU, the Anti-Debt Coalition in Indonesia, were among the goodies she handed us.

Later today, we’ll give you the link to the photo gallery with the photos Debi took in Indonesia.

Posted by Jennifer Westrate and monét cooper

Rising From an Earthquake's Ashes

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Rebuilding Jogya a testament to a people's resilience

By Debayani Kar

Jogyakarta, Indonesia—I woke up before the Muslim pre-sunrise prayer call on Saturday, which I had been hearing each day from a nearby mosque, to head to the Jakarta airport to leave for Jogyakarta.

Jogyakarta, called Jogya for short, is a city in Southern Java, at the other end of the same island where Jakarta is located. The southern part of Jogyakarta was struck by an earthquake in late May that killed 6,000 people and displaced 200,000 residents.

Our main objective in Jogyakarta was to speak at an economic research institute connected to the Gadjah Mada University. Sony, the professor so nicknamed who helped convene the talk, also serves on the local committee to help Jogya rebuild after the earthquake.

I’ve been told by locals that Jogya is known around Indonesia as a hotbed of student and progressive activism. Sony explained that this constituency has influenced Jogya’s governor to demand to the central government, that funds for earthquake recovery not be paid for through new foreign loans.

After our successful talk — paneled by Sony, Ardi, and me — attended by a substantive chunk of Jogya’s politically active community, Sony took us to see the areas devastated by the earthquake.

I was struck by the houses turned to rubble, the half-standing government building, the makeshift houses made of blue plastic, and the quiet determination in the faces of the people we spoke to who are engaged in the process of rebuilding.

Our car ride back was silent, as we contemplated what we had seen.

So, I am writing my final reflections now from the Singapore airport. Thank you for joining me on my journey. I look forward to catching up on sleep back in Washington, D.C., but I will be missing Indonesia for some time.

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Day Four in Jakarta

Friday September 22, 2006

Coalition building a testament to the power of dialogue

By Debayani Kar

Today was my last day in Jakarta.

It was another full day of meetings, of course, with a short press interview in the morning followed by a discussion with KAU coalition members, a meeting with members of the Senate branch of the Indonesian parliament, and then a late afternoon session with a group of economists known as the Indonesian “resurrection” team, or Indonesia bankrit.

The KAU discussion was interesting. The KAU coalition, Indonesia’s Anti-Debt group, is similar in many ways to Jubilee USA’s structure — their members include a range of constituents including women’s groups and environmental groups.

After the general discussion about KAU’s work and Jubilee USA’s work, I stayed and talked with a KAU member who is working against the privatization of education in Indonesia.

Through our discussion, he was surprised to learn that a college education is quite expensive for the average American, too.

The Senate meeting went quite well. The three senators I met with were interested in initiating a couple of projects to further our joint work toward debt cancellation in Indonesia.

One project is the possibility of a letter from Indonesia senators to members of the U.S. Congress supporting Indonesia’s debt cancellation. Another possibility is a petition to the Indonesia’s central government advocating the same position.

I was excited to meet the Indonesian bankrit team. I was happy to meet economists on “our” side, who are working to apply their academic knowledge to aid poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

These economists have promised to aid our efforts in communicating the economic arguments in favor of debt cancellation to policymakers and the public.

They would like our help in determining when the UNDP research team intends to undertake and publish its review of Indonesia’s limited chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

This offers another argument in favor of why the country urgently needs debt cancellation.

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Day Three in Jakarta

A random day: Haiti debt cancellation, worker’s rights, and french fries

By Debayani Kar

Luddite that I am, I was very excited this morning to have a wireless connection! I spent the morning behind the computer, catching up on literally hundreds of e-mails collecting in my inbox since I left Washington, D.C.

In the midst of gearing up for our push on the Haiti Debt Cancellation Resolution, H.R. 888 a joint study released by the IMF and World Bank reports that the two IFIs found that Haiti’s external debt far surpasses the “sustainability threshold” Haiti agreed to in the HIPC Initiative.

The Fund announced that Haiti is now "eligible for assistance under the enhanced HIPC Initiative," which not only makes them more dependent on the IMP/World Bank but also makes it even more imperative for Haiti's debt to be cancelled...immediately.

With debt cancellation, Haiti’s citizens will be able to have universal and equitable access to healthcare and education.

After playing catch up, I had lunch at a warung, or roadside eatery, across the street with the KAU staff, who all go there almost daily.

Afterward, Ardi and I went to meet Indra Yana of the ASPEK labor union, which represents workers in the banking, telecom, security and retail sectors, among others.

ASPEK is urging the government to reconsider moves toward weakening the present labor laws. These decisions, would ostensibly decrease the power of workers. The labor reforms are part of the set of economic reforms which the IMF and other creditors have been imposing on the Indonesian economy at the risk of worker’s rights.

My meeting with Indra reminded me of another such meeting a few years ago in Colombo, Sri Lanka, when labor unions there were facing the imposition of similar measures in their economy. Those reforms were being promoted by the IMF in Sri Lanka as part of Sri Lanka’s PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper). It is further evidence that these one-size-fits-all policies — which in the end really don’t help the people — are still being pushed by the IMF in impoverished countries all over the world.

One of the other illuminating aspects of my conversation with the ASPEK union rep was to learn about the extent to which the Singaporean government has invested in the Indonesian economy.

Recently, many Indonesian-owned enterprises, which have been privatized — the state telecom company Indosat is one example — were bought by Singapore government companies.

My day ended with dinner with Ardi’s family, his wife Yuni and his son Arik.

I made the mistake of ordering french fries at dinner, not realizing kendang goring, or fried potatoes, could only mean one thing…

I leave for Jogyakarta, Indonesia, in the morning and on Sunday will be in Singapore on my way back to Washington, D.C.

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Day Two in Jakarta

Is accountability an impossible dream?

By Debayani Kar

I began this morning with a breakfast meeting at the Grand Kemang, an upscale hotel in South Jakarta. To reach the hotel Ardi, KAU/Anti-Debt Coalition coordinator, and I rode ojeks, which are scooters that can be rented as a form of public transportation.

When we reached the hotel, I listened bemused as American and European businessmen at nearby tables discussed their various business ventures in Indonesia.

After breakfast I headed to the office of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) where I participated in a press briefing to share some final civil society perspectives as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Annual Meetings came to a close today in Singapore.

We had a lengthy discussion with reporters about the shortcomings of the decisions taken by the IMF and World Bank at the meetings.

The IMF quota reform, a paradox if there ever was one, falls far short of moving toward “one country, one vote” at the board meetings of international financial institutions (IFIs), as opposed to “one dollar, one vote” as it currently stands. This current stance on voting gives the United States the largest voting share, which allows U.S. objectives and imperatives to dominate policy decisions. No surprises there.

We closed with a discussion about the World Bank’s anti-corruption framework and the need for the bank to clean its own house.

While some countries have passed laws that make bribery a crime for corporations — some of them based in Europe and North America — that use unfair procurement methods (such as the bribing of officials) to secure contracts, it’s also imperative that IFIs strengthen their internal mechanisms of punishing companies that use illegal and corrupt practices.

The exorbitant cost of a dam in Uganda is a perfect case in point.

Peter Bosshard, International Rivers Network policy director, and Shannon Lawrence, the international policy analyst in Environmental Defense’s Washington Office, released “The World Bank’s Conflicted Corruption Fight,” an incredible paper, in May detailing the internal challenges the institutions fail in addressing corruption.

Basically, these IFIs want to end corruption, but seem less compelled to change the decision making process that surrounds their infrastructure lending practices. It’s a cycle: These practices illustrate exactly why such corruption exists.

In the afternoon we met with Parliament member Rama Pratama at the Indonesia Parliament House where we discussed ways to share information between Members of Parliament here in Indonesia and members of the U.S. Congress. I was interested to hear his office’s central concerns not only around debt cancellation, but also the need to stem the tide of new borrowing. We have agreed to be in further communication on these issues.

This evening I have been promised a night on the town in Jakarta. I’ve grown accustomed to eating fried noodles at almost every meal here, and look forward to getting some more, tonight!

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Day One in Jakarta

Making links between debt and everything else

By Debayani Kar

Hello from Jakarta! I am here today writing from the KAU office in Jakarta, which they share with WALHI, the Friends of the Earth affiliate in Indonesia.

I thought I might get a few hours off today, but other than a short nap, I was back at work once I reached Jakarta.

On the way to my hotel in the city from the airport, Kusfiardi — or “Ardi” — coordinator of KAU, pointed out a demonstration in front of Parliament by members of La Via Campesina who I met after dinner tonight. Some activists may remember him from Jubilee USA's speaking tour held last year here in the states.

These members of the Indonesian peasant movement are urging the government to address their land reform concerns. A key demand of their coalition at the moment, is to completely ban the importation of rice. Cheap rice imports harm domestic producers in Indonesia.

This afternoon I met Andrie S. Wijaya, a representative from JATAM — or the Mining Advocacy Network — which works in KAU’s coalition. Andrie updated me on the situation with the mudflows in East Java.

Geologists are now saying that there is no short-term solution to stopping the mudflows because of the depths of the gas drilling and the pressure exerted underground by the gas which is creating the mudflows through the gas leak. These geologists refer to a similar experience in Venezuela which took 15 years to bring under control.

According to reports, these mudflows in East Java have displaced anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 people. For me, this situation speaks to the need for us to reexamine extractive industry projects in light of the inherent dangers affected communities always face when such projects are conducted in their backyard.

It also reemphasizes the important work of Jubilee Network partner Oil Change International toward ending oil aid and linking with our work on debt and harmful economic strings.

More tomorrow from Jakarta. Hopefully, I’ll be rested and ready to go! Hopefully, this Internet connection will be a bit faster, too!

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

On Leaving Batam for Jakarta

Monday, September 18, 2006

Singapore gov't actions help NGOs during IMF/World Bank talks

By Debayani Kar

Now that the International People’s Forum has ended, today is a slightly quieter day, with only one press conference and an IMF/World Bank strategy session. There were some hectic moments endured in preparing for the press conference, but now our strategy session is underway.

Tomorrow, I leave for Jakarta, Indonesia, where I will meet with members of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), a key organizer of the IPF, and Koalisi Anti-Utang (KAU), or in English, the Anti-Debt Coalition.

I’m flying to Jakarta from Batam instead of Singapore, nixing my original plan to reach Jakarta from Singapore.

Given the boycott, I didn’t have much I could accomplish in Singapore.

A key reason I originally wanted to be in Singapore at the IMF/World Bank meetings was to talk to media, but it looks like they came to us.

We’ve had two press conferences a day here. Both attracted everyone from The New York Times, The Guardian, one of Britain’s premier news outlets, and all the wires to the major Asian dailies and the local Batam media.

Yesterday, The Washington Post’s Peter S. Goodman wrote an article detailing the public censure World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and other leaders gave to Singapore officials because of the nation’s reaction to the influx of activists into the country for the meetings. I encourage you to read the article, it’s pretty interesting stuff, and it gives an indication of some of the things civil society had to negotiate while in Singapore and Batam.

For example, The World Bank and IMF accredited more than 600 people from civil society for the meetings. Civil society groups were given space in the very large Suntec Conference Center to hold seminars and actions in lieu of the Singapore government’s no protest policies. However, Goodman observes the space was the size of, and I quote: “a squash court” — in other words, not a very big room.

NGOs are accustomed to doing a lot with a little.

In this case, the Singapore government’s preemptive ban (in the form of small rooms, pre-approved seminars, and a prohibition on any protest) on what they thought would be chaotic actions from NGOs, actually brought a ton of media — many of whom would have never come otherwise — our way.

Prior to coming here, there was concern about civil society being able to gain access to mainstream media outlets. The irony of all the decisions made by the Singapore government, IMF and World Bank is that they actually helped us relay our message to a broader audience.

Interesting, very interesting, the way things work out. Today, we released a final statement wrapping up our time here and celebrating a successful action in Batam.

Stay tuned for more updates from me in Jakarta!

—with reporting by monét cooper in Washington, D.C.

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Look How the Tables Are Turned

Sunday, September 17, 2006

International financial institutions taken to task by IPF as boycott continues

By Debayani Kar

Another day, another press conference.

Today, our press conferences were able to focus a bit more on other issues at hand, rather than the constant focus on the detentions and deportations faced by civil society in attempts to travel through Singapore. The Indonesian organizers of the International People’s Forum spent much of the day discussing the harmful impact of the IMF and World Bank and the effects of debt on the economies of their countries.

I had the opportunity this morning to address the Illegitimate Debt plenary session. I was asked to speak about the IMF and illegitimate debt, alongside Eurodad Coordinator Alex Wilks, who spoke about the World Bank, corruption, and illegitimate debt.

One of the key points I worked to raise is that of the unjust arrears payments, or back payments, which the IMF insists every country pay to qualify for debt relief either under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative or at the Paris Club. This is especially important as we push for the unconditional cancellation of Haiti's mounting debt with H.R. 888, the Haiti Debt Cancellation Resolution.

According to the Dan Beeton article "What the World Bank and IDB Owe Haiti", which details why Haiti's debt should be cancelled, the Inter-American Development Bank was pushing for Haiti to begin paying on loans that had not yet been disbursed "to the tune of $5 million in arrears."

Currently, Liberia is being urged to quickly pay arrears to the IMF. They’re asking this despite the fact that the country's annual government budget stands at $80 million and the country has only recently shifted to democratic rule. As Liberia rebuilds itself with a new president and a new fiscal policy, debt payments — much of them incurred in years of violent political turmoil and corruption — are the last thing the country should have to think about.

However, the afternoon’s key session was the Asian People’s Tribunal on Poverty and Debt organized by Jubilee South and the Asia GCAP coalition.

The tribunal encompassed three judges representing key international civil society groups and three prosecutors who are public interest lawyers from around the globe.

The proceedings allowed for various individuals impacted by or coordinating advocacy campaigns on a range of projects run by the international financial institutions in different countries to give testimony about there experiences. Many of the “witnesses” explained how the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank harmed the impoverished people in their countries.

For example, an Indonesian from Central Java testified as to the displacement suffered due to an extractive industry project where the displaced were not compensated for their forced relocation.

The verdict at the end of the four-hour session declared the IMF, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank guilty as charged.

The IPF reached its end with a closing ceremony thanking all the conference organizers. Filipino singer and activist Noel Cabangon sang throughout the evening and by the forum’s end he had become a rock star belting out both rousing and heartfelt songs about social and environmental justice. The singing went quite long into the night, as Indonesian student activists took the stage with both traditional and contemporary songs.

—with reporting by monét cooper in Washington, D.C.

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

When the Personal Becomes Political

Saturday September 16, 2006

The perils of extractive industry hit home in Indonesia

By Debayani Kar

What a day of running around! I helped the International People’s Forum media team coordinate two press conferences, while preparing to moderate a plenary session on debt and climate change.

Closing the conference portion of the day will be a brief presentation at a workshop on the World Bank and corruption. Once the seminars and workshops ended, it was time for our daily IPF steering committee meeting, where we prepared for the next day’s press work and dealt with other conference logistics.

The evening’s cultural program featured an amateur night where representatives from the various countries and regions represented at the IPF performed mostly musical acts. The Europeans were among the most entertaining as they performed a less-than-perfect rendition of Queen’s popular hit “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The most interesting portion of the day was hearing the story of Iva Sasmita, an environmental activist from East Java, Indonesia. She told the incredible story of how the political became the personal for her.

Iva has worked on environmental issues for years, but in the last few weeks these issues really hit home when her home was destroyed by mud flows. These most recent mud flows are the result of a leak in a gas drilling project near the city of Surabaya.

Iva’s personal life has been impacted by the devastation wrought by an extractive industries project, as she has committed her political life to work to mitigate the harm of such projects.

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

International People’s Forum convenes first day
in the wake of mounting obstacles

By Debayani Kar

I am writing this blog from Batam, an Indonesian island an hour’s ferry ride from Singapore, and the site of the International People’s Forum (IPF). I am participating in the Forum, a meeting of international NGOs and activists from across the globe and includes seminars, panel discussions, and analysis. We are meeting here as the IMF and World Bank prepare to hold their Annual Meetings across the water in Singapore. Those meetings begin on Sunday in earnest.

The past 10 days leading up to the IPF, which officially opened this morning in Batam, Indonesia, have been tumultuous on many different levels for both forum organizers and participants.

The forum was conceived as an international forum to “articulate critiques, express protest and assert alternatives to the role, policies and operations of these institutions.”

We knew the stipulations placed by Singapore’s government on civil society activities would be a difficult pill to swallow, but none of us could have predicted the challenges many of us would face getting to Batam and even being able to convene this conference.

In recent days, pressure from the Singapore government almost led to the cancellation of the Batam events, but fortunately an international public outcry helped to overturn the Indonesian government’s position.

Meanwhile, in Singapore the government announced a blacklist of individuals who would be denied entry to the country, despite the fact that many had already obtained accreditation from the IMF and World Bank to attend the annual meetings there. That list has since been updated as protests continue inside the Annual Meetings.

This week, we have come to recognize that this so-called blacklist is much larger than the 28 individuals the Singapore government has referred to, but encompasses many activists from around the globe – both those who had obtained IMF/World Bank accreditation, and those who chose not to.

Upward of two dozen individuals this week have faced detention or deportation at the hands of the Singapore immigration authorities at the airport. Many of them were only intending to come to Batam via Singapore.

Because of all this, civil society organizations including Jubilee USA signed on to a boycott of the official meetings of the IMF and World Bank. The boycott statement garnered 163 signatories from all over the world. We launched the boycott this morning to a roomful of press here in Batam.

Despite all the challenges, more than 500 individuals have come to Batam for the IPF. I was honored this morning to address the IPF opening plenary session to share a few words about the role of Western, or Northern, groups, such as the U.S. and the U.K., in the Global South’s struggle against the policies of the international financial institutions.

I detailed some of the ways in which Northern groups have provided effective solidarity to Southern campaigns, highlighting:

• Jubilee USA ’s current work to urge the U.S. Congress to help undertake debt audits
• Norwegian debt groups’ successful campaign to have their government heed their call to begin to address illegitimate debt
• and the campaign by groups in the U.K. to call on their government to disengage from the IMF and World Bank based on their harmful economic policy conditionalities, which run contrary to the U.K. government’s position.

One of the comments that stood out to me as I sat in this morning’s sessions was from Walden Bello, director of Focus on the Global South in Bangkok.

Walden recounted a recent interview with a journalist who asked why he had been placed on the blacklist. Walden replied that he did not know since he is but a 60-year-old man with arthritis and other ailments…

More seriously, Walden surmised that the IMF and World Bank had done more damage to their credibility as institutions working against global poverty in this last week of events, than we ourselves as civil society might have been able to do, had we been given more space to critique the institutions directly in Singapore.

Turning to a more personal observation, it has been interesting that in my limited travel around Batam I have seen that everyone here knows about this conference.

We asked our taxi driver at the ferry terminal to take us to the conference center and he replied, “Oh, yes, you will go there to talk about the World Bank being a problem.”

For me, this reception—which has been both good and bad of course—is quite different from some of our conferences in Washington, D.C., where some press I have spoken to categorically state they will never attend because they are mundane every day events.

For more information on the IMF/World Bank meetings in Singapore and the civil society response, see: www.ifiwatchnet.org and www.bicusa.org.

And of course stay tuned for more from me!

Debayani Kar is the communications and advocacy coordinator at Jubilee USA Network, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Before I sign out for today, below is a copy of the press release we sent to the media this morning about our support for the boycott.

PRESS RELEASE

Jubilee USA Network

www.jubileeusa.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Debi Kar, in Singapore/Indonesia, +62 81 372 877199 Neil Watkins, in Washington, D.C., 202 783-0129

Jubilee USA Network Joins 160+ Organizations in Civil Society Boycott of IMF/World Bank Meetings

Organizations Will Not Participate in Official Events in Solidarity with Dozens of NGOs Banned or Deported by Singapore Government

WASHINGTON – Jubilee USA Network today joined more than 160 organizations from across the globe in a boycott of official events at the IMF and World Bank meetings set to begin early next week in Singapore. While the Network had received accreditation to participate in the meetings, events of the past week in which the Singaporean government barred entry, detained or deported dozens of civil society colleagues from across the globe led to the decision not to participate.

“The treatment of our colleagues and partners from across the globe in the past week at the hands of Singapore authorities has been appalling, and we cannot in good conscience participate in the IMF meetings next week while our close colleagues are banned and mistreated” said Neil Watkins, National Coordinator of Jubilee USA Network. “Though the World Bank and IMF have attempted to reverse the situation, we must wonder why the institutions sought to hold their Annual Meetings in a repressive state such as Singapore in the first place.”

Jubilee USA Network joined with other civil society organizations at the site of the International Peoples’ Forum (IPF) on the IMF and World Bank in Batam, Indonesia, a short ferry ride from Singapore. Several days of meetings, plenary session, workshops, and strategy sessions will be held in Batam at the Asrama Haji Center in Batam, Indonesia through the 17th. Civil society organizations today formally announced the boycott in Batam.

The boycott has been endorsed by 163 organizations from all parts of the world, and includes many organizations that have long assumed prominent roles in civil society interactions with the international financial institutions. Participants at the IPF will discuss current issues on the agenda of the IMF/World Bank meetings including the need for expanded debt cancellation for impoverished nations, changes in the governance structure of the institutions, and the anti-corruption agenda of the World Bank.

About 20 people have been deported or “refused entry” to Singapore. Organizers also point out that the Singapore government pressured the Riau Province (Indonesia) government to cancel alternative events on the neighboring island of Batam, but the Indonesian government has allowed them to proceed.

“Our boycott is a response to egregious hypocrisy,” said Ana Maria Nemenzo, President of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines, and one of those informed in advance that she would not be allowed into Singapore despite receiving accreditation to the meetings from the IMF and World Bank. “While World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz prepares to launch his new good governance and anti-corruption initiative, he fails to promote those very principles for his own institution as it meets in Singapore. Civil society has long been unsatisfied with their marginalization by these institutions, but this takes that problem to a new low.”