Record of the 22nd APCCA
Opening Ceremony
To a considerable extent the opening ceremony of the conference was overshadowed by a very serious terrorist bombing which took place only a few kilometres from the location of the conference on the island of Bali on 12 October. Several hundred people, mainly tourists, were killed or injured in the blast, and other bombings were reported in other parts of Indonesia at the same time. Despite this tragedy, the conference proceeded as planned and only one delegation returned to its home location before the conference concluded.
The opening ceremony was preceded by a welcome reception and dinner the previous evening hosted by Mr Ngakan Samudra, the Assistant Secretary of the Province of Bali, representing the Governor. The ceremony itself was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Bali Hilton International Hotel at Nusa Dua, Indonesia, and was officiated by the Minister for Justice and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia, The Honorable Professor Dr Yusril Ihza Mahendra. Before the central feature of the opening ceremony, which was the handing over of the APCCA symbols (the Fijian war club and the Indian brass lamp), speeches were made by the conference host, Mr Adi Sujatno, the APCCA Coordinator and Rapporteur, Professor David Biles, and the Minister, Professor Dr Mahendra.
Before his welcoming speech, Mr Adi Sujatno first called on all those present at the Opening Ceremony (delegates, observers and spouses) to observe a moment’s silence out of respect to the victims of the terrorist bomb.
In his welcoming speech, Mr Adi Sujatno said:
Assalamulaikum, Warahmatullahi, Wabarakatuh.
Om Swasti Astu
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
First, on behalf of Indonesia, I would like to welcome you all the delegates and other participants to the 22nd Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators in Denpasar, Bali. We do hope that all of you can enjoy the beautiful scenery and panorama of the island, the unique art and handicraft, as well as the friendliness of the local people. We hope that all the charm and attraction here will invite you to extend your stay here. Bali will always welcome you and deliver the best service to you all.
The conference, which is annually held, is attended by the senior officers of correctional services from 21 different countries in Asian and Pacific regions, the representatives from UNAFEI, some private companies, and a number of observers, some Indonesian Superintendents. In this conference, we will discuss all the actual issues, the latest methods, as well as the recent academic approaches in the treatment of offenders. From this sharing event, it is expected that each participating country will gain benefits that can be applied in the implementation of treatment programmes for offenders in each country.
Besides sessions and workshops, we will also carry out some social activities whose purpose is to build stronger relationships and cooperation among the correctional administrators in Asian and Pacific regions.
In this conference, some particular issues will be discussed. They are:
1. National Report on Contemporary Issues in Corrections;
2. Outsourcing of Correctional Services;
3. Recruitment, Training and Career Development of Correctional Staff;
4. The Reception and Classification of Prisoners as the Key to Rehabilitation.
There will also be two workshops that focus on two particular topics:
1. Correctional Standards, Service Quality, Benchmarking and the Risk of Reoffending, and
2. Community Participation and Engagement in Corrections.
We will also visit the correctional institution in Denpasar where we can enjoy the performance of 200 students of the Academy of Corrections of Indonesia. Then, we will continue to the Special Correctional Institution in Bangli, whose architecture of the building adopts the traditional Balinese style. Furthermore, this special correctional institution is projected to become a special institution that deals with convicts in drug cases.
We admit that the visits may not be able to give you the whole picture of the implementation of correctional services in Indonesia due to the large number of correctional institutions in Indonesia that reaches 381 units. However, to some extent, it is expected that it will give you an overview of the implementation of correctional services in Indonesia.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in the middle of all our busy schedules during the conference, we would like to invite you to come to the art exhibition which is held outside the ballroom. In this exhibition, you will be able to see some handicrafts made by the prisoners from some correctional institutions in Indonesia, as well as some paintings created by one prisoner and two superintendents, Mr Ganti Hartono and Mr Sunarjo, who still make time for art in the middle of their busy times in managing the treatment programmes for the prisoners.
Let me also take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Governor and all his staff at the Local Government of Bali for all the help and support to this conference.
Next, we will hear some words from Prof. David Biles, the APCCA Coordinator followed by His Excellency Prof. Dr. Yusril Ihza Mahendra, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights who will officially open the 22nd Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators. His Excellency will also become the host of the official dinner called Rajalaya Dinner in Grand Ballroom Hilton Hotel to which we are all invited.
Assalamulaikum, Warahmatullahi, Wabarakatuh.
Om Santhi Santhi Santhi Om
Professor David Biles was then invited to the lectern to deliver his speech, in which he said:
Mr Chairman, Minister Professor Dr Mahendra, Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to offer my deepest sympathy to the relatives and friends of the many people who were killed or injured as a result of the terrible bombings that took place at a number of locations in Indonesia last Saturday night.
On a happier note, I would like to add my personal welcome to that offered by our host, the Director General of Corrections of the Department of Justice and Human Rights of Indonesia, The Honorable Adi Sujatno, and I would also like to congratulate the conference organisers for the excellent preparations they have made for this, the 22nd assembly of the Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators. It is a great pleasure for me to meet again so many delegates who have become old friends over the long period of about 14 years that I have been associated with APCCA.
A very special welcome is also offered to the Thailand delegation who were our hosts at that wonderful and unforgettable conference in Chiang Mai last year.
I would like to also give a special welcome to the delegates from the Pacific Island nations of Fiji and Tonga with whom I feel a special affinity as I was lucky enough to be able to spend a little time in each of these independent nations in June of this year. I undertook a review of the prison system in the Kingdom of Tonga, and also inspected the likely conference facilities for the 23rd APCCA in the Republic of Fiji. In both of these nations, as well as in Samoa where my wife and I also spent a few days, the hospitality and friendship could only be described as overwhelming.
I must offer a special thank you to the organisers of this conference. In addition to Mr Sujatno, who enabled me to come to Bali in March to assist with the preparations, much of the work on the ground has been undertaken by a group of young and enthusiastic officers of the Indonesian Department of Justice and Human Rights. This group is led by Mr Ambeg, and includes Mr Ceno and a dozen or more other equally industrious and enthusiastic workers. I know that they must have had an extremely busy few months since I was here in March as their telephones and fax machines were nearly always busy when I tried to contact them. Communications between us improved enormously when Mr Ambeg was able to establish a special email address for the conference, but alas, that email connection was not able to carry the heavy load created when many nations tried to register for the conference on line and also tried to send their national papers electronically. My special thanks go to those young men for the wonderful job they have done under very challenging circumstances.
I would like also to offer my thanks for the work done in both Hong Kong (China) and in Singapore in the establishment of the permanent secretariat for the APCCA. It is still early days, but we have already seen an excellent APCCA Newsletter come out of Singapore, and Hong Kong (China) has continued with its usual high standards of efficiency in handling all APCCA finances. In the near future I am quite sure that we will all see further improvements to the APCCA Internet web site after its transfer from the Australian Institute of Criminology to Singapore. Further changes are also to be expected following the working party meeting held in Hong Kong (China) earlier this year.
As in previous years, the Co-rapporteur, Neil Morgan, and I have had an opportunity to read some of the national discussion papers and we are both of the view that all that we have seen are at a very high standard as well as being extremely interesting and informative. These papers contain a wealth of unique information and are worthy of very close study. They certainly could be very useful in the training of senior corrections staff. I hope that most, if not all, of these papers will be eventually published on the APCCA web site.
(I would like to mention at this point that earlier this year Neil Morgan was awarded the degree of PhD in law with high distinction. This means that he is now to be addressed as Dr Morgan. On behalf of you all, I offer Dr Morgan our warmest congratulations.)
The high quality of the national papers suggests to me that the substance of the conference deliberations will again be extremely valuable. These papers will, I believe, provide a solid foundation for a highly successful conference which I hope will be marked by the open exchange of constructive ideas. Many of the papers this year seem to me to include a note of serious concern about coping with increasing prisoner numbers and, at the same time, reduced budgets. I hope that this conference will provide an ideal opportunity for delegates to discuss these problems within the framework of the agenda which has been outlined by our host, Mr Adi Sujatno.
I wish you all a professionally rewarding and personally enjoyable conference in the beautiful province of Bali in the Republic of Indonesia.
The Minister for Justice and Human Rights for the Republic of Indonesia, Professor Dr Yusril Ihza Mahendra, then officially opened the conference with the following speech:
The Honorable David Biles, Coordinator of The APCCA,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, I would like to warmly welcome you all and profoundly appreciate your participation at this historic juncture of the 22nd Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administration (APCCA) in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. This conference is indeed a very important forum for the Asian and Pacific countries to share their common concerns and expectations about coping with democratization, globalization, regionalization and polarization issues relating to correctional management and administration.
The first APCCA conference was held in Hong Kong in 1980 and its most recent conference was in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2001. These conferences have been attended by senior correctional officials and observers from over twenty countries in the region. Similarly today on the island of Bali, we are attending the 22nd APCCA, representing about one half of the total population of the world. After over twenty years of APCCA, there have been a great many commitments declared to address various critical issues of correctional administration in the region. However, the situation has remained largely unchanged, and obviously the imprisonment rate has tended to increase.
Due to the democratization era (which can be seen in the removal and collapse of many totalitarian regimes and in the steady advance of democratic forces in many countries in our region) it appears that the APCCA will be an important forum. We will be able to share our commitment, to strengthen our cooperation, and to cope with the emergence of socio-economic and political problems in our respective countries. It may be noted that the average daily prison population increased rapidly during the time of economic crisis. In general, there is also a very clear link between crime and the critical socio-economic and political situation. In Asia and the Pacific region, in 1993, the weighted average imprisonment rate has been calculated as 39.4 per 100,000 population while in the year 2000, the rate has reached 104.0.
We, the Indonesian people, are not the exception. We are following the same trend as most countries in the Asian and the Pacific region. As a result of our currency crisis in 1997 and the fall of the centralistic regime in 1998, we have started to rebuild our nation and to reshape our society for a better future. As we gradually emerge from economic, social and political crisis, we should not forget the lessons we have learned from our national development policies of the past three decades. We failed to recognize the three inseparable elements for sustainable development, namely; a proper balance between economic growth, democracy, and respect for human rights. This policy once yielded unprecedented achievements in economic growth and poverty alleviation, however over time it turned out to be fragile.
The reform process which we experienced at the end of the twentieth century was in essence the result of our own self-examination, a process of self correction, which was triggered by the most painful crisis in our modern history. In the face of the challenges brought about by a new political, economic and social life. This effort includes reorienting our development strategy to secure a balance between economic growth, democracy and respect for human rights. Painful as this process is, Indonesia has entered the new millennium as a transformed democracy.
Indonesia is now truly engaged in a process of unprecedented and fundamental reforms in all fields, notably in the political, economic, social and legal sectors through a strong commitment to the supremacy of law. These reforms are aimed at upholding the rule of law and speeding up our national recovery from the social and economic malaise. In this effort, great emphasis is being placed on democratization and the supremacy of law.
Excellencies and ladies and gentlemen.
Our policy on prison management is based on the inherent meaning of correction itself. In this respect, the prison should be hospitals admitting this class of patients for treatment and cure. No one commits crime for the fun of it. The causes of a particular disease should be investigated and removed comprehensively. The prison staff therefore should do much to humanize their administration. The only burden to prisoners should be the loss of their basic freedom.
Under these circumstances, it is extremely important for all participants to draw some blueprints to address the existing realities of prison overcrowding, to address the needs of the increasing numbers of prisoners with drug problem, and the changes in the demographics of the prison population, etc. What measures can be undertaken to improve prison management? How can we provide appropriate accommodation, health services, education and training to all of them? What are the implications for our socio-economic and political life?
The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights has taken vigorous steps to strengthen institutions, engage in capacity building and work on the adoption of the necessary legislation in order to provide a structural framework conducive to the solution of those issues. However, finding effective and comprehensive solutions to those issues is not an easy task in a country of about two million square km, covering over 17,000 islands, with more than 210 million people. Our major constraints are the shortage of funding and available resources and the appearances of sophisticated crime such as transnational organized crime, terrorism, people smuggling, trafficking of women and children, narcotic and drug syndicates, etc. These are new areas requiring much closer cooperation for their solution. No country in the world can solve these complex problems in isolation. Therefore, we will need to strengthen our cooperation in order to address these central concerns.
Therefore, I personally believe that this forum is not only an opportunity for countries in the Asian and Pacific region to exchange experience and information, but also provides the opportunity to extend our shared commitment and spirits of cooperation in addressing our common concerns.
To conclude, I should like to recall the mandate of the APCCA. We are charged with addressing our common problems in the field of correction in this region. We therefore put a high premium on the follow-up of this conference. Each delegate needs to take home the adopted outcomes of this meeting for implementation in their respective national situations. May I voice the hope that this conference will be a golden bridge between countries of this forum; to strengthen cooperation, to promote the spirit of our oneness and to address our common realities.
Allow me to take this opportunity to express my most sincere apology for not being able to be with you at the reception this evening because I have an afternoon flight today. I am leaving to attend extra-ordinary Cabinet meeting on consulting forum this afternoon. My colleague, Mr Adi Sujatno, Director General of Correction, will be with you on my behalf.
I therefore wish you success in your important five day deliberations and take great pleasure in opening this conference. With God’s blessings, I officially declare the opening of the 22nd Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators. Thank you very much.
After the Minister’s speech the APCCA symbols were carried into the conference hall in a traditional Balinese procession by men and women in colourful costumes accompanied by music. The symbols were then formally presented to Mr Sujatno for safe keeping by the leader of the delegation from Thailand, Ms Pornpitr Norapoompipat. (It was explained that the Fijian war club, even though associated with aggression and violence, when surrendered to another person was a symbol of peace, harmony and civilisation. Similarly, the Indian brass lamp is a symbol of learning and enlightenment. Taken together, these symbols represent the enduring values of the APCCA.)
At the conclusion of the official opening ceremony, the conference adjourned for official photographs to be taken.
After a refreshment break, the conference re-assembled to commence consideration of the four substantive agenda items, but before this Professor Biles conducted an election for the position of Conference Chair. The leader of the Indian delegation, Shri Sharda Prasad, proposed Mr Adi Sujatno as Chair. This was seconded by the leader of the delegation from the People’s Republic of China, Mr Du Zhongxing. There being no other nominations Professor Biles declared Mr Sujatno elected and invited him to take the Chair.