It's Kolintang

Kolintang music instrument originated from Minahasa, a place in North Sulawesi, an island in the east part of Indonesia. It is made from light but solid local wood such as TELUR, BANDARAN, WENANG, KAKINIK whose fibre construction appears in parallel lines. It can produce a long sound which can reach high pitch note as well as low pitch note when struck.


The name Kolintang came from the sound: TONG (low pitch note), TING (high pitch note) and TANG (moderate pitch note). In the local language, the invitation "Let us do some TONG TING TANG" is: "Mangemo kumolintang". That settled the name of the instrument: KOLINTANG.

In its early days, Kolintang originally consisted of only a series of wooden bars placed side by side in a row on the legs of the players who would sit on the floor with both of their legs stretched out in front of them. Later on, the function of the legs was replaced either by two poles of banana trunk or by a rope which hung them up to a wooden plank. Story says that resonance box was beginning to be attached to this instrument after DIPONEGORO, a prince from Java who was exiled to Minahasa, brought along Javanese instrument GAMELAN with its resonance box, GAMBANG.

Kolintang had a close relationship with the traditional belief of Minahasa natives. It was usually played in ancestor worshipping rituals. That might explain the reason Kolintang was nearly totally left behind when Christianity came to Minahasa. It was so rarely played that it was nearly extinct for about a 100 year since then. It only reappeared after the World War II, pioneered by a blind musician NELWAN KATUUK, who reconstructed it accordingly to universal musical scales. Initially, there was only one kind of Kolintang instrument which was a 2 octave diatonical melody instrument. It was usually played with other string instruments such as guitar, ukulele or string bass as accompaniment.

We, ourselves, had only heard of Kolintang music when it was broadcasted by Indonesian Broadcasting Radio (RRI) in Menado in 1952

At that time, communication was not as advanced as today. Nelwan Katuuk was from North Minahasa while we were from Ratahan, South Minahasa.

We start the production of Kolintang outside its native land of Minahasa in 1964 in Yogyakarta, Central Java, At the same time we began introducing the instrument around Central Java, our musical group toured the area which later extended to cities in East and West Java. At that time Kolintang was still a single melody instrument accompanied by guitar, ukulele or string bass.

The next development was the idea of replacing string instruments with kolintang accompaniment. We began exploring the idea in 1966 and it was not until 1969 we managed to make our first Kolintang 'Orchestra' performance at Satya Wacana Christian University in Yogyakarta. Our band consisted of a set of 5 Kolintang, each with different function, namely Melody, Alto, Tenor, Cello and Bass.

Saung Angklung Udjo: Children Are the Music Itself

Way back in the early 30s, in the beautifully inspiring land of Parahiyangan - which means land of Gods and Goddess - a five year old boy became overwhelmed by the sound of angklung, a Sundanese traditional musical instrument made of bamboo. As the child sensed, the angklung was his good friend not only for him but also for the rest of the villagers that he lived with. The harmony, the uniqueness of various melodic sounds and the joy that it created had escorted every child to his circumcision, adults to their marriages, and even celebrations at harvest time. Angklung was the harbinger of happiness.

As the boy grew up, he didn't want his memories of angklung magic to fade. He wanted the children of the next generation to experience the same angklung joy he had once felt. But it was not until the year of 1955 that the boy was mature enough to begin learning angklung seriously directly from the master of angklung itself, the late Daeng Soetigna, the founder of angklung music in 1938. He was one of six of Daeng's students, and subsequently gained the nickname the crocodile of angklung because of his passionate obsession for this cultural heritage.

Years later, in the 21st century of today, that little boy has grown old with a long white beard, and still plays angklung performances every evening with tens of children in his 1.5 acres wide saung (a thatch-roofed pavilion with no walls, a bit like a wide open gazebo). Nowadays the Saung's visitors number 1000 to 2000 a month, coming from many countries in Europe, America, and Africa - as well as spell-bound local audiences. The 73 year old Udjo Ngalagena has traveled to many countries performing his hobby and has been given many awards both nationally and internationally.


Saung Udjo in Brief
Inspired by the late Mr. Daeng Sutigna, the master angklung player, Saung Angklung Udjo was established in January 1967 by Mang Udjo (literally meaning 'uncle Udjo') and his late wife Uum Sumiati. Situated on Jalan Padasuka 118, Saung Angklung Udjo rapidly became an important tourism destination in Indonesia and Bandung itself. The Saung also has a display room selling hand-made craft souvenirs such as the angklung itself, wayang golek (wooden puppets), Sundanese blangkon - traditional hats made of batik textiles - and other bamboo handicrafts made by the artisans next to the saung. Recently, Saung Udjo has improved the merchandise, and now also offers recorded CD's and VCD's of their performances.

Daily programs are held from Monday to Sunday from 15.30 - 17.30 p.m. The performances begin with the Sundanese gamelan. Next, the host of musical performances introduces a short wayang golek demonstration. A real performance of wayang golek (puppet show) last more than 7 hours and sometimes takes one or even two nights to finish a story, but here in Saung Udjo, the demonstration only introduces how wayang dances, speaks, fights, and goes to war. Following the wayang golek show is helaran, a ritual play describing a situation when friends of a boy to be circumcised are carrying him along in a procession in order to give him happiness. After that, an arumba (another form of angklung band) orchestra is presented. The tari topeng (mask dance) is one part of this musical performance medley which is usually played by a single child. At the end of the performances, the audiences can also experience how easy it is to play the angklung together with children in songs like Rain & Tears, Sound of Music, and Song of Joy.


The Root: Children's Happiness, Culture, and Education
Saung Angklung Udjo is now a famous center of Sundanese traditional culture in addition to also being the chief angklung school in West Java. It's not just the music that makes it famous, but also the children who perform it with so much love and joy. A small group of children (approximately 30-40) carry out their dynamic performances with natural expressions of innocence.

For them angklung is not only an instrument of traditional music. Most of all, it is an easy way of playing games with their friends. So, don't look for expertise in their performances, because there might be mistakes - often this makes visitors laugh just as when we watch kids mispronounce words. "It's not the quality, but the activity," Udjo says. So in order to maintain the happiness of the children in learning angklung, Udjo has one principal: be a child. For Udjo it's not hard to do because he is indeed a lover of children. In fact, he has ten adult children himself; they now work together to keep the Saung heritable from one generation to the next.

When you visit Saung Udjo, you may be surprised to see a three year old boy performing joged (a traditional Sundanese dance) and playing a traditional Indonesian drum called kendang. The children present bamboo art performances, from playing angklung to arumba musical orchestras, tari topeng (mask dance), and many more.

A tourist from Holland, Han Kortig (63) who is a music teacher, was very excited after watching the performances that evening. He said, "I'm amazed at what the children can do with this instrument. How they can quickly develop the sense of music. They play it so spontaneously and with so much joy. Unbelievable. It's really fantastic, terrific!"

The children who play in the orchestra come from the surrounding kampung (Sundanese name for a village) of their own accord in order to meet their friends and play the angklung with love and happiness. Most of them come to the Saung every evening for just one or two hours of angklung lessons. They don't need to spend money to participate in the angklung course, rather they receive money. The amount depends on how many visitors watch the performances - usually a fairly small amount, but this is not important for them in comparison to the happiness of playing angklung music. Until now, there have been 250 to 300 students. The first 'alumnii' are now is teaching angklung lessons abroad, in countries such as in Argentina and Thailand.

This November Saung Angklung Udjo was invited to perform on the anniversary of one famous children's tabloid. Prior to that, the children of Saung Udjo received the honor of playing a concert along with Sherina - a talented little girl who is a very famous singer in Indonesia. But for Udjo, the biggest satisfaction is seeing the happiness of the children playing angklung and providing the cultural education for the next generation. "I will make everybody happy with my capability," he emphasizes, "not only for the visitors, but most importantly for the future of the children. That is why I built this Saung."

Kampung Naga: Living in Another Dimension

The Indonesian word naga refers to dragons-ancient, hypothetical, serpent-like creature that lives in myths in many cultures. But there are no dragons in Kampung Naga. Yet, be there dragons or not, life in this mistakenly-translated "Dragon Village" is no less ancient nor mythical than that creature itself. It is a realm, disconnected from its surroundings, hardly tethered to the invisible threads of modernity. It is a place where lives are set in another dimension.

The origin of the name turns out to be more down-to-earth rather than anything else: it is cleverly abbreviated from the Sundanese locative phrase, dina gawir, which means "beneath the hills," or more simply, a valley. This valley, where the indigenous tribe dwells in, is encircled by steep cliffs. Different vegetations blanket these massive rocks, and here and there a small waterfall shoots from a great height. Ciwulan River, with its gentle current, passionately runs through it; its sienna-colored water nurtures every living thing unceasingly.

However secluded they are from the world outside, the tribe's deliberate kindness to strangers is second to none. Not long after we had stepped out from our vehicle and entered one of the shops on the hilltop, a local youth quickly offered us cooked yam. "Bade taleus, Bu?" he asked casually to my mom and auntie as if they were his friends. Couldn't think of politer way to say no, they just shook their heads and smiled. That smile was given back.

We began to step downward along the 360 concrete stairs as our guide calmly narrated the legend and life in Kampung Naga. Seen from above, the thatched roof of the dwellings resembled a thick pine forest blending with the surrounding yellow-green-the paddy fields. As we came closer and lower, everything materialized more and more vividly. It felt like looking at a civilization through a microscope.

Down here the tribal traditions are still strictly maintained within their boundaries. "Do not swim on the river nor enter there," he gave us an example, pointing his finger towards the so-called forbidden forest across the river. "You won't know where the spirits might take you." Then we walked further, past some murky pools and barns, pungent with mixed odors of bleating livestock.

The indigenous people of Kampung Naga live in rows of identical wooden houses in the one-and-a-half hectare wide, plain land, circumvallated on all sides by bamboo fences. He held one of the bamboo poles, his head drooped a bit before he spoke. "The young generations, after they come of age and get married, rarely stay here. Not that there are no space left to build more houses. It is our law that forbids us from doing so outside this border." How about you, I asked. "I'm married to a woman not from our tribe, and we have to live atop the hill."

It was indeed the young generation, the truly young, that fascinated me completely. When we entered the gate, they just kept on doing their activities-playing soccer, flying their kites, chasing each other-without even lifting their heads to look at us, the strangers right in front of them. Not different than chicken, we were unimportant in their playful eyes. These kids are so unusual, in a sense that children are usually attracted to strangers.

We walked past the mosque and the meeting hall, into a narrow alley. In front of a house, our guide motioned us to come in. "He is my relative," he smiled at a middle-aged man trying to start his oil lamp burning. The door opened straight into the kitchen. I got in; it was all dark. Beside the kitchen was a closed room where the family's supply of rice was kept. On the other side was a living room, or so I thought, where another middle-aged man, helped by his daughter, was weaving a basket in total darkness.

Their kindness to strangers appeared again inside this house. The first man, his oil lamp already burning, now held a plate of food and asked us to try it. Again, we hesitated and answered no, thanks. Then he opened up a hole in the floor and threw some of the food down there. Before I asked him why he did that, he had already supplied me the answer. "We raise chicken below the kitchen. Whenever we have spare food, we give it to them."

I came out of the house to see my mother playing with an agile kid. At last, there was a kid who finally got interested with our presence, or rather, my mother's. And then there was a knocking sound from the mosque, calling everyone that the hour of prayer, maghrib, had come. To me, the sound was a mockery for all of us who live in the so-called Internet age, where telecommunication is so easy yet disagreements still prevail in our society. It's not like that with these people. The only "tele-" they have can reach only so far, and last only so long. But look at the effect: Everyone gathered so quickly to the water source and started to clean themselves. That was when we began to climb up that seemingly endless flight of stairs, into the land of ordinary dimensions in that foggy sky. I looked down once more, with honest admiration to the inimitable people and the valley as their cradle. I wondered if perhaps God, too, is looking down at us in the same manner.

SBY and the future of the presidency

Ben Anderson's The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture once was a very popular analytical tool to explain modern Indonesian politics. In this regard, Soeharto's New Order government often served as the most favorite text and context. This is perhaps due to the fact that Soeharto was a politician who preserved and developed his power through, among other thing, spiritual endeavors. He was known to perform a certain spiritual purification ritual which affected his dealing with power. Power was therefore seen not only as a mundane or profane matter, but something which contained spiritual elements.

Today, Anderson's analysis may no longer be relevant. Observers rarely use it as an analytical armory. But the chaotic transfers of power in 1998-2001 - reminiscent of the sorrowful events surrounding the transfer of power from Sukarno to Soeharto in 1966 - encouraged many to take into account the intangible or immaterial aspects of politics that may steer the course of Indonesia's political development.

Many may not realize it, but when Megawati Soekarnoputri lost her bid for another presidential term to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the 2004 elections, some observers could not restrain themselves from raising the question why was it that in the end, the fate of all presidents was always surrounded by unpleasant circumstances?

Of course, as all the available scholarly works have indicated, this is something that can be explained rationally. Interplay between the economy and politics, which may involve domestic as well as international actors, is sufficient to provide an explanation of some kind.

Still, however, one can be easily intrigued by questions such as, why all? Were they all that bad when entrusted with the enormous power to manage the country?

The answer is, of course, no. Sukarno was a person who spent all his adult life in the service of Indonesia's wellbeing. Not only that, he was the country's first president, but long before that, he was the most notable of the avant-garde to wage the archipelago's sense of nationalism to fight colonialism and bring Indonesia to independence. But in the end, only bitterness colored his life, even as a common citizen: He was implicated, directly or otherwise, with the 1965 failed coup, his power was stripped off him by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), he was put under house arrest - unable to communicate with the outside world.

His successor, Soeharto, was more or less the same. That is, in the sense that, like Sukarno, Soeharto also dedicated his adult life for the betterment of Indonesia. For years he was in the military service, responsible, among other things, in making West Irian part of Indonesia' unitary state. For more than three decades he served as Indonesia's longest president, which enabled him to develop the country's economy. And yet his final years were severely unpleasant: being charged with corruption, tried, and, sadly, only his declining health saved him from undergoing further trials.

B.J. Habibie did not suffer the humiliation experienced by Sukarno and Soeharto. But in the end, his devotion to Indonesia's technological and industrial development, his obsession to make the country a modern state in its truest sense, was met by the fact that his leadership was politically unwanted. His very short term in office was a relative success, but in the MPR meeting in 1999, his accountability speech was narrowly rejected.

Abdurrahman Wahid's presidency was full of controversies. At the beginning of his presidency, hopes ran high - regardless of his physical limitations. He was considered as the only person who could heal the country and unite the fragmented elites. Poor political judgment on his part made him the second president ever to be impeached by the MPR. After less than two full years in office his presidency was nullified and handed over by the MPR to Megawati.

Megawati did not experience political bitterness like Sukarno, Soeharto, or Wahid. But she was defeated twice, once by her minister, Yudhoyono. The latter beat her fairly and squarely in the 2004 and 2009 presidential elections - something that is normal in politics. But for some reason, and only the two know exactly why, since then their relationship has gone sour.

These sad realities, especially in the course of the transfer of power from one president to the other, has encouraged many to see the power interplay in the light of the intangible aspect of politics. One speculation was that perhaps the timing of the birth of an independent Indonesia was not correct. Therefore, the country is in great need of being spiritually healed (ruwat).

Of course, one need not take such speculation seriously. Muslims in particular would have a different perception with regard to the date of birth of the Republic of Indonesia. The country's independence was proclaimed on Friday, Aug. 17, 1945. This coincided with the holy month of Ramadan - a period when Muslims are obliged to fast. How could such time be considered as inappropriate for the declaration of independence of the Republic?

What needs to be emphasized here is not whether the country requires some kind of spiritual energizing so that it will move in tandem with the cosmic law of nature. What is important is that the cycle of unpleasant circumstances, or perhaps even political destinies, experienced by all of our former presidents, be broken.

Yudhoyono has the chance to break that cycle. He has been able to avoid the cycle during his first term in office. Nobody knows what will happen to the second term of his presidency - something that resembled the experiences of both Sukarno and Soeharto where they could not predict what might happen, after the former being crowned as the president for life and the latter being the father of development.

I think Yudhoyono will be able to break the cycle provided that he works solely for the interests of the people. In that respect, he should prioritize his agenda for the next five years. Three of his top agenda items seem to match with the public demands - economic development; democratic politics and law enforcement.

What remains to be seen is whether his Cabinet members are able to understand those issues and put them in the context of policies that serve the interests of the people. Otherwise, history is waiting to repeat itself.

by Bachtiar Effendi

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/30/sby-and-future-presidency.html

Govt urged to stop sending migrant workers abroad

The National Urban Development Movement (Gerbang Desa) Friday called for an end to the despatch of Indonesian migrant workers abroad until all problems related to migrant workers had been resolved.

"All this time, there has been no MoU (memorandum of understanding) between Indonesia and destination countries as required by the law," Gerbang Desa Chief Bahauddin Thonti said.

Law No. 39 of 2004 on the placement and protection of migrant workers abroad banned any despatch of migrant workers to a foreign country which had not signed an MoU with Indonesia, he said.

Under the MoU governing among others migrant workers` protection, salaries and work hours, Indonesian migrant workers would have a strong bargaining position so that they could no longer be mistreated abroad, he said.

He expressed his deep concern about the fate of an Indonesian construction worker identified as Linda who was killed in the Malaysian state of Selangor.

"Stop sending Indonesian migrant workers abroad. Let`s employ them at home by developing 60,000 villages across Indonesia. The villages will offer great prospects if the government just develops them," he said.

The Manpower Ministry should not merely collect various fees from migrant workers, including a US$15 protection fee and Rp450,000 insurance while at the same time ignoring their plight abroad, he said.

He warned irresponsible officials against extorting Indonesian migrant workers who had contributed a lot to the country`s foreign exchange earnings.

The growing number of brokers offering overseas employment services had led to the dispatch of illegal Indonesian migrant workers whose number might run into two million. Nearly 600 thousand of them are currently employed in neighboring Malaysia, he said.


http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1256948451/govt-urged-to-stop-sending-migrant-workers-abroad

Public support KPK deputy chairmen

The recent arrests of two suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, by the National Police has prompted strong reaction from the public, who voiced their dissent through Internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

On social networking site Facebook, users can show their support for the two officials by joining a group called “Gerakan 1,000,000 Facebookers Dukung Chandra Hamzah & Bibit Samad Rianto” (The move of 1,000,000 Facebook users to support Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto).

Bibit and Chandra were charged with abuse of power for imposing and then lifting a travel ban on graft suspects Anggoro Widjojo and Djoko Sugiarto Tjandra, and receiving bribes from the former.

Usman Yasin, the initiator of the Facebook group, said he supported the deputies, who the National Police deputy chief detective Insp. Gen. Dikdik Mulyana accused Thursday of “jeopardizing the investigation by expressing their personal opinions to the public.”

“I have been dealing with prosecutors and courts for a long time and I think the KPK was born because the police and prosecutors failed to provide justice in Indo-nesia,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Usman, who is currently studying for his PhD at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), has been active in various legal matters, such as the alleged corruption case involving Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Maryono Najamuddin, for more than a decade. Despite coming into contact with the KPK several times, Usman said he had not met either Bibit or Chandra.

“I heard Chandra was a humble man, and I also hear [about Chandra and Bibit] through my friends who know them ... their struggle reminds me of mine,” he said.

Usman formed the group Thursday at around 3 p.m. As of around 10 p.m. Friday, the group’s mem-
bers had reached 55,965, exceeding his target.

“I aimed for 50,000 members today and hopefully this will increase to 150,000 members Saturday,” he said.

Usman said he hoped the government would pay attention to the public support if the group reached its target number.

“Remember the Prita case,” he said. “Her support group only had around 100,000 but this was enough to unsettle the government.”

Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who posted emails voicing her disappointment at the treatment she received from Omni International Hospital, Tangerang, received considerable public recognition in June when the hospital accused her of libel.

A surge of Internet support, including on Facebook, helped raise more awareness about the case, which involved her being detained in a state penitentiary for three weeks.

The court dropped all charges against Prita, partly because of the intense public outcry.

However, the Banten High Court recently ordered the Tangerang District Court to reopen the case, when public support dwindled.

Twitter, the networking site, was rife with comments and support for the KPK on Friday.

“Don’t give in KPK,” said one user. “We support [you].” Another Tweet read, “KPK versus POLRI is no longer about right or wrong, but [about] pride and good image.”



http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/31/public-support-kpk-deputy-chairmen.html

KPK deputies` arrest sparks speculation about police`s motive

The detention of suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies Bibit Samat Riyanto and Chandra M Hamzah on Thursday has sparked speculations that police are trying to cover up a wire-tapped conversation which allegedly indicated a plot to fabricate a case that would bring down the two deputies and undermine the KPK.

"We are afraid that the detention is an effort to cover up reports on the recordings which were allegedly a fabrication to get the two KPK deputies jailed," Zainal Arifin, coordinator of the Anti-Corruption Research Center (PuKat) of Gajah Mada Univsity, said on Friday.

On Thursday, police detained Bibit Samad and Chandra Hamzah who had been named suspects over alleged abuse of authority with regard to the issuance of a travel ban on businessman Anggoro Widjojo and also the issuance of a travel ban and later its revocation for businessman Djoko Tjandra.

The arrest has drawn mixed reactions. Many saw the case as the result of a rivalry between the KPK and Police. Earlier, over the investigation of its deputies, the KPK accused the National Police`s chief detective, Commissioner General Susno Duaji, of carrying out nonprocedural examinations, and the police had thus acted against the two KPK vice chairmen on trumped-up charges.

In order not to make the public confused, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono summoned National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and other related ministers to discuss the matter on Friday.

The president asked the police chief to give the public an explanation about the arrest of two suspended KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) leaders. "Please explain the matter to the public to clear it up," President Yudhoyono said prior to a closed-door meeting .

President Yudhoyono himself said the detention of Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra Hamzah was not due to an institutional conflict between police and the KPK. This must be explained to the public.

"The president said that he kept on monitoring developments of the KPK case, where its deputies Bibit and Chandra have been detained. He stressed that it was not an institutional conflict. It was a legal matter being handled by police, KPK and the prosecutors that involved individuals," Minister of Communications and Informatics Tifatul Sembiring who attended the meeting said. "Therefore, the president stressed that the problem should be left to the legal procedure," the minister said.

In the meantime, National Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said police decided to detain Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samat Riyanto because they had hindered investigations into their case.

"Because they hindered the investigations, the police took them into custody as they are authorized to do under the law," Danuri said at a press conference.
Danuri said police investigators remained confident that Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto had received a bribe from businessman Anggoro Widjojo, director of PT Masaro Radiokom who was allegedly involved in a corruption case in connection with an Integrated Radio Communication System (SKRT) project in the Ministry of Forestry. The case was handled by KPK.

The Police chief admitted however it was difficult to charge a person in bribery case if she or he was not caught red-handed but (in this case) there were witnesses who supported the allegation.

He admitted that up to now police did not yet have evidence of the alleged Rp6.7 billion bribe given to Chandra and Bibit in August and September last year. "The money reportedly did not reach both suspects but there was a suspicious effort, namely a travel ban," he said.

Danuri said that even though the travel bans had been issued for businessmen Anggoro Widjoyo and Djoko Tjandra, the KPK did not follow up the bans with investigations until one year later. "Travel bans had been issued but the cases were not investigated. They began to investigate only when police began their own investigation," he said.

The police chief said that police had submitted the dossiers of the two KPK deputies to the Attorney General`s Office (AGO).

Danuri also explained that police had also named Ari Muladi as a suspect, not in a bribery case but rather for fraud. Police released Ari four days before his detention period was completed because police found it difficult to complete his dossiers.

In this case, Anggodo Wijdojo, younger brother of Anggoro Widjoyo, a KPK fugitive, had handed over bribe money several times amounting to Rp7.6 billion in August and September.

The money was allegedly given to the KPK leaders in an attempt to persuade the KPK to lift the travel ban on Anggoro. However, Anggodo did not give the money directly to the KPK leaders but through Ari Muladi. Ari then gave the money to someone known only by the initial Y who up to now is still at large.

However, all this was based on an alleged wiretapped conversation which is a plot design to undermined the KPK and frame two of its deputies.

Minister of Law and Human Rights Affairs Patrialis Akbar, therefore, called on the KPK leadership in whose possession the recording now was to open it to the public. "The recording had better be opened to the public so that the people will not speculate on the issue," the minister said.

by Andi Abdussalam

http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1256944315/kpk-deputies-arrest-sparks-speculation-about-polices-motive

President Targets Economy to Grow 7 pct 2014

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has targeted the domestic economy to grow by seven percent at the end of his second five-year term in office.
"In the next five years we certainly want to increase our economic growth. For example, we want to achieve an economic growth of 7 percent or more in 2014 on assumption that the current global votality will not recur," he said at a cabinet meeting here on Friday.
If the global financial crisis which started in 2007 did not occur the domestic economy might grow 7 percent, he said.
But because of the global economic meltdown the government had revised downward its economic growth target, he said.
"Because of the global economic crisis we have suffered a setback. In the next five years we want our economy to return to its right track, to grow 7 percent or more to promote the people`s living standards," he said.
The president went on to say that in the next five years he also would encourage the creation of good governance by continuing bureaucratic reforms.
He also paid attention to evenly distribution of development gains by emphasizing that all parties and regions had equal rights to development programs.
He underscored the need for regional governments, particularly governors, regents and mayors to cooperate with the central government in implementing development programs.
To that end, the home affairs minister should intensify communication between the central government and regional administrations, he said.
　
http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1256330426/president-targets-economy-to-grow-7-pct-in-2014

Small World, Big Hearts for Kids

"Have you been to America yet? Have you tried the lasso yet? No? Why? Go ahead and get your passport stamped!" went the chatter at a primary school in Sunter, North Jakarta, on Friday.
Yes, it was that easy for the children of the Kiddie Planet Pre-school and Beacon Academy Primary School to hop, skip and dance around the globe that day, as the schools celebrated United Nations Day, which falls on Oct. 24.
The celebration saw parents set up stalls representing various countries from around the world, and children parade around in traditional costumes, stopping at the stalls to try out the food and activities offered by the parents.
In the hallway of Kiddie Planet, the children visited the Chinese stall to get their names written in Chinese characters, and the Indian stall to get temporary henna tattoos.
All of the stalls introduced culinary treats from the countries they represented, including tempeh at the Indonesian stall and chocolate at the Swiss stall.
"Each class came up with ideas for the countries," said Kiddie Planet operations director Shareen Ratnami.
"The parents, with the help of the teachers, organized the stalls, and the children learned various things about each country."
The hands-on experience was very good for teaching the children about diversity, Shareen added.
The students carried a "passport", and each time they visited a stall, a page in the passport would be stamped, much like in real life.
In one classroom, students sang songs about unity and diversity, including the ever-popular "We are the World", led by teacher Ms. Bhatia.
Before that, the children performed dances from across the world.
Ms. Bhatia said UN Day was a great time to teach the children about tolerance and the things they could do to help others in need.
"The kids actually learned about what the UN is all about," she said.
"They learned about respecting other cultures."
The parents learned a few lessons too. Caroline, managing the Philippines stall, said she knew very little about the country when she was assigned to it.
"We researched it on the Internet and asked around," she said with a smile.
Embassies also lent a hand at the event. One parent, Jiya Mulani, went to the Philippine Embassy earlier in the day to borrow flags and decorations.
At the Beacon Academy primary school, the children also enjoyed similar treats from stalls depicting different regions of the world, such as South America and Australia.
However, these older children had to face more challenges in getting through "immigration".
"When they try a certain food from the stall and follow an activity held there, they get their passport stamped," said school director Richard Sidharta.
So over at the West Asian stall, for instance, the children learned to perform a simple dance, and in the European stall they learned to cook pasta the easy way.
　
　
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/24/small-world-big-hearts-kids.html

Islamic Groups Fine with Cabinet Exclusion

Indonesia’s two biggest Muslim organizations, Nahdhatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, say they are not disappointed by their exclusion from the new Cabinet.
Muhammadiyah Youth chairman Muhammad Izzul Muslimin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday it made sense for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to exclude NU and Muhammadiyah despite both organizations having large numbers of politically conscious members.
"Yudhoyono might not have felt the need to include mass organizations in his Cabinet because his party won by a landslide in the elections and now he has a strong and big coalition," he said.
"I think Yudhoyono might have felt he had all the support he needed."
Yudhoyono did not ask either NU or Muhammadiyah to nominate any of their members for his Cabinet.
Several Cabinet members, however, are affiliated to the two organizations.
Ministers loosely affiliated to NU include National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, while Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar was a ranking Muhammadiyah official.
In 2004, Yudhoyono appointed Muhammadiyah’s Siti Fadilah Supari as health minister and NU’s Maftuh Basyuni as religious affairs minister.
"Back then the Democratic Party was still a small party and their coalition wasn’t as strong as today,"
Izzul said.
He dismissed the notion that Muhammadiyah’s exclusion from the new Cabinet was due to its support of then vice president Jusuf Kalla’s presidential bid.
"The chairmen of both NU and Muhammadiyah might have seemed to be leaning toward Kalla, but none ever formally announced their support of his bid," Izzul said.
"So maybe this is just about the organizations’ stances?"
NU deputy chairman Masdar Farid Mas’udi was reluctant to comment on the matter, saying he considered Yudhoyono a regular "NU person".
"We’re glad the President has put his trust in many of our members in the effort to make the nation more prosperous," he said.
He added he expected they would all work hard to fulfill the President’s campaign promises and give their best to improve the people’s welfare.
"We as a community organization can only support them so that their programs are a success over the next five years," Masdar said.
He added he hoped the new ministers would involve mass organizations such as NU in implementing their programs, especially in education, the environment and social issues, pointing out such organizations could get in touch directly with the grass roots.
Asked for his opinion on the President’s performance in his first term, Masdar said it could only be appraised from Yudhoyono’s being re-elected.
"The fact he was re-elected shows people have appraised him positively," he said.
"Whatever, let’s just move forward and hope they can all work harder and we in the meantime will support their efforts."
Meanwhile, Al Khairaat, a Muslim organization focusing on education, based in Palu, Central Sulawesi, has two of its members in the new Cabinet.
Social Services Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri is the grandson of the organization’s founder, while Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad is the Al Khairaat Foundation chairman.
　
　
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/23/islamic-groups-fine-with-cabinet-exclusion.html

Global dignitaries to join SBY’s swearing in

Many state leaders and foreign diplomats countries are scheduled to attend the swearing in of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as President, at a ceremony at the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) in Jakarta today.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told The Jakarta Post that at least two heads of state (Brunei Darussalam Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Timor Leste President Ramos Horta) and three heads of government (Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak) had confirmed plans to attend.

Two foreign ministers from the Philippines and Thailand would also attend, along with special envoys from Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the United States and the Czech Republic, Teuku said.

Rudd was scheduled to depart from Brisbane to Jakarta on Monday evening and return Tuesday evening, Antara news agency reported.

Australian Foreign Minister Ste-phen Smith would be among those accompanying Rudd to Jakarta.
Smith would also visit West Sumatra to oversee Australia’s earthquake relief efforts.

Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Jakarta issued a press release saying President Barack Obama had appointed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson as the country’s official delegate at the ceremony.

Jackson is the first African-American to ever hold the EPA administrator post. She previously worked at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, where she spent six years.

The release also said its other delegates included US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron Hume, and US-Indonesia Society president David N. Merrill.

A number of Western European countries also planned to send delegates to attend the ceremony.

British Embassy media and communications assistant Putri Wulan Tary told the Post that British Ambassador Martin Hatfull would attend.

Separately, Lantip Prakoso from the German Embassy said his embassy had yet to confirm who it would send.

“The invitation was sent to Ambassador Norbert Bas. However, he has yet to receive an official accreditation, so it could be either the deputy ambassador, Hans-Joerg Brunner, or the head of the embassy’s political department, Alexander Wallau,” he said.

The high number of VIPs planning to attend the ceremony has prompted the MPR Secretariat to increase security.

For the event, around 2,000 police would be deployed within the assembly compound and 18,000 to other locations around Jakarta, MPR secretary-general Rahimullah said.

In a separate development, Antara reported that during his stay Rudd may raise the hot issue of human trafficking, since thousands of refugees from many countries have been streaming to Australia through Indonesia in the past year.

Reports in the last few weeks have seen the Australian government embroiled in a series of debates on the fate of the refugees.

The latest incident involved 255 Sri Lankan refugees, who were captured in the Sunda Strait by the Indonesian Navy on Oct. 10.

Rudd said Australia would not be moved by the refugees’ threat to go on a hunger strike and that they must apply for formal protection with the United Nations.


http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/20/global-dignitaries-join-sby%E2%80%99s-swearing.html

Yudhoyono, Boediono officially inaugurated as president, vice president

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono were officially inaugurated as Indonesia`s President and Vice President respectively for the 2009-2014 period at a special plenary session of People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR) here Tuesday.

The inauguration included the two leaders` oath-taking led by Supreme Court Chairman Arifin Tumpa. Then, Yudhoyono and Boediono signed the inauguration document followed by all MPR high officials.

Several leaders from neighboring countries also attended the inauguration process at the MPR building, namely Timor Leste President Ramos Horta, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Singapore`s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Brunei Darussalam`s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

Other foreign representatives at the inauguration were Special Representatives from Japan`s Parliament Kozo Watanabe, a member of South Korean Parliament Lee Sang-deuk, New Zealand`s Minister of Trade Tim Grosser and Philippine`s Minister of Foreign Affairs Alberto Gatmaitan Romulo.

According to MPR Vice Secretary General Edy Siregar, some 2,000 policemen had been deployed around the MPR building to guard the inauguration event.

As to security inside the MPR building, Edy said it was being maintained in cooperation with presidential protocol officials.

"We have made special security arrangements because the inauguration ceremony is being attended also by many foreign leaders," Edy said.

He also said some 204 foreign and domestic media organizations, represented by a total 1,339 reporters, were covering the event.

"There are 86 domestic print media, 12 radio stations, 22 television networks and 30 online media covering the inauguration, The international media community is represented by 13 print media, four radio stations, 18 television networks and one online media," Edy said.


http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1256017635/yudhoyono-boediono-officially-inaugurated-as-president-vice-president

Mt Anak Krakatau`s activity not affected by quake

The magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Ujungkulon on Friday afternoon did not affect the activity of Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait, Dr Surono from the Geology Agency said here on Friday.

"According to the reports we received from the MT Anak Krakatau monitoring post, the mountain did not show an increasing activity. Its danger status remains at Level III," the head of the agency`s center of geological disaster mitigation and vulcanology (PVMBG) said.

Surono said he had already made coordination with the monitoring post and kept monitoring developments online through the PVMBG office.

Until 6.40pm, he said, the activity of the mountain remained like the days before.
Under the current status fishermen or tourists are not allowed to land at the mountain area and must stay away within a three-kilometer radius from the mountain`s crater as it still spewed volcanic materials.

Surono said the mountain`s danger status remained kept at Level III. He admitted that the location of the quake`s epicenter on Friday afternoon was quite close to the mountain. He appealed to people to remain calm and not to be easily provoked by rumours.

He said the recent magnitude 7.6 quake in West Sumatra recently had not also increased the activity of three active volcanoes there, namely Mt Talang, Marapi and Tandikat.

Besides Mt Anak Krakatu other active volcanoes put under alert status are Mt Talang in West Sumatra, Mt Karangetang in Sulawesi and Mt Ibu in West Halmahera. "Hopefully, they have not been affected," he said.

The epicenter of the quake at 4.52pm on Friday in West Java was 6.79 degrees southern latitude and 105 degrees eastern longitude around 42 kilometers northwest of Ujung Kulong. The tremor was felt in Banten, West Java, Jakarta and also Lampung in Sumatra.





http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1255701160/mt-anak-krakataus-activity-not-affected-by-quake

The end of RI’s democracy or a rebirth of pluralism?

Many observers feared the possible coalition between Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party and Megawati Soekarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Golkar would kill the country’s young democracy.

The appointment of Megawati’s husband Taufik Kiemas as the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman, which was supported by the Democratic Party (PD), displayed signs of such political cooperation. Similarly, the newly elected Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie did not refuse to collaborate with the President’s party.

The cooperation of the three largest parties is largely believed to diminish the checks and balances of the government - a fundamental aspect of democracy - due to the absence of an opposition party that was earlier played by the PDI-P, although many legislators have individually been more outspoken than their parties.

The cooperation of the three nationalist-secular parties, however, will raise hope for another important aspect of democracy: a respect for pluralism and the protection of minorities that some believe were disregarded during the President’s first term.

A substantive democracy needs to respect civil liberties, which among others includes the freedom of religion.

The endorsement of the anti-pornography law and sharia-inspired bylaws in regions, including the recent stoning bylaw for adulterers in Aceh, highlighted the government’s failure to maintain pluralism.

The burning and closing down of churches and mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect are evidence of the failure of the state to protect its minorities.

Syaiful Mujani and Ihsan Ali Fauzi in the recent book Gerakan Kebebasan Sipil (Civil Liberty Movement), published a survey on how several regencies and municipalities, such as Padang in West Sumatra, Pandeglang in Banten and Bulukumba in South Sulawesi, tried to control the moral and fashion choices of their residents through such bylaws.

Many of the regulations targeted women, including banning them from going out at midnight and obliging them to wear a jilbab, or veil, on certain days.

The regulations are problematic because they do not just discriminate against non-Muslims, but also against other Muslims that disagree with such interpretations of Islam. In a democracy, a regulation should be applicable to all, not just certain religious groups.

In a soccer game, all players wear shorts – of course the colors are diverse, which demonstrates the plurality of the teams. The laws of the game are applicable to all teams and players.

A referee issues yellow or red cards based on the grade of violations committed by the players regardless of their backgrounds.

Using the analogy of a soccer game, certain Muslims here want to score as many goals as possible by using laws that favor them and discriminate against others.

The referee (or the state in a democracy) who should remain neutral, has also taken sides with certain groups that claim to represent the majority of players (or citizens).

We all know that sharia-inspired laws were suggested mostly by lawmakers from Golkar, not the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) – except for the current controversial ban on karaoke in Depok.

The lawmakers did this in return for securing votes from the Muslim community in this year’s elections.

In fact, Golkar’s vote decreased from being the largest party in the 2004 legislative elections to third in the recent elections.

The election of Aburizal, including the inclusion of the young intellectual Rizal Mallarangeng on the board of Golkar, will bring energy back to Indonesian pluralism as stated in his acceptance speech at the end of the party congress in Pekanbaru earlier this week.

Apart from Golkar, we need a strong pluralist commitment from the PDI-P lawmakers, not just their intellectual ability, to maintain the country’s safety for everyone.

We want the country to mature into a modern country along with “the rise of the rest” countries described by Fareed Zakaria in The Post American World. We don’t want Indonesia to be continuously categorized as a messy country that could turn into a failed state.

The cooperation of the three nationalist parties will ease tension among religious followers. The opposition role can be filled by individual politicians, as seen previously, along with civil society organizations and the media.

by : Ahmad Junaidi



http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/16/the-end-ri%E2%80%99s-democracy-or-a-rebirth-pluralism.html

Internet won`t be able to replace print media in Indonesia

Amidst rising fear of possible bankruptcy of the print media as the result of their declining competitiveness against cyber journalists, some senior journalists and lecturers opined that Indonesian print media companies should not worry about it.

Print media companies in Indonesia would not be replaced by the Internet, as long as they could make the necessary adjustments with the development of Internet as a means of disseminating news stories, Paul-Josef Raue, editor-in-chief of Braunscheweiger Zeitung said in an interview after addressing the 10th Asian-European Editors Forum in Seoul.

The senior journalists and lecturers opined that the Internet will not be able to take over the position of newspapers, if the media concerned was able to capitalize on the Internet as a form of communication to disseminate the news stories to the public.

According to him, many print media like Kompas, Media Indonesia and others media remained unaffected by the mushrooming Internet.

The lack of knowledge of most of the people about the Internet is a quantitative entity, but without any democratic quality. It is like a market place where everybody is expecting most important news.

A print media is exactly like a newspaper to the members of the society. A society without citizens is unthinkable. It needs people that are confident and take up responsibilities. A society without citizens is only a state, nothing else. It means that a top-down system where the top dictates and the bottom obeys.

Sometimes, many citizens don`t trust their politicians anymore, because they don`t consider them as representatives of the people. They long for a better democracy and justice, thus a newspaper can easily become a medium of expression of their longings. Practically a newspaper will never lose its readers.

"We have to take care of our readers, to sense their needs and satisfy them. This has nothing to do with populism. If we don`t satisfy their needs, we`ll lose our readers.

They can run away and the publishers will run out of the money," he said.
As to the case of Indonesia, according to him, many print media fell into bankcruptcy during the economic and monetary crisis hitting the world`s largest archipelagic country in 1998. Some newspapers could no longer finance their operations, thus forcing their owners to close down their media.

"Now, I hear that there is no certain print media which has to stop operation just because of a loss in competition with the Internet," Dr Stephen Quinn, Associate Professor of Journalism, School of Communications and Creative Art, Deakin University, said.

Many print media in Indonesia like the Jakarta Post, Kompas, Media Indonesia, the Jakarta Globe and others had their own web sites offering news stories to their readers not only in Indonesia, but also to those in other countries.

"It means that they really understand the trend of the world and try to adapt themselves with the form of communication," he said.

If media companies wanted to continue to survive, they had to understand the trend of the users and embrace their forms of communication. The Internet`s open architecture constituted the basic IT law of a society that could communicate digitally, he opined.

Therefore, the journalists of media companies should decide what kind of information the readers prefer. This runs counter to what is generally defined as citizen`s journalism which publishes everything in the Internet, no matter what it is.

"In Indonesia, people who have an Internet link are not the majority. This condition is advantageous to print media like newspapers as they still have a chance to get the sympathy of their readers. Practically cyber Internet has yet to be regarded as a staunch competitor, " he said.

Internet journalism is being perceived as superior since it transformed viewers, listeners and news consumers of the past into participants of today`s media theater.
It is for that reason, media companies should concentrate on the values of journalism.

Good journalism is always linked to research, investigation, analysis , comparison of facts and evidence, he said. "What is so different when cyber journalists repeat their `search and link terminology. They do what they and link to the rest. No, we aren`t that far apart."

According to Stephen, a well-written story enriched with deep links for further research by the users could show the way for modern print media. Service is the remedy again and again . "Why don`t we show our clients how a story develops - Why don`t we interact with them. Why not offer our clients news in progress.

In the meantime, Dr Heinz-Rudolf Othmerding, international news director of the Deutsche Presse- Agentur GmbH, said that print media of tomorrow had to generate the hectic experience, allowing for the sensory experience of touch, combined with the intellectual and emotional experience of genuine participation.

"I am optimistic that media companies could remain to exist and leading amidst the rising use of the Internet nowadays as long as the stories offered to the readers are in depth, while the news put on the website are often short. This is what I find from web sites of some media in Indonesia," he said.

"However, it is a good strategy to let their clients or people buy their newspapers, if they want to know more about the news," he said, adding that some people only wanted to read the lead of the news.

In order to face the current burden of operational cost, media companies should be able to set a priority in their operation by cutting down administrative costs. But what is much more important is the value of their products for their clients through a word count or by the sheer number of the stories covered.

Heinz also elaborated that a local newspaper was normally more interested in giving advice and help its readers than presenting a nationwide story. "So if a media company finds ways and means to help its clients or readers on their local level to break the story down, it will add value to its operations and make itself more indispensable in the process and absolutely essential in the long run."

In other words, he opined that media companies wanted to survive the actual crisis, they had to become more user friendly and have to develop a strategy reflecting this.

"The questions that need to be addressed are what we do best, what we need to be good at, what we can ensure the best in a particular field and where our news can create values for our clients or readers."

"I learn that some media companies have been user friendly and have their strategies to develop their services in providing the people with information both through their newspapers and the Internet," he said.



http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1255315445/internet-wont-be-able-to-replace-print-media-in-indonesia

Lawmakers the butt of the joke in the tobacco war

Outgoing legislators may well be remembered for their crude sense of humor, but their last legacy, losing a contentious provision on tobacco from the health bill they endorsed, absolutely deserves not only a good laugh, but also a criminal investigation.

Over the past week, people have been amused, curious and outraged at the same time about the missing key "tobacco provision", which has become a subject of heated debate during the deliberations in which the interests of many stakeholders were involved.

It was a good thing that some former members of the special legislative committee in charge of deliberating the much-anticipated bill realized that one of the three paragraphs in chapter 113 of the finalized bill was conspicuously missing, while the bundle had already been submitted to the state secretariat for President Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono to sign into law.

The media detailed the sophistication of the omitted paragraph. The original three paragraphs in chapter 113 were reduced to two, in such a way that only people who were directly involved in the deliberations would be able to spot the funny mistake.

The lawmakers vividly remember the disputed provision was there when the bill was endorsed by the House plenary meeting and they share the suspicion the paragraph was deliberately omitted.

The lost provision singles out tobacco as an addictive and dangerous substance the use of which will be more tightly regulated under the law. This was a key issue that had survived bitter debates during deliberations of the bill because it would have wide-ranging ramifications on the multi-billion dollar tobacco business.

Advocates hoped the provision would account for a stronger legal basis for the government to better protect citizens from the danger of cigarettes and to reign in the tobacco industry. But critics, notably the tobacco industry, have always sought lenient laws that will not harm their business.

The omitted paragraph states, "The addictive substances ... include: Tobacco, derivative products containing solid, liquid and gaseous tobacco, which are addictive in nature and the use of which can cause health hazards to oneself and/or others".

After a storm of protests, the House assured the disappearance was all unintentional and that the "tobacco provision" has been put back in the draft bill that the President will sign into law.

Missing provisions have never happened before. Well, at least there has never been one that has caused such a national uproar as this one.

The scandalous incident has prompted speculations about collusion between some individual lawmakers or House employees and cigarette companies who had been unsuccessful at having the provision dropped from the bill.

But Umar Wahid, a deputy chairman of the special committee deliberating the bill swore the incident resulted from an honest misunderstanding on the part of the House's secretariat employees, who assumed that after all those fierce debates, the proposition had been dropped.

"The missing paragraph has been restored," Umar told Koran Tempo daily, which also reported that PT HM Sampoerna, Indonesia's largest cigarette maker, claimed it knew nothing about the disputed provision.

The suspicion is only well-founded because it has become a public secret that cigarette makers, who are among the country's biggest taxpayers, had been lobbying hard to ensure the new law would not harm their extremely lucrative businesses.

The commodity is heavily taxed and accounts for 95 percent of Indonesia's excise revenues.

The World Health Organization says that Indonesians spend on average 2.5 times more on tobacco than on education, and 3.2 times more on tobacco than on health. It estimates that 58.3 percent of men and 2.9 percent of Indonesian women smoke.

Indonesia consumes 1,122 cigarettes per person each year, according to the International Resource Center, with the number of female smokers rising especially among professionals in urban areas, where the habit is considered trendy.

Although its citizens are among the world's worst addicts and various measures have been taken to control smoking, Indonesia is yet to ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Once ratifying the convention, the signatory is bound to implement scientifically proven measures to reduce tobacco consumption.

The government has taken some measures to minimize tobacco consumption by, for example, imposing hefty taxes on tobacco products, regulating cigarette advertisements in the media and in some instances banning smoking in public places with a varying degree of success.

Although the House and the State Secretariat have assured that the missing provision has been recovered and reinstated, the laughing public will have to continue applying pressure for a criminal investigation into the scandal.




http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/16/lawmakers-butt-joke-tobacco-war.html

Miyabi`s visit canceled following controversy

Maxima Pictures as the sponsor of Maria Ozawa or better known as Miyabi, has finally bowed to public protests and decided not to let the Japanese adult film star come to Indonesia.

The decision was made following a meeting between the producer and director of the film to be titled "Menculik Miyabi" or "Kidnapping Miyabi" with Interim Culture and Tourism Minister Mohammad Nuh at the minister`s office on Tuesday (Oct. 13). In the meeting, Minister Nuh gave a directive to cancel the planned visit of the Japanese porn film star to Indonesia.

Mohammad Nuh, who is concurrently the communication and information minister, said in a press release made available to Antara`s East Java bureau office that he had asked Odi Mulya Hidayat from Maxima Pictures as the sponsor of Miyabi`s planned visit to heed the directive to cancel Miyabi`s planned visit which had triggered a public controversy in the country.

At the meeting, Maxima Pictures had agreed to do as directed by the minister in order to avoid a growing controversy in the community, so that it will not increase the problem, the release said.

Hidayat said, as quoted in the release, that his side had to cancel Miyabi`s presence and postpone the process of Miyabi film "Kidnapping Miyabi" due to the strong protests against the movie.

Nuh appreciated the Maxima Picture`s preparedness to cancel Miyabi`s visit , because this nation did not want to be busy with issues that really can be solved in a good way.

Miyabi, who is actually hardly known by the Indonesian public before, was born in Hokkaido, Japan on January 8, 1986. She has blood mix of Japanese mother and French-Canadian father. This pretty girl is a model and actress playing in a number of adult videos.

She was earlier scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Wednesday (Oct. 14) and would stay for a week for a shooting of "Kidnapping Miyabi" to be produced by Maxima Pictures.

It was the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) which first staged a protest in front of the production house`s office in Jakarta last Oct. 9, 2009, against the planned presence of Miyabi in Indonesia. And later, similar protests were held especially by Muslim organizations in several regions.

On October 10, around 300 Muslims students under the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) organization, in Kudus, Central Java province, staged a demonstration to reject Miyabi`s planned visit to Indonesia by torching a few pieces of women`s underwear.

"Reject Miyabi, Save the Younger Generation from Pornography," Syakuri, one of the coordinators of the rally, shouted.

Another a protest rally was staged in Kudus on October 12, by Muslim university student of STAIN. In the rally, some protesters burned women`s underwear.

"By inviting Miyabi to play in a film in Indonesia, it means help promote pornography in this country," Anas Marzuki, a protester, said.

Miyabi is a symbol of pornography and "Kidnapping Miyabi" might become a virus which would infect the younger generation and make them familiar with porn films, he said.

In Gorontalo, northern Sulawesi, a number of residents also expressed their objection to the planned visit of Miyabi. Kusno (45) and Wati Ibrahim, for instance, complained about TV news on Miyabi as the electronic media also showed briefly parts of her erotic scenes.

"Although Miyabi would not come to Gorontalo, she could have a bad influence through her appearance on domestic TV news showing parts of her erotic scenes," Kusno said.

Chairman of the Gorontalo chapter of NU Maryam Pago has expressed her opposition to the planned visit of Miyabi.

"Miyabi`s visit will just trigger an uproar in the public and could harm the Indonesian children`s mentality because she is known as a porn film star," Maryam said.

NU Executive Board Chairman Hasyim Muzadi in Jambi (Sumatra) recently openly rejected the planned visit of Miyabi as he described it as no benefit for the nation.

Chairperson of the Jambi branch office of NU Abdul Kadir Husein also shared Muzadi`s view.

However, there was a group of some young people called "Fans Club" in Pekalongan, Central Java, which demonstrated support for Miyabi`s visit to Indonesia. They considered the banning of Miyabi to Indonesia was a human rights violation and a discriminative act.

Following the controversy, in fact, Miyabi has suddenly become famous in Indonesia. Public demand for her VCDs and DVDs has increased drastically.

The Jakarta Police on Wednesday launched a crackdown on producers and distributors of pirated pornography and other CDs, VCDs and DVDs.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Chrysnanda Dwi Laksana said that five suspects were arrested at five different locations: Jelambar Fajar, Penjaringan and Jalan Ancol Selatan in North Jakarta; Jalan Latumenten, Jalan Lada and Jalan Pinangsia, Taman Sari in West Jakarta; and Jalan Kemayoran Barat in Central Jakarta.

Laksana said that the police had seized five duplicators, 64,828 VCDs and DVDs, most of them pornographic, 3,400 recordable DVDs, 101 film master copies, four sets of stamps, a personal computer, a printer and a L300 minibus.

"The suspects will be charged with violating Article 72, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the 2002 Law on Copyrights, Article 40 of the 1992 Law on Film, and Article 282 of the Criminal Code on crimes against decency," he said.

Communications Minister Muhammad Nuh earlier said that Miyabi`s planned visit was legally not prohibited, but it could cause a controversy because it was against the nation`s morality. He suggested the production house should consider public sentiments and think about replacing Miyabi with a `less controversial actress.`
And some Muslim scholars believed that the presence of Miyabi in an Indonesian film would indirectly `legalize` pornography in this country.



http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1255611459/miyabis-visit-canceled-following-controversy

Sundanese culture introduced to foreign youths

Sundanese culture was presented to a number of international youth conference delegates 2009 during their visit here, a youth and sports affairs offical said.

Angklung is one of the traditional arts of music shown to the youth delegates, head of the city Education, Youth and Sports affairs office Aim Halim Hermana said here on Saturday.

A total of 150 young people from several countries in Asia, Europe, America, Africa and Australia visited Bogor on Thursday as part of their activities in the International Youth Conference 2009 which was held in Banten province three days ago.

The international youths visited Bogor in a company of Deputy Assistant of Youth Resource Development and International Relationships of the Youth and Sports affairs ministry, Adiyati Nurdin.

"They generally appreciate the Angklung music," Nurdin said.

Meanwhile, head of the city Education, Youth and Sports affairs office, Aim Halim Hermana said that Sundanese culture has become the dominant culture in the West Java city of Bogor.

Daniel one of the youth delegates from Spain appreciated the Sundanese traditional culture, adding that while in Spain there is arts like the angklung, but not as beautiful as the "angklung" performed to entertain them.

While Park Hyein, a South Korean youth admitted that he loved visiting Bogor and its local culture. "Although it is my first time to Bogor, but I like it," he said.

Deputy Assistant of Youth Resource Development and International Relationships of the Youth and Sports affairs ministry, Adiyati Nurdin said that Indonesia has many places of interests apart from Bali and Yogyakarta. (*)


http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1254599182/sundanese-culture-introduced-to-foreign-youths

RI`s budget deficit reaches Rp33 trillion

Indonesia`s budget deficit in the year ended on September 30 reached Rp33.23 trillion, accounting for 25.40 percent of the government-set target of Rp129.8 trillion for the year.

"The budget deficit until September 30, 2009 was Rp33.23 trillion," Director General of Treasury Affairs at the Finance Ministry Herry Purnomo said on Tuesday.

To offset the deficit, the government had issued rupiah-denominated state bonds worth a total of Rp85.55 trillion or 86.19 percent of the targeted Rp99.26 trillion for this year, he said in his opening address to an investor gathering at the ministry.

Commenting on the government`s plan to auction state sharia bonds (SBSN), he said Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had set the number of bidders to take part in the auction scheduled for October 13.

"The finance minister has appointed bidders consisting of financial institutions, banks, and securities companies. They can all become bidders, provided they have secured approval," he said.

The plan to auction state sharia bonds consisting of series IFR0003 and IFR0004 had obtained a fatwa (edict) from the National Sharia Council.

The bonds to be issued under a sales and lease back agreement will be payable in 6 years and 11 years respectively.

Herry said the state budget needed support to finance its deficit and therefore, the government would keep encouraging the market for state sharia bonds.

"I think the auctioning method in the issuance of sukuk (sharia bonds) will be more efficient and can encourage transparency and development in the secondary market," he said.(*)



http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1254834802/ris-budget-deficit-reaches-rp33-trillion

Letter: Protect right of minority religions

I would like to respond to a comment made by Chairul Bahri in the United States (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 29) on an article about a proposal to review a blasphemy law. There has been good progress on certain freedom issues, though it still needs further improvement, especially on several non-mainstream religious denominations that exist in Indonesia.

Take for example the Jehovah's Witnesses. The official activity of this Christian group was unjustifiably frozen from 1976 to 2001 "out of courtesy" of the pressure from "more mainstream" groups in Indonesia. This fact was sorely pathetic, despite their persistent defending of their own religious rights, against some fundamental Muslim elements that actually weren't pleased about the presence of many churches in this country.

My role as an observer has taken my specific attention to particular groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses, because their normal existence in a country becomes an indicator of how well human rights are protected there.

The Indonesian people in general may think that the religious society that created the blasphemy law only comes from a certain group of Muslim clerics, but similar action was also followed by the surprisingly Christian churches here. I have to state that the Jehovah's Witnesses can do their activities legally in this country, so they are legal.

Even after the ban on the Jehovah's Witnesses was lifted in 2001, many groups are still developing uneasy feelings and bad intentions about putting the ban back, though this is denied by the highest Christian authorities in Indonesia. The group still experiences significant pressure against building projects for their own places of worship.

In the city of Tangerang, for example, they still find difficulties registering their place of worship. One of the barriers was during the registration process, when many local churches there sent letters of opposition to the Tangerang administration to deny the Jehovah's Witnesses an official permit to establish their "Kingdom Hall", adding to the "usual" opposition from the Muslim society, which already had uneasy feelings about Christianity in general. It really has disturbed the basic right of any religious group to worship legally and peacefully.

I wonder if the other churches realize they also face opposition in building their own places of worship. This fact becomes a fun and pathetic situation where eventually the minority fights against the passive minority just based on doctrinal differences. I myself am not a Jehovah's Witness.

You may wonder why I have paid greater attention to that. It is because their worshipers number almost 50,000. I believe it is so unreasonable to hold back the rights of that huge number of people. The number of people from the Church of Latter Day Saints and Baha'i faith are insignificant compared to the others, and the fact is there has never been an official, legal ban against them from the Indonesian government.

We surely look forward to the even treatment of all religious activities in this country without disruption. It is a very sad situation when churches in Indonesia still oppose basic human rights and valid law, though they don't do it apparently.

John Evans
Jakarta



http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/05/letter-protect-right-minority-religions.html

Indonesia's miraculous 'free' democracy

Modern miracles do happen. Ten years ago, as the Asian financial crisis savaged Indonesia's economy, many experts predicted that the country would become unstable, if not splinter. Instead, Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic country, has emerged as a beacon of freedom and democracy for the Muslim world. What happened? And why hasn't the world taken note?

The story is as complex as Indonesia itself. One leading expert on Indonesia, Benedict Anderson, roots Indonesia's nature in its core Javanese culture, particularly the wayang religious tradition. According to Anderson, "In contrast to the great religions of the Near East, the religion of wayang has no prophet, no message, no Bible, no Redeemer."

The endless variety and sharp individuality of its dramatis personae indicate that wayang reflects the variegation of human life as it is felt by the Javanese." In short, Javanese culture helps Indonesia handle the many diverse voices that a new democracy throws up.

There is also a strong Indonesian tradition of resolving disagreements through musyawarah dan mufakat (consultation and consensus). Of course, this tradition has not always prevented violence, most notoriously in the killings that followed the 1966 coup against President Sukarno. And 10 years ago, during the financial crisis, violent anti-Chinese riots erupted again, causing many Chinese to flee the country.

Today, however, many of those Chinese have returned. In a remarkable development, Chinese language and culture, which had been suppressed for decades, is allowed free expression. By contrast, imagine Turkey, a more advanced member state of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, allowing free expression of Kurdish language and culture.

Indonesia's record looks even more remarkable when compared to the United States. Americans explain their country's democratic backsliding by pointing to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But Indonesia was attacked, too, with the bombing in Bali coming little more than a year later on Oct. 12, 2002. Despite this, Indonesia has consolidated its democracy. In 2005, Freedom House declared that Indonesia had moved from "partly free" to "free."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono deserves great credit for this remarkable success. Under his leadership, the long-standing and painful Aceh conflict was peacefully resolved. Some credit the 2004 tsunami, which killed hundreds of thousands of Acehnese, for this breakthrough. But Sri Lanka was hit equally hard by the tsunami and the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict has worsened.

Today, the biggest threat to Indonesia's democracy comes from America, even though most Americans want Indonesia's democracy to succeed. With modern technology, Indonesian Muslims clearly see the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, the disastrous results of the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and America's silence when Israeli aircraft bombed Lebanon in July 2006.

Many senior Americans were puzzled that Turkey, a long-standing NATO ally and a secular state, refused to allow American forces to use Turkey as a base to invade Iraq. If relatively secular Turkish society could be swept by a surge of anti-American sentiment, so, too, can Indonesia society.

Indeed, a major struggle is under way between those who want Indonesia to become more fundamentalist and those who want to preserve the traditionally open and tolerant nature of Javanese culture. Curiously, while many Americans and Europeans want moderate Muslim voices to succeed in Indonesia (and Southeast Asia), they often undermine moderates with policies that are perceived as anti-Islamic.

America's stance on military aid to Indonesia is but one example. For several years, some members of the U.S. Senate have maintained a punitive policy toward Indonesia by cutting off military assistance and curtailing Indonesian military training in the U.S. These punitive policies are self-defeating.

In recent years, the Indonesian military has provided a model for other Third World military forces on how to accept a transition to a full democracy. There are no threats of a coup d'etat, and senior generals, such as Yudhoyono, who studied in American military colleges, returned to Indonesia as convinced democrats.

It is a tragedy that ignorance of how much Indonesia has changed is being allowed to endanger its democratic development — and its role as a beacon of freedom and hope in the Islamic world. It is to be hoped that Barack Obama, should he win America's presidency, will recall the tolerant Indonesia where he grew up, and shape policies toward it accordingly.
Kishore Mahbubani is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His most recent book is "The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East." © 2008 Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org)


search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080922a1.html

Golkar n money

Money, money, money. It is indeed shameful and disgusting money seems to be the only factor in determining who will win the Golkar Party chairmanship in Pekanbaru, Riau, this week. Media reports about alleged vote buying have raised many doubts about the credibility of the party leaders. When leaders are elected because of their wealth, and not because of their capability, it is hard to believe they can achieve quality results.

We heard little about comprehensive programs from the candidates — business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie and media baron Surya Paloh are so far the strongest contenders — on what politicians will do to restore the party’s past supremacy in local and national elections.

We wished they could provide detailed programs to the party stakeholders, but we could only gain information about the mighty power of their wealth. It is true that both Aburizal and Surya boasted Golkar would win more votes in local elections and in the 2014 legislative and presidential elections, but they apparently also know congress participants are more interested in how they
can get the highest financial and political benefits from the congress.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla easily won the Golkar leadership in 2004, several weeks after he and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were sworn in as the country’s new leaders. He defeated then incumbent chairman Akbar Tandjung, because he reportedly poured in huge money to attract Golkar leaders.

When Golkar received fewer-than-expected votes in the April legislative elections, Kalla was largely blamed for the failure.

Soeharto established Golkar as his political machine when he came to power in the 1960s. It was the only major political party around during his tenure, although there were also two smaller parties.

After his fall in 1998, Golkar votes decreased in the 1999 elections. It only secured 120 seats in the House of Representatives that year, 128 seats in 2004 and just 107 seats in 2009.

Soeharto’s youngest son, “Tommy” Soeharto, is also trying his luck in this congress. He has also promised lucrative incentives if he wins the race.

However there is little hope for Tommy to regain family control over the party.

Hopefully the candidates will present their clear and achievable vision and mission to participants of the Golkar congress, which will run from Monday until Thursday.

And we hope the 492 regional and 33 provincial chapters, and Golkar’s 10 wing organizations, which have voting rights in the congress, use a moral conscience — and not their greed for money and power — to elect the party’s new chairman.

As long as money is the most dominant factor in determining the winner of the Golkar leadership race,
there is little hope people can gain more trust in the party. But the behavior of Golkar leaders perhaps also reflects the behavior of our leaders in general. How can we expect democracy to flourish in our country when vote buying remains rampant?



http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/06/all-about-money.html