Obama’s Remarks on bin Laden’s Killing

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 05/02/2011 11:50 AM | World

Following is a text of President Obama's remarks Sunday night announcing the killing of Osama bin Laden, as released by the White House:

Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory -- hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.

And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.

On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.

We were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda -- an organization headed by Osama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. And so we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.

Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we've made great strides in that effort. We've disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban government, which had given bin Laden and al Qaeda safe haven and support. And around the globe, we worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of al Qaeda terrorists, including several who were a part of the 9/11 plot.

Yet Osama bin Laden avoided capture and escaped across the Afghan border into Pakistan. Meanwhile, al Qaeda continued to operate from along that border and operate through its affiliates across the world.

And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.

Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

For over two decades, bin Laden has been al Qaeda's leader and symbol, and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies. The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda.

Yet his death does not mark the end of our effort. There's no doubt that al Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must –- and we will -- remain vigilant at home and abroad.

As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam. I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.

Over the years, I've repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was. That is what we've done. But it's important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding. Indeed, bin Laden had declared war against Pakistan as well, and ordered attacks against the Pakistani people.

Tonight, I called President Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts. They agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations. And going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

The American people did not choose this fight. It came to our shores, and started with the senseless slaughter of our citizens. After nearly 10 years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. These efforts weigh on me every time I, as Commander-in-Chief, have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one, or look into the eyes of a service member who's been gravely wounded.

So Americans understand the costs of war. Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda's terror: Justice has been done.

Tonight, we give thanks to the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who've worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome. The American people do not see their work, nor know their names. But tonight, they feel the satisfaction of their work and the result of their pursuit of justice.

We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country. And they are part of a generation that has borne the heaviest share of the burden since that September day.

Finally, let me say to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 that we have never forgotten your loss, nor wavered in our commitment to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores.

And tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today's achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.

The cause of securing our country is not complete. But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it's the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.

Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. May God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

Senior politician Theo Syafei passes away

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/29/2011 9:07 AM | People

Senior politician Theo Syafei from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) passed away on Friday at around 1 a.m.

He had suffered from cancer, as reported by tribunnews.com.

The remains of Theo, who was born in Makassar on June 30, 1941, are currently at the Bambu Apus funeral home in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.

Theo was once a member of the campaign team for Megawati Soekarnoputri during her presidential bid in 2009.

He was also a legislator between 1999 and 2004, and earlier was a top official in the Indonesian military.

Many FBI agents said lack ability in cyber cases

Associated Press, Washington | Fri, 04/29/2011 8:59 AM | World

About a third of the FBI agents working on cyber investigations lack the networking and counterintelligence expertise to investigate national security intrusions, the Justice Department's inspector general concluded in a new report.

The report said the FBI's practice of rotating agents among different offices to promote a variety of work experiences hinders the ability to investigate national security cyber intrusions.

The IG's audit, based on interviews of 36 agents in 10 offices, emphasized that the need for a strong cyber security work force in federal government "is more urgent than ever," said Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The FBI has a comprehensive instructional plan in place that includes 12 core courses that an agent must take along with on-the-job training. According to the IG's report, many agents said training was helpful but that they did not have the time to take the required courses. The FBI says it has allowed agents to bypass prerequisite courses when more advanced classes are pertinent to their current case assignments.

Better information sharing by the FBI with other law enforcement and intelligence participants on the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force also could improve the government's ability to fend off cyber attacks, according to the report released this week by acting IG Cynthia Schnedar.

The report pointed out that one of the primary findings of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was that before 9/11 information sharing was inadequate among U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Some representatives on the task force were often asked to leave meetings that focused on cyber threats, even though the task force was created to share information, the IG audit said.

FBI officials told the IG that any limitations on information sharing probably were the result of legal restrictions. A task force representative and an FBI agent told the IG's office that some agencies are asked to leave meetings where threats are discussed because a need-to-know policy is enforced.

A Naval Criminal Investigative Service representative said it shared information about a hacker who was using a compromised computer network, but that the FBI did not reciprocate with information as requested. A representative of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations told the IG that the level of FBI information sharing depends on the FBI official to whom a request is submitted.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati: Pursuing the World Bank job ‘religiously’

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Washington, DC | Fri, 04/29/2011 9:20 PM | People

JP/NurhayatiOne year since she was virtually hounded out of her Cabinet post in Indonesia by the country’s powerful politicians, Sri Mulyani Indrawati appears to have settled well in her job as the number two person in the World Bank headquarters in Washington.

As managing director, she has her plate full to keep her busy around the clock as she oversees 74 countries in the three regions entrusted to her: the East Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

This is quite a departure from her previous job. Settling in from a job of overseeing the economy of one single country to one that deals with the development of 74 countries, each with its own political, cultural and economic situation, has been, “very interesting but also challenging”, she says in an interview.

Each country has a different problem that needs a specific solution. “There is no one size fits all,” she adds.

And then there is the globe-trotting that comes with her job, visiting trouble spots around the globe and meeting with leaders of donor and recipient countries.

In the 10 months since she joined the Bank, she has visited 19 countries, including Indonesia, Japan, China and India, West Bank and Gaza, Mexico and Peru.

She addressed the ASEAN financial ministers meeting in Bali this month, her first public appearance in her home soil since she left under controversial circumstances last year, and learned that she remains as popular as she was then, at least going by the huge media attention lavished on her rather than to the substance of the ASEAN meeting itself.

Clearly mindful of the political goings-on back home, including the campaign by friends for her to contest the presidential elections in Indonesia in 2012, Sri Mulyani remains very much focused on her present job. She keeps her political views private.

Ever the professional technocrat, she pursues her work with the same dedication and vigor as she had with all her previous jobs, including in serving in the Cabinet of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono since 2004 until last year.

“I always enjoy the job and the work that I do, because that’s the condition that I attach in accepting any job. This way, I can really work and dedicate myself to the institution for achieving the goal which I believe is a noble one.”

She sees her role today as an international civil servant helping people across the world.

“As the Indonesian saying goes, work is ibadah [literally: worship],” says the woman who, when she was finance minister, was known to be burning the midnight oil.

The interview in her cozy and spacious office on the 12th floor of the World Bank headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue was limited to 30 minutes as she was busy preparing for the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Sri Mulyani is no stranger to working in an international setting or to the high-powered Washington environment, having served as executive director for the IMF representing Southeast Asia.

She received her doctorate from the University of Illinois in Urban-Champagne in 1992 and worked as a USAID consultant in Georgia, Atlanta.

She came to the World Bank with very strong credentials, having built her reputation for integrity as finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy in Indonesia.

The accusation by the House of Representatives last year that she had abused her power in bailing out a small bank in 2008 had not the least dented her reputation in Washington.

The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Campaign (KPK) has not found any evidence of crime in her move to bail out Bank Century. Politically she may be faulted but legally she remains in the clear. World Bank President Robert Zoelick has included overseeing the integrity of vice presidency among the many additional tasks for her.

As far as workload is concerned, Sri Mulyani says it is more challenging as she has to deal with staff coming from more than 170 countries, each with different cultural background. The fact that they all share the same development goal helps, she says.

“It’s demanding but manageable,” she said.

The bank’s new paradigm of greater openness and transparency suited Sri Mulyani’s own personal style as she had reformed the Indonesian finance ministry very much in the same way when she was in charge.

She also seems at ease in crossing the political boundary, in the past a technocrat no-no but increasingly becoming inevitable as the Bank now addresses the issue of governance and corruption.

But she insists that when she addresses these issues, she was reflecting the institutional rather than her personal views.

Development as a subject today has become very multidimensional that includes also the issue of governance, transparency and accountability besides the economic aspect, she says.

“We need to build trust of both shareholders and clients. This institution is not telling what needs to be done. But we need to apply ourselves what we think is right. So transparency, accountability, and access to information become the principles that we also apply,” she says.

Don’t expect Sri Mulyani to do special favors for Indonesia, even though the World Bank has a large operation in the country.

“The Bank has a mechanism to prevent conflict of interests among staff and management,” she says. Whenever the executive board convenes to make a decision on Indonesia, she will sit it out and let the other managing director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, chair it. And conversely, when the board convenes on Nigeria, Sri Mulyani will chair it.

This then begs the question that many of her political nemesis in Indonesia are asking: What exactly is Sri Mulyani doing for the nation?

Possible the best answer is that she represents Indonesia at its best, one of the rare Indonesians who have made it to the top in the international arena.

Although traveling as a World Bank staffer, she would still be recognized as someone hailing from Indonesia, and one who was recruited to the job because of her impeccable reputation.

She is not just someone who is intelligent, hard working, truly dedicated to her job, but also someone with tons of knowledge and experience in managing an economy as large and complex as Indonesia and who is now willing to share them all in helping people across the globe. And she is also recognized for her integrity.

She is still doing her part for her country whenever she can, in spite of her busy schedule. She has agreed to take part in a round of discussion to discuss a new vision with Indonesian students and young professionals based in the United States who are being assembled by Indonesian ambassador to the US Dino Patti Djalal in May.

“I am still an Indonesian citizen,” she says.

The spirit of classic cars

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta | Fri, 04/29/2011 10:19 AM | Feature

Incarnation of the sky, a metal installation by Yani Mariani Sastranegara and Erwin Utoyo.Monday night saw the National Gallery here transformed into a unique venue where classic cars mingled with contemporary artworks inspired by features of the vehicle, both technical and functional, as well as aesthetical.

This one-of-a-kind idea that brings together art creativity based on such features is groundbreaking and underlines once more the myriad of possibilities in art making today.

A collaborative initiative of the 3-year-old Indonesia Classic Car Owners Club (ICCOC),and the Indonesian branch of Singapore based Adira Finance, the show presents 45 classic cars and 85 art works by Indonesian contemporary artists. Curated by Ritzky Zaelani and Rikrik Kusmarta, it is titled “Art Motoring: Motion and Reflection”.

Entering Hall A, one’s attention is immediately drawn to Heri Dono’s installation of motorists wearing helmets, dark glasses and a device on their chests sending out light beams.

They could easily be mistaken for hell drivers, particularly when the wings attached to their uniforms start moving up and down.

Further into hall A, Entang Wiharso, whose works often deal with the chaos permeating the human condition, offers works in a combination of dark graphite, fiber and steel. Initially appearing as a dark mass, the crashing cars become discernable when looking through our camera lens.

The artist whose aluminum images have been likened to scenes of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno in La Divina Comedia, titles these works American Dream, The Second Skin.

ICCOC secretary general, Robert Suhardiman, who founded the club with chairman Stanley Setia Atmadja, reveals he has been fascinated with classic cars since he was a high school student.

With a tad of nostalgia, Robert points at the elegance, the flowing lines, the aesthetic of the classic car, which all have an intrinsic artistic value. Since then he has nurtured a dream of combining his two passions together.

That day has now come. It takes an artist like Indra Leonardi to bring these features together in a photograph that takes one to the sublime. Imbued with a sense of nostalgia, the image of a car of which the brand is kept unclear, evokes a sense of moving through a landscape under a sky where the interweaving of dark clouds signal the coming of the night.

Yet, for all its poetic mystery, the work which is called Twilight Zone 2, is a digital print on aluminum, a medium that clearly points at the contemporary.

Matching the poetic with the technical and the beauty of the classic car, artists Yani Mariani Sastranegara and Erwin Utoyo went back to the time when the bm 328 was a winner car at Mille Miglia Races some time during 1936-37.

Erwin says the car was a dandy’s favorite, who would drive it mostly during the weekends. It reminded the artists of the peacock whose gorgeous appearance is particularly emphasized by its wondrous feathers.

Erwin then made the car-part of the work in the likeness of the bm 328, representing the peacock. Yani Mariani added thousands of metal balls hung on fisherman thread, imagining they came rolling from the heavens, and arranged them in a shape likening the bird’s feathers when it opens like a fan. The colossal work’s dimensions: 500x600x500 centimeters.

Certainly the Beetle Box by Ichwan Noor is a skillful work that attracts the attention of whoever enters the venue. Using original 1975 VW Beetle accessories, the artist has created a vehicle in the form of an attractive white box.

Set on a high pedestal, the eye-catching work is a model for its artistic touch that combines raw technological power with aesthetics, drawing even the most novel art lover to this contemporary artwork.

There are also artists whose imaginations have been inspired by realities on the ground. Nus Salomo, for instance created Gozira No Ko (Son off Godzilla), a search and rescue unit amid the rampage of disaster. His work is meant as a tribute to the Japanese whose resilience amid the worst disasters has stunned the world.

For Deddy Paw, looking back through the mirror of his Nissan Terrano allows him to reflect on his life.

Classic beauty: A classic Porsche is on show at the “Art Motoring: Motion & Reflection” exhibition, at the National Gallery, until May 1.After changing car fives times since the 1980s, he knows he has no desire to own another car for now.

Referring to classic car lovers, Deddy finds that one needs an awful lot of money to be a collector of such cars. He visualizes such a vision with his iconic apple made of coins on which toy cars are creeping around.

Indeed, acquiring old cars is not a matter of just purchasing. A long process of costly repair tests the collectors’ patience and resources.

But, as Robert Suhardiman explains, their passion for cars of times long past nurtures their drive to continue collecting and repairing.

What is more, they now have committed themselves to show that the power of automotive engineering can go hand in hand with the power of artistic creation.

Although some works in the art exhibition should not have been included, the show testifies to artistic vibrancy. Artists were so stirred by this initiative of the ICCOC that they went all out to simply create without a single thought about market value.

Nevertheless, the promise that a new car would be awarded to the best art creation may have been a powerful stimulus.

— Photos By Carla Bianpoen

Art Motoring:
Motion & Reflection

A show of 45 Classic Cars and 85 Indonesian Contemporary Art Works
Galeri Nasional Indonesia
Until May 1, 2011
To be continued at Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, West Mall, 2nd Fl
Until May 14, 2011

Bandung performers to present the story of land

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/29/2011 9:27 PM | Feature

Land is key: The play Tanah, to be presented this Friday at Taman Ismail Marzuki, focuses on the issue of land. Courtesy of Celah-celah LangitA community-based theater from Bandung will present their play Tanah (Land), which delves into the issue of land at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) cultural space this Friday night.

The theater community Celah-celah Langit or the Ledeng Cultural Centre, headed by performer Iman Soleh, based in Ledeng, Bandung has been preparing the production of this one hour and 10 minutes show since November 2010.

The play will be open to the public and take place in Sanggar Baru, TIM. Celah-celah Langit opened their première of Tanah in Bandung. After Jakarta, the theater will also perform in Jatiwangi.

The play is part of a theater for development and educational project supported by Kelola Foundation, a not-for profit organization for the arts and culture and Theater Embassy from the Netherlands.

The 13 scenes of the play are based on 25 texts produced by the people of Bandung hilly area in Lembang who have been affected by Lembang’s changing landscape.

Iman said the idea for this play had germinated in Lembang in 2009. With the Netherlands Theatre Embassy and Kelola Foundation, Iman held writing workshops in Lembang to find out the experiences the Lembang people had with the changing of the land.

“The writings were diverse, with diverse language as well. We held continuous discussions around the writings that were collected,” Iman said. “The discussion process was longer than other explorations [for the play],” Iman said.

He added that the story of Lembang was only an apercu, which fit into the bigger problem of land in general. The play is being presented in Jakarta, Iman said, because the capital also has its own unique land problems. “There are 1,007 land cases in Jakarta and 125 of them are unresolved,” he said.

Iman pointed out that 26 people were involved in the production including musicians, costume designers and lighting crew. There are 15 actors in the play.

Bamboo and hay will be prominent theater props to convey a feel of the agrarian life.

“We brought 20 long bamboo poles from Bandung,” he said.

Egbert Wits, the coordinator for theater for development and education from Theater Embassy, said the production aimed to “give voice to the people through art”.

The people can benefit from the production process with new skills such as writing, poetry reading, singing and dancing.

“The people become more confident and become brave in speaking in public,” he said.

Wits added that the theater for development aimed to stimulate a dialogue between people about the issues that was being put forth in the play.

‘Tanah’ by Celah-celah Langit

Friday, 29 April 2011
20.00 p.m.
Sanggar Baru
Taman Ismail Marzuki
Jalan Cikini Raya 73, Central Jakarta

Indonesia hosts Asia Pacific broadband development forum

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/29/2011 10:09 AM | Business

Indonesia is hosting the Asia Pacific Broadband Development Forum at the Gran Melia Hotel in Jakarta, forum organizer, global telecommunication device and network solution provider PT ZTE Indonesia says.

Leading telecommunications network operators from South Asia and Middle Eastern countries are among participants at the two-day forum that began Thursday.

“We are glad we can host such an important forum, and it will enable participants to share experiences and knowledge amongst themselves,” ZTE Indonesia managing director Fan Xiaoyong said Thursday, as quoted by kontan.co.id.

The first day of the forum featured a tour of three wireline facilities owned by state telco, Telkom — DWDM at Telkom headquarters, GPON and ODN at FX Plaza and an IPTV demonstration at Telkom's multimedia office.

On the second day of the forum, participants will take part in a workshop on Fiber optics (FTTX) and Internet Protocol Television development (IPTV) and LTE technology (mobile communications technology beyond 3G).

3 killed in shooting in Australia

Associated Press, Adelaide | Fri, 04/29/2011 8:24 AM | World

Police say three people have been killed and two officers injured in a siege involving a lone gunman in the southern city of Adelaide.

They say a teenager was also seriously injured in the incident that began early Friday at a house in the suburb of Hectorville.

A police statement says the gunman remains holed up inside a house in the suburb.

One of two officers who responded to an emergency call was shot in the face when the gunman opened fire. The other injured officer received a minor knee injury.

Police say they found the bodies of two men and a woman at the scene.

Police are trying to negotiate with the gunman.

Malinda case continues with arrest of younger sister

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/29/2011 9:23 AM | National

Police arrested Fiska, the younger sister of graft suspect Inong Malinda, in a continuation of investigations of the alleged embezzlement of billions of rupiah from Citibank customers' accounts.

Police allege Fiska received money from the suspect .

A source at the National Police who declined to be named confirmed the arrest.

“We arrested [Inong Malinda's] sister on Thursday. Her name is Fiska,” said the source, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The source did not detail the sum of money allegedly received by Fiska, but hinted that it involved "billions of rupiah. That's from Malinda's testimony."

Fiska, according to the source, would be charged with violating the law on money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, and fined up to Rp 15 billion.

When asked about Fiska, National Police deputy spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said he had not received any information on her arrest.

On Tuesday, police arrested Andhika Gumilang, Malinda's foster child, on similar charges. Different from claim from Malinda's attorney, police have repeatedly mentioned Andhika as Malinda's husband.

Luna Maya: Welcomes court decision, hopeful for Ariel

Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/29/2011 9:24 PM | People

JP/R.BERTO WEDHATAMAEntertainer Luna Maya, who was swept up in a celebrity sex video scandal with boyfriend Nazriel Irham last year, has welcomed a Constitutional Court ruling regarding pornography and individual privacy.

But the 27-year-old is upset the decision on Tuesday regarding two articles in the 2008

Anti-Pornography Law on the private filming and/or possession of pornography came only a day after the 3.5-year prison sentence of the singer, who is known as Ariel, was upheld by the Bandung High Court.

“It’s good and it proves that we cannot be prosecuted, because what’s private is private,” Luna told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“But the decision really should have come before the appeal court’s decision was made, so Ariel could have immediately walked free. I really wish that the Constitutional Court had been firm on this issue from the outset of the case.”

Ariel, the lead singer of the group Peterpan, was convicted of making two videos, one with Luna and the other with TV presenter Cut Tari, in the scandal that became known as Peterporn. The videos were allegedly appropriated and uploaded to the Internet without the singer’s knowledge. He also was fined Rp 250 million.

The Constitutional Court turned down a request to review the 2008 Anti-Pornography Law lodged by lawyer Farhat Abbas in mid-2010, the Post reported

Tuesday, quoting tribunnews.com.

“The court found that the law is Constitutional,” presiding judge Mahfud MD said in the hearing on Tuesday.

Farhat had requested that the court review explanations of several articles in the Porn Law.

Articles 4 and 6 of the law ban production, storage and broadcasting of pornographic material, but subsidiary explanations exclude porn stored for personal use and interest as criminal.

Luna, one of the highest-paid and most popular entertainers in the country before the scandal, made a return to the public eye at the end of 2010. She said she was hopeful if an appeal is made to the Supreme Court on Ariel’s sentencing that a decision will be “wiser and fairer”.

She added that Ariel was accepting of the situation.

 “Of course Ariel is relieved by the Constitutional Court decision but disappointed by the high court ruling. But he is relaxed about things. He takes everything in stride.”

Website launched to improve cervical cancer awareness

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/29/2011 8:56 AM | Body and Soul

A website providing information on cervical cancer has been launched to increase the understanding of the public on the disease.

The website www.kankerserviks.com was launched by a non-government organization (NGO), the Indonesian Initiative to Prevent Cervical Cancer (IPKASI) and provides information in English and Bahasa Indonesia on a breadth of topics from the disease’s cause to prevention.

The IPKASI had made the website because 70 percent of cervical cancer patients seek help to doctors when their disease has entered its later stages, narrowing the chances of being cured. This phenomenon reflects the public’s lack of understanding on the disease.

“Most doctors are not communicative enough and do not like to educate their patient. In addition, people do not have access to information, causing an information gap to form,” Dr. Sigit Purba, an obstetrician and gynecologist from the IPKASI, said in kompas.com.

The users of the website can thus consult online with doctors on cervical cancer.

As many as 37 women in Indonesia are diagnosed daily with this disease, with 20 women dying every day because of cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papilloma virus.

Sikka weft textiles: A tribute to women weaving

Rita A.Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Wed, 04/20/2011 9:26 PM | Life

Local pride: A woman weaver holds up one of her ikat in Watublapi village in Sikka, 30 kilometers from the largest city in Flores, East Nusa TenggaraOn the hillside of Watublapi village in Sikka, 30 kilometers from the largest city in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, a number of women meticulously weave some of the world’s most refined and elaborate warp ikat textiles.

Thanks to these women’s superb talent, this centuries-old tradition is still well preserved and blossoming in the region.

Once called Copa de Flores in Portuguese — or the Isle of flowers — for its beauty, Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands located in the eastern part of Nusa Tenggara Islands.

Locals called their island Nusa Nipa or the land of the snakes to illustrate the island’s shape and its grandeur. Snake designs have inspired various textile patterns and designs, and found their way onto house ornaments and a myriad of art local artefacts.

The island became a landmark when Portuguese traders and Catholic missionaries landed there in the 16th century, unravelling the richness of its culture and its nature, flora and fauna.

One of the region’s cultural gems is textile weaving. Prominent textile scholar John Gillow penned in his book on Traditional Indonesian Textiles that textile weaving was part of Indonesia’s cultural identity.

Magic hands: A woman meticulously weaves an ikat, one of the world’s most elaborate textile, in Flores.Most fine textiles in Indonesia, including in Sikka, Flores, have been produced by women. Men undertake some of the work in factories and workshops, such as building the tools used to produce these textiles — metal stamps or wooden looms. However, all the steps in creating the cloth — from preparing the ground, planting the cotton and gathering dye plants to weaving the patterned fabrics, are traditionally and exclusively undertaken by women.

In the village of Sikka, which was named after the mighty Queen Sikka Du’a Go’it of Sikka Kingdom, women play the most important role, running the textile “industry” for domestic, ritual and commercial purposes.

Given the island’s tropical climate, clothing requirements are relatively meager and garments are simple, traditionally composed of rectangular cloth.

Sikka women weave four main types of textiles: kain, which wraps around the waist and legs; sarong made of smaller kain shewn into a tube-shape; selendang breast and shoulder cloths and selimut, large-wrap-around mantles of blankets.

Women from these communities weave ikat textiles on backstrap looms during the quiet hours of the day, in the shelter of the recess under their stilted houses. Young girls learn the simpler techniques on small looms, leaving the finer weaving to their mothers and grandmothers.

Their weaving skills tend to make them the breadwinners in the family as they sell textiles in village markets and other provinces such as Bali, where tourists always look for exquisite and antique textiles.

Dong Song Legacy

Ikat (to tie or to bind) is a weaving method whereby the patterning of a textile is obtained by tying fiber tightly around the warp threads and then immersing the tied hanks in a dye bath. The basic ikat technique can be applied either to warp or to weft threads alone. Alternately, certain sections of the textile can be warp ikat, such as borders and other parts of weft ikat.

Traditionally, the color of the ikat has come from a wide variety of vegetable dyes, the most valued color originating from the natural, organic dyeing materials including great morinda (turkey red, mengkudu or kombu), true indigo, turmeric and sappan wood.

Warp ikat is primarily the preserve of ancient people who built the megalithic civilization, and the legacy of the Dongsong culture, which was preserved either in the rugged mountainous interiors of the main island, or on the outlying islands.

Dong Song culture introduced to the Indonesian islands the technique of weaving warp-ikat textiles on a simple backstrap loom.

In Indonesia, the ikat textile tradition spreads from North Sumatra across to Kalimantan, Bali, Lombok, West and East Nusa Tenggara including Flores and Sumba. Each region developed its own styles and patterns blending local and other cultural influences.

In Flores, each village has its own distinctive ikat textile patterns and motifs. But, like in other part of the country, strict rules specified which textiles were to be worn at every level of society – the ruling class, nobilities and commoners.

Spinning: Women from the village of Watublapi in Sikka, Flores, turn cotton slivers into yarn, before weaving ikat.The textiles have a ritual significance that far exceeds utilitarian need and play a vital role in maintaining harmony and balance between spirits and humanity.

The world is changing fast in the late century. The culture of the Sikka people is still very strong, but prolonged contact with the outside world is bound to have detrimental effects, which will most probably lead to a lowering of the quality of their textiles.

The spreading of factories, machine-manufactured textiles into the remote island of Flores has threatened the existence of the village’s textile weaving heritage.

Women weavers are grouped into the village’s aging population without having opportunities to pass on their weaving skills to younger women in the community, who show less interest in preserving the tradition as the world is now wide open for them to pursue other career paths.

Despite modernity, Sikka’s wealth textile craftsmanship must continue to strive with help from various parties — the government, the private sector, artists, and individuals who care about the island’s priceless heritage.

Euro crisis bleak future for ASEAN single currency

Putera Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta | Wed, 04/20/2011 8:00 AM | Opinion

Economists and policymakers in euro-adopter countries are experiencing stormy weather outside their office windows.

Early this month the Portuguese government declared its inability to pay its debts and requested financial assistance from the EU. After the economies of Greece and Ireland collapsed last year, Portugal is the third euro-adopter country that has failed to pay its debts and ask for a bailout.

Besides, it may not be the last nation to follow the path of Greece and Ireland, and quite a few analysts claimed that debt-laden economies, such as Spain, Italy, France and Belgium, could be the next dominoes to fall.

The single currency policy in euro was said to be a great idea at the beginning; but looking at how recent events have unfolded, some optimists have become skeptics: Is the euro responsible for recent Europe’s mess?

The best way to understand the single currency’s predicament is to imagine that a nation’s economy operates like a huge Transformer robot.

Every nation — be it Portugal, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Spain and others — has its own robot model, where each robot has unique characteristics that work against each other.

What is similar about them is all the robots are armed with two guns both in their right and left hands (as seen in the movie), so they can protect themselves from their enemies and their overall stability can be
assured.

Suddenly, robots from European countries develop a seemingly great idea that they, apparently, can become stronger if they just unite and combine their small guns into one gigantic weapon. This can be done only if each robot is willing to sacrifice the gun in their left hand, so it can merge with other robots’ guns to transform into one gigantic, powerful weapon.

Several robots, such as from Croatia and England, refused the offer, but almost all European-built robots agree to this proposal. In the end, those robots boast a one-for-all gigantic and massive weapon as the reward for their unification, with the expense of having only one gun in their right hand as they continue their survival.

Today, the importance of those missing hands begin to be felt; but, unfortunately, now is simply the point of no return for those European nations.

Basically, to fix problems and avoid crises in the economy, a policymaker is equipped with two powerful “weapons”: A monetary policy related to interest rates and currency, and a fiscal policy related to tax and government spending. For example, the US implemented both fiscal and monetary policies in the form of a US$1 trillion tax cut (fiscal) and slashing the interest rate to the level of 0.25 percent (monetary) to resuscitate its economy during the last financial crisis.

But when euro-adopter countries such as Spain suffer from high unemployment rate like today, the Spanish policymaker could not simply adjust the interest rate (monetary) to shoot the problem. Because it uses the euro as a single currency, all policies relating to currency, which are monetary policies, have to be thoroughly discussed and carefully implemented for the sake of EU members as a whole, not a single country like Spain alone.

During this situation, other European countries such as Germany or France may have different economic interests to Spain’s, and slashing interest rates — a policy which would devalue the euro — perhaps would render those countries worse off.

In other words, it is true that those robots sacrifice one of their hands and hold a share in the massive weapon, but one simply cannot use the weapon as he pleases — because other robots, presumably,
may have different type of enemies to shoot.

What exacerbates the problem is not all European robots are armed with the right-hand weapon that is powerful enough to cover their left-hand weapon’s loss.

Countries such as Germany and Finland have a strong fiscal position, while the balance book of countries such as Greece and Ireland are full of debts and cannot really afford to spend much money on fiscal policies.

The consequences are predictable: The economies of Greece and Ireland defaulted, and EU member countries with strong fiscal positions suffered enormous economic losses as they had to provide multi-billion bailouts to help those ill-fated economies.

Meanwhile, Indonesia and its neighbors in the ASEAN region have been weighing the possibility of having a single currency such as the euro for years.

Some ASEAN representatives and economic ministers believed that the implementation of a single currency in ASEAN could take the economic community in the region to the next level, as it would enhance economic development in the area and forge stronger ties among ASEAN countries.

But currently, Europe’s crisis is a lesson to learn for Indonesia and ASEAN on the risks and to realize that the potential economic losses if the single currency policy fails is indeed massive.

Yes, it is true that the single currency has boosted trade numbers in the EU by as little as 10 percent since it was first implemented. But as recent events show, Europe’s single currency turns out to be a monetary trap and makes some economic problems more complex than they actually are.

If the euro fails in Europe’s developed and high-welfare economies, adopting a single currency in ASEAN — a region where developing and developed economies are living side-by-side and economic gaps among them are obvious — is definitely not a wise idea, at least not for now.

Indeed, after a decade full of applaud for Europe and its success story of single currency implementation, today is the day when the credibility of single currency policy is being put to its highest test.

The writer is a student at the University of Indonesia’s School of Economics.

Man United's title charge slowed by Newcastle draw

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 04/20/2011 8:19 AM | Sports

Manchester United's Premier League title charge was slowed by Newcastle on Tuesday, the leaders being held to a 0-0 draw to end a run of three consecutive wins.

The point took Man United seven points clear of Arsenal before the second-place London club plays at Tottenham on Wednesday.

United was dened a penalty kick in stoppage when Javier Hernandez was instead booked for diving after being challenged by Newcastle defender Danny Simpson.

"I didn't feel like I touched him," Simpson said. "I feel like he went down too soft."

But United manager Alex Ferguson hit out at referee Lee Probert.

'It was a clear penalty. It's an insult because he's booked him," Ferguson said. "I thought the referee had a good game tonight, but he's let himself down by booking the player.

"If it's not a penalty, fine. But to book him is an insult. There is definitely contact, no doubt about that."

Ferguson caimed not to see Newcastle's earlier penalty claim, in which Peter Lovenkrands felt he was tripped by United midfielder Anderson.

"The more obvious penalty was Peter Lovenkrands - it's an absolute cert," Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said. "It was a story of two penalties: one that definitely was for us and one that wasn't for them."

United has five matches left in pursuit of a record 19th English league title, but the draw has raised spirits at Arsenal before the north London derby.

"BIG BIG BIG thank you to Newcastle United!" Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny wrote on his Twitter account. "reat spirit by the team and well done (Newcastle goalkeeper) Tim Krul for motm (man-of-the-match) performance!"

In the first half at Newcastle, Krul denied Hernandez and Wayne Rooney, who returned after a two-match suspension for swearing into a TV camera during a goal celebration against West Ham.

Wth around 20 minutes to go, United winger Ryan Giggs curled the ball wide with the goal at his mercy after being picked out by Patrice Evra.

The draw took Newcastle up to ninth place, reaching the 40-point mark that is usually enough to be safe from relegation in the team's first season back in the PremierLeague.

"I think we owe it to ourselves and to the rest of the league that we put in a full performance (at Blackpool) on Saturday," Pardew said. "I think with the commitment we've shown tonight, the points we've got, the goals we've got, we're pretty much safe. But we want to finish high and put in the same commitment and effort as we have tonight against the probable champions."

Obama declares parts of North Carolina a disaster

Associated Press, North Carolina | Wed, 04/20/2011 8:37 AM | World

President Barack Obama is declaring a major disaster for parts of North Carolina after the weekend's tornadoes.

The announcement Tuesday clears the way for residents to receive federal assistance.

Dozens of tornadoes in North Carolina killed at least 23 people and damaged or destroyed more than 800 homes. The declaration affects 18 counties.

Gov. Beverly Perdue asked the president and to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for help, seeking low-interest loans for farmers and loans and grants to help others repair their homes and businesses.

Perdue also says her office has set up a disaster relief fund that will accept donations.

1,200 police deployed to secure inauguration of S. Tangerang mayor

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 04/20/2011 10:00 AM | Archipelago

Up to 1,200 police personnel, mostly from South Jakarta Police office, have been deployed to safeguard the inauguration of the newly elected South Tangerang mayor and deputy mayor today, a police official says.

“We are also sending water cannons and barracuda vehicles as extra precautions [to safeguard] the ceremony,” South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Gatot Edi Purnomo said Wednesday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

He added that the police mobile brigade (brimob) would be assigned to guard several key posts during the ceremony. Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiah is scheduled to lead the ceremony, with dozens of local officials slated to attend.

Airin Rachmi Diany and Benyamin Davni won the second election by garnering 188,893 votes, or 46.4 percent, winning over the three other candidate pairs including the pair of Arsyid and comedian Andre Taulani. It wasn’t an easy victory for the Airin and Benyamin pair since the results of the initial election were rejected by the Judicial Commission after allegations of misconduct by the winning pair.

Irzen Octa's remains to undergo 2nd autopsy

Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Depok | Wed, 04/20/2011 8:34 AM | Humanities

Lawyer OC Kaligis, as the legal representative of the family of the late Irzen Octa, says a second autopsy is required to iron out discrepancies in the findings of a preliminary autopsy conducted on the remains of Octa, which are to be dug up today for the purpose.

Octa is a Citibank client who died allegedly after violence committed by the bank's debt collectors on March 29.

On Wednesday, Kaligis said Octa's death remained suspicious because there were two contradicting preliminary autopsy results, which were signed by the same doctor, at the same time and on the same day.

One result revealed indications of violence on Octa's body, while the other said he died from a stroke.

Citibank representative Ditta Amahorseya has repeatedly denied that Octa was a victim of violence committed by debt collectors working for the bank.

Remains of Octa dug up for 2nd autopsy

Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Depok | Wed, 04/20/2011 8:40 AM | Humanities

Second Autopsy: A forensic scientist is examining the remains of Irzen Octa, who died under suspicious circumstances after meeting Citibank debt collectors, on Wednesday.

Srengseng Sawah cemetery undertakers have dug up the remains of Irzen Octa, who died under suspicious circumstances after meeting Citibank debt collectors.

Forensic scientist Munim Idries is currently examining the body.

"We are going to remove several organs, so we can conduct microscopic tests on them," Munim told reporters at the cemetery in Depok on Wednesday.

Lawyer OC Kaligis, who represents the family of the late Irzen Octa, said Octa's death was suspicious because there were two contradicting preliminary autopsy results, which were signed by the same doctor, at the same time and on the same day.

One result says there were signs of violence on Octa's body, but the other said he died from a stroke.

Citibank representative Ditta Amahorseya has repeatedly denied that Octa was assaulted by debt collectors.

--

Reviving textile tradition, empowering Sikka women

Rita A.Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Wed, 04/20/2011 9:28 PM | Feature

For the last 10 years, 39-year-old Daniel David has consistently worked toward reviving Sikka traditional textiles by encouraging villagers to reconnect with nature.

As chairman of the Sanggar Bliran Sina Art workshop in the village of Watublapi village, 20 kilometers from Maumere, the largest city in Flores, Daniel is in fact following in his late father Romanus Rewo’s footsteps, preserving his ancestral textile weaving heritage. He is concerned this heritage will soon disappear with the influx of products made using modern machinery.

One of his great cultural endeavors is to introduce and promote Sikka Woven textiles, the village’s women weavers and the arts and culture of Flores to national as well as international audiences.

From April 15 through May 15, Daniel — through his Sanggar Bliran Sina Art workshop — the House of Sampoerna and Swiss Contacts are organizing a month-long Sikka and Flores textile and cultural exhibition at the House of Sampoerna Building in Surabaya, East Java.

A.A. Dian Ekawati, the project and sponsorship director of the organizing committee, told The Jakarta Post prior to the event that the exhibition’s main objective was to raise people’s awareness about the beauty of Sikka textile and the urgent need to preserve it.

“Indonesia has abundant textile arts in addition to batik and songket. It is time for us to look to other textile producing areas and help those who are trying hard to stand up amid modern influences,” shared Dian. The exhibition consists of Sikka traditional textile arts, a photo exhibition of Flores nature, arts and culture, a Flores art and cultural parade, a seminar and workshop on traditional textile production and dyeing, as well as a radio talk show.

In addition to his involvement in national and international exhibitions, Daniel also established a cooperative unit in 2006 to help women weavers get easier access to financial assistance.

“When women produce ikat textile, they help improve their families’ living conditions,” explained Daniel.

The cooperative unit was established to boost villagers’ standards of living.

“This is a grass-root movement for the betterment of the people’s social and economic welfare,” he added. Traditional Sikka warp-ikat textiles are actually worth quite a bit. At a recent International Traditional/Ethnic textile exhibition in Amsterdam, a piece of Flores textile went for US$90 and up to hundreds of dollars per piece depending on its quality. Famous Indonesian designer Oscar Lawalata has also been very keen to use Flores textiles in his latest clothing designs.

In Oscar’s talented hands, a piece of Flores textile was tailored into an haute-couture dress.

Daniel stated the efforts to revive traditional textile would also help preserve the environment.

“We use natural-based dyeing materials free from any hazardous chemical ingredients.”

Going back to nature is not only good for the environment but also for the health of women weavers. Many of them are pregnant and breastfeeding. Using chemical materials seriously harms their bodies and minds.

Four battalions guarding RI-PNG border

The Indonesian Military has deployed four battalions to guard areas along the Indonesia Papua New Guinea border in Papua province, the chief of the Cendrawasih Military Command XVII, Maj. Gen.l Erfi Triassunu, said Tuesday.

He said, the four battalions were put on duty to ensure security along the 800-km-long RI-PNG land border.

"We have stationed as many as four battalions of troops at the border with Papua New Guinea because of it is very long, 800 kilometers," Erfi said.

He said, the army always guard the border area which is the working area with full of military professionalism, even though most of the soldiers there still lacked many facilities.

"There are soldiers who are still living in houses with thatched roofs and other leaves, but it is not a reason not to be professional when on duty," he said.

Death penalty for large-scale corruption, says S. Sumatra MUI chairman

The Jakarta Post, Palembang | Wed, 04/20/2011 8:01 AM | National

Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) South Sumatra chapter chairman Sodikun has urged law enforcers to impose the death penalty for people found guilty of corruption, in the belief that capital punishment would help reduce the instances of such crimes.

“Too often we have seen corruption [convicts] given only light sentences. Only the death sentence can bring this type of crime under control,” Sodikum said Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

However, he said, the death sentence should only be applied for large-scale corruption convicts who have stolen large amounts of state money.

“Islam teaches us to be just, including in handing out punishments,” he said.

Besides corruptors, drug dealers and drug producers should also face the with death penalty, he said.

Body of alleged suicide bomber blown apart: Eyewitnesses

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 2:42 PM | Archipelago

The body of an alleged suicide bomber who attacked Cirebon Police mosque on Friday, was blown to pieces in the explosion, witnesses say.

The witnesses added that the alleged bomber was tall and had worn a black cape. His face was unfamiliar, they said, as reported by tribunnews.com.

The explosion was at the mosque in the Cirebon Police complex at 12:50 on Friday, when it was full of officers performing their Friday prayers.

Cirebon Police does not implement strict security measures during its Friday prayers, allowing members of the public to join.

PPP chairman condemns attack, urges calm

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 3:25 PM | National

PPP chairman condemns attack, urges calmThe chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), Suryadharma Ali, condemned the bombing of  a mosque at the Cirebon police complex.

A bomb, allegedly triggered by a suicide bomber, exploded at the mosque during Friday prayers at 12:50 p.m. The bomb killed the suspected bomber and injured people in the congregation, comprising mostly police officers.

“The PPP condemns the inhumane act of violence which has victimized innocent people,” Suryadharma said as reported by MetroTV news.

Suryadharma, who is also the Religious Affairs Minister, urged the police to carry out a full investigation into the attack, including the perpetrator and the motive.

“I also call out to all Muslims to refrain from being provoked by this inhumane act. Leave this act of violence to security officers to resolve,” he said.

FM expresses confidence in new Egypt

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 2:56 PM | National

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa says Indonesia and Egypt have agreed to strengthen democracy in both states by increasing contact.

“Egypt sees Indonesia as having had the experience of resolving the 1998 political crisis. On that basis, both sides have agreed to intensify contact in order to strengthen democracy in both countries,” he said Thursday during his visit to Cairo.

Marty added that the Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU) would meet with the Egyptian general elections body to exchange information on preparing and conducting fair and transparent elections.

Egypt has just gone through a turbulent political period where protesters demanded democracy. The weeks of protests finally brought about the downfall of former president Hosni Mubarak, in February.

“We would not lecture Egypt, but both sides need each other for an exchange of mindsets and ideas on how to manage democracy,” Marty said.

Egypt is scheduled to hold a parliamentary election in September 2011, followed by its first-ever democratic presidential election in November.

Marty added that he was positive that Egypt would enter a better period after the change in regime, similar to Indonesia’s experience following the forced resignation of former president Soeharto in 1998.

“We are certainly confident that Egypt will be better after the revolution,” he said, as reported by Antara news service.

National Police tell all precincts to be alert

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 3:10 PM | National

The National Police have instructed all police precincts to be increasingly alert following the bomb blast at the Cirebon police mosque this afternoon.

A bomb exploded at the At-Taqwa mosque located in the Cirebon police complex while many of the officers were performing Friday prayers.

“Of course everybody has to be cautious, especially police precincts and those providing services to the public,” police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said on Friday.

He added that he hoped the incident would not repeat itself.

“Let's combat terrorism that has existed for too long,” he said as reported by tempointeraktif.com.

Anton added that the National Police remained in coordination with the Cirebon police. The police were still investigating the type of bomb the alleged bomber used. The body of the suspected bomber, who allegedly strapped to the bomb to his body, was blown to pieces.

15 injured, one dead in Cirebon blast

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 1:37 PM | Archipelago

 A bomb exploded in a mosque in the Cirebon Police complex at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, leaving one person dead and injuring at least 15 others.

According to a report on tempointeraktif.com, the injured victims have been taken to the Pelabuna Cirebon Hospital and Tentara Cermai Hospital.

The bomb exploded when the mosque congregation, mainly comprising police officers, was performing their Friday prayers.

At the time of the report, several military police officers were inspecting the scene.

According to a Metro TV news report, the dead victim is believed to have been the bomber. One of the injured victims was the chief of Cirebon Police.

Suicide bomber comes from old player: Analyst

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 2:02 PM | National

Intelligent observer Dynno Chresbon believed that the suicide bomb in a Cirebon Police mosque came from the old player.

“This terror [I believe] came from the book bomber. A similar attack also happened in a Yogyakarta mosque in 2005,” he said as quoted by tribunnews.com

The bomber, he said, was allegedly trained in Aceh. “They are targeting security institution,” he added.

Cirebon Police chief back on his feet after blast

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 2:03 PM | Archipelago

Cirebon Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herukoco was still able to “walk and communicate” despite suffering injuries in a bomb blast at a mosque in the Cirebon Police compound.

“The police chief was still able to walk and communicate,” Cirebon mayor Subardi said, as reported by kompas.com.

Subardi, however, did not mention the degree of injury the Herkoco had suffered.

Cirebon Police compound is in the process of being evacuated by police. Journalists at the location have been ordered to wait at the gate.

“I could only see an ambulance with “police” written on it rushing in and out of the complex,” a reporter working for Kompas daily, Rini Kustiasih, said as reported by kompas.com.

Cirebon blast was suicide bombing: Police

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 2:26 PM | Archipelago

The National Police says the bombing of a mosque in Cirebon Police complex which exploded at 12:50 p.m on Friday is believed to have been a suicide attack.

A man entered the mosques while the prayers were taking place and “his body exploded”, police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said Friday.

“It is suspected this was a [suicide attack],” Anton said, as reported on MetroTV news.

He added the police were conducting an investigation of the scene. At the time of the report the remains of the suspected bomber had not been removed from the scene.

Aside from the suspected suicide bomber (who died in the blast) injured victims included the chief of Cirebon Police, its traffic unit chief, internal affairs officers as well as members of the public who were at the mosque for Friday prayers, Anton said.

He added that the type of the bomb had not been identified, but said “it was clearly a suicide bomb”.

Suicide bomber wears jacket, hat, brings prayer rug

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 2:19 PM | National

The suicide bomber in the Cirebon Police mosque has reportedly worn a jacket,  a hat, and brought a prayer rug.

TVOne reported Friday that 80 percent of the prayers came from police institution, the rest were ordinary people.

The blast reportedly killed the bomber and injured 15 others including Cirebon Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herukoco.

Alleged suicide bomber activated bomb at start of prayers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 04/15/2011 2:41 PM | Archipelago

The alleged suicide bomber at the At-Taqwa mosque in the Cirebon Police complex detonated an explosive at the beginning of a Friday prayers session.

The bomb exploded at 12:50 p.m. killing the alleged bomber and injuring around 17 people, most of whom are police officers.

“As soon as the imam said [God is Great], Boom! The bomb exploded,” witness Antoni said as reported by tribunnews.com.

Letter: Dialogue is better than force

| Mon, 04/11/2011 11:52 AM | Readers Forum

The use of power often provides nothing but death and destruction. The recent situation in Libya is again showing the double standards of the US and its allies.

According to the media news, France and Italy have already accepted the Libya opposition interim national council and have vowed to provide more support to Libyan rebel forces. Britain also announced it would provide communication equipment to anti-government forces in Libya.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also urged Libyan President Qaddafi to step down in the interests of his country. Antigovernment forces in Libya now also get military training and weapons from western countries.

NATO is also targeting the military and other targets loyal to the Qaddafi government in Benghazi and other cities of Libya.

Despite foreign and internal pressure, however, Qaddafi has refused to step down and end his 43-year-long tenure.

Rebel forces also said they would not accept any solution that included Qaddafi and his sons in future government. Due to daily fighting, the country’s oil production is already at a crisis point, and its economy is suffering badly. Unfortunately, ordinary people are caught between Qaddafi and foreign forces and are also paying a high price. The killing of ordinary people in NATO air strikes is becoming part of the daily routine.

Even the country’s main oil facilities are not safe from the NATO attacks and oil production has suffered badly because of the unrest. Libyan oil prices on the international market have already touched US$120 per barrel and small and poor countries are paying a high price.

Khawaja Umer Farooq
Jeddah

Four inmates escape Cipinang penitentiary

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/11/2011 1:41 PM | National

Four inmates escaped from Cipinang penitentiary at around 3 a.m. on Monday by climbing up an unguarded watchtower.

According to East Jakarta penitentiary chief at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, Sihabudin, the watchtower was unguarded because of a shortage of staff.

“The post was unguarded because we are short of guards,” he said Monday.

The four inmates are Anang, who is serving an eight years’ imprisonment for his alleged violation of the women and child protection law; Iqbal, who is serving 17 years’ imprisonment for alleged murder; and Wahidin, who is serving 12 years in prison for alleged murder as well.

The fourth inmate, Herman, had previously escaped from the Palembang penitentiary, and was serving a three-year prison sentence for theft. He had been temporarily moved to Cipinang penitentiary before his verdict is fully implemented.

“But now, instead, he has escaped,” Sihabudin said, as reported by tempointeraktif.com.

He added that an investigation was underway to check whether the prison guards were involved.

“We are also investigating how the group escaped from their cells and where have they ran to,” he said.

House speaker agrees with legislator's resignation

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/11/2011 2:04 PM | National

House of Representatives speaker Pramono Anung said the resignation of Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator Arifinto was the best decision for all, including the House.

Arifinto was photographed allegedly viewing pornographic content on his tablet during a House plenary session last Friday. The public protested against Arifinto’s actions, and criticized his party and the House for the inappropriate act.

“I think Arifinto's resignation will be good for his party and the House's image,” Pramono said Monday.

He added that he appreciated Arifinto's move, saying legislators rarely took responsibility for their misdeeds, especially since Arifinto's misconduct had worsened the image of the House.

“This matter really smeared the image of the House. Once a person is chosen to become a legislator, their behavior, especially those under the public eye, must be controlled,” he said, as reported by kompas.com.

Can national banks sustain their solid growth?

Winarno Zain, Jakarta | Mon, 04/11/2011 11:41 AM | Opinion

The day Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) announced its 2010 earnings, which had grown nearly 60 percent from the previous year, the market welcomed the announcement cheerfully, and the company’s share price surged almost 6 percent.

BRI shares were not an exception as almost all shares of publicly listed banks did very well in 2010. On the back of strong economic growth and stable interest rates, the Indonesian commercial banks ended 2010 with stronger growth, marking a solid recovery from the depressed growth they experienced in 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Bank lending grew 23 percent, which was still below the peak in 2008, when their lending grew by
30 percent. But it was a strong growth from a depressed level of 9.9 percent in 2009. During the global financial crisis, the lending growth of the private banks fell more sharply than those of the state-owned banks.

But as private banks moved more aggressively to recover their lost ground after the crisis, their lending growth recovery was more robust than those of state banks. The ratio of state-bank loans to total bank loans slid from 38 percent to 36 percent.

From the current macro indicators it seems that the stage is set for more strong growth for the banks in 2011. GDP growth is expected to be stronger, and despite higher oil prices, the threat of inflation seems to be moderating, reducing the risk of monetary tightening by Bank Indonesia (BI), the central bank.

However, if banks are expected to maintain or even raise their loan growth this year, capital will be an important issue.

Indonesian banks have generally strengthened their capital to comply with a BI ruling on minimum capital requirement.

In 2010 banks were able to maintain their capital adequacy ratio (CAR) at 17-18 percent, far higher than the Basel II mandated level. Each bank has now more than Rp 100 billion of capital but the adequacy of these capital levels should be looked at in the context of high loan growth this year.

BI statistics show that there are still seven banks whose CAR are below 12 percent. As the CAR of
the state banks is lower than those of private ones, they would be under more pressure to raise capital.

For the state banks the most convenient way to strengthen their capital is by keeping retained earnings.

That’s why the issue of the dividend pay-out of the state banks will likely be hotly debated by the government and the House.

The Finance Ministry is asking the state banks to maintain their dividend pay-out ratio at last year’s level, because this has been used as the basis to estimate non-tax revenue in the 2011 budget.

The issue of loan growth is also related to the loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR), which is how much each bank loans per certain value of deposit. The overall LDR of all banks as of December 2010 was 75 percent.

This was below the minimum 78 percent required by the recent BI rulings.

This will force most banks to work hard to raise their LDR, otherwise they could face penalties by having to deposit more of their funds in the central bank to meet the required higher minimum deposit.

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, the net profit of Indonesian banks fell by 12 percent. The fall in earnings came mostly from the private banks, since they were apparently more exposed to global banking through their foreign ownership and networking compared to state banks.

The net profit of state banks surprisingly was only slightly affected by the crisis. But since the crisis, all banks have experienced robust growth.

In 2009 and 2010, they grew 47 percent and 27 percent, respectively. This growth surpassed the rate of growth before the financial crisis.

The high growth in bank profits has drawn criticism from the government and even from the central bank itself. The banks have been charged with charging their customers with too-high interest rates.

The net interest margin (NIM), the difference between interest received and interest paid by the banks, at 5.7 percent was considered too high, in fact the highest among their peers in the region. Critics said that high interest rates charged by the banks showed that the banks were actually inefficient.

The critics wanted to suggest that there was room for interest rate cuts by the banks by making bank operations more efficient. But data from BI actually showed that banks have been able to reduce their operating costs relative to their operating income.

The ratio of operating costs to operating income went down from 89.5 percent in 2005 to 86.1 percent in 2010.

The improvement in their efficiencies was made possible by their huge investment in Information Technology (IT) which has rewarded them with reduced transaction costs and has provided more convenience both to the banks and to the customers.

Banks have to keep abreast with the rapid development of IT and have to be ready to upgrade their
IT systems at any time. Otherwise they will be overwhelmed by fierce competition.

Now banks are facing pressure from authorities to raise their loan growth and at the same time to cut interest rates they charge to their customers. In other words the authorities are telling the banks that they should expand their lending but at reduced earnings growth. But for banks operating in Indonesia the problems of cutting interest rates is less related to efficiency.

The persistent high interest charged by banks reflects the structural problems of the economy
that is greatly influenced by extern-al factors.

In Indonesia bank lending constitutes the bulk of corporate financing, accounting for as much as 70 percent of corporate funding.

 The rest is provided by the capital market either through public offerings or bond issuances. As long as bank lending dominates corporate financing, demand for bank loans will remain strong and keep interest rates high.

Historically, inflation in Indonesia has been high, and it remains so now. Because of this historical background, banks tend to include a premium for risk in their interest rates.

The risk also includes the difficulties of assessing the viability of their customers because of the opaque nature of their governance. Legal risk is another area that the banks have to deal with, since settlement of legal disputes through courts could be protracted for a long time.

Last year BI forced 14 major banks to cap their deposit rates in order to make lending rates lower.

Recently BI ordered those banks to announce publicly their base interest rate, that is the interest rate they charge to their prime customers in the hopes that open competition will ultimately bring down interest rates.

These kinds of measures would hardly succeed. Banks need a more favorable external environment to induce them to lower interest rates. That is why it is important for the government and BI to work together to create a better external environment for the banks.

The writer is an economist.

When ‘sexy’, ‘pretty’ women are criminal suspects

Indraswari, Bandung | Mon, 04/11/2011 11:41 AM | Opinion

Selly Yustiawati and Melinda Dee are two women who recently made headlines in the Indonesian media, along with Citibank debt collectors and the late Irzen Octa.

Selly, 26, is currently facing police investigations for her alleged crime of deceiving people in various cities in Indonesia to give her money, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of rupiah each, with the promise they would get jobs or profit from some businesses, which turned out to be fake.

Inong Melinda, 47, (aka  Melinda Dee) was a senior manager at Citibank. She is also under police investigation for allegedly transferring billions of rupiah from customers’ accounts into her personal accounts.

Octa was a Citibank customer who died at one of the bank’s branch offices when trying to negotiate his inflated credit card debt. This case is also now under police investigation, as his death is suspected of being a result of violence at the hands of  three debt collectors.

If you google “Selly Yustiawati” and “Melinda Dee” and you will find news report titles such as these: “Femme fatale, Selly and Malinda Dee” (detiknews.com); and “Selly, the pretty deceiver who escaped punishment since 2006” (detiknews.com).

There are many other such titles in both printed and online media. Reading through the reports has convinced me how terms such as “beautiful”, “pretty” and “sexy” are often used to describe women who become criminal suspects.

If you turn on your TV, you will also find running text and presenters describing the two women in similar terms.

Sexist language and gender-biased media may best describe how the Indonesian media portrays women. In the case of Selly and Malinda, the media tends to have presented facts about crimes that are based more on the sex of the offenders than the crime itself.

Blogs and social-networking sites go further with some people commenting on the women’s makeup and other physical appearance. Others warn of “the danger of pretty women”.

Even the head of the public relations division of the National Police comments that Malinda is actually not as beautiful as she appears, since her beauty is a result of surgery “National Police PR chief: Melinda was not beautiful before her operation” (kompas.com).

Such comments have nothing to do with his authority as a high-ranking police officer who should focus on the criminal case and not on the physical appearance of the alleged perpetrator.

Now compare the reports on Selly and Malinda to those on Octa. In the latter, the media focus on what happened before and after he died at the bank’s office according to witnesses; the possible punishment of perpetrators; and on a wider range of issues including banks’ code of conduct in handling customer debts.

Unlike the reports on Selly and Malinda, as far as I am concerned, no media has described the debt collectors — who are all men — with terms such as “handsome”, ”macho” or “sexy”. Nor have I found detailed comments on the physical appearance of the debt collectors.

In reporting crimes, the mass media should focus on the crime and not on unnecessary matters such as the physical appearance of offenders. It would be better too if the reports also highlighted the lessons learned and educate people, for example on how to use credit cards wisely (some media have done this).

Reports on Selly’s and Melinda’s cases indicate that mass media is not neutral in its reporting on women. Instead of becoming agents of change in portraying women, they strengthen cultural-misogynist notion of “liberated” women.

Culturally, good women are those who limit themselves to a life in the domestic arena and being dependent wives who look after their husbands and children. Selly and Melinda do not fit into this category; their alleged crimes are pictured as examples of the dark side of their liberation.

I am not against women who become stay-at-home housewives and mothers. Nonetheless, the domestic role is not the only role women play. Various circumstances have led them to engage in public life.

With gender-biased media, female alleged criminals are portrayed as examples of “dangerous liberated women”. They have not only broken the law but also social norms on good women.

This does not apply to male criminals who are considered as breaking the law only and their criminal acts have nothing to do with violation of social norms.

As a result, female criminals are punished more severely than their male counterparts.

No media has described the debt collectors — who are all men — with terms such as “handsome”, ”macho” or “sexy”.

The writer is a lecturer at Parahyangan Catholic University’s School of Social and Political Sciences,  Bandung.

Police: Malinda took Rp 2 billion from client account

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 04/11/2011 1:43 PM | National

Alleged Citibank embezzler Inong Malinda (aka “Melinda Dee”) siphoned Rp 2 billion (US$232,000) from a customer’s account into her own company, PT Sarwahita Management Group.

“We have found a voucher from the [Citibank] account used [for the transfer] and the Bank Mega account. The owner of the [Citibank] account never transferred the funds. The amount was Rp 2 billion,” National Police financial crimes detective Brig. Gen. Arief Sulistyp said Monday, as reported by tribunnews.com.

The information was based on tracking conducted by the Financial Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) and Bank Indonesia (BI). Melinda allegedly transferred the money into a joint account in Bank Mega on August 13, 2009.

He added that Melinda used the transferred funds for herself.

“There has been a withdrawal of these funds, in form of transfers and cash, for the suspect's personal use,” Arief said.

Arifinto to brief press on resignation rumors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/11/2011 11:26 AM | National

Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator Arifinto is scheduled to hold a press conference at 1 p.m. on Monday following rumors he may resign after photographers published pictures of him watching pornography during a House of Representatives plenary session on Friday.

“Yes, he will hold a press conference at 1 p.m.,” PKS legislator Abu Bakart Al Habsy said Monday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Arifinto, however, has denies that the pornography was stored on his tablet, insisting that he had clicked on an unknown link and decided to delete it when he realized it was a pornography

PKS legislator resigns following pornography incident

Bagus B. T. Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/11/2011 2:24 PM | National

Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Arifinto on Monday announced he would resign from the House of Representatives after he was photographed allegedly watching pornography during a plenary session on Friday.

"As a pioneer in my party, I am drawn to take responsibility [for my actions] for the sake of the continuity and good image of my party," Arifinto told a press conference at the House of Representatives.

"I would also like to apologize to all PKS cadres and lawmakers. My decision is made clearly on my own. It does not involve any intervention and pressure from anybody," he said.

Arifinto added that he hoped that the incident could serve as a productive lesson for his party and other lawmakers.

"I will also continue to introspect and work to improve the quality of my personality by seeking input from ulema, donating to the poor, and any other good gestures during my life in this world," he said.

Arifinto was captured on camera, allegedly watching a pornographic video on his tablet computer during a heated plenary session on Friday.

Arifinto, however, said the clip was not stored on his computer and had been a link he clicked from an email sent by an anonymous person.

Caterpillar plague in Probolinggo all clear: Official

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/11/2011 1:03 PM | Archipelago

Probolinggo Agriculture Agency in East Java says the regency is rid of the millions of caterpillars that plagued the area for several weeks.

“There are no more of the caterpillars in Probolinggo regency,” an official at the agency, Arif Kurnadi, said Monday as reported by tempointeraktif.com.

The plague has swept through 58 villages in nine districts in Probolinggo, with the pests not only affecting mango trees, but also houses and schools.

He added that he was sure the plague had ended because the agency had not received any reports of caterpillar attacks for the last three days.

Arif further added that 540 liters of pesticide had been used in 58 villages in nine Probolinggo districts. Around 15, 000 mango trees, around 1 percent of the total number of mango trees in the area, were attacked by the infestation.

“The percentage [of trees infested] remains very low. However, this still constitutes the biggest attack [we’ve had lately],” he added.

Ba'asyir says porn-watching PKS legislator un-Muslim

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/11/2011 11:29 AM | National

Terrorism defendant Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Monday commented on a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator, Arifinto, who was caught on camera last Friday viewing pornographic material on his tablet.

Arifinto was photographed by a journalist during a House of Representatives plenary session.

Ba'asyir said it was un-Muslim to view such imagery.

“How come [he] says he's Muslim [but] watches sex videos,” Ba'asyir said at South Jakarta District Court where his trial session was being held.

Ba'asyir is charged with alleged terrorism after he allegedly organized a military-style training camp in Aceh.

Ba’asyir added that Arifinto deserved to be dismissed from the party for his misdeed.

“This clearly violates God's rules,” he said, as reported by tribunnews.com.

More than 40 bodies found in Mexican border state

Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press, Mexico City | Thu, 04/07/2011 9:32 AM | World

More than 40 bodies have been found in a mass grave in the northern Mexico state of Tamaulipas, near the site where suspected drug gang members massacred 72 migrants last summer, authorities said Wednesday.

Ruben Dario, a spokesman for the Tamaulipas state Attorney General's Office, said the site was being excavated to determine the exact number of dead and their identities.

State officials said the graves were found by a military patrol, but the press offices of both the Defense Department and Mexico's navy said they could not immediately confirm the discovery. The site is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the border at Brownsville, Texas.

The mass burial was discovered late Tuesday in the township of San Fernando, in the same area where the bodies of 72 migrants, most from Central America, were found shot to death Aug. 24 at a ranch.

Authorities blamed that massacre on the Zetas drug gang, which is fighting its one-time allies in the Gulf cartel for control of the region.

The victims in the August massacre were illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil. An Ecuadorean and Honduran survived the attack, which Mexican authoritis say occurred after the migrants refused to work for the cartel.

Mexican drug cartels have taken to recruiting migrants, common criminals and youths, Mexican authorities say. Drug gunmen also operate informal checkpoints on highways in Tamaulipas and other northern states, where they hijack cars and rob ad sometimes kill drivers.

San Fernando is on a major highway that leads to the U.S. border, but it wasn't immediately known whether the victims found in the mass grave had been kidnapped from that road.

Drug gangs across Mexico also sometimes use such sites to dispose of thebodies of executed rivals.

The wave of drug-related killings - which has claimed more than 34,000 lives in the four years since the government launched an offensive against drug cartels - drew thousands of protesters into the streets of Mexico's capital and several other cities Wednesday in marches againstviolence.

Many of the protesters said the government offensive has stirred up the violence.

"We need to end this war, because it is a senseless war that the government started," said protester Alma Lilia Roura, 60, an art historian.

Several thousand people joined the demonstration in downtown Mxico City, chanting "No More Blood!" and "Not One More!" A similar number marched through the southern city of Cuernavaca.

Parents marched with toddlers, and protesters held up signs highlighting the disproportionate toll among the nation's youth. "Today a student, tomorrow a corpse," read one sign caried by demonstrators.

The marches were spurred in part by the March 28 killing of Juan Francisco Sicilia, the son of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, and six other people in Cuernavaca.

"We are putting pressure on the government, because this can't go on," said the elder Sicilia. "It seems that we arelike animals that can be murdered with impunity."

Coca-Cola has dropped Man Unied striker Rooney

The Jakarta Post | Thu, 04/07/2011 8:54 AM |

Coca-Cola has permanently ended its relationship with Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, who was initially dropped from the soft drink company's ad campaigns folowing allegations over his private life.

The 25-year-old Rooney was the face of Coke Zero, with his image appearing on cans and bottles, until last September, when he reportedly cheated on his then-pregnant wife with a prostitute.

"Our contract with Wayne Rooney came to an end last year and we mutualy agreed that we would not renew our relationship," Coca-Cola said Wednesday in a statement.

After the allegations about Rooney's off-field antics last year, the world's largest soft drink maker responded by saying it was not "appropriate" to use the England international in promotions, but insisted tht its "relationship with Wayne Rooney is ongoing."

That has ended.

"We wish Wayne well in his career," Coca-Cola said Wednesday. "Our marketing plans have evolved to focus on our sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the upcoming launch of our plans for the Olympic Torchelay."

Rooney, who had endorsed Coke Zero since 2007, is facing a two-match ban for swearing into a television camera after scoring a hat trick during Saturday's Premier League win at West Ham.

But Rooney said the automatic two-match ban was "clearly excessive" and will appeal the sanction to the Fotball Association.

If Rooney's appeal fails, he would miss Saturday's league game against Fulham and the following week's FA Cup semifinal match against Manchester City.

Nurdin files lawsuit against sports minister

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/07/2011 9:31 AM | Sports

Nurdin Halid, who is no longer recognized by world soccer authority FIFA as the chairman of the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI), on Thursday plans to file a lawsuit against Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng for the latter's decision to freeze the PSSI executive committee and its office.

"We will file our suit at the State Administrative Court today," PSSI lawyer Sitor Situmorang from the Indra Sahnun Lubis Law Firm said Thursday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Sitor also said the PSSI had also reported Persebaya 1927 chairman Saleh Iskandar Mukadar to the police for defamation against Nurdin Halid, Nugroho Besoes and Nirwan Bakrie.

He said Saleh had issued a statement that the PSSI was only being used in the interests of the 2014 presidential election, and was only being managed by the trio Nurdin, Nugraha and Nirwan.

British trade delegation to meet Yudhoyono at palace

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/07/2011 9:39 AM | Business

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to receive a British delegation on trade and investment led by the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.

Presidential special staff for international relations Teuku Faizasyah said the meeting would discuss efforts to improve trade and investment between the two countries. On Wednesday, Andrew met with Coordinating
Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa.

Hatta said British companies were interested in developing the energy sector in Indonesia, particularly in oil and gas.

“Apart from that, they are also interested in being involved in the development of infrastructure, whether that be in the energy sector, transportation or manufacturing,” Hatta said.

Britain was also interested in improving the capacity of small and medium enterprises by opening the British Standard Institute here.

“They are really genuine in wanting to be engage in capacity building,” Hatta said.

Andrew, Hatta said, suggested a few regulatory reforms to improve the capacity of local entrepreneurs and to provide certainty to businesses in terms of legal procedures.

Drug suspect Putri still in hospital

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/07/2011 10:17 AM | National

Drug user suspect Putri Aryanti Haryowibowo, the great granddaughter of former president Soeharto, remained at a hospital after falling sick on March 23, during an investigation by Jakarta Police.

Putri's lawyer, Sandy Arifin, said the legal process would continue once Putri's health returned to normal.

“We are still trying to get Putri rehabilitated,” he said Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

Putri, the daughter of Ari Sigit Soeharto, was arrested at a hotel with two other friends on March 18, for alleged possession of drugs

'Glee' goes Gaga with expanded, 90-minute episode

Associated Press, Los Angeles | Thu, 04/07/2011 8:45 AM | Life

Lady Gaga is getting the royal treatment on a new episode of "Glee."

The hit Fox series will expand by a half-hour for the April 26 episode paying tribute to the pop star.

In the 90-minute episode, members of the New Directions high school glee club perform her hit "Born This Way" - and learn a lesson about self-acceptance.

Lady Gaga is an outspoken supporter of gay rights.

"Glee," which has been on hiatus, returns with new shows April 19. The series airs at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) on Tuesdays.

Normalization committee not using Nurdin's PSSI statutes

The Jakarta Post | Thu, 04/07/2011 9:12 AM | Sports

The normalization committee has decided not to use the statutes of the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) that allowed a convict to be elected as its chairman.

"The draft of the organization's regulations will be formulated based on the statutes of the world soccer body, FIFA, to avoid controversy," normalization committee chairman Agum Gumelar said Wednesday.

The draft regulation is expected to be completed by Friday.

Agum, a former PSSI chairman, was appointed by FIFA as the

normalization committee chairman to run the daily activities of PSSI before the election of a new PSSI chairman next month.

The normalization committee was established as FIFA deemed the current executive committee of PSSI as no longer legitimate.

Nurdin Halid could no longer lead the organization, as seen in his the organization's failure to hold a congress last month and deal with the presence of the Indonesian Premier League, FIFA said.

Re-directing the accusations against Nurdin Halid

Mikael Dian Teguh, Yogyakarta | Thu, 04/07/2011 10:44 AM | Opinion

At this point in time we are likely to blame and deem Nurdin Halid, the current chairman of Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI), as a notorious figure who is behind all of the mess plaguing national soccer that has forced the world soccer body FIFA to intervene.

Having looked tough and unrivaled during his period as the PSSI boss since 2003, Nurdin has started to lose grip on his position over the last couple of months.

That is mostly due to the chain reaction that he set off when he tried to stop the LPI (Liga Primer Indonesia), a rival competition initiated by businessman Arifin Panogoro in a show of protest against the official competition that relies on regional budgets as the main financial source.

Upon assessing what has happened and what will follow in this conflict, I think it is best for us to understand the core of the problem based on appropriate logic before judging.

It is not Nurdin, regardless of the way the society has turned against him, however, who should be held responsible for the malfunction of our national soccer.

He has in fact contributed a lot to the PSSI, in spite of his criminal track record.

Nurdin was behind the division of the Indonesian soccer league into two regions: West and East.

Although it proved short-lived, the policy saw an increase in the number of clubs and more chance for new talent to develop, especially those from the eastern part of Indonesia who had been overlooked.

Nurdin was also a player behind Indonesia’s outstanding performance in the latest AFC Cup in
December 2010, although the national team was beaten in the final by Malaysia.

The naturalization of foreign and foreign-based players, which became a major focus of the media during the AFC Cup fever, is one of Halid’s legacies that put Indonesia back on the international scene.

The point is that Halid has indeed done some major things to revolutionize the system as the PSSI chief.

Nevertheless, Indonesian society tends to review the case in such a way that we end up missing the core problem, which is far more serious than simply who should lead the PSSI.

I personally believe that it is not the PSSI chairman himself but the entire structure of the organization that is in need of sweeping reform.

A telling example of this was clearly seen when the media reported the news that Indonesia crashed out of the Olympic Games 2012 qualifying.

That Turkmenistan, a nation deemed as having a lower quality soccer than Indonesia, managed to send Yongki Aribowo and his young colleagues out of the Olympics was supposedly a matter that warranted self-reflection.

The event prompted an immediate conclusion that Indonesia’s young soccer talent had not improved compared to those from fellow developing countries. This contradicts the fact that the PSSI once had a youth league that was a breeding ground of future national and professional players.

If the young talent is not handled with care, how can we hope for them to realize our long-waited achievement?

Regardless of the desires of the stakeholders, soccer should belong to the general public or every person in this country. That part is something that we have been missing with the recent administration of the PSSI.

The axis of Nurdin, PSSI secretary general Nugraha Besoes and deputy chairman Nirwan Bakrie were often at the forefront of key decision-making, such as in the case of the ticket prices fiasco ahead of the AFC Cup final match.

The dominant role of the trinity and efforts to dethrone them have sparked allegations of a conspiracy, particularly as the government has clearly displayed its disapproval of the incumbent PSSI leaders.

Given the complexity of the issue, it is obvious that at the end the press and the people will seek someone to blame. Enter Nurdin, with his sort of criminal background and his decision to cling to power, who has now been deemed as the source of all the problems.

Yet, despite all of the accusations, let us exercise our wisdom by viewing Nurdin as not the only person we should blame for the decline of Indonesian soccer.

Not only the boss, indeed, but the system and certain other members of the PSSI should also share the responsibilities for failing to listen to the true needs of Indonesian soccer in the past.

Finally we have to ask ourselves: Will the future PSSI, with or without Nurdin, be able to reform and reach what we have long expected, or will it be no better than it is today?

The writer is an English language student at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta