RI needs 4,000 pilots in five years

The Jakarta Post | Thu, 05/26/2011 8:27 AM

The government estimates that Indonesia needs 4,000 pilots from 2011 to 2015 but local schools can only supply 1,600 pilots.

“The country schools can only produce around 320 pilots a year [or 1,600 in five years],” Bobby R Mamahit, head of human resources development at the Transportation Ministry, said as quoted by kontan.co.id on Wednesday.

“We need more pilots to meet the demand.”

He said the demand for pilot rose as Law No 1/2009 on Flight obliged that each airline has to operate a minimum of 10 airplanes as of Jan. 12, 2012.

Bobby added that the government would establish new pilot schools in Palembang and Surabaya.

From 2011 to 2015, Indonesia also needed 7,500 airplane technicians and 1,000 air traffic controllers.

Prison needs to suppress Ba’asyir: Expert

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/11/2011 9:55 PM | National

Special rules should apply to firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who has been sentenced to life in prison, terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail said Wednesday.

"The government should impose a system that forbids him [Ba'asyir] any opportunity to encourage radicalism," he said.

According to Noor, Ba'asyir should get heightened treatment concerning visitors. "Not all individuals should be permitted to visit him. Only his closest [friends]," he said.

He said that a prison could be an ideal place for a terrorist prisoner to recruit new members. In the case of Ba'asyir, he said that the chance of him fomenting radicalism was still very strong.

Therefore, he urged the government to imprison its terrorist prisoners in different buildings. "They would have no chance at all to meet each other," he added. (fem)

SBY says Indonesia needs more entrepreneurs

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

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says the nation needs to promote entrepreneurs to create jobs and reduce unemployment.

“People will create new product markets and new businesses by becoming entrepreneurs,” Yudhoyono said at the National Movement for Entrepreneurship [GKN] in Jakarta on Wednesday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

According to the Bureau of Central Statistics, 7.14 percent of Indonesians, more than 8.32 million people, were presently unemployed, Yudhoyono said.

The President said that the government has made jobs creation a priority but would not be able solve unemployment absorbing jobless people into the civil service.

The government currently employs 7.6 million people as civil servants, teachers, lecturers, Indonesian Military members and police officers.

Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Syarifuddin Hasan said that the number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia was very low, accounting for 0.24 percent of the population, well below an ideal of 2 percent.

“Through this [GKN] campaign, we hope that we can motivate more people to become entrepreneurs in the coming years,” Syarifuddin said.