Muhammadiyah tells Muslims to strengthen solidarity during Idul Fitri

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 08/29/2011 1:24 PM

The chairman of Indonesia’s second-largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, has urged Muslims to use Idul Fitri as a time to improve and strengthen social solidarity.

“Idul Fitri is a time to tighten brotherhood and to foster our affection toward others,” Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said Monday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Din also asked every member of Muhammadiyah to prepare their Idul Fitri prayers well and coordinate with others who would celebrate Idul Fitri on the same day, so that their prayers run smoothly, accordingly to Islamic teachings.

Muhammadiyah has declared that Idul Fitri falls on Tuesday.

President tells military to lift its game

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/21/2011 3:12 PM | National

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) said Friday that Indonesian soldiers must obey the rules and military discipline.

“I instruct the Indonesian Military Commander to impose serious sanctions on soldiers who break the rules and disciplines,” Yudhoyono said at a meeting with the Indonesian Military chiefs in Jakarta.

He said that he was concerned about the violations committed by soldiers, including the torture of civilians in Papua.

The violations and misdemeanors, even though they seemed small in scale, had tarnished the image of Indonesia among the international community.

“The United Nations, Europe and the United States were concerned about those incidents,” he said.

“The most important thing is to resolve the incident transparently and accountably.”

To prevent similar incidents from occurring in future, Yudhoyono called on military chiefs to provide troops with training before deploying them to conflict areas.

During the meeting, which was attended by 135 military commanders, Yudhoyono ordered the military chiefs to pay more attention to law enforcement and human rights, peacekeeping and the fight against terrorism.

Bakrie Life tells customers ‘no guarantees’

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 12/27/2010 10:54 AM | Business

Bakrie Life says it can not guarantee whether it will return its customers’ investments.

“We are trying to figure this out as quickly as possible,” Bakrie Life director Timoer Susan said Sunday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Previously, the company failed to return funds invested in its life insurance-based Diamond Investa investment product, Rp 360 billion (US$39.96 million).

The management later promised to return its customers’ principal investments plus interest.

The company said it would begin to make repayments in March, with 25 percent returned in 2010, another 25 percent in 2011 and the remainder in 2012. It was scheduled to make four installments a year, in March, June, September and December.

However, so far the company has only paid two installments of customers’ principal investments, in March and June. Bakrie Life still has a debt of Rp 290 billion.

Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) chairman Fuad Rahmany said his office had urged Bakrie Life stakeholder Bakrie Capital to inject funds into the ailing company so it could pay its obligations to customers, but said he could not force it to do so.

Fuad only suggested customers file a lawsuit against the firm.

“If not, legally speaking, no one can force shareholders to pay. Bapepam has been stagnant,” he said. The action of violating a promise, Fuad said, could be prosecuted in a criminal or civil liability case.

According to Bapepam’s insurance company division chief, Isa Rachmatawarta, PT Asuransi Jiwa Bakrie (trading as Bakrie Life) had satisfied the necessary criteria for the agency to revoke its business license. However, until last week the agency had not done so.