Hypocrisy over Playboy in Indonesia

During my 14 years career as journalist with freguent overseas trips, my friends and colleagues prefers to get Playboy and the likes or even magazine with hardcore sex contents than books as gift cause they have limited understanding in reading English texts. But that's not the case anymore in the last few years since Internet has made things easier for them.
That's why I believe the recent debate and immense opposition on Playboy's Indonesia edition has nothing to do with the what so called Indonesian morality in danger. Internet has been the main source as it is much cheaper than buy the magazines. On top of that, people could get sex videotapes easily. Anyway...It is interesting to follow up the debate and most importantly comments appeared in the media...
Chairman of Fatwa (ruling) Committee at Indonesia Ulemma (Moslem Cleric) Council (MUI) Mr Mar'uf Amin is quoted by Tempo saying, "if it's true that the content of the magazine (Playboy) would be good, it's better to change the name to Good Boy."

Mar'uf was responding the denials from Indonesian publisher of Playboy that the local edition won't be similar with the US edition, no nude pictures, and no pornographic contents. MUI and other organizations, including Indonesian Gospel Association, rejected the publisher's plan. Indonesia-born Playboy model Tiara Lestari wrote in her blog about her opposition as well.
Meanwhile noted ulemma and former president Abdurrahman Wahid (popular as Gus Dur) said, "don't ask me about that. I never bought Playboy, so I never read that."
Petitiononline.com has registered 6,201 people who rejects the publication and 1,631 people support Playboy.
Meanwhile, Press Council stated that it has no authority to ban the publication. The publisher said they're going to start the audition of playmate for the first edition that would hit the newsstands by March.
How about the cabinet members?
Minister for Youngster Affairs Adhyaksa Dault (from Partai Keadilan Sejahtera) claimed 52 organizations had sent letters to oppose the publication, while information minister Sofyan Djalil admitted he was in a dilemma. By law, he could be jailed two years for banning the distribution of any media publication. Wow! Anyway, who gave the license in the first place?
My advice for Playboy publisher: Tell people that "We're going to publish a magazine with contents similar to FHM Indonesia edition or local brands like Popular or Matra. If you reject Playboy, you should reject FHM, Popular and Matra as well. These magazines publish vulgar sex contents just like Playboy."
"How about vulgar sex contents in the Internet that have been accessed easily by million of Indonesian surfers daily?"
Hopefully we're not hypocrits.
As for me, I do believe Playboy would pose a big threat to newspapers, including my newspaper Bisnis Indonesia, and magazines in getting advertisements. Imagine that respected publications like Tempo or Republika are in big financial problem as steamy publications gets more and more advertisers. Rule of the game in the traditional media business is: Without advertising, you're dead! I might have to move to Playboy someday for a better salary.

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Honeymoon is over for Boediono

It's almost two months as the coordinating minister for the economy, Dr Boediono has been warmly responded with a stronger rupiah against the greenback, higher stock market index, a lower inflation rate, and new hopes of economic stability and progress.
But being in the post is not just dealing with monetary and fiscal policies, things that earned him so much respects. Boediono, a conservative economist, is confronting some non-monetary and fiscal issues that needs tough decisions and highly sensitive politically.
Huge unemployment due to relatively limited new investment and high-cost economy is the most critical of all especially when so many industries announced mass lay-offs for various reasons, including the planned electricity tariff hike.
From the fiscal perspective, Boediono might choose to raise the tariff as it would ease the burden on subsidies given to state-owned monopolist PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN). But rasing tariff this time around would risk higher unemployment as most industries and consumers have not absorbed completely the step fuel price hike in October 2005.
State-owned telecommunication company PT Telkom has submitted a plan to raise the telephone tariff up to 30%. (FYI, Telkom booked almost US$1 billion profit last year)
Budget pressure might be higher this year as the country should resume payments of its sovereign loan after one year of break following the Paris Club decision to give the room for Indonesia to cope with the major burden aftermath of the tsunami.
And, while the significant decrease in fuel consumption managed to loosen pressure on budget from high oil price in the last two months, people starts to worry the global oil supply might push the price to the sky amid political development in Nigeria, Iran, and Palestine.
But it's just unfair to raise electricity and telephone tariffs just months after the fuel price hike for the sake of budget balance.
Despite the macroeconomy stability in the last few months, net inflow of capital for fresh investment is still bare minimum. Why? Investors are waiting Boediono's firm decision on several pending issues confronted by major players that normally seen as benchmark.
Indonesia Mining Association (IMA) recently warned government to improve the investment climate in the sector with providing business and legal certainties under the system of contract of work.
PricewaterhouseCoopers cited in its recently published report that even though there has been a significant increase in global exploration spending, exploration spending in Indonesian mining industry remains at low levels, accounted for less than 1.5% of the global spending of US$3.8 billion in 2004.
The recent downtrend in exploration activity can be attributed to the country's lack of legal certainty, security concerns in some remote parts with good mining prospects, and rampant illegal mining.
Few weeks ago I met an executive of Merril Lynch. He believes Boediono could improve the macroeconomy stability. But that's not enough. "We have concerns on some issues like ExxonMobil's project in Cepu. The settlement on Cepu would be a benchmark whether investors want to invest more or pull out and invest in other countries," he said.
The giant oilfield project that needs US$2 billion is yet to start pending the endless dispute between Exxon and Pertamina over who should be the operator of the block.
Little progress has been made in infrastructure projects despite major campaign to lure in foreign investment. Most of toll road projects went to some powerful local business groups. China investors had committed to build some huge powerplants with limited progress.
Textile industry is in a critical situation due to stiff competition with other countries in export market while more and more cheap import garments enter the local market.
An evaluation by the ministry of industry found that half of the machinery at textile companies was more than 15 years old, causing inefficiency and lowering the price competitiveness. A major revitalization program is badly needed and awaits immediate help from government to make use the already committed cheap Japanese loans.
Timber-based industry would continue its downward trend. Last year, 64 furniture firms were closed down due to increasing costs and lack of timber following the government's decision to lower the logging quota for natural forests and the failure in timber plantation program. As export will unlikely to grow, domestic market has been increasingly flooded by imported furnitures. Last year, total furniture imports jumped 78%.
Meanwhile plywood producers in South Kalimantan predicted mass layoffs on 11,800 workers by first semester 2006 due to various problems.
The synthetic fiber manufacturers had announced late last year their plan to layoff 9,000 workers until this year. Some 2,000 workers had been out of the job last year due to fuel price hike, the industry association said.
Bomer Pasaribu, former minister for manpower, predicted up to 1 million workers would join the already 12 million people categorized as open unemployment. That would be a nightmare.
According to Central Bank's statistic, in third quarter 2005, net inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) was only US$53 million, dropped from US$2.17 billion in second quarter. The numbers were well below the data announced by Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) that FDI jumped 190% to US$8.9 billion last year. Central Bank's data is more reliable as it recorded the true inflow of capital. BKPM's data should have make more jobs than layoffs.
So, Dr Boediono, it's nice to have you back on board to stabilize the macroeconomy, but that's just not enough. People needs job. We need to invite more investors to create jobs.

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When the president feels the press freedom has gone off the mark

No doubt! President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) won the 2004 election, part of it, due to media’s power and ‘support’ to deliver the manufactured political realities. Should the incumbent president Megawati Soekarnoputri curbs the just-recently acquired press freedom, people wouldn’t aware that SBY was rarely invited for important cabinet meetings anymore that boosted his popularity. It was media’s reports that gave the image of SBY as a victimized leader, which deserved sympathy.

It was the media who portrayed SBY as a polite, cool, and smart leader. He was exposed as a handsome general that attracted huge female voters and a pop star like that magnetize youngsters.

SBY reaped the result of the media support with his unanimous win over Megawati. He thanked the media for so many times in his early days in office.

But the honeymoon was just so short. Local media stepped up criticism of the President’s ministerial choices, which they said sent out poor signals, especially with the appointment of businessmen with record for running up huge debts.

Media criticism intensifies when the administration misses most of targets set out for the first 100 days in office. SBY had promised to make major achievements in cracking down on corruption and crime. But the government failed to transform many of its lofty words into actions and had to scale back some of its promises.

SBY was able to take on the criticism. On February 9, 2005, Indonesia’s Press Day, the President promised that his new government will not try to curb the independence of Indonesia’s media, considered one of the freest in Southeast Asia.

That time, Indonesian journalists' association had accused SBY's government of trying to muzzle the media with a bill that would make it a crime to offend top leaders or dispute undermine the country's guiding doctrines. But SBY said, "The government I am leading has no intention at all to limit or curb the freedom of the press.”

Is it?

Actually, little has changed under SBY. Three months later, two journalists from Koridor Tabloid, chief editor Darwin Ruslinur and reporter Budiono Saputro, were sentenced to nine-month prison sentences for defamation. In December 2004 former general manager of the Yogyakarta daily Radar Jogja received a similar sentence for defamation.

In response to the Koridor Tabloid verdict, IFJ President Christopher Warren wrote to SBY on May 9, 2005, expressing concern about the setback this verdict posed to the cause of press freedom in Indonesia and reiterating the demand that the Indonesian government remove defamation from its Criminal Code.

Media praised progress in the issue of corruption despite the fact that cronies and corrupt business leaders, especially those linked to the family of ex-president Soeharto, are untouchables and they knew pretty sure that they wouldn’t be prosecuted.

Criticism heightened with the government’s decision to lift the fuel price by more than 128%, high inflation rate, and depreciation of rupiah, the country’s currency, that leads to a cabinet reshuffle. SBY’s indecisiveness is often become easy target of criticism, including his slow response to the public outcry over the reshuffle.

But it seems that he can’t take that anymore. Below is a script of a report from someone who attended the dinner meeting with SBY in KL’s Indonesian Embassy on December 14, 2005 under the title: Media democracy has gone off the mark…(www.iagi.or.id)

He was answering a complaint on how difficult for Indonesian expatriates in Malaysia to get the news from their home country via satellite.

“Well, don’t compare with media democracy in Malaysia only. Even if you compare to liberal democratic countries like US and Europe, the scale of democracy in Indonesian media is already surpass US. This is what we called an off the mark democracy.”

SBY went on saying that an ambassador described the news in Indonesian media have just too liberal and gone off the mark. He quoted the ambassador’s simple statistic that most of stories were about bad things the government had done and only few were about good things.

The President also concluded that media reports on illegal workers in Malaysia were overblown.

Wait a minute! US Congressman Robert Wexler from Democrat Party is nominating SBY to receive Nobel Peace Prize this year for his role in Aceh aftermath of the tsunami and the peace process with Free Aceh Movement (GAM) (isn't it strange that VP Jusuf Kalla, who worked hard on the peace process and the main target of media criticism) and democratic direct election in 2004 (well, Megawati deserved to get an award too, as she was the incumbent and has every power to make that happen).
I believe Wexler decided to promote SBY to the Nobel Committee simply based on media reports that overrated the president and government in the last 12 months or so. So, it must be a great irony if the committee will give the prize to a man that wants to curb the freedom simply because he feels the heat of media criticism. I believe the president has gone off the mark with the recently announced regulations on broadcastings!
Mr President, in a democratic country, media and politics normally have a kind of love and hate relationship. Live with that.

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State agencies should fix wrong website address

Web domain tells something. Common practices tells us that .edu or .ac for education, .gov or .go for government agencies, and .com for companies. So it is totally wrong to have website addresses of independent state agencies with .go.id in Indonesia.

Indonesia's House of Representative (DPR) which is one of three pilars of democracy along side the government and judicial system has website address www.dpr.go.id give an impression that DPR is part of government. The The Supreme Court has the address of www.ma-ri.go.id, totally wrong domain.

Bank Indonesia, the central bank, is an independent agency. In the past Bank Indonesia was part of cabinet, but that's not the case anymore. So they have to change their address www.bi.go.id. Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is also an independent state agency but their address is www.kpk.go.id.

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) is surely not a government agency but their address is www.bpk.go.id.

Military institution (TNI) is right to have www.tni.mil.id as their address since TNI is not a government agency, it is a state agency.

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Under siege, President SBY throws down the gauntlet

The controversy over rice import has put president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono under siege as the House of Representative (DPR) decided to move forward with the investigation. The President tried to throw down the gauntlet with his decision to summon 11 ministers from various political parties two days ago.

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US Business Heavyweights are in town, the long wish list

Representatives from 20 heavyweight companies under the US-ASEAN Business Council are in town for a week. The delegation met this week a wide range of government officials including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, VP Jusuf Kalla, Coordinating Minister for Economy Boediono, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu (most of them studied in US, except VP Kalla), and Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa.
The group's formal statement on the objetive of the mission is its continued commitment to Indonesia and preparing a message for the international investment community that Indonesia is growing in its importance as an international investment destination for major American companies.

Why are they here? What are their expectations? Below is my version of their wish list when they meet government officials.

1) Boeing: Sell more airplanes to beat Airbus. The almost bankrupt carrier Garuda Indonesia had signed a US$ 2 billion agreement which focuses upon the development and modernization its fleet through operations of 10 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners and 18 Boeing 737 New Generation series. These new airplanes will be part of Garuda's fleet by 2011. By that time, Garuda might not exist anymore, as government is preparing to sell up to 49% shares.

2) BP: We're confused of the partition of Papua into two provinces at the time we're preparing to build the US$3 billion Tangguh LNG plant in Western part of Papua. We also don't want to repeat our neighbor Freeport McMoRan's mistake to pay the military for protection of the project. Please give us advise!

3) ConocoPhillips: We're going to keep our working interest in Malacca Strait gas field (we don't want to sell it to other parties like our partner Exxon which started the divestment last year) as long as the government is willing to give better deal (50%:50% split on gas output, change the current 60% for government and 40% for contractor scheme).

4) McDermott International: We have been appointed as the main contractor of Tangguh LNG Plant. Well, in the past we had a very good relationship with Mohammad 'Bob' Hasan, Soeharto's golf buddy. We had to cut the relationship for few years as he lived behind the bars. But he is a free man now, so...Or we're thinking of a possible cooperation with engineering companies like Bukaka (VP is the founding shareholder).

5) ExxonMobil: We're fed up with endless dispute over 1 billion barrel of oil reserves in Cepu Block. First of all, you signed the MoU in June appointing us as the operator, but now Pertamina insists to operate that for first five years, then our turn, rotating system for 30 years. Besides, you just splitted up the 10% PI into four local administrations (Central Java, East Java, Bojonegoro, and Blora). It means we have to deal with four administrations should we'll be the operator. Please give us good advise.

6) Freeport McMoRan: The recent report on our payments to military officers in the past few years to protect the gold and copper mine had cost our future while we're afraid of fresh attacks to our facilities in Papua. We paid US$1 billion since 2004 in royalties, taxes, and military expenses. Could you please make a new arrangement for the military? We are in big trouble here as now the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) constituted our payments to military as graft.

7) Microsoft: Let's cut a deal. We'll give your offices heavy discounts on legal computer software in exchange of a promise to purchase authorised Microsoft merchandise in the future and launch a major crackdown on a pirated software racket that is believed to be one of the world's worst. Your word is your bond. We had discussed the proposal that emerged from a meeting between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and our founder Bill Gates in Seattle on May 2005.

8) GlaxoSmithKline: As the largest vaccine producer in the world, we're planning to complete tests for a bird flu vaccine within the next two years. We heard that our competitor Baxter had cut the deal with Indonesia's ministry of health affairs to produce the vaccine locally in a cooperation with Biofarma, the state-owned company. Is there any possibility that we could get the deal?

9) General Electric: We had invested US$300 million in the country and hold 12.5% shares in Paiton Energy. We heard that the government is planning to raise the electricity tariff by 30% this year. It would be great if PLN could afford to buy our power supply at higher tariff as well.

Oops! We have limited time here as we're entering the next meeting with China business delegates. Members of China delegates are CNOOC (competed with Chevron to acquire Unocal, BP's main partner in Tangguh LNG Project), Petrochina (competing with ExxonMobil to control Cepu Block, one of Pertamina's main partner and is working on a refinery project in Tuban, East Java), Lenovo (acquired IBM's PC business), Huadian Group (planning a giant coal-fired power plant in South Sumatra), and Qian Yuan Hao Biological (exporting vaccine flu to Indonesia) among others.

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Electricity tariff hike

It’s almost certain that next month the country’s electricity tariff would be hiked significantly to save the loss-making state-owned monopolist PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).
The House of Representative (DPR) could prevent the hike if they agree to allocate more subsidies for PLN in the 2006 state budget. But if the already approved allocation of 15 trillion rupiah subsidy is maintained, electricity tariff could increase by minimum of 30%.
PLN simulations in October 2005 stated that a 29% tariff hike should be implemented if the company received 21.68 trillion rupiah of subsidy and a 39% hike at 12.98 trillion rupiah of subsidy.

Why PLN needs subsidy? The company argues that it should sell power below the production cost while oil and gas should be paid at market price. In contrast with Pertamina which claimed net profit of more than US$1 billion last year, PLN booked total loss of almost US$600 million in the first half of 2005. PLN’s overdue payments to Pertamina have reached US$600 million.So, here’s the deal, PLN said. “Give us subsidised oil and gas, the electricity tariff hike would be smaller.”

But BUMN Watch, NGO that specialized in monitoring (?) state-owned enterprises, said today that consumers should reject the tariff hike as PLN’s performance is poor, rampant of corruption and mark-ups. One example, BUMN Watch raised the question on police's ignorance over a report on mark-up power plant project in South Sumatra that cost the state of around 100 billion rupiah (US$10 million) in loss.

Imagine that the investigation is not going to happen before the next electricity bill arrived at your door. A 30% electricity hike could cause a severe blow to energy-intensive businesses as they can't easily pass on the higher production costs to consumers.

Cement producers have warned consumers of a gradual increase in price this year as energy makes up 40% of production costs. Electricity alone makes up 20% of cement's production costs.

Textile producers are facing massive layoffs this year as energy costs accounts for almost 30% of production costs in spinning factories and 18% in the weaving factories. That's one thing, cut costs. They would surely pass on the electricity tariff hike to consumers.

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Playboy takes on Indonesia politics

As Playboy describes Indonesia as a dynamic and exciting market, the country's politic is heated up ahead of a plan to publish local edition of the magazine. Politicians, religious groups, social experts, and sex educators are debating fiercely on the magazine's strong pornography image even though the publisher promised there will be no nude photos.

Pornography is illegal, but widely available. That's a fact. For Him Magazine (FHM), Playboy's competitor, is a hit. We could easily buy the magazine from street vendors. There are also Indonesian magazines such as Matra and Popular with similar contents. For sure, competition in the man magazine whould even more stiff whenever Playboy hit the newsstands in March.

So what's all the fuss over Playboy?

Fahri Hamzah, deputy secretary general of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS), Islamic-based party and one of key allies of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, warned government to prevent the publication of Playboy. (But the publisher claimed he had secured the license already. Who gave the license? Department of Law and Human Rights for the company's license, Investment Coordinating Board for investment license, and others)

But PKS member in the house commission VIII Yoyoh Yusroh said as long as the design of the magazine will not like the US edition, Playboy could be published. "But if the design will be the like of US edition, I will lead people to the street," she said to Detik.com.

Dim Syamsuddin, Chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second-largest Moslem organization in Indonesia, urged government to take stern action to prevent social conflict.

Masdar Farid Masudi, executive at Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Moslem organization, argued against the publication of Playboy, saying the magazine is not relevant with the country's effort to get out of the crisis. "Indonesia needs information that could motivate people to get out of the crisis," he said.

But there are people who tend to accept the publication with certain conditions. "With strict distribution, only those who mature enough could buy the magazine," said Sirikit Syah, founder of Media Consumers Institute (LKM) Surabay, East Java as quoted by Republika.

Who is the publisher anyway?

M. Ponti Corolus is the publisher and director. Mr Corolus told Banjarmasin Post that he was deputy secretary general of Partai Demokrat (the party of president SBY). But the party executive denied the claim. Wow!

Last year, Indonesian model Tiara Lestari (photo, some called her the South East Asia's Naomi Campbel) made headlines as cover girl and posing nude for Playboy on August 2005 edition. And just recently Balinese was shocked with two girls, Diah and Putu, posing nude for XXX websites.

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Indonesia names UBS, JP Morgan, Barclays as lead managers for global bond sale

The government has named UBS, Barclays and JP Morgan Chase as the lead managers for its global bond issue this year, the Finance Ministry's director general for the state treasury, Mulia Nasution, said.

That would be the first time for Barclays to sell Indonesia government global bonds and the second for both UBS and JP Morgan. The size and timing of the bond sale have yet to be decided, but the proceeds will be used to help cover the state budget deficit and refinance maturing bonds.
Last year the government sold 2.5 billion US dollars worth of global bonds. On October 6, 2005, Indonesia government sold USD 1.5 billion in dollar-denominated global bonds comprised of USD 900 million in 10-year bonds at a yield of 7.6% and USD 600 million in 30-year bonds at a yield of 8.6%. The 10-year and 30-year bonds have a spread of 3.3% and 4.1% respectively over comparable US treasuries. Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston and Merrill Lynch were the lead managers.
In April 2005, Indonesia issued global bonds at the amount of US$1 billion matured 2015 with yields 7.435/7.323 percent. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and UBS Investment Bank were the lead managers for the transaction.
Indonesia reentered the international market in March 2004 with the issuance of US$1 billion worth of global bonds with coupon rate of 6.75%. JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank were the lead managers.
The government's foreign debts which will mature in 2006 will total 91.71 trillion rupiah (US$10 billion), comprising principal debt of 63.69 trillion rupiah and interest of 28.02 trillion rupiah. Domestic debts or government bonds which will mature in 2006 will reach 74.93 trillion rupiah. They comprise 26.32 trillion rupiah in principal debts and 48.61 trillion rupiah in interest.
The nation's total foreign debts in March 2005 reached 1,282 trillion rupiah or 52 per cent of the gross national product. They include foreign exchange debts of 624 trillion rupiah and debts in the rupiah of 658 trillion rupiah). Of the total debts, 647.7 trillion rupiah consist of state bonds, domestic state bonds of 624.2 trillion rupiah and foreign bonds of US$2.4 billion.
Last year, Paris Club of creditor nations offered an unconditional freeze on debt repayments for Indonesia, the Seychelles and Sri Lanka to help them rebuild their ravaged coastlines after the tsunami that struck on Dec. 26, 2004. Without the debt waiver, Indonesia would have to pay more than US$3 billion in principal alone last year.
Late last month, the finance ministry decided on debt management strategy, that in order to lessen the burden, government should carry out re-profiling (lengthening the maturity of payments).

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Overcrowded prisons!

While analysts warned property developers of an apparent oversupply of retail space in Jakarta as the new malls keep cropping up, the country’s space for prisoners is in a seriously overcrowded condition. Indonesia’s penitentiaries are only have the space for 70,000 inmates, while number of prisoners already soared to 90,000.

Indeed it is a good business for construction companies. I predict the total investment of US$200 million to build new penitentiaries to level the least space needed for every prisoner.
The Bekasi Penitentiary in West Java, for example, is home to 1.198 prisoners, way above its capacity of 350 people. The Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta has the capacity to hold 750, but currently the number of prisoners live there at 4,200. Imagine how they live in such a situation.
Results of HIV tests recently conducted in Indonesia's penitentiaries showed that 24.5 percent of inmates in the capital Jakarta are HIV-positive, along with 10.2 percent of prisoners in Bali. An increase in the number of intravenous drug users (IDUs), sharing dirty syringes and unsafe sexual practices, particularly sex between male inmates, are some major factors behind the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia's 400 penitentiaries.
But not all prisoners live in severe condition like that. Tempo Magazine in its editorial in May 2002 regreted of how high-profile inmates like Tommy Soeharto (youngest son of former president Soeharto) lives a normal life with his secretary comes every day bringing in the flowers, music, new suits, and business reports for review. Tommy run his business empire from a special room in the penitentiary.
In fact, he built a badminton court inside the Batu Penitentiary on Nusakembangan Island off the south coas of Java Island with the help of fellow inmate Bob Hasan (Golfing buddy of Soeharto, been released). The prison chief said in 2003 that the funds to build the court came from Tommy’s Humpuss business group. For sure, big guys like Tommy live in 'suit rooms' and that's a huge business for those who let that happen.

And as the country intesifies investigation on corruption, narcotics, gamblers, and terrorists, we desperately need more spaces for the incoming inmates. We managed to put businessman Probosutedjo (I don't know whether he got the suit room already) behind the bars. We're waiting the execution of 43 members of West Sumatra legislators.

Department of law actually started to build dozens of new penitentiaries since 2001. But last year The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found fishy deal between the department and contractors in two projects, Salemba and Cipinang, with total cost of 131 billion rupiah (almost US$14 million) during 2001-2004 period. BPK found the direct appointment of contractors without proper bidding in those projects were against the law. No investigation yet. Isn't that beautiful if those involved in the mark-up penitentiary projects live behind the bars?

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Blaming foreigners

The Central Bank, Bank Indonesia, is going to limit the employment of expatriates at middle management levels by banks except in posts still unable to be filled by Indonesians.

The reason?
"Among the economic problems we are now facing and have to overcome in the coming years is unemployment which is now reaching 12 million people. In this case, I appeal to banks controlled by foreign investors to help overcome the problem," argued Burhanuddin Abdullah, the central bank governor on Friday.
Well, if we take a serious look at the number of expatriates in the banking sector, it is increased, but I'm afraid that has nothing to do with the massive layoffs in the real sector which was the main cause of high unemployment rate in Indonesia.
The Central Bank Regulation No. 7/25/PBI/2005 issued in August 3, 2005 is one of the measures taken to 'protect' the banking industry from influx of foreign bankers. Under the regulation, foreign bankers should pass the risk management certification test conducted by Risk Management Certification Body (BSMR).
BSMR Chairwoman Gayatri Rawit Anggreni, a director of state-owned PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk, admitted the test is one of the weapons to protect local bankers from increasing number of foreign bankers work in Indonesia.
The first test was conducted in December 2005 on 1.700 bankers with the result of almost 1.060 passed the test, others failed including some foreign bankers.
The Central Bank opened up doors for foreign bankers through its regulation in 1998 that allow public banks whose shares are partially owned by foreign parties to place foreign bankers as members of the board of directors and the board of commissioners with the requirement that a minimum of one member of the board of commissioners and directors is an Indonesian citizen.
The Central Bank also accused banks controlled by foreign investors are being slow in chanelling loans while they hold 48.51% of the total assets in the national banking industry compared to the state-owned banks at 37.45%.
Out of the country's 131 banks, 41 are controlled by foreign investors in branches of foreign banks, joint venture banks, and foreign-dominated national private banks.

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The Berkeley Mafia, Boediono, & Liddle's lost of translation?

Last week, professor William R. Liddle wrote an article in Tempo magazine tittled Boediono's Offering.

The Indonesianist from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, US, started the article with question (or accusation?) whether the reshuffled cabinet of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a reincarnation of the famous Berkeley Mafia?
His answer was yes. Both Professor Widjojo Nitisastro from University of Indonesia, once the capo of Berkeley Mafia and Professor Widjojo adalah mahluk Orde Baru yang otoriter...The sentence could be interpreted as follows: Widjojo is an authoritarian creature. It is true that Widjojo was key economist in the New Order regime. It is also true that New Order was an authoritarian regime. But I'm not sure if Widjojo is an authoritarian.
Another fatal statement is...Audiens Widjojo adalah Soeharto, literally means Widjojo's audience was Soeharto. It is true that Soeharto was authoritarian president. But I'm not sure if Widjojo's advise was to serve Soeharto's interest only.
Unfortunately, I have no chance to meet both Widjojo and Boediono to ask their comments. But I'm sure Liddle's article was based merely on his political perspectives without in-depth analysis and observations. Besides, Liddle should spend more time to learn Indonesian bahasa (language).

Some noted members of The Berkeley Mafia are:
1) Those who got PhD from the University of California at Berkeley:
- Professor Widjojo Nitisastro (Berkeley 1961)
- Professor Emil Salim (Berkeley 1964)
- Professor Ali Wardana (Berkeley 1962)
- Professor JB Sumarlin (Berkeley
- Professor Barli Halim (Berkeley 1959)
- Professor Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-jakti

2) Non-Berkeley alumni:
- Professor M. Sadli (MIT)
- Professor Boediono (Pennsylvania)
- Professor Subroto (Harvard)

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Medco's Tiaka Field to reach 4,000 bpd this year

PT Medco Energi International Tbk is targeting oil production of 4,000 barrel per day at its Tiaka oil field in Senoro-Toili Block, Central Sulawesi.
Tiaka has started its production in July 2005 with initial production of 1,200 bpd. Early January 2006, production has reached 1,850 bpd and after additional drilling on production wells, it is expected to reach 4,000 bpd by the end of 2006. The company expects that the peak production from Toili field would reach 5,000 bpd.
Tiaka oil field is located in Senoro-Toili Block, 15 miles offshore of Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi. Medco acquired the block in March 2000 from ARCO (currently BP) as a production sharing contract joint operating body with Pertamina (PSC JOB).
The PSC JOB has 30 years term which will be epired in December 2027. The working areas in the Senoro-Toili Block are divided into Senoro Area (onshore) located in Banggai Regency and Toili Area (offshore) located in Morowali Regency.
As certified by Gaffney, Cline & Associate at the end of 2004, the proved and probable oil reserves of Tiaka fields as of January 2005 were 8 million barrels of oil. The Toili field would bring Medco's total oil production to approximately 80,000 barrel per day.

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Indonesia oil reserves increased slightly 2005

Indonesia's oil reserves increased slightly in 2005 by 134.6 million barrels from the early year at 8.17 billion barrels. Proved reserves, meanwhile, was only 4.187 billion barrels, down from 4.3 billion barrels in 2004.
According to the data released by Indonesia's Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Body (BP Migas), even though the working areas increased significantly by 32% last year, the oil discovery was relatively small.
Oil production average at 1.061 million barrel per day (bpd) was also below the target of 1.075 million barrel per day. Mature and depleted oil fields contributed to almost 88% of the total output. With natural production reduction from these depleted fields at 5% to 15% per year and without significant new discoveries, Indonesia's oil output would further decrease in the coming years.
Meanwhile Indonesia's crude oil export reached 157.51 million barrels lasy year, decreased significantly from 178.87 million barrels in 2004. The country imported 126.18 million barrels of crude oil in 2005, also decreased significantly from 148.49 million barrels in 2004.

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The Rice Politics in Indonesia

Rice, Indonesia’s staple foods, has always been a a political tinder box at any time and the most sensitive commodity. The first president Soekarno was ousted because of skyrocketing rice price, among others. His successor, Soeharto, realized how important the rice that he spent most of his time dealing with rice. He was ousted in 1998 after in the last years in power he spent too much time to deal with family businesses.

Indonesian dependence on imported rice has been moving upwards since 1995. The total rice import grew from 3 million tons in 1995 to 7 million tons in 1998 and 5 million tons in 1999 to increase subsidies to the vulnerable group. Since 2002, Indonesia has been the world’s largest importer of rice.

But recent developments indicated the impact of imported rice to the domestic rice price and the downward pressure to paddy price at farm level. That’s why, early last year, government banned import of rice to support farm gate prices. It has been a political issue since the government reopened the import late last year.

Rice also always a good business for politicians. During Soeharto years, the state agency dealing with rice (Bulog) was the cash cow for Golkar (the dominant political party) and the military. Remember how the fourth president Abdurrahman Wahid was ousted because of Bulog case (Buloggate I)? And how Akbar Tandjung (chairman of Golkar and The House Speaker) almost live behind the bars on Buloggate II?

Ever since Bulog’s operations commenced in May 1967, it has been an important ‘incubator of state tutelage’ (as Richard Robison once put it), aiming to promote private business that would help the state and cronies of power holders.

Late last year, the cabinet was apparently split on the rice import issue and contributed to further ‘breakup’ in the relationship of president SBY and vice president Jusuf Kalla. Kalla openly supported the import, while SBY tend to quietly oppose it. Minister of agriculture Anton Supriantono (from Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS) strongly rejected the import and tried to have legislators (DPR) rally behind him. Minister of trade Mari Pangestu (economist), however, argued in favor of import saying that would secure the food security and control the inflation. Fellow minister Aburizal Bakrie (that time as coordinating minister for the economy) also supported the import. Bulog Chairman, Puspoyo Wijanarko (from PDI-P), for sure, is in their side.

How about the parliament?

Most members opposed the import. Just few days ago, 103 members waged a plan to use their budget right to question the president over the issue, while 34 members plan to use their other constitutional rights.

The Jakarta Post reported that signatories of the petitions were legislators from the opposition factions, including PAN, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP) the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). (I think The Post inaccurately put PKS as opposition party. In fact, PKS is one of government’s key allies)

No members of the ruling Golkar and the Democrat parties joined the movement.

Several legislators presented their proposals to the House leadership after the opening of the third session on Thursday, which was marred by frequent interruptions over the issue.

"We smell possible political and business interests in the decision on rice imports," legislator Cecep Rukmana of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said.

VP Jusuf Kalla quickly respond the petition with brand new accusation that some parties are trying to politicize the issue. But government’s respond also political. Department of Communication announced today that the imported rice would not be sold to the market. Well, I have to say this is a political move. Rice is not gold that could remain the same for a long period of time. Keeping the rice for few weeks would result in worthless rotten rice. Why we import (buy) the rice if we want to keep it for a long period of time?

Who gain the most out of the imported rice?

Government argues it is the consumers at large. But others suspects it only satisfies importers. Who are they? Some says those businessmen close to the government and Golkar Party. I do hope Bulog would disclose the names in detail.

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Cleaning up the President's bad aura

As the cabinet is preparing to polish President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's image with the establishment of some websites, a Javanese cleric today conducted the second cleaning up of the president's bad luck in a ritual called ruwatan.

KRH Darmodipuro, an expert in Javanese calendar who conducted the ritual in Solo, Central Java said today that endless misseries faced by the country (tsunami, floods, avian flu, bombings etc, I suggest) have something to do with the president's bad aura he inherited right from his early life.

Javanese rituals are so varied and distinctive. Amidst this ethnic diversity, one that is known by most people to eliminate the ill-fated destiny of someone's future is Ruwatan sukerta, or more simply Ruwatan. The word Ruwatan comes from word ruwat meaning free, the suffix -an changes the word into a noun, so Ruwatan means the action of making someone free or clean from dirt, unluckiness, impurity, and filth.

According to Darmodipuro, who also the chairman of Radya Pustaka Museum in Solo, SBY born on Friday Kliwon, September 9, 1949, fall into wuku Bala according to the Javanese beliefs. Those who born in the Wuku bala normally have bad lucks.

"Ever since he was elected as the president, our nation entering endless misseries. Tsunami, floods, fires, airplane crashes, landslides etc that cost human lives. These have something to do with the presiden't wuku. He needs rituals like this," Darmodipuro said.

The first ruwatan on SBY was conducted in June 2005 following the Aceh tsunami. Why SBY needs another ruwatan? "Because the misseries stay with us still," he said.

For those of you who want to know more about the ritual, take a tour to www.ruwatan.i-p.com. See, even such ritual has the website, far ahead of the cabinet's plan to clean up SBY's image through websites.

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Half-hearted on Excelcomindo

After months of critics on the initial public offering (IPO) of the third largest cellular company PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk, its major shareholder (Telekom Malaysia) finally pledged to float more shares to public investors.

Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) president director Erry Firmansyah told the press today that Telekom Malaysia sent a letter on Wednesday (January 11) to float 100 million Excelcomindo shares pending on market's apetite to absorb.

The 100 million shares equals to 0.014% from Excelcomindo's total shares of 7.137 billion and that would make the total floating shares of 0.07%.

As of December 31, 2005, Telekom Malaysia through its wholly-owned subsidiary Indocel Holdings controls 56.92% shares of Excelcomindo, followed by Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Malaysia government's investment arm) at 16.81%, PT Telekomindo Primabhakti 15.97%, and Asia Infrastructure Fund 10.14%.

Excelcomindo entered the stock market through public offering of 1.427 billion shares or 20% of its total outstanding shares on September 29, 2005. Just days after the listing, the number of shares owned by public investors dropped significantly to 0.16%.

For sure Excelcomindo is not the only listed company with such low percentage of floating shares as a result of half-hearted efforts from the stock market authorities. They're just focus on whether such companies already met the technical regulations, but they missed the whole idea of stock market as an economic democratization tool.

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Li Ka-shing boosts oil & gas investment in Indonesia

Husky Energy Inc, a Canadian-based energy and energy-related company controlled (34.6%) by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-hing, recently announced its plan to invest C$75 million (US$64.2 million) to develop its Indonesia’s Madura Strait exploration. It seems small compared to the company’s total spending of C$2.2 billion for the whole 2006.
But the Indonesia investment is more than half of its total investment in international market at C$140 million and well above its China and East China Seas investment of C$57 million.
Husky’s Madura Strait block is located in the East Java Sea about 40 kilometres northeast of the island of Java and covers an area of 2,794 square kilometres.In October 2004. Husky purchased its partner's 68.6 percent interest in the production-sharing contract (PSC) to obtain 100 percent ownership of the block at US$50 million.

Two natural gas fields have been discovered on the block. The larger of the two gas fields, Madura BD, has probable reserves of 212 BCF of natural gas and 12.2 million barrels of natural gas liquids. Husky anticipates that an additional 303 BCF of natural gas and 10.8 million barrels of natural gas liquids resources within the same field will be reclassified as probable reserves.

The MDA field has discovered resources of 150 BCF which could potentially be produced into the East Java gas pipeline.

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Indonesia's trade balance: What's wrong?

Early last week, Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistic (BPS) announced the country's 18.98% export growth in the period of January-November 2005 against the same period in 2004. That's good!
Import grew 26.8% in the period, however, to make the overall trade balance a surplus of around US$4.6 billion. Not bad!
But when we look deeper into the numbers, Indonesia's trade performance is not as good as it seems. Look at the oil and gas sector. Oil and gas export, contributed around 22.5% of Indonesia's export, grew by 21.53% to US$17.38 billion. Import on this particular sector, however, jumped 52.59% to US$16.07 billion. Yes the country still booked positive balance of US$1.3 billion. But the surplus has been shrinked from US$3.8 billion in January-November 2004.
Natural gas export saved the day with net balance of US$8.2 billion. But the oil balance is worrysome. Indonesia's oil export revenue was only US$9 billion, while its import reached US$16 billion, leaving the country in a negative balance of US$7 billion in oil products. The reason is clear. Indonesia's oil output has been stagnant at slightly below 1 million barrels per day, dropped from around 1.4 million bpd few years back, while domestic consumption has grown to around 1.4 million bpd.
The non-oil and gas trade balance is also in trouble. It is true that non-oil and gas booked trade surplus of US$23.3 billion in the January-November 2005, increased significantly from US$19.3 billion in the same period 2004.
But it was not a result of better competitiveness of manufacturing sector. It was mainly a result of higher energy price. Coal export revenue, classified as non-oil and gas product, grew 176% in the January-November 2005 to US$4.16 billion. Mining products also booked export revenue of US$2.96 billion, jumped 181%.
Crude palm oil was also the major contributor for the country's trade surplus with total export of US$4.39 billion. Other agriculture product, rubber, is the second largest with US$3.14 billion. That's it. Electronics were doing good with total export of US$6.66 billion. But don't expect good news from textiles, shoes, automotive, steel, chemicals, plastics, or other manufactured products. Indonesia clearly needs to revive those sectors immediately.

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Medco acquired 25% Jeruk Field

PT Medco Energi International Tbk, through its wholly owned subsidiary Medco Strait Services Pte, has entered into a Jeruk Project Agreement with Singapore Petroleum Sampang Ptd (SPC) and Cue Sampang Pty Ltd to share in an aggregate of 25% economic interest which encompass the cost and revenue in Jeruk Field, East Java. The agreement was signed on January 4th, 2006, with total value of US$21.18 million.
With the acquisition, Medco become the second largest shareholder in Jeruk Field after Santos (45%), followed by SPC (21.8%), and Cue (8.2%). Jeruk Field is a development field, located in Sampang Block, East Java province.
The previous two drillings indicate that Jeruk Field contains high hydrocarbon. In 2005, 3D seismic survey was performed in the field. Processing and interpretation of the survey are expected to be completed in early 2006. Additional wells have been planned for 2006 to determine the full potential of the Jeruk discovery.

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Inco temporarily suspend groundwork of a dam project

PT International Nickel Indonesia Tbk (Inco) announced late last week that it will temporarily suspend the groundwork at the site of its planned new dam at Karebbe on the Larona River, Sulawesi Island, pending the receipt of certain forestry related approvals amending the existing permit issued by the ministry of forestry.
This dam project is part of Inco's long term plan to increase its annual production capacity to 200 million pounds of nickel in matte by 2009. Last year, the company was targeting total output of 165 million pounds of nickel in matte.
The dam is expected to raise Inco's hydroelectric generating capacity by 33% annually, or 90 Megawatts, while reducing energy supply in years of low rainfall. Currently PT Inco's energy source is a combination of hydropower and fossil fuel power generators. It operates two dams, the Larona and Balambano. Larona has three generators at 67 MW each, while the Balambano has two generators at 68.5 MW each. The fossil fuel power generators only have combined capacity of 48 MW.
Inco reported in October the unaudited sales of US$219.4 million in the third quarter 2005, a 5.8% from US$232.8 million in the same quarter 2004. Net earnings in the quarter ended September 30, 2005 were US$73.2 million, down 16.8% from US$87.9 million in the same quarter 2004. Inco Limited, Canada, owned 60% shares of PT Inco with processing units in Soroako, Sulawesi Island.

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Indosat buyback: What the heck?

Ever since Indonesia government officers announced the plan to buyback shares of telecommunication giant PT Indosat Tbk from ST Telemedia, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, its price has been jumped significantly at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX). In the last few days, the shareholders have gained almost 8% increase. And that would make the buyback even costlier for the state.
The cost estimation was 12 trillion rupiah (almost US$1.25 billion) for 40.77% shares owned by ST Telemedia, doubled the government's income of 6.6 trillion when it sold the shares to ST Telemedia three years ago. It means that in three years, ST could make profit of 6 trillion rupiah, while Indonesian government would incure loss of the same amount.
The 12 trillion rupiah budget was for 5,300 rupiah per shares of Indosat. As the price goes up to above 6,000 rupiah, government would need additional 1 trillion rupiah. Bisnis Indonesia reported on Saturday that investment bankers in Singapore even heard of a possible buyback price at 6,400 to 7,000 rupiah per shares. That would translate to an additional of 3 trillion rupiah that the government should pay.
ST Telemedia surprisingly rejected the offer saying it would maintain the shareholding in Indosat. Responding the rejection, government officers went on with another statement that it would buy the shares from public investors on top of its 14% shares in Indosat.
Why in the first place would the cash-strapped government willing to sacrifice such huge amount of loses ahead of a plan to sell majority shares of flagship carrier Garuda Indonesia?
The simple answer was that Indosat is a strategic company from various aspects, including the national security of information. Indosat is seen as a profitable company as well. Buying back the shares would resume government's control over the company.
I remember government's reason behind Indosat divestment three years ago about the company's huge debt and hungry of fresh capital. In fact, the company's debts to equity ratio increased significantly from 41.5% in September 2004 to 51.2% in September 2005. Debts to EBITDA ratio also jumped from 178.6% to 224.5% as the margin slightly reduced to 57% from 59% in the same period.
As of December 2005, Indosat's cellular subscribers totaled 14.4 million, exceeding its 2005 target of 14 million. "Indonesia's cellular market has tremendous growth potential because of the low penetration level," Hasnul Suhaimi, president director of Indosat said.
Only 19% of Indonesia's population of 220 million own cellular phones, providing considerable room for growth. Analysts expect penetration this year to increase to 25% in 2006 and 35% in 2007. Even with such growth potentials, the profit margin of the business would significantly shrinking due to stiff competition.
Two major telecommunication player from Malaysia have entered the market. Maxis Communications acquired Natrindo and Telekom Malaysia controlled Excelcommindo, the third largest cellular player. Other groups, Sampoerna Family and Sinar Mas Group, are also preparing big investment in the sector.

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The Black Magic & Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Campaign

On July 4, 2001, Indonesia’s Attorney General Baharuddin Lopa died of a heart ailment in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. That was the formal statement from the State Palace. But the then-minister of defense, Mahfud MD, said that time, Lopa and his predecessor realized that their positions were vulnerable to possible poisoning or black-magic practices. This was a reference to Indonesians’ belief in the mystical powers, for good or evil, possessed by dukun (witch doctors). The evil witch doctors are called dukun santet.

Some newspapers that time hinted at black magic in their obituaries on Lopa. Who did that? Nobody knows.

The corruption charges against former president Soeharto were to be Lopa’s priorities. He believed in 1999 that he needs two of documents that the attorney general to drag Soeharto into court. Two weeks before his death, Lopa, as a crusading and incorruptible lawyer when he served as secretary general of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), told a hearing with the House of Representatives that he would pursue several major cases concerning human-rights abuses in East Timor and several banking-corruption cases.

On Thursday, January 4, 2006, Special Prosecutor heading the Anti-Corruption Team Hendarman Supandji, claimed that he was the target of black magic campaign. He accused of those inflicted in the corruption case of Hilton Hotel’s use of state-owned land in Jakarta that cost the state of 1.7 trillion rupiah of loses.

“My bed was full of death maggots (belatung in Indonesian language),” Hendarman told the press after reporting the progress in anti-corruption efforts to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

While he was claiming of no fear on such black magic campaign, Rakyat Merdeka reported on Friday that Hendarman was sick due to higher blood pressures. “I’m exhausted,” he said.

Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh responded the black magic campaign saying he was ready to challenge those witch doctors. “We’re not afraid of santet. We will move on with our drives to eradicate corruption,” he said yesterday.

In the Hilton Hotel case, president SBY had signed an approval to investigate the governor of South East Sulawesi Ali Mazi. Mazi hired by PT Indobuildco, the owner of Hilton Hotel, to process the land title for Hilton.

Two key figures of Golkar Party, the largest party in Indonesia’s parliament, Mr Pontjo Sutowo (president director of Indobuildco) and Mr Mahadi Sinambela (former minister for sports and youngster affairs), have been summoned in the case.

High-profile names like Ali Sadikin (former governor of Jakarta), Ali Rahman (former minister of state secretary during Abdurrahman Wahid administration) and Muladi (former minister of state secretary during BJ Habibie administration), have also been questioned over the case.

Hilton is one of cases being investigated by Hendarman’s team. While people generally praised the team’s drive on anti-graft campaign, critics said it is applying selective approach on the President’s enemies even though the team has been told to move against friends, colleagues, and family relations as well.

Former Assembly Speaker Amien Rais, for example, criticized the prosecution of small-time corruptors while big-fish are untouchables. PDI-P, the second largest party in the parliament, also felt that it is being targeted.

Analyst from Andalas University, Saldi Isra, wrote a column last month titled Tebang-Bilih Berantas Korupsi (literally means Selective Cutting in Corruption Eradication) saying there are too many cases shown of how the process of investigation and execution of verdicts have been discriminative.

He pointed the case of General Election Commission (KPU), Haj Funds, and 43 members of West Sumatra legislative council. Execution of Probosutedjo, a businessman and half-brother of former president Soeharto, only takes two days after the Supreme Court reject his appeal. It’s already six months after the Supreme Court rejected the appeal from 43 members of West Sumatra legislative council, but they are free still.

In the KPU case, the chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin had been convicted, some executive members had been prosecuted but other former members (Hamid Awaluddin, the current minister of justice and human rights and Anas Urbaningrum, the head of political department at Partai Demokrat, the party that promotes president SBY) are untouchables.

Attorney General immediately prosecute the KPU whistle-blower Khairiansyah of receiving US$1,000 from the Haj Funds, but did nothing on the long-list of receivers. It is good to show people the equality before the law in Khairiansyah’s prosecution, but it also confirmed of how easy to catch small-time thieves whilst leaving big-time corruptors enjoy their freedom. There are 12 fugitive corruptors embezzled trillion of rupiah each presently evading arrest.

The black magic issue clearly boosted the image of Attorney General’s Office so as to remind people of the same threats that cost Lopa’s life. But we do hope that the black magic issue was not designed to divert the issue of equality before the law, politically motivated prosecution, and impartiality in the execution of law.

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Indonesia 2006: Bomb, floods, and foolish games

We started the year 2005 with tsunami in Aceh and Nias that killed thousands of people, leaving the whole country in a tragedy that needs years of rehabilitation. The year was ended with a bomb with high explosives went off at a traditional pork market on Jalan Pulau Sulawesi, Maesa village, Central Sulawesi at about 07:00 local time on Saturday, December 31.
A police bomb squad also found another bomb in the same location which had not been detonated. The bomb blast killed seven people and injured 54 others.
We also started the year 2006 with missery. Flash floods swept away houses and schools in Jember, East Java, killing at least 57 people. The death toll would rise.

Villages were inundated when overnight rains triggered a landslide on a hill in Panti, a subdistrict of East Java province, and forced a river to break its banks.Hundreds of people sought shelter from the surging waters in mosques and boarding schools.

Heavy tropical downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia. Deforestation in the surrounding of Panti is being blamed for the flash floods. Under the influence of Australia Cyclone, rain comes with high speed wind of 80 km per hour.
But Indonesian rupiah is traded in a stronger value against the greenback yesterday, below the 9,830 level, despite analyst prediction of a weaker rupiah this year at 10,750 on average.
The economy is expected to grow below 6.2% as previously predicted, including when the minister of finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati was the chairwoman of The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). She retracted her statement though. She said the 6.2% growth target would be difficult to be reached.
House member from National Mandate Party (PAN), Dr Dradjad Wibowo, started the year torpedoing the newly installed coordinating minister for the economy Dr Boediono.
Dradjad told reporters at the House Building here Monday that the government should not sell the state sovereignty by accepting the condition of diplomatic immunity revocation in seeking for foreign debt rescheduling.
Dradjad made the statement responding to the report that Boediono as the Finance Minister sent a letter to the foreign minister on June 30, 2003 informing that he has signed an agreement for debt rescheduling with Paris Club and non-Paris Club countries.
The signing of the debt rescheduling agreement has violated Law No.24 year 2000 on international agreements as the Finance Ministry has never asked the House of Representatives for the ratification of the agreement, according to Dradjad.

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