INDONESIA A NEWS

Indonesia has announced a two-year moratorium on rainforest logging in return for up to $1bn in aid from Norway, which will help preserve forests. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, made the announcement on a visit to Oslo, the Norwegian capital, on Wednesday. "We will ... conduct a moratorium for two years where we stop the conversion of peat land and of forest," Yudhoyono said at a joint press conference with Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, a day before an international deforestation conference started in Oslo. The Norwegian aid to Indonesia will come from a fund that Oslo set up to fight deforestation around the world. Together with Brazil, Indonesia boasts one of the world's largest rain forests, which function as global "lungs" that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The country, however, also accounts for a large portion of the world's deforestation, especially on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. According to Greenp

Top Indonesian politicians and officials led by Vice President Boediono, seem to have finally discovered that there is a link between energy pricing and energy shortages and they appear to be making a renewed commitment to rational pricing. Indonesia is short of gas because investors have been reluctant to bring badly needed investment capital to the industry. Information is sparse and often poor for bidders seeking to develop oil and gas fields. There are also political and economic uncertainties over gas pricing policy, as when the government suddenly imposes a domestic obligation on a specific gas field. The government has lacked commitment so far to building downstream infrastructure, preventing gas from being delivered to domestic customers. This can even result in the government suddenly insisting that gas from the long-stalled Donggi-Senoro gas field in central Sulawesi be for reserved domestic users, thereby discouraging investors who had presumed international gas

Departing finance minister says goodbye to a nearly empty House of Representatives Sri Mulyani Indrawati, arguably Indonesia's most respected public figure internationally, was given a rude sendoff as Finance Minister Thursday by the House of Representatives, with most opposition legislators either being absent or boycotting her presentation of the 2011budget. Sri Mulyani is due to join the World Bank as a deputy director on June 1. The walkout by members of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which failed to appear in the House entirely, and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) was a piece of political theatre ostensibly connected to a House investigation into the former finance minister's role in bailing out the midsized Bank Century during the global financial crisis of 2008. But in fact, rather than driving Sri Mulyani out over corruption charges, most of the house seemed to be breathing a sigh of relief because President Susilo

Tribespeople in West Papua have pinned their hopes on David Cameron helping their campaign for independence from Indonesia. Posters of the Conservative leader have been held aloft in villages across the province following news of his arrival in Downing Street in the wake of the coalition agreement. Mr Cameron has been feted by many of the one million indigenous inhabitants of West Papua after a meeting last year with their exiled leader Benny Wenda, who was granted asylum by Britain in 2003. The province covers the western part of the island of New Guinea, with the eastern half being Papua New Guinea. Following independence from Dutch colonial rule in the 1950s, it was handed over to the UN but was formally annexed by Indonesia following a 1969 referendum whose legitimacy was subsequently marred by allegations of coercion. The Free Papua Movement, whose campaign for self-determination is supported by most of the indigenous population, is outlawed in Indonesia. Mr Wenda fled

INDONESIAN militants planned to assassinate U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit to that country next month, reports claim. Militants also planned to kill Indonesia's president and foreigners in a Mumbai-style attack during national day celebrations in August. Reuters said an intelligence expert close to the police investigation into the militants said books and documents found in raids since February suggested they planned an attack on Obama. "They did not say it but this was evident in their books and documents that the leader of America was their enemy and should be attacked whenever possible," Mardigu Wowi Prasantyo said.. Reuters reported another intelligence expert said last year militants planned to attack Obama's motorcade with snipers. London's Daily Telegraph, citing police sources, also reported that militants planned to assassinate Obama during his mid-June trip "although this was not officially announced." Meanwhile, Indonesian polic

Indonesia is facing a long-term energy shortage that may well be worse than anybody envisions at the moment, and appears to be doing little to face the needs. Despite lip service to a green future, the latest long-range projections from the Ministry of Mines and Energy show growing dependence on coal, rising from 36.5 percent now, to 52 percent in 2025 and 86 percent by2050. Thus the future will likely be black, or coal will have to be greened. What has happened to all this renewable energy we are supposed to develop? The number of gigawatts (GW) or bundles of 10,000 megawatts (MW) that Indonesia will need to install only for the Java-Madura- Bali area system run by state power firm PLN is projected to rise from 36 GW in 2010 to 94 GW by 2025, leaping to an astounding 519 GW by 2050. After 2025 demand for power is expected to grow geometrically, requiring an increase of 8 GW per year until 2030; 10.5 GW per year until 2035 and 15 GW per year up to 2040. As of 2008, only 65 percent of I

AS NEWS spread of the shock departure of Indonesia's reform icon and finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, this week, one senior markets trader in Jakarta gave an almost despairing view of the country's prospects of overcoming its entrenched culture of corruption. ''It's just a massive task,'' he said. ''It like brain surgery. No, it's more difficult. It's like you have to alter Indonesia's DNA.'' The assessment was a touch uncharitable. In everyday interactions, Indonesians are almost unfailingly honest and gracious. The problem arises when they join the country's institutions that are beset with corruption. From the legislature to the judiciary, and the Tax, Customs and Immigration departments - graft and bribes are common. Those wanting to work in these places will often have to pay up to get an entry level position and then spend the rest of their careers trying to recoup their investment, sometimes outlaying

Indonesian stocks fell sharply, the rupiah weakened and bond yields rose Wednesday on the news that Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati,the most important reformer in the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is leaving to become one of three managing directors of the World Bank. An official with the International Monetary F+und prior to joining Yudhoyono's government, Sri Mulyani was a principal architect of reformasi, Yudhoyono's stuttering campaign to clean up corruption in a country making its slow but tortured way up the rankings of Transparency International' s global corruption perceptions index. Indonesia is now ranked 111th of 180 countries. Among other measures, she closed Indonesia's notoriously corrupt customs agency, a major impediment to companies importing and exporting through the country's ports. She fired dishonest officials and raised bureaucrats' salaries in an attempt to clean up corrupt practices. Just this week,

The number of women leaving the archipelago, legally or illegally, has been steadily climbing over the past decade, according to the National Authority for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers. An estimated six million Indonesian woman - some 90 percent of all Indonesian migrant labourers - are now working overseas, according to the authority. Most go to the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Jordon and Qatar, with the rest are in Asia Pacific, including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Many Indonesian villages are left with a shortage of women. Men, such as Edin in Cimanggu village, in a rural farming community on Java Island, sometimes assume the role of a single parent for years at a time. "It's very difficult. I have to be very patient to raise them. The grandparents cannot take care of them, so it's only me," said Edin, who has two teenagers. His wife worked in Saudi Arabia for almost seven y