INDONESIA A NEWS

Arief Budiman, the recently retired Professor of Indonesian Studies at the University of Melbourne, was a student activist in Indonesia in the 1960s and 1970s. Like many in the student movement at the time, he initially supported the New Order. Arief moved to Australia in 1997 after being blacklisted for his critical analysis of Indonesian politics in 1996. Why did you decide to support Suharto? It was 1963 I think when Bung Karno made a speech in which he officially banned the Cultural Manifesto [a declaration by a group of writers and intellectuals rejecting Sukarno's leftist cultural policies]. He also condemned those who he felt were pro-West, like Sutan Takdir Alisyahbana. Up until then we didn't have a problem with Bung Karno. He was a hero of Independence, a brave man, and someone who could articulate the aspirations of the nationalist struggle. But the banning of the Cultural Manifesto meant I wasn't allowed to write. We opposed Bung Karno, and he became increasingl...

Karsih Binti Ocim Parni, a 33-year-old Indonesian woman, turned up at her country's embassy yesterday very much alive. This may have surprised some who read reports in the Indonesian press in January that Ocim Parni had been executed in Riyadh. "The Indonesian Embassy, in fact, launched a hunt for the maid after the report of her execution first carried by the Antara news agency," said a spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy here yesterday. Ocim Parni and her employer Ali Muhamad Idris Al-Siri met embassy officials yesterday to fact check the reports that said she had been executed.Embassy officials say that the relationship between the maid and her employer is normal. "This worker from Pangaritan village in the Karawang District of Indonesia is alive, healthy and happy," said the embassy spokesman, pointing out that the woman does not desire to return to Indonesia and wants to continue her employment in the Kingdom.The source of the false report is unknown.In an...

The state attorney team from the Attorney General's Office (AGO) is of the opinion that the assets of Suharto's beneficiaries can be included in the list of guaranteed confiscation in the Supersemar Foundation civil case. According to Yoseph Suardi Sabda, one of the attorneys from the AGO, it can be the responsibility if the foundation's assets are insufficient to meet the claim's value. "The AGO can include it by a request during the trial," he said in Jakarta last Saturday (2/2). Before confiscating the guarantee, said Yoseph, the state attorney will make the effort to monitor the assets of Suharto's beneficiaries. "The monitoring can be performed and the permit can be requested by replacing the position of defendant Suharto," he said. "So that if there are liabilities to paid, it won't be constrained. ."According to a civil law expert from Padjadjaran University, Isis Ikhwansyah, confiscating the assets of Suharto's beneficia...

Police plan to name new suspects in the case of the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib by June at the latest, a former member of the fact-finding team for the case said Monday.Usman Hamid, former secretary of the team, said after a closed meeting with the National Police crime investigation division that police promised they would investigate everyone linked to the high-profile murder. "The new suspects were mentioned earlier in the trials," Usman told reporters. "The division's chief (Gen. Comr. Bambang Hendarso Dhanuri) promised us the investigation wouldn't stall at Pollycarpus and that they would go after the mastermind of the murder," he said. Usman, together with former deputy chief of the fact-finding team Asmara Nababan and former members Hendardi and Kamala Tjandrakirana, attended the closed meeting with the police to pave the way for the investigation into intelligence officials linked to the case. Usman said the team hoped all parti...

U.S. President George W. Bush is poised to deliver his annual budget request Monday, proposing US$186 million in bilateral assistance to Indonesia in 2009, including some $16 million for military funding.The total amount is, as reported by the Associated Press, down $4 million from 2008, but the military aid level remains roughly the same. For 2008, Bush asked for and received $15.7 million for foreign military financing to help Indonesia "promote defense reform and improve maritime security, counterterrorism, mobility and disaster relief capabilities" . Military analyst Ikrar Nusabakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said Sunday the figure was not unusual and would simply maintain Washington's military cooperation with Jakarta. "Regardless of some haunting human rights issues and still overshadowed by Bush's terrorism policy, the requested amount is a peanut," Ikrar told The Jakarta Post. Besides, he added, Washington had to have learned that...

Indonesia is hosting the second session of the conference of the State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) from Monday to Friday this week at the Bali International Convention Center. Some 1,000 officials and activists from 120 countries are participating in the event aimed at creating a better international system to jointly fight corruption. The Jakarta Post's Abdul Khalik talked to Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda on how Indonesia can play a role in the conference. Question: Have we submitted our self-assessment checklist on our compliance with the UN Convention Against Corruption and what weaknesses have we spotted in our battle against corruption? Answer: Yes. Together with the checklist, we have even submitted our gap analysis on the laws and legal institutions we have and the requirements under the UNCAC. What needs to improve is our law on corruption as it deals only with corruption in the public sector, and is without provisions for corrupti...