INDONESIA A NEWS

Despite a government ban on sending domestic workers to Malaysia, some labor placement agencies are continuing to send their workers to the neighboring country, Yunus Yamani, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Labor Exporters, told the Jakarta Globe on Friday. "The government has put us in a difficult position. We have thousands of workers ready to be sent to Malaysia, with their passports, visas and even tickets to fly," he said. "I demand the government give us a solution to this issue. We can't just immediately stop the process." Yunus refused to name the companies that are still sending domestic workers to Malaysia, but Rusdi Basalamah, vice chairman of the Migrant Worker Service Company Association (Apjati), said that up to 100 workers departed for Malaysia on Friday. "Today [Friday] there are 60 to 100 workers flying to Malaysia, and how can you stop them if they have signed working agreements?" he said, adding that he was yet to receive a...

INDONESIA's controversial special forces, which are trained by Australia, have been accused of new human rights abuses in the troubled province of Papua.In a report by US-based Human Rights Watch, off-duty members of the elite Kopassus branch of the Indonesian army are said to have tortured and abused Papuans. The claims coincide with a rise in reported violence in the province and a visit this week by presidential candidate Jusuf Kalla to the resources-rich but services-poor region. The report documents the claims of several residents in the town of Merauke, southeastern Papua, who say they were beaten by plainclothes soldiers in Kopassus headquarters. Under a memorandum signed in January by Australia's Defence Force Chief Angus Houston and his Indonesian counterpart, Djoko Santoso, Kopassus troops are among those trained by Australia's military. The report calls on Australia, the US and other countries to reconsider their military co-operation with Indonesia. Military spo...

Indonesia - A country not known for its transparent practices in business, politics and many other areas, Indonesia is pressing ahead in its long-running anticorruption drive by opening up cashier-free "honesty cafes" across the archipelago. During a break at a high school here one recent morning, Selica Erlindi, 15, a 10th grader who wants to be a pediatrician, picked a drink and a bag of spicy cassava chips from the local honesty cafe's shelves. Then, in keeping with the cafe's goal of nurturing probity among its customers and society at large, she deposited, on the honor system, the equivalent of 60 cents inside a clear plastic box. "This motivates us to be honest," Selica said. "Especially since there is a lot of cheating in class, at least we're learning to be honest with money. I think it's also important for society because corruption is a big problem in Indonesia."As part of a national campaign led by the attorney general's offi...

Formal campaigning for Indonesia's July 8 presidential election began on Thursday with incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono seemingly on track for a resounding victory thanks to the country's robust economy, his clean image and the lack of a credible challenger.Most polls put the former general on at least 60 per cent support, with his predecessor, Megawati Sukarnoputri, in the upper teens and Jusuf Kalla, the vice president and third contender, in single digits. About 15 per cent of the 176m voters remain undecided.Victory is secured by winning more than 50 per cent of the total votes and at least 20 per cent of the vote in half the 33 provinces. If no one fulfils the criteria the top two candidates will compete in a September run-off.Kevin Evans, a Jakarta-based analyst, believes: the worry for Mr Yudhoyono "is that everyone thinks he is going to win and so his supporters stay at home".This complacency could stem from Megawati's limited appeal, said Mr Evans. ...

JAKARTA's sophisticated set has a joke about why Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will win the presidential election next month - and it has nothing to do with his handling of the economy or his leadership skills.It's all about sex, and how to win the female vote. Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, who is going head-to-head with SBY for the top job on July 8, has the catchy campaign slogan "Faster! Better!" This attempts to underline the slow progress after five years of Dr Yudhoyono's careful hand, and to show Mr Kalla would leap out of the blocks to get things done. But the affable and considered Dr Yudhoyono, the wits point out, will have women falling over themselves to tick his box next month with his simple directive: "More! More!" Marital relations have been a key element of the campaigning, even if only as part of the noisy rhetoric of secondary groups such as the moderately Islamist Prosperous Justice Party. This party declared its members were likely to favou...

An anticorruption court has to be rescued by lawmakers, some of whom it seeks to put in jail Since its inception in 2002 as a part of Indonesia's reformasi movement in the wake of the fall of the strongman Suharto, the country's Anti-Corruption Court has amassed an amazing record.It is now faced with the end of its tenure, with its legislative mandate due to run out in December. If it is allowed to continue, it will say a great deal about the direction in which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will take the country after he is expected to be re-elected, either in July or in September if there is a runoff against one of his two presidential opponents, Megawati Sukarnoputri or Jusuf Kalla. The Corruption Eradication Commission, which was set up under the same legislation to investigate and try cases in the anti-corruption court, has never lost a single case. Relying on powers that truly can be called draconian, including warrantless wiretaps and other law enforcement tools, it ...

Indonesia needs to bring inflation under tighter control and scrap policies that restrict spending in order to consolidate its nascent economic recovery, the International Monetary Fund has advised after its annual review of south-east Asia's largest economy. But the IMF praised the Indonesian government and central bank for their response to the global financial crisis and raised its estimate for economic growth this year to 3-4 per cent from 2.5 per cent. Thomas Rumbaugh, the IMF mission leader, told the Financial Times that sound policies and a stable political environment had helped Indonesia attract comparatively more foreign capital as the global risk appetite had picked up.However, he cautioned that the fortunate timing of April's five-yearly legislative elections also played a role in the country achieving 4.4 per cent growth, year on year, in the first quarter of 2009. He said the 1.6m candidates and 38 parties injected enormous sums into the economy at a time when the...

The Asian Development Bank approved on Wednesday a $1bn standby loan to Indonesia, as the country puts together a $5.5bn (?3.9bn, £3.4bn) package to bolster its ability to navigate the global financial crisis.The loan came as Bank Indonesia, the central bank, cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to a four-year low of 7 per cent to stimulate growth after inflation reached a 17-month low of 6.04 per cent, year-on-year, in May. Miranda Goeltom, acting central bank governor, told the Financial Times room for further cuts existed because inflation for 2009 is expected to be around 5 per cent and inter-bank lending is starting to pick up after months of little activity. She declined to specify the time or size of the cutsAnalysts say the developments reflect Indonesia's sound economic management and resilience compared to most other countries in weathering the downturn.The ADB loan is part of a public expenditure support facility. The World Bank has assigned $2bn to it, Japan $1.5bn...