INDONESIA A NEWS

INDONESIA is battling to get aid to remote islands as the death toll from this week's tsunami topped 400 and bodies lay strewn on beaches or in debris. Disaster response officials said yesterday the toll from the wave that hit the Mentawai island chain off the west coast of Sumatra on Tuesday could pass 600. Almost 13,000 people are living in makeshift camps on the islands after their homes were wiped out in the wave triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake. Elsewhere in the disaster-prone archipelago, the region's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, was spewing lava 3.5km down its slopes and raining ash, threatening residents who returned to their homes after an eruption on Wednesday killed 34 people. On the Mentawais, the death toll stood at 408 last night, with 303 people still missing. Officials said up to 200 of these were not expected to be found alive. Injured survivors at an overstretched hospital lay on the floor near an orphaned two-month-old baby f...

Three short years after his death, Indonesia's dictator Suharto has been   nominated to a shortlist to be designated a "National Hero." The final decision   rests with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. and any honors will likely be   announced on November 10, Heroes’ Day. President Obama is scheduled to visit  Indonesia around that date.  After Suharto died in January 2008, Indonesia's former dictator General Suharto   has died in bed and not in jail, escaping justice for his numerous crimes in   East Timor and throughout the Indonesian archipelago. One of the worst mass   murderers of the 20th century, his death tolls still shock... We cannot forget that the United States government consistently supported   Suharto and his regime. As the corpses piled up after his coup and darkness   descended on Indonesia, his cheerleaders in the U.S. welcomed the "gleam of   light in Asia." In the pursuit of realpolitik, U.S. administration a...

Indonesia's Vice President has become the only top official in the country to speak out against rising religious intolerance, calling in a major speech last weekend for the "silent majority" to take a stand against radicalism. Boediono, the respected former central bank governor, who was criticized during the 2009 election for not being a sufficiently devout Muslim, thus presents a strong contrast to other officials, particularly President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who have failed to challenge intolerance and violence. "Once we allow radicalism to take over our way of thinking, it will lead us toward destruction, " the vice president said in a speech Saturday at the opening of the Global Peace Leadership Conference, organized by Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization. "Freedom of expression has been used by certain groups to spread hatred," he added. As Asia Sentinel reported on Oct. 15, religious intolerance ha...

 Illegal forest clearing fires in Indonesia's Sumatra Island are sending haze across the Malacca Strait to neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, causing the worst air pollution since 2006, officials said Thursday. The haze prompted Malaysia to alert vessels in the Malacca Strait of poor visibility as short as two nautical miles and shut many schools. Singapore, covered in thick smoke this week, saw its three-hour Pollutant Standards Index recording rise to an "unhealthy" range of 108 as of 6 p.m. (1000 GMT), much higher than 80 on Wednesday, which was the worst since 2006. The port and international airport are still functioning normally. "The suspicion is that this is coming from forests that have been opened up for plantations. We think it may be for palm oil," Purwasto Saroprayogi, head of the land and forest fires department at Indonesia's Environment Ministry, told Reuters. Saroprayogi said the haze was caused by fires lit to clear land illegally in ...

THE Indonesian leader's rivals have found what they believe to be his weak spots.   INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono finished the first year of his second term yesterday beset by criticism from every direction. The first national leader to serve a five-year term, let alone win a second, since the authoritarian Suharto was forced out in 1998, Yudhoyono still has no obvious outstanding rival or protege to succeed him when the constitution obliges him to retire in 2014. The huge, disorderly nation has politically stabilised under the 61-year-old former army general, whose reputation as a clean-handed democrat has survived six years in one of Asia's grimiest environments. The nation's economy is growing at 6.2 per cent and accelerating. Indonesia is expected to attract a record $US13 billion ($13bn) foreign direct investment this year and is widely spruiked as the next large developing nation to reach BRIC (Brazil Russia India China) status. Under Yudhoyono, I...

Noor Huda Ismail is a one man anti-terrorism squad. The author of Temanku, Teroris? (My Friend, the Terrorist?) is battling Indonesia's Islamist radicals on multiple fronts.   You might find Ismail leaning over a computer screen, teaching a convicted terrorist the finer points of currency trading. You might find him at a prison, trying to smooth relations between guards and inmates, leading a discussion of his book, or doing research for scholars. Asia Times Online caught up with Ismail, a former Washington Post correspondent, at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali this month.   "You can't fight terrorist with guns and bullets, you have to fight them with ideas," Ismail said. "To defeat this enemy, you have to understand them."   Ismail is well positioned to understand the people behind Indonesia's most notorious terrorist attack. He's a graduate of Pondok Pesantren Ngruki, the Islamic boarding that incubated three leading figures in th...

GREENPEACE has told the Indonesian government its Rainbow Warrior vessel has been invited to visit a natural disaster area in politically sensitive West Papua. The ship remained anchored outside Indonesian territorial waters yesterday as officials and MPs wrangled over the government's refusal to allow it to port in Jakarta on Wednesday. West Papua was not listed on Rainbow Warrior's Indonesian itinerary, with Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo telling The Weekend Australian that an invitation from the provincial governor came after the visit application was lodged. Mr Naidoo said Rainbow Warrior had been asked to visit Wasior, where flooding and landslides killed 145 people 12 days ago, by governor Abraham Octavianos Atururi, but would go only with proper authorisation. During a visit on Thursday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denied the Wasior disaster had been caused by deforestation, as claimed by Greenpeace and local NGOs. The...

Last Saturday night, a band of fundamentalist Islamic thugs showed up in the Indonesian town of Sukoharjo in Central Java and broke up a performance of wayang, the iconic Javanese shadow puppetry that is a symbol of Indonesian culture. Throwing rocks and waving machetes, the youths, calling themselves Laskar Jihad - holy warriors - forced the audience out of the performance. Two people were beaten, witnesses said. It was the latest of an escalating series of disturbing incidents across Indonesia that threaten the country's traditional reputation for tolerance, not only for the arts but for non-Islamic religions. Ki Slamet Gundono, a puppet master, said the gang had broken up other performances in the Solo area, threatening audiences and breaking up the shows. Gundono said he only recently learned about the incident from fellow wayang practitioners who were afraid to report it to police. What is more disturbing is that during the six years that President Susilo Ba...

No more Indomie noodles for us? Singapore's Agri Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it is carrying out investigations to ensure that Indomie noodles available in Singapore are safe for consumption. This follows reports that Taiwan has banned Indomie's Mi Goreng. Taiwanese authorities said para hydroxy benzoic acid, a preservative meant for cosmetics, was found in the instant noodles. Singapore's AVA said para hydroxy benzoic acid is not allowed here in instant noodles. Tests have been carried out, but AVA is not initiating any recall at the moment. It said results should be completed soon. Indomie instant noodles are produced by Indonesia's publicly-listed food giant PT Indofood Sukses Makmur.   Source: CNA  

Disaster in West Papua could add to local grievances as aid workers struggle to reach the affected areas. Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 18:03 GMT  Displaced Papuans from Wasior who, like hundreds of others, have sought shelter in Manokwari [AFP]  Relief workers say they are struggling to reach West Papuans hit by heavy flooding in the Indonesian province. Criticisms over tardy relief effort are already beginning to emerge from the region, where relations between the indigenous Papuans and the Indonesian state have long been difficult.  There are fears that a failure to address the humanitarian crisis could add to tensions over the recent killings of indigenous Papuan protesters by the Indonesian security forces in the towns of Wamena and Manokwari. Denny Yomaki, a humanitarian NGO worker, told Radio New Zealand International on Thursday that some of the flood's victims felt the state was not doing enough to assist them. Aid workers told Al Jazeera the dama...

Indonesia continues to enjoy robust growth after successfully averting the global recession these past two years. But whether South East Asia's lone representative in the G20 can become a true regional economic powerhouse hinges on its ability to address some fundamental problems that have hindered it from realizing its full potential. An important sign that the economy is doing well is its exports earning, growing 40 per cent in the first eight months of this year. This expansion is broad-based, coming not only from the mining and energy sectors, but also agriculture and manufacturing. Asia is becoming its main market today: China for coal and India for crude palm oil. Indonesia is also shipping more rubber products, electronics, footwear and car parts. The economy is expected to grow 6 per cent this year, up from 4.5 per cent last year, as Indonesia joins other Asian countries in leading the global recovery. A 7-per-cent GDP growth is within sight next year, even when the glob...