INDONESIA A NEWS

An extraordinary letter apparently written last week by Muhammad Nazaruddin, the former fugitive and onetime treasurer of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, is shaking the country’s politics to the core ahead of 2014 national elections.  The increasingly murky Nazaruddin affair does not augur well for international investors who may have hoped that the country’s rising economic prowess would result in an equally rational political and governmental environment. The letter was made public by OC Kaligis, Nazaruddin’s lawyer, saying in effect that Nazaruddin would shut up about crimes committed by the Democrats if Yudhoyono would guarantee his family’s safety, leading to the obvious if unproven conclusion that the party’s leaders are culpable in as-yet-undisclosed offenses.  Analysts say it smacks of a cover-up that could wreck the part y. Founded in 2001, the Democrat Party came into power in the 2004 national elections, almost solely on Yudhoyono’...

Is the Arab Spring turning into a gloomy autumn? With brutal krackdowns in Syria, a bloody civil war in Libya, and Yemen teetering on the brink of chaos, the number of sceptics is growing.  Although Egypt and Tunisia's pro-democracy movements achieved rapid regime change, uncertainties remain in those countries, too. After a brief period of hope, many observers now wonder whether the region is capable of producing viable, and economically vibrant, democracies.Revolutions and their aftermaths, of course, are always fluid and fickletimes, and the outcome is often perched on a knife's edge. Bridging thevast gap between high expectations and the reality of limited budgets and capabilities is a test in itself. Redressing past injustice and building an economy that offers opportunity to all are major challenges as well, fraught with volatility, uncertainty, and the dangers of political opportunism.But transitions are also times of great opportunity. In the 1990s, I wasamong those In...

Saudi Arabia has shown a gesture of support and friendship to Indonesia by sparing a housemaid from being beheaded and repatriating her to Jakarta. The news comes at a time when a high-powered delegation from Indonesia is holding talks with the officials of the Ministry of Labor here since Tuesday in an effort to work out a compromise formula to boost relations in the manpower sector and to defuse the crisis in the process. This was disclosed by Tatang Budie Utama Razak, director for Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities in Indonesia, on Wednesday. Razak, who arrived with the 12-member delegation from Jakarta to participate in the talks with Saudi officials, confirmed that Darsem Binti Dawud Tawar, 26, arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday morning and was received by her family members, friends and several Indonesian officials. Darsem, from Subang, West Java, was convicted of murder by a Saudi court in 2009 and was sentenced to death for killing her employer, who allegedly...

A 40-year-old West Java villager who goes by the single name Deni has only two children, a considerable change from his own parents. He has seven siblings. He thus illustrates the change that has taken place over the last four decades in Indonesia as the country's family planning program and changing cultural mores have caused birth rates to fall dramatically.   As World Population Day approaches on July 11, Indonesia's extraordinary success in cutting its population growth is a lesson for a world whose total numbers are on course to soar to as high as 9.5 billion by 2050. The key to Indonesia's success has been its National Family Planning Coordination Board, known by its Indonesian initials BKKBN, which worked together with the United States Agency for International Development to produce the results.   The program got underway in the 1970s under the late strongman Suharto who, whatever his shortcomings, recognized that a population explosion could wreck his country. Suh...

Dozens of churches in Indonesia come under attack every year and the country's president is failing to take action to stop it - according to a leading Catholic peace activist who has produced a report setting out the scale of the problem. Since 2006, more than 200 attacks on churches have been recorded by the Indonesian committee on religion and peace under Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian community forum. In a report submitted to Aid to the Church in Need, Mr Bela stated that in the first five months of this year there were 14 attacks on churches and 46 in 2010 as a whole. Mr Bela blamed Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his government for not doing enough to tackle Islamist anti-Christian violence. He said: "President Yudhoyono sleeps if there is an attack on Christian churches. If the president sleeps, so do the police." Mr Bela reported that since Mr Yudhoyono became president in May 2004, there have been 286 attacks on churches,...

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono outlined plans to lift the country's growth rate to a level on par with emerging-market superstars like China, even as the country faces criticism from some economists who believe it is failing to reach its economic potential. In a major speech on Friday to the nation, he outlined what he called a "master plan" to boost investment and lower government barriers to growth, which some analysts say have kept Indonesia from rising to the ranks of the world's most dynamic emerging markets. The plan would push annual economic growth in the world's fourth-most populous country after China, India and the U.S. to between 8% and 9%, he said. Indonesia's gross domestic product climbed 6.1% last year and economists expect it to clock another 6.5% in growth this year. "With strong economic growth, we will reduce poverty and unemployment rates," he said in the televised speech Friday. "It is impossible to achiev...

MUHAMMAD Nazaruddin, the former Democratic Party treasurer who is implicated in a bribery case, fled to Singapore on Monday, Law and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said. 'We have banned (Nazaruddin from fleeing overseas) from May 24, but on May 23 he went to Singapore on Garuda (Airlines),' Mr Patrialis said, as quoted by tempointeraktif. com. The Immigration office received a request from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to ban Nazaruddin from traveling overseas on Tuesday at 6pm. Mr Patrialis said that he did not know if Nazaruddin had returned. Nazaruddin is implicated in an alleged bribery case centering on the construction of a SEA Games athletes' dormitory in Palembang, South Sumatera. The KPK has named Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry secretary Wafid Muharram, businesswoman Rosalinda Manurung and a top executive of PT Duta Graha Indah Muhammad El Idris as suspects.