Joyous atmosphere welcoming Chinese lunar new year in Indonesia

The celebration activities of the Chinese lunar new year has reached high tide when Indonesian Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Watjik opened "Imlek exhibition" in central Jakarta on Thursday as the Chinese Spring Festival draws near.

Since the beginning of this month, colorful decorations have dominated streets, shopping centers and Chinese-Indonesians' houses in welcoming the Chinese New Year, locally called Imlek, in Jakarta and other mid and big cities in the country where joyfulness could be seen everywhere, reports said.

Hanging red lanterns, banners stating Gong Xi Fa Cai (Have a prosperity future), ang pau trees and other ornaments decorate most malls, star-rated hotels and restaurants as people gear up for the Chinese New Year.

The new year celebration period, which could be lasted for about one week in some areas, is a time for family and friends to wish each other the best in life. Children are remarkably happy as they look forward to receiving ang pao, red envelopes containing money. The envelopes are traditionally handed out to younger people by their parents, grandparents and relatives, and even close neighbors and friends.

In the "China Town" area in west of Jakarta, poor people flocked to Buddhist temples in the hope that worshipers will hand them some money, which can also be regarded as ang pao even though it does not come in a red envelope.

In recent years since the celebration of the Chinese New Year was allowed by the government in 2000, the festival is not only enjoyed by Chinese-Indonesians but also by other Indonesians of different backgrounds.

"I like watching the barongsay (lion dance). I even gave it an ang pao," said Icha, a native Indonesian as she enthusiastically talked about the performance.

The dance, usually performed by martial art masters, often highlights Chinese New Year celebrations. Lions symbolize good luck and it is believed that their fierceness scares off evil spirits. The vigorous show is accompanied by musicians playing a large drum, cymbals and gongs.

Just like Icha, many other people also welcome the holiday and become jovial during the festivity while some who have a keen business sense make the best of it to make money. They sell various accessories related to the holiday or traditional food that sells like hot cakes at this time.

Seasonal vendors in West Jakarta's Chinatown, or Glodok, for example, are among those to reap in vast sums of money. Like Andi, 32, who used to sell pirated video compact discs before deciding to sell paraphernalia for Imlek like firecrackers, small and large deng long (red lanterns) and, of course, red envelopes. He sells one lantern for 12,500 rupiah (about 1.3 US dollars) and a string of firecrackers for 35,000 rupiah.

His daily turnover can reach 2 million rupiah and he expects to enjoy a good profit from a total turnover of 18 million rupiah in this year's Imlek.

To mark Chinese New Year, the West Jakarta's agency of tourism and culture will organize a festival in the old town of Jakarta. There will be a procession carrying the Topekong, a statue of a Chinese god, and a performance of Chinese arts like barongsay and the dragon dance. Betawi (the old name of Jakarta) arts will also be on show.

The Jan. 29 parade will be officially launched by West Jakarta Mayor Fadjar Panjaitan.

Before 1999, Public celebrations for Chinese New Year in the country were not allowed due to a regulation issued by the New Order regime. In 1967, president Soeharto ruled that all activities related to Chinese culture and Confucianism, including New Year celebrations, were banned. After Soeharto resigned in 1998, Chinese-Indonesians, accounting for 5 percent of the population were once again allowed to openly celebrate their culture. The government declared Imlek an optional holiday in 2002 and made it a national holiday the following year.

Despite discrimination against Chinese-Indonesians still apparent in some fields, members of the Chinese community now have the liberty to culturally express themselves. They can now read Chinese newspapers, listen to Chinese songs on the radio and watch news broadcast in Chinese on Metro TV.

Source: Xinhua

Vice President Jumps On Anti-Playboy Bandwagon

Jakarta, 27 Jan. (AKI) - Indonesia's vice president Jusuf Kalla has added his voice to a growing row over the publication in Indonesia of the famous American porno mag Playboy. "Here we are not in the US, even in Singapore they have opposed it" said Kalla, defining the launch, due in March, as "an error".

The imminent arrival in the majority Muslim nation of a magazine that made its name by its portraits of naked women, has triggered a row that shows no signs of diminishing. Yet as the moralising continues, local sex shops report a boom in business.Some one thousand members of the so-called Muslim Movement against Vice", chanting slogans, ceremoniously burned bundles of erotic magazines outside the Hotel Indonesia in the centre of Jakarta on Thursday.

It was just the latest in a series of protests since the announcement that Playboy was to be launched in Indonesia. And in recent days, though Playboy is the catalyst, the moral crusaders have widened their scope.

The promise by Ponti Carolus, the director of the local firm that has bought the rights of Playboy, to tone down the contents has not placated various Muslim leaders. Among these, some argue that the arrival of Playboy will lead to the moral decline of the country.

Such attention is unwelcome in Jakarta, where the pornographic industry is alive and well.

First time visitors are often surprised to note local tabloid publications such as Boss, Expose and Dugem, which show semi nude local beauties on their covers and publish articles dealing with domestic abuse, sexual violence and incest.

These magazines, which cost 2,000 rupiahs, (17 US cents) are certainly more accessible to large swathes of the population than Playboy which aims for a niche market that can afford to spend 30,000 rupiah per issue.

That surprise increases when the visitor explores Glodok, the Chinese quarter just to the north of the capital where 'hard core' porn DVDs are on sale for a mere 10,000 rupias (87 US cents) with offers like 'pay for five, get six'.

The moral repugnance of some Islamic groups for Playboy is not shared by many local Indonesian beauties who have in the past graced the covers of soft porn magazines.

The Playboy cyclone arrives in Indonesia as parliament is discussing possible amendments to the pornography law. Among the proposed modifications are deeming indecent - therefore illegal - kissing in public, wearing very revealing clothes, and even dancing the dangdut, the typical Indonesian dance which can be described as a cross between belly dancing and hip hop.

US hands over Indonesian banker to face jail

JAKARTA: An Indonesian banker sentenced to eight years in jail over a 136 million dollars graft case has been handed over to Jakarta by the United States, police said today.

Indonesian authorities had been looking for David Nusa Wijaya, a former director of a small bank that took a government bailout during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, since a court sentenced him in 2003.

Indonesia police chief General Sutanto told reporters Wijaya fled Indonesia in 2004 to live in Singapore but recently faced immigration problems in San Francisco.

Misuse of emergency funds involving the bank, PT Bank Umum Servitia, cost Indonesia 136 million dollars in losses, officials said.

''The first option was for him to go through a legal process in the U S while the second was voluntarily serving time in Indonesia.

He chose the latter,'' Sutanto said, adding Indonesian police had worked with Interpol and American investigators.

Penangkapan David Nusa Widjaya

Sekali-sekali bolehlah kita memberi salut kepada polisi yang berhasil meringkus David Nusa Widjaya, koruptor yang buron ke luar negeri. Inilah untuk pertama kalinya seorang buron kakap, terpidana kasus korupsi bantuan likuiditas Bank Indonesia yang merugikan negara lebih dari Rp 1,2 triliun, ditangkap. Diharapkan sejumlah nama pengemplang kredit Bank Indonesia yang sudah divonis bersalah tapi menjadi buron bisa segera ditangkap, setidak-tidaknya diketahui tempat persembunyiannya.

David divonis Pengadilan Negeri Jakarta Barat satu tahun penjara pada 2001. Setelah dia sempat ditahan Kejaksaan Agung selama sebulan, hakim menangguhkan penahanannya. Pada Mei 2002, David diketahui lenyap dari Jakarta. Dia dinyatakan buron sebulan kemudian. Tim Pemburu Koruptor pimpinan Basrief Arief yang dibentuk pada Februari 2005, dibantu Biro Penyelidik Federal AS, harus melacaknya selama berbulan-bulan sebelum mencium jejak David di Amerika Serikat.

Gebrakan Tim Pemburu Koruptor ini seakan melempar sinyal kepada mereka yang masih jadi buron: ketimbang terus berlari-lari dengan rasa cemas di luar negeri, lebih baik menyerahkan diri. Seperti yang dikatakan Kepala Kepolisian RI Jenderal Sutanto, daripada hidup di luar negeri tidak tenang dan banyak masalah hukum, pulanglah dan menyerahlah. Tim Pemburu Koruptor juga sudah mencanangkan akan menangkap 13 koruptor kakap yang diketahui sekarang berada di luar negeri.

Usaha Tim Pemburu Koruptor perlu didukung dengan usaha diplomatik untuk memperluas kerja sama dengan negara yang diduga menjadi tempat bersembunyi para buron itu. Perjanjian ekstradisi dengan Singapura, misalnya, perlu dipercepat realisasinya. Selama ini sudah ada beberapa kali pembicaraan dengan pihak Singapura. Akan sangat membantu apabila perjanjian ekstradisi itu bisa segera dirampungkan. Dengan pemerintah yang lebih serius memberantas korupsi, tentu pihak Singapura lebih "bersemangat" menyelesaikan perjanjian ekstradisi itu.

Bantuan juga akan datang dari berbagai negara jika pemerintah Indonesia tetap konsisten dengan usaha pemberantasan korupsi ini. Selain dari pemerintah Amerika Serikat, bantuan yang sama diharapkan datang dari negara yang ditengarai menjadi "rumah" yang nyaman bagi para koruptor.

Yang tak kalah penting adalah membenahi aparat penegak hukum, terutama mereka yang punya kuasa menahan atau membebaskan para buron ini. Kita tentu belum lupa bagaimana Eddy Tansil diloloskan oleh para penjaga penjara dan lari entah ke mana sampai hari ini. Ada beberapa nama yang juga diloloskan dengan berbagai cara. Para penjaga serta pejabat yang bertanggung jawab semestinya juga diusut dan diperkarakan.

Akan sangat konyol bila Tim Pemburu Koruptor melanglang buana menangkapi mereka yang bersalah, tapi di sisi lain ada aparat yang makan suap dan diam-diam memberikan jalan agar mereka yang bersalah lari ke luar negeri. Mereka yang meloloskan itu juga harus dihukum berat.

Diterbitkan di Koran Tempo, 19 Januari 2006