Bomb Blast Targeted Christian Indonesian

By ABDI MARIThe Associated Press

PALU, Indonesia -- A bomb ripped through a crowded meat market in an Indonesian province that has been plagued by sectarian violence, killing at least eight people Saturday and wounding 45, officials said. Many of the victims were believed to be Christians.

The bomb went off in a slaughterhouse that also sold meat directly to the public in the town of Palu on Sulawesi island. It was packed with people buying pork for Saturday night's New Year celebrations, said Brig. Gen. Oegroseno, the police chief of Central Sulawesi province.

The bomb appeared to be a homemade device, he said, loaded with ball bearings and nails to maximize the number casualties.

"The explosion was so loud, I couldn't hear for a couple of seconds," said Tega, a resident who lives nearby and uses only one name, like many Indonesians. "I ran out of my house and saw bodies lying around."

Television footage showed police carrying bloodied bodies into ambulances. One man, apparently unhurt, was holding his head in his hands and screaming. Hospital workers and intelligence officials said at least eight people died and Oegroseno said another 45 were wounded.

Authorities had repeatedly warned in recent days that al-Qaida-linked terrorists were plotting attacks in Indonesia over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, prompting the government to deploy thousands of troops to guard churches and places where foreigners gather.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned the blast, and urged police to investigate whether it was linked to other attacks on Christians in the province earlier this year, said his spokesman Andi Mallerangang.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and most people practice a moderate form of the faith. But attacks against Christians have increased in recent years amid a global rise in Islamic radicalism.

Central Sulawesi was the scene of fierce battles between Muslims and Christians in 2001 and 2002 that killed about 1,000 people, and violence has flared anew in recent months. Christians make up about half the population in Sulawesi.

In October, unidentified assailants beheaded three Christian high school girls in Poso, east of Palu. In May, two bombs in the Christian-dominated town of Tentena killed 20 people. Police have questioned several suspects in those attacks, but have not formally brought charges against anyone.

One Christian clergyman said Saturday he was losing patience.

"Whenever an incident takes place, senior officials ask us to tell the people to remain unprovoked," said Rinaldy Damanik, leader of the Synod Churches of Central Sulawesi. "When will the authorities be able to reveal the barbaric perpetrators in the province?"
Security officials and former militants told The Associated Press in recent interviews that terrorists linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network were behind the renewed attacks on Christians on the island.

Jemaah Islamiyah, which has ties to al-Qaida, has been blamed for a series of bloody bombings in Indonesia since 2000, including two strikes on Bali that together killed 222 people, many of them foreigners. It is also accused in Christmas Eve church bombings five years ago that left 19 dead.

Maj. Gen. Firman Gani, the Jakarta police chief, said last week that Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists might use the holidays to retaliate for the November death of bomb-making expert Azahari bin Husin, who was gunned down in a police raid.

On Christmas Eve, bomb squads searched for explosives at churches in the capital Jakarta and its satellite cities, where thousands gathered to worship. Security forces also tightly guarded dozens of churches on Sulawesi.

Survivor tells of girls' beheadings

POSO: A thick scar running from the back of her neck to just under her right eye, the lone survivor of a machete attack in which three Christian girls were beheaded on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has spoken for the first time of her terror.

"All I could do was pray to Jesus for his help," said 16-year-old Noviana Malewa, who fled the October attack with a gaping head wound. "I was streaming with blood."

Noviana, who now lives under police guard in the Christian town of Tentena, described how the girls were taking a short cut to school through jungle and plantations when they ran into at least five masked, black-clad men. Within seconds, three of the teenagers were beheaded -- fresh victims of violence that has turned the Indonesian island into yet another front in the conflict with terrorists.

As Noviana fled bleeding, the assailants collected her friends' heads, put them in black plastic bags and then dumped them in Christian parts of the small town of Poso, one on a porch, the other two on the street.

"They were killed as if they were chickens," said Hernius Morangki, showing a journalist the spot where his daughter was decapitated. "I keep asking myself: What were my daughter's sins?"

Muslim militants are blamed for the beheadings, the most gruesome yet in a campaign of terror against Christians on Sulawesi.

Muslim-Christian violence killed almost 1000 people on Sulawesi between 2000 and 2002 and attracted Muslim militants from across Indonesia, among them members of the terror group Jemaah Islamiah.

Despite a peace deal, bombings, shootings and other attacks on Christians have continued, especially around Poso.

Former fighters and security officials say the latest attacks are carried out by Muslim islanders bent on avenging their dead from the earlier conflict, and terrorists aiming to foment a new war.

"They want to see Poso become alive with the spirit of jihad again," said Fahirin Ibnu Achmad, an Afghan-trained militant who took part in the 2000-02 war. "It is easy to recruit people who have seen their relatives slaughtered," he said, claiming to have renounced violence after spells in prison for gun-running and taking part in an attack on a Christian village.

Sulawesi is one of several islands in what some call Southeast Asia's "triangle of terror" -- a porous region encompassing the insurgency-racked southern Philippines in the north and the Maluku archipelago, itself the scene of sectarian conflict, to the west. Also nearby is heavily Muslim southern Thailand, where a two-year insurgency has left more than 1100 people dead.

The Sulawesi war has never been credibly investigated, and only a few perpetrators have stood trial. The island's Muslim and Christian communities, each numbering about half the population of 12.5 million, nurture their own histories of the conflict, casting themselves as victims.

Christian-Muslim relations were generally harmonious until 2000, when fighting spread from the Malukus. Each side killed hundreds and burned down scores of villages, among them the hilltop hamlet where Noviana and her schoolmates lived.
AP

One year on, tsunami survivors remember...and rebuild

BANDA ACEH, Dec 15 (Reuters) - One moment Sartinah Fatar is painting her lovely new traditional Acehnese house, chattering happily to her husband. The next she's in tears recalling the day the sea roared in and snatched away her mother and two children.

Remember. Rebuild. It's the slogan of the Indonesian reconstruction agency, set up after the Dec. 26 tsunami killed 231,452 people around the Indian Ocean rim, most of them in Aceh.

Sartinah and hundreds of thousands of other tsunami survivors are doing plenty of both as the anniversary of one of nature's most ferocious episodes approaches on Dec. 26.

Sartinah's family is one of the lucky few that have a new home. More than 1.5 million people are still living in tattered tent camps, military-style barracks or crammed in with relatives in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Even the dead cry out for better shelter.

Near Sartinah's house in Kampong Java, a fishing community in Banda Aceh, is a crude hand-painted sign. "This is a mass grave," it says. "Don't throw garbage on our mortal remains and soul. Allah has called us. Let us rest in peace."

Indeed, for two miles into Banda Aceh the tsunami erased everything, leaving a bleak landscape of cement and tile foundations that resemble big burial slabs in a vast graveyard.

A quarter of Kampong Java's population of 5,000 survived the 9.15 earthquake, the strongest in 40 years, and the series of tsunami waves it spawned.

ASKING FORGIVENESS
Sartinah's family was eating breakfast when the quake rattled the dishes off the table. They ran outside, joining others who were racing in from the beach shouting "the water is coming".

She ran with her husband to the elementary school next door, her 8-year-old daughter close on her heels and her 18-year-old son helping his frail grandmother.

Sartinah was about to haul herself onto the roof of the school when the waves, taller than the palm trees in the yard and travelling faster than a train, slammed into her.

She never saw her daughter, son and mother again.

"I was hanging onto the roof and thinking I never had a chance to ask for my mother's forgiveness," Sartinah said, the tears flowing down her cheeks. "As a Muslim you have to ask forgiveness. If your mother doesn't forgive you, you can't go to heaven."

The disaster of biblical proportions drew a veritable Noah's Ark of faith-based groups to the tsunami region, including Muslim Aid, which is building 172 traditional Acehnese homes in Kampong Java. Some survivors wondered why God had unleased such terrible fury on their communities

Overall, the international community raised more than $11 billion, "the most generous and most immediately funded international emergency relief effort ever", U.N. emergency coordinator Jan Egeland said.
Muslim Aid took its design for panggung houses to the surviving residents of Kampong Java and allowed them to customise the design to their own needs,

The result was a 48-sq-metre (516 sq ft) three-room, quake-resistant home on thick timber stilts, with concrete walls, a corrugated roof and front verandah.

"All the homes look different, so it doesn't look like a Council housing project," said H. Fadlullah Wilmot, Muslim Aid's country director in Indonesia.

The donor community has pushed for community involvement in the $10 billion reconstruction effort in the main tsunami affected countries, one of the reasons home rebuilding has gone so slowly, Oxfam International said in a report on Wednesday.

"'Do it quick, but do it with communities' was the motto when working on shelter throughout the tsunami zone," it said.

Bureaucratic problems in acquiring land, unclear government policies and aid agencies' lack of expertise in building shelters also contributed to delays.

WRECKAGE IN MINDS
Only 15 percent of the 308,000 homes that need to be built in tsunami affected countries have been completed or under construction, according to government data.

While the physical debris has largely been cleared from coastal communities, health workers worry about the wreckage in peoples' minds.

The tsunami pulverised entire communities and slaughtered its inhabitants. The monster waves left thousands of orphans, "bachelor towns", women bereft of children and the compounded grief from multiple deaths in families in its awful wake.

A year ago, women outnumbered men in Aceh. A long-running separatist rebellion had thinned the ranks of possible grooms. but the tsunami killed up to 75 percent of the women in coastal communities of Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka and now thousands of widowers are looking for brides.

An Oxfam report in March said women were slowed by the children they carried and were less likely to know how to swim. Men, on the other hand, were out on boats, running errands, or working further inland in fields or hills.

Some women still cling to an irrational hope their children are alive; others are undergoing reversals of tubal ligations to try and have babies again.
Aid groups such as New York-based International Rescue Committee have set up "child friendly spaces" to help heal the psychic wounds of the young and most vulnerable.

About a fifth of Aceh's children are suffering at least slight trauma requiring intervention, said Sonny Irwan, an IRC programme coordinator for Cot village down the coast from Kampong Java. There, kindergarten children draw pictures, play on swings -- and sing songs with incredible gusto.

Through these forms of expression they can draw on their own inner strengths and heal, he said

"In the beginning, they just drew pictures of the tsunami," Irwan said. "Now the pictures are of normal families with the sun and the sky."

Indonesia Indofood To Lay Off 3,500 Workers By End 2005

JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Indonesian food producer PT Indofood Sukses Makmur (INDF.JK) Wednesday said it has laid off 2,900 workers in the year to end-October in an effort to make the company more efficient.

"We plan to continue to lay off another 600 workers by the end of this year to improve efficiency," Indofood's Vice President Franky Welirang told reporters.

After the layoffs, Indofood's workforce will total 46,500.

The world's largest instant noodle maker by volume has spent IDR130 billion on compensation for laid-off workers to date.

"The layoffs, however, will save us up to IDR100 billion on salaries a year," said another Indofood Vice President, Cesar Dela Cruz.

Analysts said Indofood needs to streamline its workforce in order to maintain growth and increase its falling share of the noodle market.

Indofood currently has a 73% share of the national noodle market, down from around 90% in early 2000, due to stiffer competition.

Dela Cruz expects market share to increase to above 75% next year as the company plans to introduce new products.

Indofood, which is 51.5% owned by First Pacific Co. Ltd. (0142.HK), sells around 10 billion instant noodle packages every year.

Singapore accused of maid neglect

BBC News Report
Female migrant workers in Singapore face what amounts to forced labour due to a lack of legal protection, US-based rights campaigners say.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said domestic workers were overworked and frequently denied food, pay and social contact, as well as suffering physical abuse. Singapore's government said the report "grossly exaggerates" the situation.

Affluent Singaporeans often hire maids
from abroad like Indonesia

Maids working throughout South East Asia complain of abuse. HRW produced a similar report on Malaysia last year.

Some 150,000 women work as maids in Singapore, mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The report paints a grim picture of young women trapped in apartment blocks, beaten, sometimes raped, killed or driven to suicide by their employers.

The authors of the report say they believe such abuse is widespread in Singapore. In the past six years, at least 147 domestic workers have died in the city state.

Excluded

The rights group interviewed 90 people and conducted case studies to compile its 128-page report, Maid to Order - Ending abuses against migrant domestic workers in Singapore.

HRW argues that by excluding maids from its Employment Act, Singapore is failing to comply with international law.

"A system that excludes a class of workers from labour protections, leaving them to work for 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for pitifully low wages is one that demands serious and meaningful reform," it says.

But Singapore's government denied it was exploiting the maids.

"On their own accord, FDWs [foreign domestic workers] choose to work in Singapore because of better conditions here compared to their home and other countries.

"Contrary to HRW's report, the majority of FDWs enjoy meaningful and safe employment in Singapore. An independent poll by Singapore Press Holdings in Dec 2003, revealed that over 80% of FDWs were happy to work in Singapore," the Ministry of Manpower said on its website.

Harsh conditions

One domestic worker cited in the report complained of overwork.

"Sometimes employers want the maid to clean until 2200 or midnight and to start working again at 0600," she said.

Another maid told HRW: "Sometimes there was not enough food... They bought food from outside, but not for me. When angry, [the employer] would throw my food in the rubbish... I was very scared. My employer told me, 'Tomorrow you have a punishment, no eating.'"

Foreign and domestic workers in Singapore at present have no right to any time off. As of next year, employers will be obliged to give them one day off a month or financial compensation.

But the report says the women should be given the same rights as other workers in Singapore.

The authors say Singapore is by no means the worst offender in the region, but they argue that this tightly controlled city state could improve conditions very easily, giving many thousands of vulnerable women greater control over their lives.

Indonesia worries about possible Christmas terrorism

Jakarta (dpa) - Indonesia is boosting security ahead of the Christmas and New Year's holiday season with intelligence pointing to possible terror attacks, local media reported this morning.

Syamsir Siregar, head of State Intelligence Agency (BIN), said that his agency had learned of possible plans by terrorists to launch attacks at the end of this month, the Jakarta Post reported.

"There are plans for terror activities in large cities such as Jakarta," Syamsir Siregar said after a ceremony at the state palace.

Senior Jakarta police officials said they would deploy some 17,000 officers to safeguard the capital, particularly churches, malls and tourist destinations, during the holiday season.

Security will also be boosted, including the installation of closed-circuit television monitors at big churches, in five cities in Central Java where terror attacks might be carried out, police said.

Indonesia has been the site of several deadly terror attacks in recent years, including simultaneous church bombings around Christmas 2000, which left at least 19 people dead.

Islamic militants also launched attacks in Bali in 2002, leaving at least 202 people dead; at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August 2003, killing 12; outside the Australian embassy in September 2004, killing 11 and wounding about 180; and again in Bali on October 1 this year, leaving 23 dead.

Although chief bombmaker and suspected mastermind of some of the attacks, Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, was killed in a raid by police last month, his accomplice and another leading suspect in the attacks, Noordin Top, is still one of Indonesia's most-wanted fugitives.

President orders ban on Sidney Jones lifted

By Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Less than a week after the country refused entry to American researcher Sidney Jones, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the lifting of the ban on Tuesday, blaming the incident on the government of his predecessor Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said that Susilo had only learned about the expulsion from media reports, and immediately sought an explanation from Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto and Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin.

"The ban was issued based on a decision made by the previous government. The President asked (the ministers) whether the ban was relevant to the current situation. It turned out that the reasons were irrelevant," Andi told reporters.

Hamid, however, said on Monday that Jones had been barred from entering Indonesia after the relevant authorities had decided she was a threat to domestic security.

Jones, director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), was denied entry to the country upon arrival at Soekarno-Hatta Airport after a short visit to Taiwan on Thursday of last week.

Responding to a request from the intelligence authorities, the government of President Megawati refused to extend Jones' stay permit and work visa in May 2004.

The intelligence authorities claimed her work was harmful to Indonesia and that many of the ICG reports on the country's poor human rights record and communal conflicts were untrue.

The government of Susilo did not extend the ban, which expired last May. It even granted her a stay permit and work visa in July.

At a function here in late August, Susilo personally welcomed Jones on her return.

Jones, who is mostly known for her in-depth reports on the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah terror group, said on Tuesday that an Indonesian official had called her to inform her she could return.

"Isn't it great? ... I'm absolutely delighted.

"They asked me to wait a couple of days to make sure that all the messages get through to immigration ... This is the shortest expulsion on record," she told Agence France Presse news agency from Singapore.

She said she planned to return to Jakarta later this week.

Analysts had roundly condemned the government's decision to refuse entry to Jones, saying that it was a major setback for human rights and democracy

Overcrowded, historical Senen to get face-lift

By Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post

Forty-five years since its last renovation, the area around Senen market, with its heavy traffic, street vendors and thugs, is scheduled to undergo a complete makeover into a modern, integrated commercial center.

City market operator PD Pasar Jaya will begin the Rp 3 trillion project early next year.

"The raising of the concrete piles will mark the beginning of a three-year renovation of the old market, one of three oldest and largest traditional markets in the capital," PD Pasar Jaya president director Prabowo Soenirman said.

Senen market, known as Vincke Passer during the Dutch colonial era, was built in 1735 by Justinus Cornellis Vincke, who also developed Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta.

This will be the second refurbishment for the market in the modern era, with the first renovation ordered by the country's founding president Sukarno in 1961.

"We are now in the process of finalizing the urban design guidelines for the project," Prabowo said.

The project will revitalize the market that in the past was a center of trade in the capital, he said.

However, critics have accused the administration of failing to invite the public to play a greater role in the planning and implementation of the project.

The administration has insisted on using its own design for the refurbished Senen, even though an architectural design competition organized by the Central Jakarta municipality last year came up with a winning design. That design, titled "Life in Tomorrow's Senen", was the work of a team of architects led by Maryanti Kusuma Asmara.

Prabowo said the design from Maryanti and team was not being used for two reasons: the shareholders in Senen market were not involved in the competition and the winning design was not "business friendly".

PD Pasar Jaya is the majority owner and operator of Senen market, while six blocks in the market are owned by city developers Pembangunan Jaya and Jaya Realty.

The three companies have formed a joint venture company, PT Jaya City Development, to operate the refurbished Senen market.

Pasar Jaya holds a 35 percent share of the new company, while Pembangunan Jaya has a 35 percent share and Jaya Realty a 30 percent share.

Governor Sutiyoso said on Monday the new Senen market would be integrated with other facilities, including 30-story apartment towers with about 2,500 total units, office buildings, sports facilities, a bus terminal and a railway station.

The operations director at PD Pasar Jaya, Joko Setiyanto, said the modern market would provide space for over 10,000 kiosks for Senen market traders, who over the years have made Senen the place to find a vast range of products, from jewelry, watches and pharmaceuticals, to traditional foods, spices and cookies.

"We want this market to become a 24-hour trade center," he said.

During the first stage of renovation work on blocks one to three, traders will be moved temporarily to the second floors of blocks four, five and six.
"After we complete the first stage of renovation, then we will go ahead and renovate blocks four to six," Prabowo said.

In addition to the revitalization of the area around Senen market, the administration has floated ideas for reviving other large traditional markets like Tanah Abang and Jatinegara in East Jakarta.

Time line of Senen area:

• 1730 Vincke builds a market near Weltevreden palace (now Gatot Subroto Army Hospital), near the Tanah Abang market. The new market is called Vincke Passer. But because the market is only open on Mondays, people begin calling it Senen, which means Monday.
• 1735 Vincke orders the construction of Jl. Prapatan, linking the Senen and Tanah Abang markets.
• 1960-1970 Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin orders the renovation of the area around Senen market, which now includes a parking area, bus terminal and the Senen sports complex.
• Jan. 15, 1974 The market is burned during violent student demonstrations in the capital against a visit by Japanese prime minister Tanaka.
• 1987-1992 Jakarta governor Wiyogo Atmodarminto orders the development of a modern block for the market, known as Atrium Senen.
• Nov. 23, 1996 A large fire destroys 750 shops and stalls in the market.
• Jan. 26, 2003 A fire destroys more than 100 kiosks in the market.

New Suspect in Indonesia Christian Beheadings Found

The Christian Post; By Eunice Or, eunice@christianpost.com

A new suspect in the beheadings of three teenage Indonesian Christian girls was found after three-week-long investigation. Families of victims, meanwhile, expressed forgiveness to the murders.

The 23-year-old suspect, Irfan Masuro, was arrested in Poso in Central Sulawesi province on Nov. 13, an Indonesian police spokesman Sunarko Danu Ardanto told Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday.

Ardanto added that the police found blood stains on a bayonet of Masuro's that matched samples from one of the slain girls. The three Indonesian Christian high school girls, aged 15-19, were beheaded by a group of five unidentified men riding on motorcycles, in the town of Poso in the province of Central Sulawesi, on Oct. 29. A fourth girl was able to escape but was seriously wounded, according to reports.

Fearing that the violence would spread in the religiously divided Poso, the Indonesian President had immediately prompted the police to probe into the case to identify the perpetrators.

By Nov. 9, five men were detained for investigation on suspicion of their involvement in the beheadings. Three days later, they were released because police have not been able to find evidence to link them to the killings, Rudi Suhfariadi, police chief in the town of Poso, told Japan Today.

However, according to AsiaNews, the Major General Arief Budi Sampurno, regional commander of Sulawesi, announced that three out of the five suspects had been rearrested on Nov. 15.

Ardanto therefore told AFP, the new suspect Masuro was the fourth suspect so far detained for the killings.

According to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the three families who suffered the loss of their young daughters in the brutal murders are still "in shock and grief."

Nevertheless, they have all granted forgiveness to the murderers of their daughters. They believe that "it is God who will judge them."

Markus Sambuwe, the father of one of the girls - 15-year-old Yusriani Sambuwe – told CBN, "I am really angry, but the Holy Spirit touched my heart and changed me. I forgive them just as Jesus has forgiven my sins."
Pastors of churches in Poso, meanwhile, said that the deaths of the three slain girls "were not in vain."

"Because of the three girls who were martyred, we are challenged, and our faith is put to a test like gold. But we become strong because of their example," Pastor Mastin, who knew the three victims, told CBN. "We hope peace will come to Poso."

Mastin added that the three slain girls – 15-year-old Yusriani, 16-year-old Theresia Morangke, and 19-year-old Alvita Polio – were very active Christian leaders in school prayer meetings and church.

Nursalem Mawela, the father of the survivor in the attack, suggested a possible reason behind the attack.

"They (the three girls) must have offended the Muslim extremists because in this season of Ramadan, there should be no school, but the Christian school is open," he said, according to CBN.

A warning note stating that "another 100 Christian teenagers would be killed" was attached to the plastic bags that contained the heads of the three slain girls, the U.K.-based human rights watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported. The bags were found near a police station and a church two hours after the beheadings.

Sources say Poso had been stricken by three years of Muslim-Christian conflicts until the peace deal in late 2001. Around 2,000 people were killed in the riots. As fears of a new wave of violence mounted, two other Indonesian girls were shot in Poso on Nov. 8. One of them died the next day. No report has confirmed whether the shootings were related to the beheadings.

Man in the Bentley who cried poor and keeps on coming back

By Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent

Controversy follows Aburizal Bakrie, but he has proven himself Indonesia's ultimate survivor.

He flourished under the corrupt dictator Soeharto but left hundreds of millions in debts unrepaid after the Asian economic crisis, only to regain his status as a successful businessman and emerge as the country's Economics Minister.

This month speculation that he would be dumped in a cabinet reshuffle has heightened, prompting his spokesman to blame "character assassination" by political enemies for reports his son was linked to the ecstasy-possession arrest of the Australian model Michelle Leslie in Bali.

In Jakarta, the smart money is on Mr Bakrie brushing aside any hint of scandal, complaints of economic mishandling and allegations his business interests should exclude him from an administration driving to rid Indonesia of endemic cronyism and corruption.

Imagine the Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello, owning a large slice of Optus, Channel Seven, several big mining companies - all highly sensitive to his economic and industry policy decisions - and other firms that consistently won multi-million dollar government contracts.

Mr Bakrie's defence is that he has handed over management to family members, but he retains his stake in the Bakrie and Brothers conglomerate that has tentacles throughout Indonesia.

Last month one of his sons, Anindya, formalised a partnership with Rupert Murdoch's Star Asia TV, which took a 20 per cent stake in the Bakries' Indonesian network, ANTV.

Subsidiaries also won two contracts to supply natural gas and build an inter-island pipeline. Both deals are worth more than $100 million.
In response to allegations of special treatment, Mr Bakrie said all of the projects had been "competitively tendered."

Company officials admit Bakrie and Brothers did well through deals completed with the Soeharto family. But they said that now the companies were run without political favours. Mr Bakrie was the most controversial ministerial choice of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Some still bristle at him arriving at creditors meetings in a Bentley after the economic crisis, then crying poor.

But the new President, without any significant political base in parliament, needed the support of the old Soeharto party, Golkar, and one of the conditions was Mr Bakrie's appointment.

He does not lack political ambition, using his substantial financial resources to make an unsuccessful tilt at winning Golkar's nomination for the presidency. Despite a faltering economy, and a budget sideswiped by escalating oil prices, many begrudgingly admit he has performed competently, engaging in a showdown with Dr Yudhoyono to force a doubling in fuel prices but cutting crippling subsidies.

Earlier this month Mr Bakrie professed to be relaxed about his rumoured axing by Dr Yudhoyono. "With facts of achievements already displayed, is it appropriate for me to be replaced? If he says he wants to have a different way, well, I would go back to business."

Indonesia Steps Up Hunt for Fugitive

By NINIEK KARMINI, Herald News Daily

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A police raid on a house used by the purported ringleader of an al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asia terrorist network turned up a bomb-making and recruitment video, police said Friday.

Thousands of security forces were going door-to-door, checking cars and combing rail and bus stations in central Indonesia.

Authorities identified Top and Azahari as key leaders of the al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, coordinating a series of bombings in Indonesia in recent years, including the 2002 and 2005 attacks on the resort island of Bali.

"In the rush, he left behind his personal belongings, including the video" that taught bomb-making techniques and how to recruit terrorists, Sutanto said. The video included images of the three men who carried out triple suicide bombings on Indonesia‘s Bali island last month.

Despite Azahari‘s death, police warn that Jemaah Islamiyah may be plotting more attacks.

Metro TV station, citing the discovery of a map by forensic experts, said attacks may have been planned for this month in at least four cities, including Jakarta.

"It‘s only a matter of time before we catch him," Mbai said.

But in addition to Top, at least two of the group‘s leaders remain at large. They are believed to be in the Philippines.

National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sunarko Artanto said Azahari had three bullet wounds to the chest — at least one in the heart — and died wearing a suicide vest and holding a handgun.

Selamat Lebaran!

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri!! Mohon maaf lahir dan batin. Moga2 Indonesia bisa lebih membaik dan damai pada tahun yg baru.

It can't get any worse, let's hope so... merenung balik dan belajar dari kegagalan bisa membantu meluruskan jalan tahun yang baru.

Setengah tahun terakhir ini boleh dibilang waktu yang amat "sial" buat rakyat kebanyakan yg hidup pas2an dan "cuek" (gimana peduli, memberi makan untuk keluarga saja sudah menyita waktu dan pikiran). Indonesia jadi sorotan international karena berita2 negatif yang tidak kunjung padam.

Dari 241,973,879 jumlah penduduk, segelintir dari mereka membuat ulah dan image yang buruk. Pihak berwenang sepertinya tidak berdaya dan lebih parah lagi tidak mempunyai solusi dan rencana penyelesaian yang jelas.

Diskriminasi agama dari pelarangan ibadah, penyegelan gereja sampe wanita2 yang mengajar sekolah minggu dipenjarakan. Bom Bali yang membunuh kebanyakan orang lokal sampai tindakan biadab dengan pemenggalan kepala 3 siswi Kristen di Poso.

Dari busung lapar ke penyakit polio. Anak2 yang tidak beruntung berguguran oleh penyakit yang obat pencegahannya sudah ditemukan puluhan tahun lalu. Belum lagi Avian Flu dan demam berdarah. Lagi2 tindakan lamban dari departemen kesehatan tidak membuat keadaan lebih baik.

Keadaan ekonomi dipersusah dengan kenaikan bahan bakar, suku bunga yang tinggi dan inflasi. Wakil rakyat yang tidak sensitif malah meminta gaji naik Rp.10 juta per bulan tidak membuat keadaan membaik. Korupsi tetap jalan terus, jiwa aji mumpung dimana2 termasuk Mahkamah Agung (lembaga hukum tertinggi) dengan kasus Probosutedjo.

Should I say more? Kasian banget Indonesia, maksudku rakyat jelata yang dihempit dari atas (penguasa/pedagang) dan dari bawah (radikal biadab). Sekali lagi, moga2 keadaan akan membaik pada tahun yang baru. May God bless Indonesia. Selamat Idul Fitri!

Foto-foto sekitar Lebaran:

Indonesia's President orders crack down on racist text messages

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered police to crack down on mobile phone users sending racist text messages.

The text messages, which have been widely reported in the local media without divulging their exact wording, blame minority ethnic Chinese for Indonesia's current economic woes and calls for attacks on them.

A presidential spokesman say such slanderous, hate-filled SMS messages cannot be tolerated. The Chinese community has had a troubled history in Indonesia and been the target of bouts of violence.

Pope mourns "barbaric" beheadings in Indonesia

VATICAN CITY, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict offered his deepest sympathies on Sunday to the families of three Christian girls beheaded in Indonesia as they walked to school near a Muslim town.

The Vatican called Saturday's killings "barbaric" and said in a statement that the Pope would pray for "the return of peace among the people" of the region, long plagued by sectarian violence.

Six machete-wielding men dressed in black attacked the 16 to 19-year-old students near the Muslim town of Poso on Saturday, leaving the girls' headless bodies, dressed in brown uniforms, at the site of the killings.

Their heads were found at separate locations two hours later by residents.

"The Holy Father entrusted the Bishop of Manado, Mons. Joseph Theodorus Suwatan, to relay to the victims' families and the diocese his deepest condolences," the Vatican said in a statement.

Muslim-Christian clashes in the Poso area killed 2,000 people from 1998 through 2001, when a peace deal was agreed.

While the worst violence abated after the deal, there have been sporadic outbreaks since. Bombings in May in the Christian town of Tentena killed 22 people.

About 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim.
(Additional reporting by Ade Rina and Tomi Soetjipto in Jakarta)

Christian girls beheaded in grisly Indonesian attack

Editor note: In recent years Christian Indonesian are regularly persecuted but perpetrators are rarely caught and brought to justice.

Three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded in a savage attack on Saturday by unidentified assailants in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi.

The girls were among a group of students from a private Christian high school who were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Major Riky Naldo said.

The area is close to the provincial capital of Poso, about 1000 kilometres northeast of Jakarta.
Naldo said the heads of the three dead victims were found several kilometres from their bodies.

In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the police to begin a hunt for the killers.
"In the holy month of Ramadan, we are again shocked by a sadistic crime in Poso that claimed the lives of three school students," he told reporters at the airport as he prepared to fly to Sumatra island.

"I condemn this barbarous killing, whoever the perpetrators are and whatever their motives." He ordered the security forces to find the killers and maintain order in the region.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody religious war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1000 people from both communities.

At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common.

A government-mediated truce succeeded in ending the conflict in early 2002, but there have since been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations of Christians.

These included a blast at a market in Poso, a predominantly Christian town, that killed 22 people in May.
Christian leaders have repeatedly accused the authorities in Jakarta of not doing enough to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

The Christian-Muslim conflict in Sulawesi was an extension of a wider sectarian war in the nearby Maluku archipelago in which up to 9000 perished between 1999 and 2002.

The Maluku conflict intensified soon after it began with the arrival of volunteers belonging to Laskar Jihad, a newly created militia from Indonesia's main island of Java that was supported by hardline elements of the security forces.

Analysts and diplomats accused senior army commanders of funding and training the militia, which was hurriedly disbanded following the terrorist attacks on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 which claimed 202 lives, including 88 Australians.

In Indonesia, Songs Against Terrorism

By Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid and C. Holland Taylor
The latest suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali appear to have been carried out by young Indonesian Muslims indoctrinated in an ideology of hatred. Once again the cult of death has proved its ability to recruit misguided fanatics and incite them to violate Islam's most sacred teachings in the very name of God. The only way to break this vicious cycle is by discrediting the perverse ideology that underlies and motivates such brutal acts of terrorism.

Dewa - Ahmad Dhani

One of us, Abdurrahman Wahid, was Indonesia's president when tragic violence inundated the eastern region of Ambon and the Malukus six years ago. A seemingly trivial argument between a Christian bus driver and a Muslim passenger in early 1999 triggered a bloody religious war that eventually claimed 10,000 lives and drove a half-million Christian and Muslim inhabitants from their homes. Radical Muslims from throughout Indonesia flocked to the region to wage jihad on Indonesian Christians, backed by powerful Islamist generals and plenty of money.

The largest such group was Laskar Jihad ("Warriors of Jihad"), led by an Indonesian of Arab descent whose ancestors came from the same province in Yemen as those of Osama bin Laden. Jafar Umar Thalib is a veteran of the Afghan jihad and knows bin Laden personally. Backed by spiteful generals close to the disgraced Suharto regime, Thalib sounded the call to jihad, and thousands of young Muslims flocked to his green banner to slaughter Indonesian Christians in the name of God.

Enjoying powerful clandestine support, Laskar Jihad had actually established a military training camp less than 60 miles from the capital, Jakarta. When national police broke up the camp, Thalib promptly announced that Laskar Jihad would sail for Ambon and wage jihad there. I (Wahid) ordered the army generals in East Java to prevent them from sailing and ordered the navy to intercept them if they did. I also ordered the governor of East Java to guard the docks and prevent Laskar Jihad from boarding. But these presidential orders were ignored by a military that refused to accept civilian control in the newly democratic Indonesia. An unholy alliance of fundamentalist jihadists, Islamist generals and people close to the Suharto family ensured that thousands of Laskar Jihadists poured into Ambon and the Malukus.

Once there, they spread out in the Muslim communities and launched devastating raids on neighboring Christian enclaves, burning and desecrating churches; destroying homes; and slaughtering thousands of men, women and children.

All of Indonesia knew what was happening. It was in the news day and night. Laskar Jihad became a symbol and a byword for the suffering inflicted upon that region. The goal of its clandestine backers -- and those in parliament itself -- was to create chaos and block the reform that desperately needed to occur in the Indonesian government. They succeeded; the process of reform ground to a halt.

Then came the first Bali bombing in 2002, with jihadists incinerating a popular club and more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists. Although that attack was the work of a different jihadist group, Jemaah Islamiah, it was obvious that the military -- by then in the hands of "red," or nationalist, generals allied to my successor, Megawati Sukarnoputri -- would crack down on all active jihadist groups. Immediately afterward, Thalib announced that Laskar Jihad had served its purpose, and he recalled its warriors to Java. Thousands of battle-hardened jihadists returned to Java's towns and villages to await his further call.

One of the people watching this tragedy unfold was a brilliant young musician named Ahmad Dhani. Leader of the immensely popular rock band Dewa, Dhani began to use his musical platform to influence millions of fans in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia to resist the tide of religious extremism.

In response to Laskar Jihad's atrocities, and to discredit the appeal of fundamentalist ideology, Dhani composed the best-selling album "Laskar Cinta" ("Warriors of Love"). Released in November 2004, it quickly rose to the top of the charts as millions of young Indonesians embraced its message of love, peace and tolerance.

Dhani and the other members of Dewa have presented Indonesia's youth with a stark choice, and one easy for the vast majority to answer: Do they want to join the army of jihad, or the army of love? In response, numerous radical Muslim groups have accused Dhani -- who is a devout Sufi, or mystically inclined Muslim -- of being an infidel, an apostate (code words inciting violence) and a Zionist agent. They have hauled him into court on charges of defaming Islam and seek to ban his use of rock music to promote a spiritual and progressive interpretation of Islam that threatens the appeal of their own Wahhabi-inspired extremism.

Yet rather than be intimidated, Dhani recently announced to the Indonesian press his plan to launch another "ideological smart bomb" -- in the form of a song that uses the revelatory tone of the Koran to declare: "Truth dwells in the hearts of those who love and are free of hatred; the hearts of those who hate . . . are possessed by Satan."

Dhani and his group are on the front lines of a global conflict, defending Islam from its fanatical hijackers. In a world all too often marred by hatred and violence committed in the name of religion, they seek to rescue an entire generation from Wahhabi-financed extremists whose goal is to transform Muslim youth into holy warriors and suicide bombers. For every young Indonesian seduced by the ideology of hatred and fanaticism -- including those responsible for the recent, awful attacks in Bali -- countless others see through the extremists' web of lies and hatred, in no small part thanks to the visionary courage of people like Ahmad Dhani. For as they listen to Dewa's music, the hearts of millions of young Indonesians have been inspired to declare: "No to the warriors of jihad! Yes to the warriors of love!"

Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid is a former president of Indonesia. From 1984 to 1999 he headed Nadhlatul Ulama, the world's largest Muslim organization, with nearly 40 million members. C. Holland Taylor is chairman and chief executive of Libforall Foundation, a nonprofit that works to reduce religious extremism and discredit the use of terrorism. Dhani serves on the foundation's board. The authors can be reached at media@libforall.org.

Seeking a final resting place

For many Jakartans, particularly the poor, the death of a relative can be a double blow. They mourn because their loved one has gone forever and because they have to pay a lot of money to greedy cemetery officials in order to secure a plot in a much-neglected public cemetery owned by the city administration. For rich people, however, there are several cemeteries around Jakarta where they can build a grand tomb for their deceased. This week's cover story highlights the issue. By Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post

Yola dreads the days when she has to visit her mother's grave.
"I don't like being reminded that she's dead. I'd much rather celebrate her life," said the 22-year-old student. "Her grave means little to me."

Still, she was furious upon seeing what had happened to her mother's grave in the Christian Pandu public cemetery in Bandung.

Yola's father had designed the grave carefully, etching symbols to represent the family -- which his wife cherished most in life -- and surfaced it with black marble tiles. He erected a tall chain-link fence surrounding the two-by-three-meter grave to keep goats from eating the flowers.
On a visit one year after her mom's death, Yola could not find the grave. "It was always difficult for me to spot it as the cemetery was a right-royal mess, with graves placed haphazardly," she said.
Then she saw why it was extra hard to recognize it: there was nothing left of the fence except the frame. Thieves had removed the chain link to sell.

"My father was heartbroken. I was fuming," she said.
Three months later, the family found the bigger parts of the marble chipped. Yola's father replaced the marble with plain stone.
"There is no respect for the dead, nor for the living family. None at all," said Yola.
In a world where nothing is certain but death and taxes, one would think that a decent final resting place was the least a person should have. Nevertheless, facts show that the dead in Indonesia are often treated as nothing more than decaying flesh and bones. Gone. Unimportant.

A poor family in Jakarta has to spend at least Rp 1 million (US$99) -- more than a month's minimum wage -- to have a grave in a public cemetery dug, cover the rent on a tarpaulin for the funeral and for the three-year lease on a two-by-one meter plot.

The city budget supposedly covers the cost of graves for the poor -- as stipulated in an article in the Constitution saying that the poor will be cared for by the state.
Middle-class families such as Yola's can arrange a proper burial, as long as they are willing to accept a grave in any available space in a cramped cemetery. Even after paying monthly service fees to the head of graveyard, they may see the graves that they lovingly build stripped of anything of value.

Those who bury their loved ones in public cemeteries then have to pray that the local administration will not suddenly decide to build on the site, as happened in 1997 when the mayor's office was relocated to a grand office built on four hectares of a graveyard.
The rich, of course, have more options. They can buy land for Rp 500,000 to Rp 2 million a square meter in a private cemetery, where maintenance and security services are available at a price.
After acquiring pieces of land at 10 times the actual price in surrounding areas, wealthy families can build grandiose tombs that can cost over Rp 1 billion.
One can argue that a cemetery is not a vital facility -- the dead can no longer feel anything and the space could be used for the living.

Although there is some truth in this, it fails to address the needs of those on earth who need the grave to grief and to heal. Yola's father visits his wife's grave regularly, even though she has been gone for four years.

The question of whether a decent grave is a luxury or a necessity may remain open, but current conditions seem to indicate that the former is more the case.
For Yola, the best kind of cemetery would be one similar to the cemetery for Dutch soldiers located next to the Pandu cemetery.

There are rows and rows of white crosses, distanced precisely from one another, on an expanse of grass. There are no thugs portraying as grave cleaners, ready to demand money from every visitor. "The cemetery is modest and yet strikingly beautiful. All men are equal in the eyes of God, and their graves should be equal as well," said Yola.

Indonesia dispatches 750,000 workers overseas this year

The number of Indonesian workers employed overseas this year is expected to reach over 750,000, Antara reported.

The figure is bigger than that of last year which only reached about 380,000, according to the Indonesian Manpower Ministry's Director General for Overseas Recruitment, Gusti Made Arka.

The increased figure is partially attributed to the government's reform of its recruitment system, programmes and administration, as well as its signing of memorandums of understanding (MoU) with recipient countries.

Indonesia also plans to send workers to Australia, Japan and the Netherlands, he added.

Selamat Berpuasa

Bulan ini adalah bulan Ramadan dan saya ingin mengucapkan Selamat Berpuasa kepada kawan2 yg menekuni. May Allah help us in all trials that Indonesia face today and in the future.

Tahun 2005 adalah tahun yang penuh dengan tantangan, belum selesai impact bencana alam Tsunami musibah besar baru muncul seperti kecelakaan pesawat di Medan & Bom di Bali. Jangan lupa juga penyakit2 yg tidak ada penyembuhannya berdatangan seperti Polio dan Avian Flu.

Selain itu, Indonesia juga harus berhadapan dengan kenaikan bahan bakar dan gereja2 yg ditutup secara paksa. Hak asasi beribadah dibredel begitu saja. Walau pemerintah SBY "memprotes" tapi tidak digubris. Sampai saya bertanya2, kok bisa protes Presiden tidak bergigi? apakah Presiden kita ini sungguh2 protes atau setengah hati?

Kita tidak tahu tantangan baru apa yg akan dialami Indonesia dan kita berharap bulan Puasa ini boleh menjadi bulan renungan dan intropeksi diri supaya kesalahan2 lampau tidak terulang terutama kesalahan2 karena ulah tindakan manusia.

Selamat Berpuasa and Happy Ramadan!!!

Police: Bali mastermind escapes raid

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- Alleged Bali bombing mastermind Noordin Mohamed Top narrowly escaped capture Friday after he fled a remote village hours before a pre-dawn raid by anti-terror police on his hideout, police said.

Noordin and his close aide Azahari bin Husin are two of Southeast Asia's most wanted men and believed to be key members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah -- the group suspected in last weekend's suicide bombings on Bali island.
The two Malaysians have kept one step ahead of a massive manhunt for years, moving constantly in densely populated areas of the sprawling nation made up of 220 million people and more than 10,000 islands.

Imprisoned Christian Sunday School Teachers in Indonesia Establish Church

The three Indonesian woman that are serving a three-year prison sentence after their convictions in Indonesia, have started a church within their prison walls.

The three Indonesian woman that are serving a three-year prison sentence after their conviction of “attempting to coerce children to change their religion” under the Indonesian “Child Protection Act” after running a Christian Sunday school, have started a church within their prison walls, according to Christian Freedom International (CFI).

A huge outcry against their convictions has been heard by numerous Christian agencies, and CFI has called on the Indonesian government to release the three women immediately. It is also urging the U.S. government to ‘place all possible pressure on Indonesia for their immediate release.’Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun. had run a popular Sunday school program in which several Muslim children participated in after obtaining parental consent. However, a local Islamic group brought charges against the three women for breaking the “Child Protection Act.”Christian Freedom International President Jim Jacobson recently visited the women at the prison in the Indramayu district of West Java. Of the conviction, Rebekka said, “My first reaction, I cry.” Rebekka is a medical doctor who had treated 30 to 40 Muslim and Christian patients everyday in her clinic based in Indramayu. Now she is confined in a dirty prison with a total of 437 inmates. Sixteen inmates are women. Eight women stay in a 5m by 5m cell and sleep together on a hard wooden platform with no blankets or sheets allowed. “We have to pay money to the guards to turn the water on to the toilet in our cell,” said Rebekka. “I wake up at 5:00am everyday to pray and read my Bible till 7:30am. At 8:00am they open the [cell] doors,” she continued. The 16 women are taken to a 10m by 10m room until 4 pm. There is only one chair. Three times a day, they are fed an ‘egg-sized’ lump of rice and soybean mixture covered in ants, assist news has reported. I am not angry at the people who brought the charges against me. I forgive them. I bless them.

Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Sunday School Teacher“We eat breakfast, lunch, dinner in that room on the floor. No dining room. We get a small portion of lamb once a week,” said Rebekka. But amazingly, Rebekka has been allowed to lead a worship service on Sundays in a small outdoor courtyard area of the prison, according to Christian Freedom International. Each Sunday, around 35 people are permitted to enter the prison to join the service. This has brought forth one male inmate to convert to Christianity. This brings the total to 7 Christians in the prison. “This is ‘School of Trust Bible School.’ Not a jail,” said Rebekka.“Sometimes I am depressed, but not for long. God comforts me everyday with joy and peace. I pray for the other prisoners and guards. One prisoner converted and became a Christian. We share our faith with others,” said Rebekka.“We have been here 140 days. I want to do God’s will. I hope to be released soon,” said Rebekka.Rebekka said, “I am not angry at the people who brought the charges against me. I forgive them. I bless them.” Etta, who has left three children at home, said, “I had a dream of going home. I am depressed sometimes. I am not angry about being here. My accusers didn’t understand.”Ratna, a mother of two, said with tearful eyes, “I miss my children so much.”Rebekka told CFI president Jim Jacobson, “I want people to know about our situation. I want prayer support. I was surprised so happily that American Christians were so interested in our case. Please pray for us.” According to Jacobson, “under the Children Protection Act and other regulations, no Christian is safe in Indonesia. This case should be a wakeup call for all caring Christians.” Indonesia is recognised as the largest Muslim nation in the world.

Laporan Singkat REUNI 1 Oktober 2005 - Hendro W

Berkat Doa Restu dari Teman-Teman semua, walaupun sempat ada kekhawatiran akan adanya demo di Jakarta akibat naiknya BBM, Reuni kita berjalan dengan sukses dan kocak. Total yang dateng sekitar 80 orang. Mustinya 43 IPA dan 43 IPS, ternyata yang muncul kira2 30 IPA dan 50 IPS (panitia belum sempat reconcile lagi). Tampang2 banyak yg masih sama, walaupun 'size'nya yg beda, ada yg jadi kurus ada yg jadi gemuk. ha..ha.. Tapi ada juga yg gak berubah. Paling 'keren' adalah David Gepeng (IPS) karena dia bener2 pake seragam sma yg ada lambang osis dan berambut cepak persis seperti anak sma.

Sekitar jam 5:45 udah banyak yg dateng. MC dilakukan oleh Tze Kong. Dibuka dengan kata sambutan oleh saya dengan memperkenalkan semua panitia yang sudah bekerja keras, kompak, kreatif dan pantang menyerah dalam mencari dan menelpon teman2 semua.

Dilanjutkan dengan game menebak lagu dengan cara salah satu anak dari IPA/IPS harus menggambar atau memeragakan lagu yg harus ditebak. Yang dimenangkan oleh team IPS. Terus dilanjutkan dengan pemutaran acara slide show dari photo2 waktu sma anak IPA/IPS dengan dubbing lagu2 yg dikirim oleh Anyan. Nanti slide show ini akan kita compile juga dengan foto2 reuni. Setelah itu disambung dengan game menebak nama dari 5 foto anak IPA dan 5 foto anak IPS yg ada di slide show. Lagi2 pemenangnya adalah team IPS. Kesimpulan anak IPS lebih bergaul dari anak IPA. ha..ha...

Setelah yg kocak2, acara dilanjutkan dengan yg sedikit serius dengan presentasi oleh Dr Taswin Prawira (anak IPA) yg specialis penyakit dalam di RS Mitra Kemayoran. Topic tentang Berat Badan Ideal (BBI). Juga adanya alat timbang yg bisa mengukur berat badan ideal dan kelebihan berat/lemak yg harus dikurangi.

Sekitar jam 7 udah pada kelaparan. Sebelum makan, dipimpin doa oleh teman kita Rusman Wijaya (IPA) yg jadi majelis gereja. Abis doa ada yg nyeletuk kagum/gak sangka (?) Rusman bisa berdoa dengan baik. ha..ha.. Udah gitu Rusman bereaksi dengan bilang 'yes' sambil kepal tangan. Anak2 pada ketawa2 semua ngelihat majelis gereja yg kocak. Dan langsung menyerbu makanan. Sambil makan, slide show diputer terus, tapi anak2 lebih seru ngobrol2. Sampe2 susah banget disuruh kumpul lagi. Setelah pada kumpul lagi. Diteruskan dengan pengumuman hasil timbang berat badan. Setelah itu acara door price. Setelah door price, dipanggil pasangan suami/istri dari IPA/IPS untuk menceritakan pengalaman2 mereka masa lalu pacaran sampai sekarang bersama. Karena waktu dah mepet, panitia terpaksa mempercepat dengan acara foto bersama. Nah ini yg seru banget. Karena semua berasa seperti "cover girl" dan "cover boy". Udah gitu gak mau udahan, tukang foto disuruh 'jepret' terus dengan berbagai gaya. Setelah itu dibagiin kaos. Habis dibagi kaos, gak mau rugi, mau di foto lagi pake kaos dengan bermacam gaya. ha...ha...

Uang yg terkumpul (cukup banyak krn banyak penyumbang dan akan diumumkan kemudian), setelah dipotong biaya2, kalau ada sisa akan diberikan kepada guru yg membutuhkan. Sementara yg diumumkan kemarin adalah Pak Tum yg katanya menderita sakit. Kalau ada yg tahu guru lain yg juga membutuhkan, tolong kasih tahu panitia. Nanti panitia pikirin kira2 siapa yg akan kita bantu. Bagi yang masih mau menyumbang, panitia tetap membuka rekening sampai 2 minggu.

Akhirnya kita pulang sekitar jam 9, itu aja gara2 panitia udah kecapean dan ada kabar bom bali, padahal sebagian besar pada masih ngobrol.

Nanti kita akan kumpulkan semua foto2, lagu, video, data2 anak2, dll ke cd atau vcd. Mungkin gak muat satu buah. Dan akan diumumkan cara distribusinya.

Sekian dulu laporannya. Oh iya,, udah banyak yg nanyaiin kapan next reuninya

Thousands march against fuel hike

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Thousands of students, truck drivers and laborers rallied across Indonesia on Thursday to protest impending fuel price hikes, some blocking roads with burning tires and throwing stones outside a house belonging to the vice president.

In one incident, police fired warning shots and beat protesters with batons after a rowdy crowd tried to storm a gas station, witnesses said.
The government's decision to cut fuel subsidies that have helped protect Indonesia's poorest from spiraling global prices could result in a 60 percent rise in the price of gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene when it takes effect Saturday, ministers say.

Fuel Panic Buying

Hundreds of motorists queue for fuel at a gas station in Semarang, Central Java. People around the city on Monday went on a panic buying spree for gasoline, following the government's announcement that it will raise fuel prices, possibly by at least 50 percent, from Oct.1. (The Jakarta Post)

Airliner Crashes Into City Kills at Least 147

The jet plunges after takeoff at Medan on Sumatra, apparently killing all 117 aboard.By Richard C. Paddock and Dinda Jouhana, Special to The Times

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A commercial airliner carrying 117 people crashed in a residential neighborhood in the Indonesian city of Medan moments after takeoff today and burst into flames, authorities said.A government spokesman said everyone aboard was killed in the crash of the Boeing 737, which was operated by Mandala Airlines, a low-budget Indonesian carrier partly owned by the military. More

Indonesian Rupiah Drops to 3 1/2 Year Low - by Muninggar Sri Saraswati

It was definitely not a "Thank God, it's Friday" week's end for Indonesia as the rupiah suffered another blow with the market seeing the currency close at Rp 10,400 against the U.S. dollar, the lowest since January 2002.

High demand for the greenback, particularly from state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina to pay its oil imports at a time when oil prices are soaring, was blamed mainly by dealers for the rupiah's slump... more

Indonesia: blackout leaves 120 million people without light

The power shortage hit Java and Bali. Its causes are unknown and President Susilo has called for the intervention of the secret services. The five-hour blackout resulted in the loss of 20,000 megawatts.


Jakarta (AsiaNews/SCMP) – In Indonesia 120 million people were left without electricity yesterday because of suspected technical problems at power stations. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered police and secret services to investigate the energy outage which left nearly half the population in the dark and created serious inconveniences, especially for transport and hospital services.

Olwis Hepi - kontribusi: Kere Pala Gede

Catatan: Setelah 13 malam dan 14 hari gue berdebat sama si Editor lewat email dan ilmu batin akhirnya dia (dgn berat hati kali) setuju tulisan gue boleh masuk di web site ini. Gue bilang isi boleh ringan angin-anginan asal enak dibaca and ada isi. Dia bilang BUKTIIN! Gue jawab ok, ini dia sumbangan PERDANA aku! bertepatan dengan perayaan 17 Agustus. Mudah2an ada yg suka, jadi gue di-izinkan nulis lebih banyak.

OLWIS HEPI (baca loudly dengan ejaan Indonesia)
Saya mencintai Indonesia {baca: Jakarta} beserta segala kekacauan dan kembang kempisnya. Saya cinta Rupiah walau lagi di-injak2 sama Dollar dan Euro. Dan saya OLWIS HEPI. Meni Hepi tu Kam.

Bagaimana bisa?? Coba baca email2 yg jumlahnya ratusan tiap bulan di SMAK1-1985@yahoogroups.com, rata2 pada berusaha melucu [walau kebanyakan nggak lucu sama sekali]. HA HA HA!! Dan tidak ada tanda2 pada mau berontak atau melepaskan diri dari Indonesia.Malahan ada beberapa engko2, eh.. maksudnya kawan2 kita, yg pernah sekolah dan kerja di negeri George Bush dengan bangganya bilang enakan di Indo [tepatnya Jakarta]. Sampe2 si engko satu ini melepas green cardnya. Rasa HEPI-nya T I N G G I buaaanget.

GILa atau SINTing tuh?? Saya rasa bukan dua2nya. Mau nanya, di negara mana ada soto Betawi atau soto kaki embek2 [kambing] yg seenak di warteg Pintu Air? Di negeri mana, kalo jadi konglomerat di-sanjung2... walau hasilnya dari cipua sana cipua sini? Tunjukin dinegara lain mana ada pembantu2 yg kerja 7 hari seminggu, 17 jam sehari, dari jam 5 pagi sampe 10 malam, dibayar 250 ribu sebulan dan selalu rajin melayani dan bersihin rumah? ??? A Y O____J A W A B???

Jadi konklusi saya, gimana mungkin kita2 yg di Indonesia nggak OLWIS HEPI? Gitu aja tulisan ini. Dirgahayu ke 60. Hidup Indonesia.

OK, ok, ok. Tolong dikomentari. Taruh pendapat anda di ujung bawah kanan (klik 2X). Kalau tidak ada komentar dari pembaca, karir saya di web site ini bakal ditebas sama om Editor.

Health Workers Go Door-To-Door to Ensure Children Got Polio Vaccination

Walking up a rocky dirty path past weathered bamboo huts, government health workers and UNICEF doctors searched Wednesday for what they call the biggest cause of the country's polio outbreak _ unvaccinated children.

They found 15 youngsters resting in the shade along with their mothers, most of whom said they were either too scared to get their children vaccinated, or sick with fever, chills and headaches. more ..

Untuk Putri Tunggalku - By Lina Kartawidjaja

Anakku,
Persiapkanlah dirimu menghadapi yang terburuk
Agar kau tak bersungut-sungut dalam kekecewaan
Tapi hatimu tetap penuh dengan pengucapan syukur…
Tetaplah ceria di saat-saat terburukmu….
Maka semangatmu tak pernah padam

Jangan hiasi wajah dan dirimu dengan kemewahan
Hati yang baik akan menutupi wajah yang buruk
Perilakumu adalah cermin untuk menjadi cantik
Dan kegembiraan akan membuatnya menarik….

Tuntutlah ilmu setinggi kemampuanmu
Kerjakanlah hal-hal yang sesederhana apapun tanpa ragu
Biarlah itu jadi bekalmu dalam mendidik dan merawat anak-anakmu

Janganlah kau terpaku mengejar harta dan kedudukan
Tak akan ada kata cukup untuk itu…..
Penuhilah hatimu dan pikiranmu dengan kesederhanaan
Sehingga setiap hal adalah berkat yang tak berkesudahan

Kebahagiaan itu tidak dihitung dengan uang dan harta
Kebahagiaan itu adalah hati dan pikiran yang tidak dikuasai keserakahan

Hidup ini singkat saja…. Yang patut adalah kita diberi kesempatan
Untuk menikmati dengan baik tiap waktu yang berharga

Anakku,
Jadikanlah hidupmu yang singkat ini menjadi berarti…
Itu akan menjadi kebahagiaanku sebagai ibumu.

Jakarta, 13 desember 1995
Lina Kartawidjaja

Diterbitkan Majalah Tata Pena Tirta marta BPK Penabur No 4 tahun II/1996 hal 20

Indonesia's first human case of bird flu

Fri 17 Jun 2005 02:09 pm CSTAUSTIN (myDNA News)

An Indonesian man recently tested positive for the bird flu virus, marking the first human case of the deadly virus in the country.

The man, a poultry farmer from the island of Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia, tested positive for the H5N1 strain but did not show any overt symptoms of the virus. After further investigation, it was found that due to the low count of virus antibodies in his bloodstream, the man was not exposed recently to the virus and he no longer carried the virus.

The bird flu has assailed many regions of Asia. China, along with many other countries, has participated in mass slaughters of livestock in an effort to curb the disease.

Officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) are worried that bird flu could rapidly spread and possibly mutate. Indonesia does not put healthcare at the forefront of their economic budget, and as such, infected individuals may not be able to receive the care necessary to treat and stop the virus from spreading. Also, there was a recent report which concluded that the H5N1 virus could mutate in subjects with both the avian flu and the ordinary flu, creating a strain that is much easier to transmit and could result in a global pandemic.

SMAK1 Mini Reunion - March 2005

SMPK1 Kelas 3D Reunion #2 - April 2005

Indonesians struggle to save for future

The Jakarta Post, June 10 2005

For taxi driver Sandy, in his 20s, meeting his family's daily needs is a hard task, and it is even more difficult for him to put money away in a savings account. The burdens on him have gotten heavier since the government's decision to increase fuel prices by 29 percent on March 1.
But Sandy, who has worked as a taxi driver for a year, still manages to allocate a little money for his top priority: his children's education.
"I just recently paid Rp 1 million (US$105) to enroll my five-year-old daughter in a kindergarten," said the father of two.
With a monthly income of about Rp 1 million, Sandy has to seek extra money to feed his family by running a small-scale printing shop.
"The printing shop has helped me and my wife so that we can save a little bit," he said.
According to a recent survey by market research firm ACNielsen, savings came in at number one, when respondents were asked where their spare money goes.
The company said on Thursday that 57 percent of its 510 respondents nationwide preferred to put their spare money into a savings account over other expenditures. The figure is slightly lower than last year's 59 percent.
The online survey, conducted between April 11 and May 10, shows that paying off debts, credit cards and loans is second with 36 percent.
ACNielsen Indonesia Executive Director Catherine Eddy said in a press briefing that consumer spending for holidays had increased to 28 percent in the first half of this year from 26 percent in the corresponding period last year.
Surprisingly, cash allocations for retirement funds were the lowest with only 5 percent, although the figure is higher than last year's 2 percent.
"Indonesians lack of interest in putting their money into retirement funds is similar to many neighboring countries such as Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand," said Chaterine.
According to ACNielsen -- which interviewed 21,261 respondents worldwide over the internet in 38 markets for the survey -- spending patterns emerged in different areas when it came to how the respondents allocated disposable income.
More than one-third, or 36 percent, of the world's consumers put extra money into savings, followed by out-of-home entertainment, holidays or vacations and new clothes.
In Europe, most consumers put cash into savings accounts for upcoming vacations or buy new clothes, more than any other region. By contrast, Asians remain the world's super savers with 51 percent putting their money away for a rainy day.
For Sandy, who occasionally has the desire to buy new outfits or take vacations, saving for his family's future has become his main goal in life.
"I have long for a better living, but surely hard for me to even have a glance at it with the country's existing economic condition," he said. (001)