A GROUP of men wearing military fatigues started the day with an unusual ritual. Descending en masse on the Gempol-Surabaya toll road. The dozens of solidly muscled individuals like Rambo arrived along with two earthmoving vehicles. There was an adversary that had to be tamed by the soldiers that morning: mud!

On that day the commander of the Malang V Combat Engineers Battalion ordered the sturdy men to fight the terror of the hot mud gushing from