AGRICULTURE Minister Bungaran Saragih has a new preoccupation: encouraging people to go on eating chicken. At every chance he gets to speak publicly, especially in front of photographers and television cameras, Bungaran would take a take a bite of a chicken dish. Hmmmsafe and healthy, he would say. His campaign is aimed at convincing the public that the bird flu has not made eating chicken meat taboo.

Bungaran seems to be in a hot spot. The public