AT the President’s office on Wednesday last week, Aburizal Bakrie chaired a limited meeting to discuss the Lapindo mudflow. President Yudhoyono had led the meeting, but had to leave half an hour early, to receive German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that afternoon.

“I want the President’s instruction to be carried out immediately,” said the Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare, as related by Soenarso, head of the Sidoa