July 1, 2014 edition
NO changes could be seen at the office of Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin. The dominant color was ivory white, with a smattering of dark brown. Framed calligraphy paintings were displayed on the right and left walls. "I am so rarely in my office, how can I have time to change the decor?" asked Lukman rhetorically. Three weeks ago, he replaced Suryadharma Ali, who has been indicted over the haj funds corruption case.
Stacks of files and documents needing his signature are piled high on his desk. "Time flies, all of a sudden it's already evening," he ruminated. His job is not an easy one, even though he has just four months to go. He compares his current position to entering a forest full of problems and having to cut down tree after tree to find his way out.
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January 1, 1970 edition
MAINTAINING that it was a big sacrifice, Mayor of Surabaya Tri Rismaharini finally closed down the legendary red light districts of Gang Dolly (Dolly Lane) and Jarak, located in the city's Putat Jaya district. The closure was executed symbolically, through a declaration signed by hundreds of approving citizens. Those who opposed the closure, took to the streets to protest.
Risma now admits that when she was first pressured into closing Dolly she actually refused. Her reasoning at the time was that the administration lacked the resources to provide the sex workers and their pimps the compensation in exchange for giving up their livelihood. But she agreed that the chain of prostitution in the city must be broken, particularly as it increasingly involved the trafficking of children. Saving the children became her main concern for closing down the area.
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June 17, 2014 edition
BEFORE and after the recent legislative elections and just ahead of the presidential polls, Muhammad Yusuf's workload doubled dramatically. This is because the data he must scrutinize at the Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis Center (PPATK), where he is chairman, has also increased incrementally. The PPATK has found more suspicious financial and cash transactions based on reports from banks and finance companies. "The number has gone up by 20 to 25 percent compared to previous years," said Yusuf.
Interestingly, according to Yusuf, those suspicious transactions are not linked only to bank accounts of political parties and politicians, but across the board. He hopes the authorities will track down those transactions, and determine whether they are illegal or not. The PPATK itself finds it easy to monitor the flow of cash because it currently uses the Integrated Financial Services Information System. He only needs to ask data from banks and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to get what he needs. The data comprises a name, the account number and the place of birth. Today, some 102 million account holders are registered. Law enforcers today can get details of a bank account in less than 10 minutes.
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January 1, 1970 edition
CONSTITUTIONAL Court Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva turned red and his voice rose one decibel higher as he presided over the lawsuit submitted by the Jambi-based National Democrat Party. Two of the three witnesses had given conflicting information. When they were questioned further, they had no valid data. "It was very clear they were making it all up," Hamdan told Tempo.
The inaccurate testimony, according to Hamdan, was one among many problems in the court proceedings looking into disputes arising out of the recent legislative election. Some 700 cases submitted by political parties and legislative candidates were pending, with only three weeks to go before the deadline on June 30. "This week we will evaluate the cases so that a week before the deadline, all is in place."
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January 1, 1970 edition
JUST when he thought he had reached retirement age from his job as a diplomat, Makarim Wibisono was given a new task by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). It asked him to be a special rapporteur on human rights issues in Palestine. He is the first Indonesian diplomat to be given that mandate.
Makarim is no stranger to challenging missions. He was chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission, before it became a council in 2007. His predecessor as special rapporteur for Palestine is Richard Falk from the United States, who resigned six years after he took up the assignment.
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January 1, 1970 edition