THE sound of the siren broke the night's silence at the gate of the Jakarta International School (JIS) Kindergarten on Friday two weeks ago. Dozens of police officers stood guard on each corner of the intersection at Pondok Indah, South Jakarta. The sirens paused for a moment, then began to wail again. It went on like that for more than half an hour. "It sounded like there was a war coming," Abdul Hamid, who lives not far from the JIS complex, told Tempo last week.

THE SITE appears inconspicuous, if centrally located, on Jalan Sudirman in Central Jakarta, next to Bank Negara Indonesia's head office in the capital's downtown business district. Mostly empty, it serves as a parking lot by those who frequent the lone Arthaloka Building that stands on it.

IN THE WAKE of the Constitutional Court's severe curtailing of the House of Representatives' (DPR) power to select its justices, a new suit has been brought before the court that seeks to further mitigate lawmakers' authority over law enforcement institutions. This time it is the DPR's jurisdiction over who sits on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Judicial Commission (KY) that is under scrutiny.

One of the House of Representatives' (DPR) powers that has been singled out as a major tool for corruption has finally been trimmed back. On Thursday two weeks ago, the Constitutional Court did away with the DPR's authority to 'hold back' and control technicalities in the use of budget funds.

With a broad smile, Victor Santoso Tandiasa turned to his friends beside him. For a moment they gazed at one another. Then they looked again at the panel of justices to listen to the reading of its decision. "To grant the request in its entirety," Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said as he read it out on Monday last week.