July 15, 2014 edition

BEHIND the massive stage of the 'Two-Finger Salute Concert at Bung Karno Stadium' in Jakarta on July 5 last week, Abdee Negara appeared very busy, giving instructions to the performers-both singers and orators-in the public event to support Joko Widodo's bid for the presidency. Abdee was, after all, the leader of the artists and musicians who had gathered at the giant arena.
Although the free concert was put together in only five days, Abdee succeeded in attracting more than 100,000 spectators who patiently lined up in long queues hours before the start of the event. They came because they were fans-not of political parties-but because they were avid supporters of Jokowi.

Read More

More Interview articles in other editions

January 1, 1970 edition

Allan Nairn knows Jakarta well, having visited the capital city for the first time in 1991. Subsequently, he traveled regularly to East Timor and to Aceh, to cover the conflicts in the two areas. He's back again, this time shocking the public with the contents of his blog www.allanairn.org, an off-the-record interview with Prabowo Subianto, the former commander of the TNI's Kopassus (Special Forces) who is now running for the presidency. In a conversation which took place on July 2, 2001, in Jakarta, Prabowo was reported to have scorned the late President Abdurrahman Wahid as a blind president and that Indonesia was not ready to be a democratic state.
For years, Nairn, 58, was a target of TNI's operations. On November 12, 1991, he and his colleague Amy Goodman were in Santa Cruz, Dili, East Timor, and witnessed the massacre committed by Indonesian troops. Nairn and Goodman tried to prevent the shooting of civilians but failed. In the process, Nairn was hit with the butt of an M16 rifle, causing a damaged throat and vertigo for the next 10 days. For all his journalistic achievements, Nairn won the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, the George Polk Award and the James Aronson Award.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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."

Read More

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.

Read More

Independent journalism needs public support. By subscribing to Tempo, you will contribute to our ongoing efforts to produce accurate, in-depth and reliable information. We believe that you and everyone else can make all the right decisions if you receive correct and complete information. For this reason, since its establishment on March 6, 1971, Tempo has been and will always be committed to hard-hitting investigative journalism. For the public and the Republic.