April 7, 2015 edition

A LIMITED cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office on March 16 was disrupted by the intermittent protests of Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said. His source of unhappiness was Presidential Deputy Chief of Staff Darmawan Prasodjo who commented on Sudirman's speech. And to add insult to injury, Darmawan gave his own presentation on the Mahakam Block at this ministerial meeting led by President Joko Widodo himself.
After the meeting, Sudirman came to Darmawan and shook his hand. "We need to talk. It's about etiquette," one witness quoted Sudirman as saying, giving an account of what happened. According to this government official, the cabinet meeting should have only been for the president, ministers and minister-level officials. "Not staff," they grumbled.

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More Cover Story articles in other editions

January 1, 1970 edition

UNDER a blue sky in the town of Tal Abyad, in the Syrian province of Ar-Raqqah, a black flag flutters in the autumn breeze. The flagpole is as high as a minaret, standing behind brown walls.

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January 1, 1970 edition

Since they were sworn-in on October 20 last year, President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla have shown differences of view and positions with each other. Among them, the nomination of Police Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as the new chief of police, the issue of criminalizing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and giving remission to convicted corruptors.
Their differences of view became wide open over the establishment of the Presidential Staff Office. Kalla claimed he only knew that this unit was to be led by Luhut Binsar Panjaitan when Jokowi was about to take Luhut's oath of office on December 31 last year. Kalla has reportedly become ever more upset at the increasing authority given to Luhut, which he views as undermining the function of the vice president.

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January 1, 1970 edition

AN Olympic tanker is sailing halfway around the world to deliver 950,000 barrels of oil to Java. After leaving West Africa, this 150,000-ton tanker will reach Cilacap in Central Java, on March 24.

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January 1, 1970 edition

A MEETING to deliberate the 2015 Jakarta Regional Budget at the Home Affairs Ministry last week led to some 'important admissions' by a member of the Jakarta Regional House of Representatives (DPRD). In that two-hour closed meeting, according to Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, DPRD Deputy Speaker Ferrial Sofyan spoke about inserting additional items over the previously approved budget.
Ferrial, according to Basuki, said that there was never a problem with the budget because the government always passed those 'additional proposals'. These additions amounting to trillions of rupiah could be released after the budget was approved by the Home Affairs Ministry. "According to Pak Ferrial, this had been going on for 10 years," said Basuki at City Hall last week.

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March 3, 2015 edition

FERIYANI Lim was better known as Aling to her friends during her teenage years in Pontianak. "She is good looking, many friends liked to visit her home," Kurniawan, Feriyani's neighbor in Pontianak, told Tempo last week. In 2005, Feriyani moved to Jakarta.

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February 24, 2015 edition

A MEETING attended by many ministries at the State Secretariat last Tuesday to discuss the upcoming 60th Asia-Africa Conference had just begun when Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, the president's chief of staff, quickly exited the room.
Driving his Lexus car, Luhut raced to the State Palace, which is in the same complex as the office of the State Secretariat. According to one senior Palace official, that night President Joko Widodo had assigned Luhut to meet Democrat Party Chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to notify him of his decision to drop Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as candidate for National Police Chief.

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