June 9, 2015 edition
THE world has closed its eyes long enough on the Rohingya tragedy. For years, the Muslim minority people in Myanmar who live among the Buddhist majority population, have become a pariah. They have been driven out from their land of birth, their existence unacknowledged and live under a great deal of pressure. The Rohingya are the victims of slow genocide by the regime ruling over the place they have lived in for three generations.
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June 2, 2015 edition
THERE is no need for the public to fuss over whether it is permitted or not to recite the Qur'an in a Javanese style. This matter is trivialor furu, to borrow a term from Islamic law. This squabbling is a waste of energy. There are many other problems faced by this nation.
The fuss started when Muhammad Yasser Arafat recited the An-Najim lines 1-15 of the Qur'an in mid-May. The reading by the lecturer from the Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta State Islamic University, which sounded like the chanting characteristic of a wayang Javanese puppet performance, sparked controversy because the way of reciting the Qur'an is not simply a way conveying the holy message. This is even more true if it is done during an official state function, which was the marking of the Isra Miraj holiday at the State Palace in Jakarta.
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May 26, 2015 edition
PERTAMINA began a new chapter in its history last week with the dissolution of Pertamina Energy Trading Ltd (Petral). But there is no reason to stop there. For too long, the Pertamina subsidiary had been suspected of being awash with 'hot money' from commissions to buy and sell oil. Pertamina's new managing director, Dwi Soetjipto, revealed the extent of the wastage within Petral. Only three months after Pertamina took over the responsibilities of Petral, the state-owned oil company made a profit of US$20 million, or around Rp260 billion. This is why the inefficiencies that have continued for years must be unmasked in their entirety.
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May 19, 2015 edition
PRESIDENT Jokowi's breakthrough in making Papua more open and free of long-running human rights violations deserves praise. This should not be blocked by his subordinates. A solution for Papua needs a firm hand in order to bring about a better Papua.
At the end of last week, President Jokowi 'broke a taboo' that had existed from the beginning of the New Order regime. He gave clemency to five Papuan political prisoners and declared that Papua was open to foreign journalists.
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May 12, 2015 edition
IT is public knowledge that the positions of director-general of oil and gas and that of minerals and coal have always been tightly contested. The two offices under the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry have been fought over by not just competing political forces, but also by rent-seekers. For years, through various methods, politicians, political parties, plunderers of natural resources or whomever have vested interests in them, will fight hard to gain control over those two positions.
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May 5, 2015 edition
THERE are two fundamental differences between resoluteness and authoritarianism. Firmness is needed in an organization. A leader has the righteven the obligationto use his or her authority to ensure the organization stays on the right path. But authoritarianism must be avoided because it is an abuse of power. National Police (Polri) Chief Badrodin Haiti must be more firm in giving orders, without fearing charges of authoritarianism.
This resoluteness is needed because there are signs of indiscipline among Badrodin's men, regarding the policies adopted by the force. This was seen from the efforts to detain two non-active leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto.
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April 28, 2015 edition