June 30, 2015 edition
IT is difficult not to be suspicious when several regional chiefs resign at the same time as their families prepare to run in elections to replace them. For example, the tenures of Pekalongan Mayor Basyir Ahmad and Ogan Ilir Regent Marwadi Yahya are not scheduled to end until August this year, but both men have insisted on 'taking early retirement' to pave the way for their wives and children to step forward as their replacements.
In Sibolga, North Sumatra, Deputy Mayor Marudut Situmorang revealed there had been attempts to stop his wife from running as mayor. The local legislative council (DPRD) has yet to announce Marudut's resignation despite the looming deadline for his wife's nomination as mayoral candidate at the end of June. In East Kutai, Regent Irsan Noor resigned long before the ruckus of nominations for the new executive began. His wife, Nurbaiti Noor, currently a DPRD member, plans to run for the seat vacated by her husband. They have served for an average of two terms.
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More Opinion articles in other editions
June 23, 2015 edition
MINISTER for the Empowerment of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform, Yuddi Chrisnandi, is not really a key player in the process of selecting echelon-I officials. He is only one member of the Final Selection Team, which is tasked with selecting candidates to be forwarded to the president. But he spotted a way of 'fixing' the results, even though this contravened the spirit of reforms mandated by law, to ensure that certain people he wanted could be selected.
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June 16, 2015 edition
MEMBERS of the House of Representatives (DPR) have uncanny ways of improving their welfare. The latest one is their proposal for aspiration funds. They say they need the extra funds to ensure maximum service to their constituents.
The amount they proposed is by no means a small amount: each legislator is recommended to get Rp20 billion. If the recommendation goes through, the state must allocate an additional Rp12 trillion for them. In the midst of a sobering economic slow-down, and judging by the poor performance of the legislators, this outrageous request should be rejected.
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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