February 2, 2016 edition
Five automobiles stopped along Jalan Kesatrian IX in Matraman, East Jakarta, on Sunday night two weeks ago. Three or four people exited each vehicle, dressed like office workers. They walked towards the entrance to a narrow alleyway, about 50 meters from where they had parked. They left the car engines idling. There was a person behind the wheel of each car, ready to make a speedy getaway.
The arrival of those outsiders aroused the suspicions of residents of Kesatrianthe area better known as Berlan. They were not dressed like the locals, most of whom were resting for the night. "Hey, what are you doing here? Where are you going?" said one neighborhood watchman. This shout sounded like an alert for other residents to come outside.Yelled at in that way, the group of outsiders panicked and returned to their respective vehicles. One of them who was too slow to get back in their vehicle was kicked by one resident. "Go! Get out of here!" said one neighborhood watchman, recounting the incident, last week.
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January 26, 2016 edition
ALDI Tardiansyah, a security guard at the Jalan Thamrin Starbucks caf in Central Jakarta, was surprised when the man in front of him suddenly grabbed his right hand and tried to give him a bear hug that Thursday morning two weeks ago. Aldi's surprise turned to shock when he spotted a bomb attached to the man's midsection. "He then pushed the button on that bomb and I heard a very large explosion," Aldi recounted to Tempo at his home in Bogor last week.
Although he managed to take a step back to avoid being hugged by a total stranger, Aldi was nevertheless thrown by the blast. His body went crashing into a glass wall of the caf. He injured his left hand and shards of glass embedded his body. Aldi saw the caf filled with black smoke and customers running out of the building. After helping three customers to leave the premises, 17-year-old Aldi, who had only started his security guard job two weeks earlier, finally fell unconscious. He was later taken to Abdi Waluyo Hospital in nearby Menteng area.
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January 19, 2016 edition
Last week's attack in the middle of Jakarta should be seen as a wakeup call for the authorities. We may have been lulled by the six-year hiatus of bombings that were a feature between 2000 and 2009. In reality, however, the signs were all there to see. The comings and goings of radical Islamic elements in and out of Syria, their increasingly assertive campaigns on social media and most recently the discovery of a plot to carry out attacks on Christmas and New Year. The fact that only two fatalities resulted from last week's terror attack should also not be a reason for complacence. Responding to written questions posed by Tempo English, Sidney Jones, executive director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict and longtime student of radical Islam in the region, believes that, "We could be in for a period of more intensive terrorist activity."
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January 12, 2016 edition
For over two months, scheduled video meetings between officials of the State Electricity Company (PLN) and the Electrical Power Construction Program Implementation Unit (UP3KN)never took place. These meetings were last held at the end of last October. After that, they were never held again because PLN failed to respond to invitations from the UP3KN. "We still don't know why," said one official from the government-run utility company three weeks ago.
Video communication between the UP3KN and officials in charge of the 35,000 MW electricity generator acceleration project used to be held at least once a week, usually on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. "Meetings like this are practical and easy," said the official.
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January 5, 2016 edition
Richard Joost Lino got word that he had been indicted for corruption one hour before the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) broke the news to the media. That day, on December 18, 2004, Lino and his team gathered in South Jakarta, ahead of their meeting with the House of Representatives' special committee on Pelindo. "I was shocked," Lino said last Tuesday as he recounted the episode to Tempo.
Lino apparently finds it hard to accept the reality. With his attorney Maqdir Ismail, he filed for a pretrial hearing to challenge his indictment by the KPK. Amid his hectic preparations for the hearing, Lino made time to meet with Tempo for a special interview. Throughout the interview, he reiterated his rationale behind the direct appointment of a Chinese company to supply three units of quay container cranes (QCCs) that eventually landed him in hot water. "Look at it objectively. Before the direct appointment, we conducted the tender nine times but always failed (to find a suitable supplier)," he said.
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December 29, 2015 edition
THE drizzle in Depok, West Java, one evening at the end of November refreshed Bayu Gawtama's memory. The previous month, deep in the center of Kalimantan, he remembered how he had been longing for rain. "Only rain can put out this forest fire," Gawas Bayu Gawtama is familiarly calledtold Tempo.
The 41-year-old man could still feel the heat of the raging fire in the forest of Pulang Pisau, Central Kalimantan. For over two weeks, he braved the flames with little rest. That midnight, it started to rain.
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December 22, 2015 edition