Thursday, April 26, 2007
Sampoerna Agro to Hold IPO of 419.500 MN Shares in June
BRI Net Profit Rises 4.64% at IDR1.22 Tn
Fajar Surya Wisesa 1Q Net Profit Plunges 96.31%
JCI Slumps 5.373 Points at 2,010.660
Bank Danamon 1Q Net Profit Soars 92%
Pan Brothers to Pay Dividends of IDR1 per Share on June 4
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
New book on Soeharto tells thoughts on probe, enemies
An authorized biography of former president Soeharto has been published arguing that his historical legacies should be remembered over his ill-fated rule.
Author Retnowati Abdulgani-Knapp, the daughter of the late Indonesian freedom fighter Roeslan Abdulgani, said Tuesday she wanted to put Soeharto's reign into a perspective she believed was accurate without intending to convert any staunch haters of the country's second president. Soeharto resigned in 1998 following nationwide demonstrations.
"There's no political motivation whatsoever, let alone a desire to clear (Soeharto's) image or name," she said during her book launch here, adding that she acknowledged many readers would have reservations about picking up the book.
She began intensive interviews with Soeharto in 2005 and has met with him three to four times a year since. Each visit, she said, lasted for no more than an hour.
Retnowati said she was aware the 376-page book, titled Soeharto: The Life and Legacy of Indonesia's Second President, could appear as defending Soeharto, but that she believed the former president was a victim of the actions of his children and former ministers.
"(The biggest misconception about Soeharto) is that he's like his children. I don't think he's corrupt. His children on the other hand, must have been difficult to control," she said, adding that Soeharto believes he is innocent of corruption charges filed against him.
"He doesn't feel guilty. Whatever moves he made were products of a Cabinet, which included all former officials ever to have worked with him. So if they're seeking his prosecution, they would have to involve all former vice presidents and ministers," said Retnowati.
The book also details grudges Soeharto still holds against those he believes betrayed and deserted him at the time of his fall in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis.
One of these people is Soeharto's successor, B.J. Habibie, who was vice president prior to the 1997 resignation of the "smiling general".
Judging from her interviews with Soeharto, Retnowati believes he is still unable to forgive Habibie, who was seen as one of his closest friends, for allowing his prosecution. The Supreme Court declared Soeharto unfit to stand trial in 2002.
The corruption charges were revoked last year by the Attorney General's Office over the impossibility of a trial due to what a presidential team of doctors claim to be permanent brain damage and a physical inability to stand trial.
Retnowati said it was difficult to discuss with accuracy past issues with Soeharto because of his memory loss, and that Soeharto's case highlighted to future leaders that they should not overly trust their ministers, but rather examine political situations from the grassroots level up.
Muhammadiyah figure Ahmad Syafii Maarif said the book was empathetic toward Soeharto, but agreed that the former president should be remembered for his accomplishments during his 32-year reign.
"His children should be mature enough to defend and face all the charges against their father. There's no way he's ever going to be able to stand trial, so his children need to wake up and be bold," he said.
Azyumardi Azra, rector at state Islamic university Syarif Hidayatullah, said that despite his fall, none of Soeharto's successors had managed to combine his political skills with his ability to "conveniently" position Indonesia in the international community.
Public service law a priority: Experts
Experts have asked the House of Representatives to prioritize the deliberation of a draft law on public services, insisting it will have a direct and positive impact on society.
"This regulation will help the government meet the people's needs," said Adrinof Chaniago from the University of Indonesia.
Addressing a discussion organized by the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia on Wednesday, Adrinof said that compared with some laws, the draft bill was less abstract in its content.
"For instance, although we already have a law on investment, it does not directly provide for the people," he said. "The draft law should not be passed over because there are absolutely no issues with the bill's content.
"There are some minor problems that need to be discussed, but the important thing to do is to hurry its approval," he said.
The Office of the State Minister for Administrative Reforms handed over the draft public services bill to the House in 2005.
The bill was then discussed six times by Commission II for home affairs and returned to the ministry earlier this month for revision.
Though he agreed to the ratification of the bill, Ajeng Kesuma Achmad from the Concerned Citizens for Public Service group said the draft was far from perfect and not ready to be passed into law.
She said the bill left limited space for public participation as people would have little say in determining matters relating to the standard of services, service announcements, the public satisfaction index and access by vulnerable groups to services.
"Given the minimum space for people to participate in public services, we doubt that this draft law will solve the people's problems relating to the (poor) access and quality of our basic services," said Ajeng.
She said the draft law emphasizes bureaucratic reform rather than provide an holistic attempt to fulfill the people's basic need for good services.
Citing research conducted in eight regencies by the Civil Society Alliance for Democracy (YAPPIKA), Ajeng said that more than 70 percent of respondents thought public services were not participative in terms of efforts to increase the quality of services.
Ajeng underlined the need for people to decide the quality of public services they desire through a citizen's charter, which is a service contract between the service provider and the public. It pertains to the type, process and quality of services, as well as times, costs, rights, obligations and complaint, sanction and dispute mechanisms.
"The public should be widely involved in deciding the standard of services and this requires wide access to information," said Ajeng.
Meanwhile, Ismiyarto, from the Office of the State Minister for Administrative Reforms, said his office was waiting for input from the public before it hands over an improved draft to the House.W. Java villagers write own rules
Nana was leading a quiet life until two years ago, when she was invited to join some other women in Cimahi regency, West Java, working for a small business.
The 78-year-old mother of three, who lives with her husband and married children, now fairly vibrates with energy. She no longer feels old or that her life is about to end.
She now spends four hours a day, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., packaging powdered bandrek, a traditional drink made from ginger, with 29 other women in Girang village, Cibabat district.
The head of production at the Bandrek Hanjuang factory, Sampuroh, 29, a local resident hired by the factory, arrives bringing with him thousands of plastic and recycled paper packages. He said around 60 villagers were involved in packaging the powdered drink.
They are divided into 30 groups. The final product is sold in major cities from Bandung, the main destination, to Bali and Batam.
"We have been producing bandrek for four years, but we're overwhelmed now due to the increasing demand from supermarkets and outlets. We had to hire the villagers," said Sampuroh.
The women earn a meager sum of money for their work. They are paid Rp 50,000 for sealing 3,000 small paper packages, or for filling 2,000 packs of bandrek.
"Besides passing the time, we are happy because we can earn an extra Rp 50,000 per week, a reasonable sum to cover our daily needs," said one of the women, Komariah, 52.
Producing bandrek is just a sideline for Eddy Permadi, 55, owner of Cihanjuang Inti Teknik (Cintek), the company that makes the drink. The company, established in 1992, started out as a small-scale hydropower generating company.
Eddy, who graduated from Politeknik Manufaktur Swiss Bandung in 1980, before pursuing his engineering studies in Germany, established the business after retiring as a lecturer.
"We started by producing turbines due to our expertise in the field. I was concerned about the power crisis beleaguering the country, with around 120 million people across Indonesia still not linked to the power network," said Eddy.
Eddy is building a special laboratory for students and officials to explore how the turbines work. The lab is located near he Leuwi Layung River in Babut Girang, North Cimahi.
The lab, sponsored by the Swiss government, is now in the construction stage and is set to become the largest turbine lab in Southeast Asia.
Because he ran a medium-sized enterprise, Eddy had trouble obtaining bank loans, despite the demand for his turbines, with 90 percent of their components made of recycled aluminum.
Now Eddy and his team can produce three types of turbines -- the cross flow T-14, open flume propeller and tubular propeller -- from 100-watt capacity turbines to produce a current for six households to 250,000-watt turbines for large-scale industries.
Since being introduced to the market in 1998, the factory has produced hundreds of turbines and sold them across the country, from Java, Sumatra to East Nusa Tenggara. The company has even exported turbines to Switzerland and their spare parts to Tajekistan.
Cintek production manager Eri Eriadi said the company could produce up to 60 turbines per month. The company has been producing multipurpose devices that can be easily operated by people in rural areas since 2000.
"At times we are overwhelmed because we often have to start the machines during a study tour by students. But now that we are involved in the food business we can keep the machines running all the time to grind the ingredients for the bandrek," said Eri.
The business now has 85 employees, from turbine to bandrek makers, 90 percent of them from Cihanjuang.
Bandrek -- initially used to demonstrate the capabilities of the turbines -- has now been developed into a serious business.
Eddy said bandrek is not only a unique beverage but its production can employ workers and help improve the welfare of ginger farmers.
There are now nine bandrek flavors, from coffee and tea to chocolate. The company has enjoyed turnover of Rp 4 billion in the four years it has been producing the drink.
Another train derails on new Garut track
An economy-class train was derailed in Garut, West Java, on Tuesday, while traveling on a new track constructed to replace on that was damaged in a landslide and caused another train to derail last Saturday.
One car of the Pasundan economy-class train, which was carrying at least 400 passengers from Bandung to Surabaya in East Java, left the track at Sukamaju village in Kersamah district in Garut at 10:28 a.m. No casualties were reported.
The accident took place three days after two passenger trains, the economy-class Citra Jaya (Serayu) and the executive-class Argo Lawu, suffered accidents on Saturday.
Around 70 passengers were injured when five of the Serayu's cars jumped off the track in Kersamah district and fell into a ravine.
Following the latest accident, train company PT Kereta Api Indonesia has announced it will not use to route until the tracks are fit for use.
The company's spokesman in Bandung, Sukendar Mulya, said two trains scheduled to leave Bandung on Tuesday night would travel by another route.
"We advised the last two trains to take the northern train route, through Cikampek and Cirebon," he said.
He could not provide details on when the tracks in Garut could be used, but said that once the repair works were complete, trains traveling through the area could not exceed five kilometers an hour.
Sukendar said passenger numbers from Bandung had dropped around 15 percent recently from the usual 2,000 passengers a day
He blamed the decline on the moving of train routes through Cikampek.
Mother of IPDN suspect speaks out
The mother of a student allegedly involved in the death of Institute of Public Administration sophomore Cliff Muntu has spoken out about violence at the campus in Sumedang, West Java.
Mimi Youku Mehue, the mother of Frans Albert Youku, one of nine suspects in Cliff's death, announced that her son had also been a victim of brutality at the school.
Mimi said Frans, who is now being detained at Sumedang Police headquarters, had once suffered fractured ribs after being beaten by senior students.
She said it was unfair to name Frans a suspect and expel him from the college, adding that he had told her that he had not taken part in beating Cliff.
Frans told her about his fractured ribs during the 2006 Christmas holidays, she said.
"He complained about an ache in his chest and showed me how part of his ribs was bent inward. He told me they were cracked," said Mimi after meeting with representatives of the institute's rectory at the campus to demand a reevaluation of her son's expulsion.
She said she wanted to make the request before her son went to trial.
She also said that violence was indoctrinated at the campus and that when Frans was told to have an X-ray he refused because "as a male he was ashamed".
Meanwhile, at least 10 former students who studied at the institute in the early 1990s were also on campus, where they spoke about the death of fellow student Aliyan.
They said that Aliyan had fallen from the second floor of the school and was taken to hospital, where he died. He was not beaten to death, as earlier reports had claimed, they said.
Hasanudin, one of the 10, said Aliyan fell from the second floor of the Lampung barracks on June 8, 1993. He injured his head and was first taken to a hospital in Sumedang and then Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung.
"He really fell. We are ready to take an oath that he was not beaten up," Hasanudin said.
Aliyan is one of 17 students whose deaths are being investigated by police for having suspicious elements. A total of 35 students have died at IPDN since 1993, according to Inu Kencana Syafiie, a lecturer at the institute.
Inu documented the deaths in a special report, which is still being processed by the West Java Police.
The institute, a training ground for bureaucrats, is known for its militaristic culture, although President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has enacted moves to change this.
Supreme Court wants less cases and higher pay
The Supreme Court wants to handle fewer cases to maximize work quality by reducing its workload and renew talks on raising the salary of judges.
In the court's 2006 annual report presented Tuesday by Chief Justice Bagir Manan, it also boasted progress in the areas of internal oversight, public access to verdicts, case handling and human resource management.
"We currently have 46 active justices working on thousands of cases every year. It would be far more efficient if not all cases went to the Supreme Court, especially petty ones," Bagir said.
As of March this year, 9,681 cases were pending at the court. This is a steep decline from 14,366 cases in the corresponding period of 2005 and 20,314 cases in 2004.
With a total of 24,826 filed cases, each justice on average has had to deal with 540 cases per month since January last year.
Of these 24,826 cases, 499 were graft cases. Of the 307 that have been heard, the court issued 239 guilty verdicts and 68 acquittals.
Bagir said the growing workload had been primarily triggered by the establishment of new institutions, such as planned fishery courts, that bring more cases to the Supreme Court.
"I don't think a divorce case should go all the way to the Supreme Court. There are some petty cases I believe should end at the appeal court level," he said.
Another way to cut back the workload of judges may be through mediation and arbitration, Bagir said, adding that such mechanisms are commonly used in other countries.
While the Supreme Court is in favor of the idea, some argue that such mechanisms prevent people from achieving justice.
At the presentation of the court's annual report, Bagir also touched on raising the salaries of judges and employees at judicial institutions, arguing that current salaries are not incentive enough to boost work performances.
A visiting German legal expert, Jutta Limbach, said on April 14 this year that improving the wellbeing of judges was important for the independence of the judicial system.
Legislator Trimedya Panjaitan, who chairs the House of Representatives Commission III on legal affairs, praised the Supreme Court for having reduced the number of outstanding cases, but suggested the court bring about changes in the area of internal oversight.
"There are no details on the kinds of complaints the public have tendered. Is this because of the quality of judges or sluggish service at the court? The Supreme Court needs to show it can pull off internal supervision to justify the trillions of rupiah allocated to it in the annual budget," he said.
Such an improvement, Trimedya said, would prove the court is capable of doing its job without the existence of the Judicial Commission, which is mandated to supervise the judiciary.
The Supreme Court has heavily criticized the new commission for what it calls an overstepping in the selection, replacement and imposition of sanctions on judges.
Judicial Commission chairman Busyro Muqoddas said the court's annual report was a visible sign that the court was opening up and informing the public of its activities.
Govt urged to relocate Aceh victims from Leuser
A green group is urging thousands of displaced people from Aceh be moved away from Gunung Leuser National Park in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, to prevent the environmental destruction of the protected park.
Leuser International Foundation, a non-governmental organization, warns the people, who have been living within the park for at least 10 years, after being displaced from their homes by conflicts, threaten the sustainability of the park.
The group's rehabilitation officer, Nizar Tarigan, said the displaced people were responsible for much of the illegal logging within the park.
"Every year, more and more of the park is destroyed. How can it not get worse since the displaced people are building homes within the park and most of them depend on illegal logging for money?" Nizar told The Jakarta Post.
He said the displaced had built comfortable lives for themselves in the park, and would likely resist efforts to move them.
Gunung Leuser covers 2.5 million hectares, stretching from Aceh and North Sumatra. According to some estimates, 30 percent of the park's territory, including 22,000 hectares in Langkat regency, have been damaged.
Nizar said the foundation had been trying since 2002 to move the people away from the park, but only 264 families had so far agreed to be relocated to Pekanbaru, Riau province.
He said security authorities needed to move in and forcibly remove the remaining families from the national park.
"Most of the displaced people living in the park have received money from the government to help them settle outside of the park, but they have not moved and the law is doing nothing about it," Nizar said.
He said weak law enforcement allowed illegal loggers to operate freely in Gunung Leuser.
In addition to those displaced by the Aceh conflict, there are around 700 squatters from around North Sumatra involved in illegal logging in the park.
When contacted for confirmation on Tuesday, Langkat Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anang Syarief said the police could not take action on its own against the displaced people and illegal squatters in the park.
He acknowledged illegal logging was occurring in Gunung Leuser but said it was not on a large scale.
He said several illegal loggers had been arrested in the park.
Anang said the Coordinating Ministry for the Public Welfare was aware of the problem with the displaced people, but had yet to take any action on the matter.
He said there was little the police could do without causing unrest.
"We once forced the displaced people out of the park but they resisted. In order to cause more problems, we had to backtrack," Anang said.