Police grills two KPK investigators

Two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) answer police summons on Wednesday in relation to a criminal case, in which two KPK deputies have been implicated. KPK legal bureau head Khaidir Ramli told reporters that investigators Wisnu Baroto and Roni Santana have arrived at the National Police Headquarters in [...]

Race to Head Indonesia's Golkar Party Heats Up

Candidates for the Golkar Party chairmanship are scrambling to secure the support of regional leaders as the competition heats up ahead of the party’s national congress next week. Tommy Suharto, a convicted murdered who is a son of former dictator President Suharto, has reportedly been busy schmoozing regional delegations in Jakarta to share his vision for the party if he were elected chairman. “In [...]

Indonesian Police Name 3 New Terror Suspects

The National Police on Friday identified three new terror suspects, including a woman who is five months pregnant. National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri named the suspects as Rahmat Puji Prabowo, a k a Bejo, Supono, a k a Kedu, and Putri Munawaroh. Bejo and Kedu were arrested in Pasar Gading, Solo, a day before the police killed suspected terror mastermind Noordin M Top on Sept. 17. Bambang [...]

No Rest For The Faithful During Idul Fitri

While others celebrated Idul Fitri with family and friends, some Muslims spent the most important Islamic holiday working out on the streets or in hospitals, performing crucial tasks to make sure the public received basic services. Amanda Larasati, a 27-year-old nurse at Mitra International Hospital in East Jakarta, said she has been celebrating the first day of Idul Fitri with medical staff at the [...]

Family Killed in Holiday Period’s Deadliest Collision

Vehicles such as this Toyota Kijang must vie for spacewith large buses on Java’s roads during Idul Fitri,often with tragic resultsA family of six died on Thursday when their Suzuki Carry van hit an intercity bus on the dangerous Pantura highway in East Java, local police said. The bus driver’s assistant also [...]

Indonesia’s Terror Burial Anger Boils Over

Solo. The suspected terrorists killed here last week continued to cause trouble on Thursday, with anger between groups of armed protesters over one of their burials nearly sparking a street battle. Bagus Budi Pranoto, a k a Urwah; Ario Sudarso, a k a Aji; and Susilo, a k a Adib, were shot dead along with Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorist, Malaysian Noordin M Top, during a raid on Susilo’s rented [...]

Indonesian island becomes centre of harsh Muslim law

Demonstration Pro The Full Sharia Law at Aceh - IndonesiaFull sharia law has been approved by politicians in Aceh, Indonesia, allowing Muslim adulterers to be stoned to death. Politicians in the staunchly Islamic province of Aceh passed the law which will allow punishments of up to 100 lashes for offences including [...]

Balibo reflects new challenges for Indonesia's foreign policy team

The announcement by the Australian police that they will open an investigation into the Balibo incident is the issue of the week now. We remember the 1975 Balibo incident, which began the East Timor horror. As Soeharto's troops conducted a military operation in Balibo, five Western reporters were killed on the battleground. The Indonesian Army said they were caught in the crossfire, but others saw [...]

Bus operators see slump despite rosy prediction

Transport experts predicting a 15 percent increase in commuters during Idul Fitri may have jumped the gun, with ticket sellers overstocked just days from the festivities. "Usually, we start running out of seats a week before Lebaran *or Idul Fitri*," Ani, a 20-year-old ticket seller for the Lorena Karina service at Tanjung Priok, said Monday. "But this year, most people came to ask about ticket prices [...]

Indonesia: A Historical Glimpse

The first known hominid inhabitant of Indonesia was the so-called "Java Man", or Homo erectus, who lived here half a million years ago. Some 60,000 years ago, the ancestors of the present-day Papuans move eastward through these islands, eventually reaching New Guinea and Australia some 30-40,000 years ago. Much later, in about the fourth millennium B.C., they were followed by the ancestors of the [...]

Indonesia: A Necklace of Equatorial Emeralds

Indonesia is often referred to as the world's largest archipelago, a name which aptly represents its 17,000 or so islands which span more than 5000 km (around 3,200 miles) eastward from Sabang in northern Sumatra to Merauke in Irian Jaya. If you superimpose a map of Indonesia over one of Europe, you will find that it stretches from Ireland to Iran; compared to the United States, it covers the area [...]

SBY Wants Indonesia's Anti-Corruption and Secrecy Bills Delayed

Bowing to public pressure, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has urged the House of Representatives to delay the passage of the state secrecy and Anti-Corruption Court bills. “Do not force it if there is still the feeling that some crucial problems have not been properly addressed,” Yudhoyno said on Wednesday, referring to the Anti-Corruption Court bill. The bill has been opposed by antigraft groups [...]

Aceh’s New Bylaw Could Be Quashed in The Courts

The central government would ask the Supreme Court to overturn a controversial new bylaw in Aceh mandating that adulterers be stoned to death if it’s found to be against national laws or the Constitution, the minister for home affairs said on Wednesday. Mardiyanto told a press conference that his ministry and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights would examine the bylaw, endorsed on Monday by Aceh’s [...]

New Indonesian Tax Laws Make Shariah Lenders Happy but Worry Luxury Merchants

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a revised law on value added tax and luxury taxes aimed at helping the Islamic banking sector and lower-income Indonesians. Luxury goods sellers, however, fear the new law could see prices for their goods skyrocket. “Development in business transactions and the change in consumption patterns were the basis for the VAT law amendment,” Finance Minister [...]

Shots Fired in Solo Terror Raid

Police stand guard on the perimeter of a raidin Solo early on Thursday morning.Police and witnesses say shots have been fired during a raid by counterterrorism forces in Indonesia's Central Java. Police at the scene said the operation was carried out by an anti-terror unit. Witnesses said shots were heard for [...]

Indonesia House Headed for Overtime

It looks like lawmakers will have to put in some extra hours after coming back from the holiday. More plenary sessions than initially planned may be in store if the House hopes to plow through at least 20 more bills before its term officially ends on Oct. 1. “The DPR [House of Representatives] will hold at least five more plenary sessions to meet our target,” Yasona Lauly, a legislator from the Indonesia [...]

Indonesia vs Malaysia: Discovery To Produce Pendet Show To Calm Indonesia-Malaysia Tensions

Ni Ketut Arini teaches girls Pendet in Denpasar, Bali. She was a student of Pendet creator I Wayan Rindi, who died in 1967Discovery Channel will produce a 30-minute program on the pendet dance to try and alleviate tensions between Malaysia and Indonesia, Malaysia’s Star newspaper reported on Saturday. Discovery [...]

Sabotage of KPK power 'systematic'

The entire deliberation process of the anticorruption court bill shows a "systematic" effort to end the war on graft by weakening the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), a lawmaker said. As of Wednesday, nine out of 10 factions at the House of Representatives were still lobbying the government to end the KPK's authority to prosecute. They want to limit such authority to those under the jurisdiction [...]

PLN Eyes 30% Rate Hike for Electricity in Indonesia

The company will present lawmakers withfour different price-increase possibilities for 2010With a reduced subsidy for electricity in the cards for next year, state power utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara wants to see power charges increased by 30 percent on average for household and industrial consumers, the [...]

Last-Minute Maneuvers as Indonesian Ministers Resign Ahead of Deadline

There was a flurry of activity on Tuesday ahead of a deadline for ministers to decide between Indonesia's House of Representatives and the cabinet, with three resignations and a fourth minister likely to follow them out the door. The law requires ministers elected to the House of Representatives to choose between the legislature and the cabinet, and the General Elections Commission (KPU) gave them [...]

Concerns Over ‘Steps Toward Islamic State’ in Indonesia

The nation is quietly being pushed closer toward an Islamic state, Christian politicians and religious groups warned on Sunday, pointing to attempts this month to push through a bill requiring halal product labeling. The legislation could be passed by the House of Representatives as soon as next week, despite opposition from the Christian-based Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and minority religious groups [...]

Bank Century: Will Indonesia's Top Officials Survive the Fallout?

Economic and political analysts said over the weekend that the Rp 6.7 trillion ($663.3 million) Bank Century bailout controversy would not generate enough political steam to put serious pressure on two of the country’s most senior officials — Vice President-elect Boediono, the former Bank Indonesia governor, and reform icon Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the finance minister and acting chief economics minister. [...]

Critics Take Their Last Shots at Indonesian Film Censorship Plan

With less than a week to go before lawmakers endorse it, the controversial film bill is coming under a hail of media criticism in a last attempt to stop its passage. The press and broadcasting community on Friday joined the fray, calling for the bill not to be passed next week as scheduled, saying it was too authoritarian, would stifle creativity and could hurt democracy. “The proposed film bill is [...]

Indonesia Postpones Broadband Project Once Again

Few people would expect to get both superfast and cheap Internet access everywhere across an archipelago as vast as Indonesia, but residents of the digitally remote eastern provinces are going to have to keep on waiting even for a rudimentary broadband service. Financial woes are forcing not only a reduction in the number of areas to be covered by a network of affordable, high-speed broadband, but [...]

Indonesia Quake: Relief Trickles into West Java

A house in Sindang Barang, Cianjur,damaged by the 7.3-magnitude earthquake.Thirty-seven people are still reported missing in Cianjur,where rocks and boulders slid off a cliff and buried a dozen homes.As the death toll from Wednesday’s powerful quake continued to climb, aid, as well as government officials and [...]

Prita Mulyasari Willing to Take 'Ultimate Oath' to Prove Innocence: Lawyer

Prita Mulyasari’s lawyer told the press on Thursday that his client was willing to do a sumpah pocong , an “ultimate oath” form of traditional ritual used in rural villages, to prove her innocence in her defamation trial. The statement came after one of the prosecutor’s witnesses, Ogyana Nandri, the customer [...]

Police Still On Trail of Century’s Millions

Red-faced National Police officials announced on Thursday they had only managed to recover a tiny fraction of the more than $19 million allegedly embezzled by former Bank Century major shareholder Robert Tantular, as concern grew the businessman could get off with a relatively light sentence. National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told a hearing with House of Representatives Commission [...]

Indonesia Quake: Java 'Always a Quake Risk'

Villagers stand near the ruins of their house in TasikmalayaWednesday’s quake that left at least 33 people dead and more than 3,500 buildings damaged in West Java was a reminder that such powerful quakes are always a danger for the island and cannot be ignored, experts warned. “There is always the potential to [...]

Indonesia's Airlines Are Safe From Terrorists: Minister

The Minister of Transportation, Jusman Syafei Djamal, has guaranteed that Indonesian airlines are safe from terrorists. Jusman made the statement on Tuesday, following police findings that a terror suspect who is still at large had worked for the national airline Garuda Indonesia while planning a bigger act of terror than July’s twin bombings at two Jakarta hotels. Jusman told Metro TV that to make [...]

Solution to Indonesia's High Sugar Prices Proves Sticky

Indonesia's government has thus far been unable to agree on how to respond to high sugar prices, which have soared at home and abroad, particularly during Ramadan when consumption of the commodity peaks. As a stop-gap measure, the government will allocate funds to increase domestic sugar production and revamp the nation’s sugar refineries, Bayu Krisnamurthi, deputy minister for agriculture, fisheries [...]

Painless Idul Fitri Travel in Indonesia? Government Promises It Will Be

Whether by road, rail, air, or water you really will get where you need to go for Idul Fitri this year — and as painlessly as possible. That’s the pledge from Indonesian officials, who insist all transportation systems are all being readied. The holiday marking Ramadan’s end traditionally sees millions of urbanites head out of the city to celebrate with family and friends. It is often a massive headache [...]