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24 December 2006 - Fitriyah was 14 when her mother left their Java village to work as a maid in Saudi Arabia. There were two letters from Sulastri after she arrived in Riyadh, and then a silence for seven years: no calls, no letters, and no money. When Fitriyah saw her mother again, she was dead. The autopsy ... ( read on )
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17 December 2006 - It wasn't so long ago that Chinese writing was banned from public places here and Chinese schools and newspapers were prohibited. But walk into the former office of Suharto, the retired Indonesian strongman who maintained these laws in an effort to integrate the ethnic Chinese community, and a large decorative poster of Chinese ... ( read on )
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16 December 2006 - For those recently heaping praise on Indonesia for its moderate Muslim and emerging democratic credentials, consider the case of Islamic preacher Yusman Roy. Last year Roy was sentenced to two years in prison on blasphemy charges for leading Muslim prayers at an East Java Islamic school in his native Bahasa Indonesia rather than Arabic ... ( read on )
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13 December 2006 - The United States, China and now a resurgent Russia are all competing for regional influence in Southeast Asia, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is shrewdly playing his diplomatic cards among all three suitors.
Yudhoyono visited Moscow early this month and signed a wide raft of bilateral agreements, including big new arms, energy and trade ... ( read on )
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09 December 2006 - Asked about the progress of police reform in Indonesia, criminologist and police analyst Adrianus Eliasta Sembiring Meliala said that it was obvious, but the direct benefit for citizens would not be realized in one night.
"This is because police reform takes place in three interrelated and complex domains: structural, instrumental and cultural. Policing activities have ... ( read on )
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18 November 2006 - Paul Wolfowitz, a key architect of America's invasion of Iraq and its ambitions to reshape the world, was President George Bush's controversial choice to take the reins of the World Bank last year. Mr Wolfowitz, despised by many for his policies but admired for his intellect, ignored the furore over his appointment, waiting 12 ... ( read on )
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17 November 2006 - Indonesia is pressing ahead with plans to construct nuclear power plants on the islands of Java and Madura, despite strong protests, mostly from environmental organizations. Facing spiraling energy demand and soaring global oil prices, Indonesia has been considering a number of alternatives to generate electricity and nuclear power is among them.
"A technology and economic ... ( read on )
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05 November 2006 - Back to Lombok after almost two years - my last visit to this beautiful and quiet island east of the messy Bali dates back to January 2005 - I noticed that certain things had changed, and too bad not only for the good of the island. It has nothing to do with increased tourist ... ( read on )
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03 November 2006 - Controversy has surrounded the book written by former President Habibie, which reveals a number of new historical facts about the events of May 1998. The military is mentioned as having a hand in speeding up the downfall of the Suharto regime. Two major-generals and a number of colonels are suspected of having "allowed" university ... ( read on )
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15 October 2006 - Publicity-shy paper and plantation magnate Sukanto Tanoto is in Indonesia's national headlines after topping two high-profile lists. Forbes Asia last month listed the 56-year-old tycoon as the richest individual in Indonesia, with assets worth about US$2.8 billion (Rp25.2 trillion). In June, the self-made ethnic-Chinese tycoon also topped a list of state-owned Bank Mandiri's six ... ( read on )
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14 October 2006 - Freedom and human rights are common themes which persist across international literary festivals around the world. The third annual Ubud Writers and Readers festival which closed last week was no exception. The five-day event featured workshops, seminars and panel discussions on topics ranging from the effects of globalization to understanding of Islam in the ... ( read on )
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06 October 2006 - One more time I would like to look back to Malaysia a little bit. However I was only there for a week, I still had time to look around more than enough to get back to it for (maybe) one more time. Maybe it's just that I have too much time here, but I ... ( read on )
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05 October 2006 - Politics in new democracies like Thailand has always sprung surprises. While Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra visited New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Thai army chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin led a bloodless coup and declared himself the temporary prime minister. It is interesting to observe that the coup did not spark social unrest, ... ( read on )
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25 September 2006 - It has been a short while, but still I think about that one day that I was headed for the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Because I had obtained a nice booklet of maps of the city, and I also bought a monthly card for the LRT (city trains), I would be able to ... ( read on )
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15 September 2006 - It was about time for me to get a new visa. Because of regulations it's not possible to extend a certain kind of visa - tourist visa. Also you can't apply for a new visa when in Indonesia as well. You will have to go to an Indonesian embassy. Where that embassy is doesn't ... ( read on )
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09 September 2006 - Looking back in a bunch of old airline tickets, entrance ticket and whatever more, I again found some 'remarkable' items. A part of a boarding pass for a flight with Garuda Indonesia, which haven't been flying to the Netherlands for quite some time now. Also an entrance ticket to the Prambanan temple complex as ... ( read on )
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25 August 2006 - What should have been a nice day driving around, became a very funny little adventure. Especially about some remarks that would be made in Parangtritis. Thinking back to this in fact ridiculous fact where four people can laugh about for a long time, it's time to do some efforts to go back writing a ... ( read on )
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17 August 2006 - Houses of worship are an important topic of discussion for many people, as the recent debate over them showed. The impression was that people put more importance on the buildings themselves than on practicing the good deeds taught inside them. The heated debate revolved around drawing up new rules on church or mosque construction ... ( read on )
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14 August 2006 - With several days left until the annual celebration of the independence of Indonesia, 17 August 2006 exactly 61 years ago, the daily view in the streets has changed pretty much. Not that it has become more crowded or more quiet, because that doesn't realy matter this time of year, this day is commonly celebrated ... ( read on )
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13 August 2006 - Just back from a couple of days in Malang it's about time to turn on the computer again and to clean the keyboard. Since the short holiday to Bali I didn't see any chance to write something down, but that is going to change now. The few days in Malang were a pleasant difference ... ( read on )
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27 July 2006 - On a late afternoon late last week I was to receive a short text message. I get a lot of them here as it is a cheap way to communicate here during the day, but this one was more special, or more important however you want to call it. It was from a foundation ... ( read on )
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26 July 2006 - When Erwin Arnada, editor in chief of Playboy magazine in Indonesia, answered a summons at the police headquarters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, he turned up smiling, behaved like a good citizen and, in turn, was treated politely during nearly six hours of questioning. The parrying, he recalled, went something like this:
"When did you ... ( read on )
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18 July 2006 - The news of the heavy earthquake off the southern coast of Java came in unexpected, as usually the case with earthquakes. Initially BMG (the Weather and Geology office) reported a 6.8 magnitude quake almost 300 kilometers south of the central Javanese city of Bandung. That means the quake occurred at sea, at only a ... ( read on )
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15 July 2006 - When in Yogyakarta it is hard not to notice the Gunung Merapi volcano, towards the north. The majestic 2900 meter volcano may not be the highest one around, that's for sure, but the volcano is active almost constantly, not only scaring the hell out of the people living on it's slopes, but also offering ... ( read on )
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16 June 2006 - For two months Timor Leste has gone through its worst crisis since its independence. Much of the country's trade and economy depend on us. Much of the geo-political space in which it has to pursue its foreign policy, and to achieve stability and justice, depends on us. They use our language, even smoke the ... ( read on )
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08 June 2006 - Fifty years ago, Clifford Geertz wrote: " ... archipelagic in geography, eclectic in civilization, and heterogeneous in culture, Indonesia flourishes when it accepts and capitalizes on its diversity and disintegrates when it denies and suppresses it". The comment, part of Geertz's assessment of the political situation in Indonesia in the late fifties, also anticipates ... ( read on )
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28 May 2006 - Legend has it that the Tengger ethnic group in the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru area of East Java is descended from the ancient Majapahit royal family. The name "Tengger" itself is said to be an acronymic derivation of two legendary figures from the region, Rara Anteng and Jaka Seger. As it has been long told, during a ... ( read on )
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12 May 2006 - Discussion on Mt. Merapi volcano, expected imminently to erupt, would be considered incomplete unless it included the myths and mysticism that surround it. Reaching magnificently up to the sky on the border between Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces, the 2,968-meter volcano is believed, by the traditional Javanese communities that live in its vicinity, to ... ( read on )
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04 May 2006 - Tangerang is firmly in the spotlight after the issuance of a controversial bylaw to eradicate prostitution in the municipality. It also issued another bylaw that bans liquor. Syafi'i Anwar, executive director of the International Centre for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP), shared his views with Ridwan Max Sijabat >on what is happening in the region.
What ... ( read on )
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30 April 2006 - Whether it's in Bali, Sulawesi or Java, you will get tickets for everything, everywhere. Most of them end up in the trash can - or on the street for that matter - right away, but some of them are worth while keeping as a memory to places you have ever been. Maybe it's not ... ( read on )
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26 April 2006 - The frantic effort to save thousands of lives from an imminent eruption of Mount Merapi in Yogyakarta may reflect the best disaster management so far in Indonesia since the December 2004 tsunami caused the deaths of more than 130,000 people in Aceh and Nias.
The evacuation of people living on the slopes and at the ... ( read on )
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20 April 2006 - The ongoing discussion about the urgent need to increase the education budget and Vice President Jussuf Kalla's irritation with Indonesian backwardness despite the obvious natural wealth of the country, as reported in this paper on April 5, highlights a problem that is not limited to Indonesia, but harms this country and coincidentally a number ... ( read on )
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09 April 2006 - For the second time I look back at a handful of tickets that is in a box or plastic bag in my room. They are laying there, some of them already for about seven years now. Time to give them some attention and have a talk about hem. This time some attention to tickets ... ( read on )
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08 April 2006 - Finally, the 2005 Jakarta gubernatorial decree banning smoking in public places has been implemented, after a two-month delay. The decree, an auxiliary regulation to the 2005 bylaw on air pollution control, is expected to end any arguments about people's right to breathe clean air.
The city administration appears to be serious about implementing the decree. ... ( read on )
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02 April 2006 - It has been unnervingly quiet on the tourism front in Bali of late - many have been laid off or put on part-time - giving the Balinese more time at home, more time to just be ... Balinese.
Nyepi, a day of silence marking the first day of the Saka calendar, is the only nationally ... ( read on )
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25 March 2006 - In the past few months much has been in the local Press about Sharia regulations in regions of Indonesia as well as the frequently cited Pornography Law being deliberated on in the House. These clippings in the press have been anything but flattering of Sharia which to a practicing Muslim is the crux of ... ( read on )
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22 February 2006 - "Don't just blame us for stripping the forest -- first take a look at what local people have done to conserve it," said Haji Naim, 58, one of a group of farmers standing at the foot of the hilly Murhum Forest Park in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi. Along with the others, Haji is cultivating crops ... ( read on )
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15 February 2006 - Traveling in Indonesia, whenever you attempt to do this, you will notice the vast amount of small paper - sometimes even like toilet-paper - tickets you get. On virtually every occasion you will get at least one. Not one, but one for your car, motorbike, your friends, your family, your kids. And it gets ... ( read on )
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06 February 2006 - The number of Indonesian urban poor without access to running water, an estimated 50 million people, exceeds the combined populations of Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. Nearly half of all people currently living in Jakarta, the fourth most populous city in the world, lack a piped water connection; this number of unconnected is greater than ... ( read on )
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26 January 2006 - The recent research conducted by the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP), the Indonesian Islamic Boarding School Association (BKSPPI) and AusAID, in which I was involved, shows that many pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), both traditional (salaf) and modern, in West Java reject pluralism as they perceive this as an acceptance of the relativity ... ( read on )
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19 January 2006 - The quiet of the afternoon was shattered when hundreds of children stormed out of the majestic gates of Duur Bingin Temple into the streets of Tegalalang village. In terms of sheer volume, five children are enough to outscream an entire supermarket floor filled with busy adults. Imagine what an uproar a group of some ... ( read on )
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11 January 2006 - Despite a flurry of warnings about possible violence over the holidays, residents in this capital of Central Sulawesi Province, thought the bomb blast that ripped through a nearby pork-selling market on New Year's Eve was an earthquake. They were convinced, like so many others in the region, that the communal tensions that erupted into ... ( read on )
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10 January 2006 - Donors often say that the major obstacle in the post-tsunami relief and reconstruction work is poor co-ordination of the organizations involved. This may be true, but the observation does not help much unless we discuss why.
International development co-operation has become neo-liberal. A myriad of state and private actors compete for funds and influence on ... ( read on )
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