Your comments:
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi ra'ji'un (from Allah we came and to Allah we return.) May Allah bless him always.

Amin Mujiarto Redjo
Sabah, Malaysia

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi ra'ji'un, I hope W. S. Rendra will rest in peace and his family will accept his destiny with open hearts.

Ruwihadi
Surakarta, Central Java

Good-bye Willy.

I Wayan Nyonyo
The Netherlands

Hope his soul will sing in the ears of the Owner.

Mukhtar Mukti Ali
Bandar Sri Begawan

Air quality drops, minister will squat -- Aug. 5, p. 1

The air quality in several cities across Riau province dropped to "dangerous" levels Tuesday, due to thick haze from forest fires that also disrupted flights and forced schools to close. The thick smog also lead to eye irritations and respiratory difficulties among local residents.

Ibnu Hasan, duty manager of the Sultan Syarif Kasim Airport in the provincial capital Pekanbaru, said flights there had been disrupted for a second straight day, with three flights postponed due to low visibility. "The pilots didn't want to risk flying with such poor visibility," he told The Jakarta Post.

Your comments:
The statement, if accurately reported, made by Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban is just unbelievable. It goes a long way in supporting the view that many lawmakers in Indonesia simply are not qualified, not technically or politically, to do the job that they have been entrusted with.

Denni Hooping
Jakarta

That is a one heck of a jaw dropper. Another case for a fully-professional cabinet selection. No more party concessions please, SBY!

Shinya Aoki
Jakarta

Revisiting refugees in Galang Island -- Aug. 4, p. 23

Galang Island is about 50 kilometers southeast of Batam, and is accessible from Batam Island by car. A series of five bridges connects the two islands, passing across four other islands on the way, Tonton, Nipah, Setoko and Rempang.

The trip from Batam to Galang takes about 40 minutes. There is no public transportation because not many people live in Galang and only a few people travel the route, but if you don't have your own car, you can hire a taxi for Rp 200,000.

Since 2006, motorists have had to pay between Rp 5,000 and Rp 50,000 to enter the island, which is surrounded by barbed wire.

Your comments:
Thank you for this informative article. Although I was a boat person, arriving from Vietnam to Pulau Bidong, Malaysia, in 1980, now I am a US citizen living in California, I am very interested in visiting Galang with my family and friend.

I appreciate the Indonesian people and government, who have extended their hands and kindness to accept and provide our fellow Vietnamese boat people with temporary asylum. Anyway, I would like to point out a few minor errors in your article as follows:

Nghia Trang is a cementery; Nha Trang is a popular seaside city, approximately 400 kilometers north of Saigon. We don't have any word "Nha Trang" in Vietnamese.

"More than 12 million South Vietnamese residents fled during the civil war, looking for political asylum in countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia."

During the war between 1954-1975, more than 12 million Vietnamese people were displaced within Vietnam; yet, after the war, between April 1975 and 1990, over three million Vietnamese fled Vietnam to neighboring countries, eventually seeking political asylum in third countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia.

"Many Vietnamese were forced out of their country in the 1970s because of the heated political situation that arose from the ideological conflicts between the communist North Vietnam and the socialist South Vietnam." It should be "... the communist North Vietnam and the democratic South Vietnam."

Hieu Van Ngo
Los Angeles, California

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