Organizers have canceled the Jakarta International Jazz Festival without giving a clear reason. As a consolation, top Indonesian jazz stars are performing at the Pondok Indah Mall and Airman Planet Lounge at the Sultan Hotel over the weekend.
Sports fans are in for a treat after Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia and Global TV said this week they are going to air the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in June.
The week also reveals that the oppressive culture is back following the banning of the screening of film Balibo. It echoes an appeal by the Indonesian Ulema Council last week for Muslims to refrain from watching the 2012 movie that it deems incompatible with Islam teachings. Balibo is a film about five Australian journalists in East Timor who were allegedly killed by the Indonesian military.
The week was opened by 7,500 runners crossing the new 10-kilometer Suramadu bridge, the longest in the country, linking East Java’s capital of Surabaya and Madura Island.
In the capital, a group of people without a clear identity attempted to disrupt a rally by activists from AntiCorruption Civil Society Coalition (Kompak) on Sunday. The police were at hand to avoid possible clashes.
The activists demanded a full investigation into the Bank Century scandal, while the opposing group rallied behind the police and called for the disbandment of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Demonstrators available for hire is no secret. However, the practice often costs lives as was the case of a violent protest in North Sumatra in February. Pressing the establishment of Tapanuli province, the protest took the life of local council speaker Abdul Azis Angkat. The mastermind of the protest, Chandra Panggabean, was sentenced to 12 years on Wednesday.
More than 1,500 cigarette workers rallied in the Central Java town of Kudus to protest the government’s policy to increase cigarette excise next year. Earlier in the week, 3,000 colleagues mounted similar protests in the East Java town of Malang. The workers say they believe the policy will bankrupt small cigarette producers.
As expected, news about the controversial Bank Century bailout dominated the week. The issue is likely to linger on and outlive the President’s first 100-day program.
The Rp 6.7 trillion (roughly US$700 million) bailout of the little known bank late last year has raised suspicion that it had been used to fund Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s presidential campaign.
Yudhoyono was quick to deny the allegation. “In front of Allah, in this respected forum, an education forum which promotes conscience and wisdom, I would like to say that the reports are one hundred percent untrue,” the President said Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Vice President Boediono urged law enforcers to move quickly in probing the controversial bailout. With or without the House inquiry, he said, legal process concerning the scandal should go on. “The faster, the better.”
Boediono was Governor of Bank Indonesia when the scandal broke out. He is one of three key witnesses in the case that includes Yudhoyono and Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
The Supreme Audit Agency says that officials from Bank Indonesia have intentionally provided inaccurate data in order to legalize the disbursement of the bailout.
The bailout that was initially unveiled by the KPK has drawn the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) into the fray after evidence surfaced that the two key law enforcement institutions were allegedly in tandem to undermine the KPK.
The General Elections Commission joined the ruckus this week after an NGO reported it had received money from the bailout funds. It has denied the charges.
Yudhoyono has been under fire since last month for not promptly defusing the political bomb. The public has the perception that he is leaning too heavily on the police and the AGO. Advocates believe that this is not a mere corruption case but an extraordinary crime that needs a solution with extraordinary measures.
It is tempting to stop talking about corruption as Yudhoyono starts his second term in office, particularly because fighting corruption has been his battle cry since he took the office in 2004. But charges of graft cases keep coming, the latest being corruption in the logging industry, costing the nation $2 billion a year, or equivalent to the entire health budget. The Human Rights Watch says corruption in the industry has cast a dark cloud on the chances of Indonesia getting cash from carbon trading.
Indonesia, home to one-tenth of the world’s rainforests, stands to earn billions of dollars from the world’s major polluters under a future global carbon-trading scheme. The charges aside, Indonesia is already the third largest emitter of heat-trapping gases.
The United Nations convenes a climate change conference in Copenhagen next week.
In North Sumatra, the KPK summoned Governor Sjamsul Arifin for questioning over an alleged embezzlement of Langkat regency regional budgets between 2000 and 2007 that caused losses of Rp 102 billion to the state. As if to redeem his sin, Sjamsul returned Rp 67 billion of the alleged stolen money to the commission.
If the week looks bleak, the silver lining is perhaps the return of our 1,000-odd peace keepers from Lebanon. Indonesia is among the 20 countries participating in the mission conducted by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
— Harry Bhaskara
