T

he past week has been full of shocking revelations and occurrences in many parts of the globe, including Indonesia. As the Libyan crisis continued, leaving fatalities in the thousands and driving up the global oil price, an 8.9 magnitude quake on Friday hit the northeast coast of Japan, the biggest quake in the country in 140 years, triggering a 10-meter tsunami that immediately washed away houses, cars, ships and buildings along the coastline. Reports said that more than 1,600 people had been killed but the death toll may increase, while 4 million houses in Tokyo were left without power.

Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the quake caused “major damage” in northeastern Japan. Japan’s government declared a state of emergency after they found a radiation leak from an unstable nuclear reactor in Fukushima Prefecture near Sendai.

The news immediately hit the world with other countries including the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all issuing tsunami alerts. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency issued a tsunami warning for Papua, West Papua, North Maluku and North Sulawesi.

The tragedy reminds us of the 2004 Aceh tsunami that killed about 220,000 people across Asia.

What we learned from the Aceh tsunami is that the world was capable of uniting to lend their hands. Although earthquakes are common in Japan, it is time for the world to reach out to Japan and offer the help that they might need.

Friday was a shocking day for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, following reports in Australian newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald stating that he abused his power. The reports were based on data from WikiLeaks, which quoted US diplomatic sources in Indonesia.

Based on data from leaked diplomatic cables, the reports said Yudhoyono had personally intervened to influence prosecutors and judges to protect corrupt political figures and put pressure on his adversaries.

In December 2004, for example, Yudhoyono allegedly ordered then deputy attorney general for special crimes Hendarman Supandji to stop investigating a corruption case involving the husband of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, Taufik Kiemas.

Both newspapers also alleged that Yudhoyono ordered then State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Syamsir Siregar to spy on then law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra when the latter made a secret trip to Singapore to meet a Chinese businessman.

Presidential Secretary Sudi Silalahi denied the reports, saying “It’s all untrue. They [the articles] do not contain truth. This all carries elements of foreign attacks against us. We [must be] careful.”

The reports also alleged that First Lady Kristiani Herawati allegedly took advantage of the family’s political connections to gain wealth for her close family members. In her defense, Sudi said that the First Lady had not been able to hold back tears after reading the reports.

The US government released a statement on the website of its embassy in Jakarta condemning the disclosure of the information and dubbed the publication as “extremely irresponsible” adding, “We express our deepest regrets to President Yudhoyono and the Indonesian people”.

Statements of regrets, however, were issued by those expecting to see a change in the ruling coalition of the government. They were also disappointed to see Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie issue a statement that his party would stay in the coalition, following a meeting with Yudhoyono on Tuesday.

Aburizal expressed his joy that both he and Yudhoyono had reached “an agreement to use the coalition not only for maintaining power, but also to speed up policies needed to develop the country”.

It was a disappointment indeed for those expecting Yudhoyono to take a sterner stance on the Golkar Party as it had repeatedly taken up opposing positions to the government and had allegedly tried to undermine the coalition twice by initiating inquiries into the Bank Century bailout and tax corruption.

Mounting pressure from members of Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party apparently was unable to convince the President to expel Golkar and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) from the ruling coalition, even though the two parties sided with the opposition in a recent move at the House of Representatives to establish an inquiry into corruption at the tax office.

When Golkar had a more comfortable position in the coalition, many expected that the PKS could be replaced by Gerindra Party, which sided with the Democratic Party in a dramatic vote that ended with Golkar and its allies narrowly losing the bid to establish the legislative inquiry.

The public’s disappointment continued when Yudhoyono announced two days later that he had no plan to reshuffle the Cabinet, saying that a reshuffle would only take place if it was essential to ensuring the Cabinet’s effective operation.

Another humiliating event that occurred in the past week saw the chief warden at Nusakambangan Narcotics Penitentiary in Cilacap regency, Central Java, Marwan Adli, and two of his subordinates arrested by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) for allegedly receiving money from a drug-dealing inmate.

The arrest only proves that their alleged involvement in illicit drug trading within the prison has made the country’s fight against drugs harder. The arrest should serve as a wake up call for the whole nation that the fight against drugs is not solely a task for the BNN. It is every citizen’s obligation to prevent the younger generation from becoming the target of these drug-dealing syndicates.

— Primastuti Handayani