T

he general mood of people here in the past week was a combination of sadness, happiness and a high degree of expectation that firm action would be taken to end speculation and bring certainty to helpless compatriots.

The nation lost one of its best sons Thursday when senior and respected journalist Rosihan Anwar, 89, passed away after experiencing breathing difficulties earlier in the day.

Rosihan began his career in his early 20s as a reporter for Asia Raya newspaper in 1943 and continued to work in the world of journalism ever since. He chaired the Indonesian Journalist Association (PWI) from 1970 to 1973. His last position in the organization was honorary council chairman.

The recipient of the Spirit of Journalism Award from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year and the Bintang Mahaputra III — the highest civilian award — from the late president Soeharto in 1974 was given a military funeral at Kalibata Heroes Cemetery in South Jakarta later on Thursday.

A shocking bombing rocked the West Java town of Cirebon on Friday when a man, believed to be a suicide bomber, detonated a bomb inside the At-Taqwa Mosque situated within the Cirebon City Police Headquarters compound. The bomb exploded a few minutes after noon when mosque attendees were about to begin praying.

The blast killed the man, who is believed to have carried the bomb, and wounded 26 others, including Cirebon City Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herukoco.

It was the first suicide bombing to hit a mosque in Indonesia. It came less than a month after a series of book bombs in Jakarta aimed at the founder of the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) and Democratic Party (PD) politician Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the headquarters of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) that is currently led by Comr. Gen. Gories Mere, Pancasila Youth Organization former chief Yapto Soerjosoemarno and musician Ahmad Dhani. None of the bomb parcels hit their targets.

The past week was also dominated by media reports on caterpillar plagues in several parts of Java and Bali, including Jakarta.

After the insect invasion on Probolinggo reportedly subsided, the insects swarmed Madiun, East Java; Kendal, Central Java; Yogyakarta; Sumedang and Subang, West Java; Buleleng, Bali, and eventually reached Jakarta after a stop in the West Java city of Bekasi, the capital’s eastern neighbor.

The caterpillar infestation has been neither as fatal nor as devastating as sci-fi moviegoers imagine alien attacks to be. However, the insects have inflicted huge material losses on residents, caused skin rashes and generated public fear.

However, not all the news last week was bad as good news came from Dr. Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya, East Java. After a successful operation on Sunday last week, the condition of conjoined twins Rochman and Rochim improved and both were transferred from the hospital’s intensive care unit to a regular ward Thursday.

The twins were born on Sept. 4, 2009, in Jombang, East Java, conjoined at the hips. The operation to separate the two took about 13 hours. Their condition has been improving since with no post-operation bleeding or infection.
Besides the successful operation on the conjoined twins, the past week was also filled with intensive media coverage of First Brig. Norman Kamaru of the Gorontalo Police headquarters’ Mobile Brigade, who made headlines after a video of him lip-synching a popular Indian song was posted on YouTube earlier this month.

After a brief performance in front of National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo and high-ranking police officers at the National Police headquarters last week, Brig. Norman went on a road show and was interviewed by a number of television stations in Jakarta this week.

Initially threatened with an administrative sanction by his commander for his YouTube appearance, the officer turned out to have won the support and praise of the National Police headquarters as his “accidental performance” helped promote the humanistic side of the police corps, which has long been tainted with issues of corruption, human rights violations and power abuses.

An issue of concern in the past week, however, was the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the 20 Indonesian crew members of the MV Sinar Kudus cargo ship who have been held hostage by Somali pirates since March 16, 2011. The pirates are demanding US$3.5 million in ransom for the release of the hostages.

Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Adm. Agus Suhartono said Thursday that the government was mulling several options, including diplomatic and military ones, as well as paying the ransom, to help release the hijacked Indonesians. “However, the government is right now prioritizing negotiations,” he said. “If negotiations fail, the TNI is set to deploy.”

Agus stressed that diplomatic options were the best way to guarantee the safety of the Indonesian crew as the ship had already reached shore, rendering military operations more difficult.

From the political side, the past week saw a significant shift in the country’s political arena, with the post of executive chairman of the joint secretariat of the Democratic Party-lead government coalition, previously held by Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, being downgraded to deputy chairman. Aburizal was named the new deputy chairman.

The latest occurrence was the climax of an “internal rift” within the highly political joint secretariat.

— Imanuddin Razak