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GATHERINGS:
An informed guide to happenings throughout the region.
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Indonesia
takes to peace keeping
From
News Reports:
Yogyakarta, May 18: The Indonesia government has deployed
1,966 military and police personnel to United Nations-sponsored
peacekeeping forces, the Antara news agency quotes Peacekeeping
Mission Centre Commander Brigadier General Imam Edy Mulyono.
“The personnel are assigned to various countries,
including Lebanon, South Sudan, and Haiti,” he told
a seminar titled, “Indonesia as Rising Middle Power”
in Yogyakarta last Wednesday.
The top contributors to the UN`s peacekeeping forces are
Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Jordan,
Ghana, and South Africa.
The Indonesian government established the Indonesia Peace
and Security Centre to train peacekeeping personnel.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Viet Nam wants non-aligned solidarity
From New Reports:
Ha Noi, May 17: Viet Nam Deputy Foreign Minister Le Luong
Minh has wants member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement
to enhance solidarity based on the Bandung principles,
fundamental regulations of the United Nations Charter
and international law.
Tuoi Tre, Youth, newspaper said the deputy foreign minister
had made the appeal at the movement’s ministerial
meeting in Egypt earlier this month.
The movement’s member countries should also address
their disputes peacefully and respect each side’s
independence, national sovereignty and peaceful co-existence,
he said.
This is the foundation that would enhance the movement’s
role and voice in dealing with disarmament, terrorism,
climate change and epidemics as well as the implementation
of United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Armed violence was still occurring in many member countries,
partially due to outside intervention and imposition,
and developing countries were struggling with the impact
of globalisation, unequal financial systems, international
commerce, climate change and food security and energy,
he said.
The deputy foreign minister affirmed Viet Nam’s support
of the Palestinian people in their just struggles to build
a sovereign state and understood the difficulties the
Cuban government and people faced because of the United
States embargo.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Trans Female president stands for election
From News Reports:
Bangkok, May 16: Yonlada Kirkkong Suanyos, 30, who has
undergone surgery to change from male to female, has registered
to represent the Provincial Administration Organisation
in the Nan provincial election about 500 kilometres north
of Bangkok on Sunday, May 27.
The Nation newspaper says the PhD candidate, who underwent
the surgery at 16, owns a jewellery enterprise, manages
a satellite television station and is Trans Female Association
of Thailand president.
“I am confident that my experience and ability will
be useful to the development of Nan,” the newspaper
quotes her as saying.
“I believe trans genders and homosexuals will support
me.”
The
Southeast Asian Times
Viet
Nam, China plan marine hotline
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, May 15: Viet Nam marine police and the China Public
Security Ministry and Border Administration are to establish
a hotline in an effort to avoid off-shore disputes.
Thanh Nien, Youth, newspaper quotes marine police political
commissar Colonel Nguyen Van Tuong as saying Viet Nam
and China would also conduct joint patrols in the Gulf
of Tonkin based on their 2000 border agreement.
A communications channel would also be negotiated with
the Cambodia maritime police, he said.
A hotline between the Viet Nam and China foreign ministries
to respond to maritime disputes was established in March.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Prime
Minister accepts lese majeste law
From News Reports:
Bangkok, May 14: Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will
not change Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code
- Thailand’s notorious lese majeste law - despite
the fate of Ampon Tangnoppakul, 62, who died in jail while
serving a 20-year term for having sent text messages that
insulted the Thai Queen Sirikit.
“I want to reaffirm that my government's policy is
to stay put,” The Bangkok Post quotes her as saying.
"I have already told groups who push for amendment
that the government's urgent mission is to solve economic
problems."
The Campaign Committee for the Amendment of Article 112
has issued a statement dated Thursday, May 10, saying
it had collected more than 10,000 signatures - enough
to initiate the amendment process.
The committee is now verifying the signatures and was
expected to announce the exact number of them on Sunday,
May 27, says the statement.
The statement describes Ampon Tangnoppakul as a "political
prisoner" and a "victim" of Section 112
of the Criminal Code.
The offence imposes harsh punishment without any regard
for human rights or humanitarian reasons, asserts the
statement.
"That's why political prisoners under Section 112
are denied bail which is a basic right.
"Ampon was old and frail. He had been treated for
mouth cancer. He was poor and had little education. He
had no relatives outside the country."
A preliminary autopsy reportedly showed that Ampon Tangnoppakul
died in a prison hospital of liver cancer.
He also suffered from cancer of the mouth.
The dead man had been accused of having sent the messages
to Somkiat Krongwattanasuk, a private secretary to former
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva via a mobile phone between
May 9-22, 2010.
Thai criminal court judges found him guilty on four counts
of having breached Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure
Code and Section 14 of the 2007 Computer Crime Act that
supposedly governs national security on November 24 last
year.
The defendant, known as “Uncle SMS” among those
who followed his messages or “Ah Kong” or grandfather
to his acquaintances, denied the charges saying his mobile
phone was being repaired at the time of the offences and
he did not know how to send text messages.
But Presiding judge Chanathip Muanphawong said he and
his fellow judges found the defendant's evidence without
basis.
The defendant was refused bail when he decided to appeal
his conviction and sentence and his lawyer Anont Nampa
applied to the Criminal Court to have the appeal on Tuesday,
April 3 because, he said, his client, who was old and
suffering cancer, wanted to seek a royal pardon.
The request was granted.
The harsh lese-majeste law is purportedly designed to
ensure that King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 84, and his family
are never insulted
The
Southeast Asian Times
Philippine
travel suspended
From News Reports:
Beijing, May 13: Most of China’s domestic travel
companies have suspended trips to the Philippines, reports
the Xinhua newsagency.
The Philippine Tourism Department says Chinese tourists
account for about 9 percent of total arrivals, after South
Korea, United States and Japan.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Book celebrates Malacca’s “Old Boys”
From News Reports:
Malacca, May 12: The history of Malacca’s Methodist
school has been celebrated with the publication of a 300-page
book MACS Centenary 1910-2010: Dear ACS, We're Proud of
Thee.
The New Straits Times says it was written, edited and
published by a former student Tedin Ng Abdullah and contains
the cherished experiences and memories of former pupils
in the form of essays, poems and photographs.
The newspaper says the idea to publish the book together
came about when former students, fondly referred to as
"Old Boys", expressed the wish to own a book
about the school in remembrance of the golden years they
had spent there.
“We had a meeting in June 2009 where we decided to
turn that idea into a reality, a book where 'Old Boys'
could share their memories,” he said.
It was a long process that started with the digitalisation
of the school's yearly magazine from 1948 to 2009 and
the collection of contributions from former students before
the book was completed in March.
Donations from the "Old Boys" met the book's
ringgit 55,000, about US$17,889, publishing cost.
The Southeast Asian Times
OIC wants emergency rule eased
From News Reports:
Bangkok, May 11: Visiting Organisation- of-Islamic-Cooperation
representatives have asked the Thai government to lift
emergency rule in the majority Malay-speaking Muslim provinces
of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and Songhkla on the Malay
Peninsula, southern Thailand.
The Bangkok Post reports that OIC secretary-general-adviser,
Egyptian Sayed Kassem El-Masry made the request during
a meeting with foreign minister Dr Surapong Tovichakchaikul.
The OIC conceded that emergency rule was required in some
part of disputed southern Thailand that borders with Malaysia
but its existing application was excessive.
The Thai cabinet approved a three-month extension of the
decree for the 27th time at its meeting on Tuesday, March
13.
The representatives, who are making a seven-day visit
to Thailand, will publish their findings in a report during
an OIC conference in Djibouti, East Africa, in November.
Defence Minister General Yutthasak Sasiprapa has warned
that violence was possible during the visit and troops,
including militia, were on alert.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Tran
Hung Dao now on Spratly display
From News Reports:
Ho Chi Minh City, May 10: An 11-metre-high stone statue
depicting Tran Hung Dao, who as the Tran Dynasty’s
supreme commander repelled three Mongol invasions of Viet
Nam in the 13th Century, has been installed in the Truong
Sa, or Spratly, archipelago in the South China or East
Sea.
Work on the statue began after a large stone was bought
in north-central coastal Thanh Hoa Province for VND6.5
billion, about US$313 million, from State coffers and
money donated by residents of Nam Dinh, the northern province
that was the home of the legendary commander last June,
says Thanh Nien, or Youth, newspaper.
A similar statue stands in Nam Dinh town.
Tran Hung Dao, whom the Vietnamese hail as one of the
most accomplished military tacticians in history, fought
the Mongol Yuan Dynasty when it was led by Kublai Khan.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Mines delay border gate opening
From News Reports:
Phnom Penh, May 9: Landmines have slowed the opening of
a new crossing between Cambodia and Thailand intended
to reduce the volume of commercial transport through a
checkpoint at Poipet, reports The Phnom Penh Post.
Thai and Cambodian officials are working to remove mines
near the Stung Bath crossing in Banteay Meanchey province,
it says.
It quotes Banteay Meanchey province governor Ung Oeun
as saying demining required caution and an official opening
of the gate would not likely happen until May next year.
The checkpoint would allow passage to commerce vehicles
only.
Almost 3 million passengers used the Poipet border crossing
about six kilometres south of Stung Bath last year, the
governor said and the combination of tourists and traders
had meant long delays.
A Thai soldier lost his right leg when he stepped on a
landmine while patrolling the Thai-Cambodian border earlier
this month.
Illegal loggers have been accused of planting the mines.
More than 64,000 people are reported to have been either
killed or maimed by unexploded ordnance in Cambodia since
1979.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Muslim team for southern Thailand
From News Reports:
Bangkok, May 8: Organisation-of-Islamic-Cooperation representatives
were to have begun a seven-day visit to Thailand yesterday.
Their itinerary includes the majority Malay-speaking Muslim
provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and Songhkla on
the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand.
Their findings will be published in a report during an
OIC conference in Djibouti, East Africa, in November.
The Bangkok Post quotes Thai foreign ministry spokesperson
Thani Thongphakdi as saying the representatives, who include
OIC secretary general adviser, Egyptian Sayed Kassem El-Masry,
would meet with foreign minister Dr Surapong Tovichakchaikul
as well as senior members of the National-Security-Council;
the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre and
army commanders.
The tour would give the international Muslim organisation
a greater understanding of Thailand during which they
would meet both academic and civil society representatives,
said the spokesperson.
Earlier, Defence Minister General Yutthasak Sasiprapa
warned that violence was possible during the visit and
troops, including militia, were on alert.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Perak seeks national single-mother policy
From News Reports:
Ipoh, May 7: Perak’s Barisan Nasional, or National
Front, coalition government will ask the Malaysia government
to create a national single mother policy.
The decision to make the request was made at a National-Single-Mother-Policy
seminar in conjuction with International Women's Day 2012.
The Perak government and Perak Bar Committee organised
the seminar.
The Perak government wanted the policy to be given the
same recognition as other welfare policies, the Bernama
news agency quotes Perak Industry, Investment, Entrepreneur
Development, Tourism and Women's Affairs Committee chairperson
Hamidah Osman as saying.
“This is one of the resolutions reached through this
seminar,” she said.
“We will bring this matter to the prime minister
so that it can be implemented immediately.”
National government policy was necessary so that efforts
to defend the welfare of single mothers were standardised
and more efficient for a more harmonious socio-community
environment, she said.
So called “baby dumping” is rife in Malaysia
and the national government decided in August 2010 that
a mother whose abandoned baby dies should be executed.
“The Cabinet has decided to have the Home Ministry,
through the police, investigate these cases as murder
when a baby dies,” said then Women, Family and Community
Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
The action was necessary to punish those responsible for
the deaths of the babies, she said.
Such acts are tantamount to baby killing.
Police would be asked to conduct DNA tests to identify
the parents of dead infants.
Section 302 of Malaysia’s Penal Code proscribes death
as the punishment for murder but “baby dumping”
which leads to death was mostly investigated in accordance
with Section 317 (abandonment), Section 318 (concealment
of birth by secret disposal of body), Section 309 (infanticide)
or Section 31 of the Child Act (abandonment), explained
the ministry’s legal advisor Salahudin Shariff.
These offences carry sentences of 10 to 30 years in jail.
Police Inspector-General Musa Hassan said police had always
considered the dumping of babies either as murder or attempted
murder and advised administrators to make a thorough study
before declaring for punitive measure.
Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organisation and Human
Rights Commission both argue that awareness and proper
education are better than capital punishment to stop “baby
dumping.”
Malaysia’s first so-called baby hatchery, Orphan
CARE, took delivery of its first baby – a new-born
boy in June 2010.
The one-day-old infant was born to a young, unmarried
couple in their early 20s.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Schools join anti-
corruption battle
From News Reports:
Manado, May 6: Indonesia’s anti-corruption curriculum
has been implemented at all the schools in Manado, North
Sulawesi, reports the Antara news agency.
The agency quotes Manado education office spokesman Dante
Tombeg as saying: "We have applied the anti-corruption
curriculum in the subjects of civics, social sciences
and religion at all schools in Manado."
Democrat Party Regional Legislative Assembly member Jeane
Rumimpunu described the anti-corruption curriculum as
the most appropriate measure to form good characters in
students.
“It is a way of helping the students become people
with honesty and integrity, because the man of integrity
walks securely while he who takes the crooked path will
be found out,” she said." Rumimpunu added.
Newly appointed Education and Cultural Ministry inspector
general and former Corruption Eradication Commission deputy
chairman Haryono Umar announced in March that an anti-corruption
curriculum would be introduced to all of Indonesia’s
schools this year.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Viet Nam, Laos women boost ties
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, May 5: Representatives of the Viet Nam and Lao
Women’s Unions have signed a five-year A cooperative
agreement.
The agreement, signed during a visit of Lao Women’s
Union members to Viet Nam, led by their president Lao
Sisay Leudetmounsone, is intended to ensure a strengthened
exchange of information and promotion of the status of
women in both countries.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Workers
want May
Day holiday
From News Reports:
Palu, May 4: Hundreds of people have rallied in Palu,
Central Sulawesi, in support of their demand that May
Day be declared a national holiday.
“It is time labourers received attention and have
a place in this country," said rally coordinator
Sunardi Katili, during his speech at the Central Sulawesi
Regional House of Representatives building. “The
Central Sulawesi People`s Struggle Front also demands
a five-day work week for workers, because there are still
many companies that make their employees work more than
eight hours a day and six days a week,” he said.
The participants also demand that employers allow their
employees to form worker unions to express their opinion
to the company.
“The union does not intend to fight the capitalists
but to make progress together,” said the coordinator.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Indonesia worker council
formed
From News Reports:
Jakarta, May 3: Worker representatives have established
a new worker council.
“Worker struggles have thus far been fragmented,
which is why we are creating this council,” Confederation
of Prosperous Indonesian Labour Unions Mudhofir told a
May Day rally at Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta, on Tuesday.
“It’s the largest worker organization in Indonesia,
maybe even the world,” he said.
The Indonesian Worker Council would be an “umbrella
organisation” and represent eight million members
from 11 of Indonesia's major unions.
It would be the voice of 170 million Indonesian workers,
most of whom were informal and non-unionised.
Three-thousand buses were used to carry workers to Jakarta
from all over the country, with traffic grinding to a
halt around the five-kilometre march to the stadium.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences director Lukman Hakim
warns that Indonesian workers have yet to exploit their
political potential.
“Law Number2 of 2000 on worker-labour associations
should have made workers strong, but internal conflicts
among unions have so far weakened them,” he told
a May-Day seminar titled,” Opportunities and Challenges
of Labour Movements in Indonesia after Reform.”
Worker achievements after the reform were not as spectacular
as the freedom they gained, he said.
"Besides the conflict of interests among union executives,
the quality of personnel has also been a main factor behind
it," he explained.
The pattern of their struggle so far had been too normal
in that the workers only took to the streets.
The workers could become a power to be reckoned with if
they focused on capacity, as well as dialogue with government
institutions and employer associations, he forecast.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Police ban square for May Day rally
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, May 2: Police rejected an application by
the National Union of Bank Employees) and a number of
non-governmental organisations for permission to hold
a rally at Dataran Merdeka, Independence Square, for May
Day, reports the Bernama news agency.
Kuala Lumpur Magistrates Court Judge Zaki Asyraf Zubir
issued an order that prohibited the square for public
rallies until Tuesday, May 1.
The Thai newsagency says workers had submitted a petition
for better wages and conditions as well as a higher standard
of living to Prime Minister Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
before attending a rally at Sanam Luang.
In Ha Noi, Viet Nam’s major English-language newspaper
reported that extra police patrols had been deployed for
a four-day holiday to celebrate Reunification Day May
Day and May Day.
The former Saigon – now Ho Chi Minh City – fell
to liberation troops on April 30, 1975.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Owners
seek May-Day protection
From News Reports:
Medan,
May 1: Proprietors in North Sumatra have asked the government
of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to prepare for labour
disputes today, May Day.
“I am already seeing workers in trade unions getting
their banners ready for action. We are asking the government
and the authorities to make sure that there won't be any
disruptions to exports and imports on May Day," tribunnews.com
quotes Khairul Mahalli, who reportedly represents the
Indonesian Exporters Association; the Indonesian Importers
Association and the Indonesian Container Depot Association,
as saying.
The Jakarta Post says thousands of workers are expected
to attend May Day rallies throughout Indonesia.
About 35,000 are expected to gather in central Jakarta,
it says.
The Antara news agency quotes Manpower and Transmigration
Minister Muhaimin Iskandar as having asked the public
ensured May Day was orderly and peacefully.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Lower volume for prayers sought
From News Reports:
Jakarta, April 30: Deputy President Boediono has asked
the Indonesian Council of Mosques to start begin the discussion
of the possible regulation of the use of loudspeakers
at mosques.
"We are all aware that azan is a holy call for Moslems
to fulfill their obligation to pray," he said during
the opening of the council’s 6th congress on Friday.
But he, and perhaps most others, reckoned that a soft
azan sound was felt much stronger in the heart than those
blared close to the ears.
The deputy president also suggested that mosques become
an example of cleanliness.
“We have all heard or read about the Prophet`s well-known
Hadith that cleanliness is part of faith. Every Moslem
is required to maintain his or her cleanliness, as well
as that of the environment,” he said.
Cleanliness starting from mosques would certainly spread
to other places such as homes, schools, and workplaces,
he assured the council.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Australian school opens
in Balipapan
From News Reports:
Balikpapan, April 29: East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek
Ishak has officially inaugurated the Australian International
School in Balikpapan’s Batakan subdistrict.
Balikpapan Mayor Rizal Effendi, East Kalimantan legislative
assembly Ence Widiany and former Indonesian ambassador
to Australia Sabam Siagian, who also serves as an advisor
to the school’s founding directors, attended the
ceremony.
The Australian International School also has schools in
Jakarta and Bali.
A non-profit foundation chaired by Penny Robertson with
Bruce Ferres as its principal, created the school was
created to accommodate expatriate family children.
Australia Ambassador to Jakarta, Greg Moriarty, who was
present at the inauguration ceremony, said that the Australian
school is expected to become a bilateral bridge to strengthen
diplomacy between Australia and Indonesia.
The
Southeast Asian Times
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| Bersih co-chairperson refused permission to quiz
minister |
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| Malaysian
Malay army veterans show their displeasure with Coalition
for Clean and Fair Elections, Bersih, Co-chairperson
Ambiga Sreenavasan outside her residence in Bukit
Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, earlier this wee |
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From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, May 18: High Court judge Rohana Yusuf has refused
the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, Bersih, committee
and its co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenavasan permission to question
Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein's decision to
declare their planned July 9, 2011, “Walk for Democracy”
in Kuala Lumpur illegal.
The rally was to have reinforced a 2007 “walk” and
had the support of Pakatan Rakyat, or People’s Alliance
- the Parti Keadilan Rakyat, People’s Justice Party; the
Democratic Action Party and the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, Pan-Malaysian
Islamic Party – that opposes the ruling Barisan Nasional
or National Front government.
The judge, who delivered the ruling in chambers, also rejected
the co-chairperson’s application to question the Inspector
General of Police and alleged 1,706 police reports against her
and the committee.
Her lawyer, Azizan Mohammad Arshad later told reporters: “The
judge held that Ambiga should have filed the application within
14 days after the court allowed her leave for a judicial review
to quash the Home Minister's decision, instead of four months
later.”
The hearing of the judicial review had been set for Tuesday,
June 26, he said.
The deputy chief of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat, People’s
Justice Party, for Rasah, Negeri Sembilan, Tangam, 50, was charged
in a Kuala Lumpur court earlier this month with two counts of
violating the order that prohibited supporters of Bersih, -
the word means clean in Malay,- from the city’s Dataran
Merdeka, or Independence Square, in a mass rally of Saturday,
April 28.
The former soldier pleaded not guilty before Judge Mahmud Abdullah
after the charges were read to him in Tami.
The defendant, who participated in the rally, is accused of
violation of an order issued by magistrate Zaki Asyraf Zubir
in accordance with Section 143 of Malaysia’s Penal Code
in Kuala Lumpur two days before the rally.
He is also accused of knowingly taking part with in the rally
although he had been barred from taking part in any gatherings
at Dataran Merdeka between April 28 and Tuesday, May 1.
This charge – made in accordance with Section 188 of the
penal code - carries a jail sentence of six years or a fine
of up to ringgit 2,000, about US$ 657.678, or both on conviction.
The judge allowed the unemployed father of six bail of ringgit
2,000; public prosecutor Mohammad Hanapiah Zakaria had asked
that bail be set at ringgit 5,000 and set Tuesday, June 5 for
the next hearing.
Bersih Co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenavasan conceded that some
of an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 of her coalition’s followers
gathered at the police barricades during the rally either failed
to hear or ignored her message to disperse.
The breach of the barricade, despite the efforts of Pas, Pan-Malaysian-Islamic-
Party members and Bersih organisers to stop them, sparked violence
that the police ended with teargas and water cannon.
Representatives of the coalition of 84 “civil” societies
that was formed in on November 23, 2006 to win electoral reform
and purportedly has no political affiliations had pledged the
barricades would not be breached.
“We want the police to fully investigate all who engaged
in violence. This was not what we wanted,” said the former
Bar Council president.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Lapindo Brantas wins permission
for new well near mudflow
From News Reports:
Surabaya, May 18: Lapindo Brantas, the oil-and-gas exploration
company that is- part of a conglomerate owned by the family
of former Welfare Minister and now Golkar Party chairman Aburizal
Bakrie, has been given permission to begin drilling a new gas
well in Tanggulangin, near the site of the continuing mudflow
in Sidoarjo, East Java.
The subsidiary had obtained the permission of residents for
the drilling, although some, who feared it would trigger another
mudflow, opposed the decision, The Jakarta Post quotes upstream
oil and gas regulator BPMigas spokesperson Gde Pradnyana as
saying.
“The financial plan for the project has been approved by
BPMigas, “he said.
“As to the location, it depends on the regional government.
We don’t know yet about that. We have to do drilling to
compensate for declining gas production from existing wells.”
The Tanggulangin well was estimated to contain 5 million standard
cubic feet per day of gas and the subsidiary had agreed to pay
compensation for any damage.
The Jakarta Post says the regional government has yet to give
its permission for the drilling because Lapindo Brantas has
reportedly paid only rupiah 2 trillion, about US$216 million,
of the rupiah 3 trillion it is required to pay in compensation.
In April it was revealed that the Indonesian government would
continue to use taxpayer money to pay for the consequences of
the continuing mud flow at Sidoarjo, about 20 kilometres south
of Surabaya, east Java, at least until at least 2014.
Most Indonesians believe that the eruption in 2006 was the fault
of Lapindo Brantas. Santos of Australia and the Medco Group
were shareholders in the project.
But the Government Work Plan, 2011, shows that the government
of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has approved the use of
State revenue to finance the Sidoarjo Mud Disaster Mitigation
Agency’s distribution of mudflow compensation.
The government has earmarked an initial amount rupiah 734 billion,
about US$80.01 million, to pay compensation for 61 hectares
of land this year.
It is expected to pay another rupiah 1.1 trillion to buy 164
hectares in 2013 and rupiah 1.3 trillion for 201.5 hectares
in 2014.
The agency has so far provided more than rupiah 3 trillion in
compensation and infrastructure, says The Jakarta Post.
The People’s Representative Council increased the agency’s
funds for 2012 from rupiah 1.33 trillion to rupiah 1.6 trillion
after a dramatic plenary session approved the government’s
revised 2012 State budget.
Parliament has also authorised the agency to pay compensation
for land outside those declared as having been impacted by the
mud flow.
The mud flow from a natural gas well is reported to have displaced
more than 50,000 people.
The drilling company has been accused of failing to install
mandatory safety casings in the lower section of the exploratory
well.
Company representatives say a tectonic shift in central Java
touched off the flow of hot, toxic mud.
The
Southeast Asian Times
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800
garment-industry workers end two-week strike |
|
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| Cambodia
garment-industry workers rally outside their factory
in central Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district.
The workers say a suriptious name change has robbed
them of seniority entitlements |
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From
News Reports:
Phnom Pen, May 18: More than 800 workers at the Su Tong Fang Kim
Yan garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district,
which exports to North America via California and Missouri, are
expected to end a two-week strike today.
The Phnom Pen Post quotes factory employee and Free Trade Union
representative Hai Soven as saying: “The company has agreed
to give us US$3-a-month attendance money; $5 for accommodation
and $2 for transport.”
The workers had asked for an extra $20 each month to pay for accommodation
and transport.
In November, female workers at the factory were taken to hospital
following mass faintings attributed, in part, to diesel fumes
from their sewing machines.
More than 5,000 workers are reportedly still on strike at the
Tai Nan garment factory in central Kandal province’s Ang
Snuol district.
The workers rallied last week when it was realised that the unannounced
change of the factory’s name from Tai Yen to Tai Nan in 2010
had robbed them of their seniority bonuses.
“We demand the company gives us the annual seniority bonus
– for me, it means about US$1,400 because I have worked for
Tai Yen for 14 years,” the newspaper quotes striker Sreng
Srey Touch as saying.
The International Trade Union Confederation issued a statement
for May Day saying Cambodia garment-industry workers and their
trade union representatives had long been subjected to numerous
serious violations of their rights.
These included excessive hours of work and poor working conditions
that had led to several episodes of mass fainting.
The statement says collective bargaining agreements were being
breached and employers were refusing to negotiate with independent
unions.
Workers fired for anti-union motives were not reinstated, despite
binding arbitration awards in their favour.
The statement accused the garment- industry proprietors and managers
of having shifted to using short, fixed duration contracts in
an effort to create employment instability and undermine the exercise
of fundamental rights.
The International Trade Union Confederation 175 million workers
in 153 countries and territories and has 308 national affiliates.
The May-Day statement quotes its Brussels-based general secretary
Sharan Burrow as saying: “It’s simply unacceptable that
employers are calling on the authorities to ‘crack down’
on legitimate strikes and worse that they are publicly demonising
independent unions who have had the courage to stand up for their
members and demand respect on the job.”
The
Southeast Asian Times
Lynas licence postponed while minister makes his decision
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, May 17: The issuing of a temporary operating licence
to Australia’s Lynas Corporation for its US$230million rare-earth
processing plant in Kuantan’s Gebeng industrial zone has
been postponed until Science, Technology and Innovation Minister
Dr Maximus Ongkili decides the fate of three appeals against it.
The minister had been expected to announce his decision last month.
But he had instructed the Atomic Energy Licensing Board to defer
the issuing until the decision was made, the Bernama news agency
quotes its executive secretary Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan as saying
in a statement.
Last month, High Court judge Rohana Yusuf denied ten residents
of Balok Makmur, a village near the corporation’s rare-earth
processing plant permission to seek a judicial review of the Atomic
Energy Licensing Board’s decision to grant the Australian
miner a two-year conditional operating licence.
The ten residents, who are also members of the Anti-Rare Earth
Refinery Action Group, lodged their application with the High
Court Appellate and Special Powers Division Registry on Friday,
February 17.
The Atomic Energy Licensing Board approved the contested licence
on Monday, January 30.
The respondents in the High Court hearing were the Atomic Energy
Licensing Board; the Environment Department’s director-general
of environmental quality and Lynas Malaysia.
The residents also sought an order prohibiting the licensing broad
from issuing any licence to Lynas until the company had submitted
a Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment and work at the refinery
to stop until the issue is decided.
In denying their application, the judge said the residents could
have lodged their objections to the processing plant through the
appeal that has been made to Science, Technology and Innovation
Minister Dr Maximus Ongkili.
There were five other persons appealing the licensing board’s
decision to the minister and that process must be given due deference,
said the judge.
“Under the circumstances, in my view, the judicial review
by the (10) applicants is premature. It may lead to confusion
and embarrassment in the event that the findings of the minister
differ from that of the court,” she said.
It would be “a sheer waste of public resources and public
funds” for all branches of the government to deliberate on
the same issue.
Co-counsel for the residents, Shanmuga, said his clients would
appeal against the judge’s ruling.
The Lynas plant had originally been scheduled to start working
in the third quarter of last year.
Lynas will process ores taken from its Mount Weld mine at the
edge of the Great Victoria Desert, about 960 kilometres, north-northeast
of Perth and shipped to Pahang, Malaysia through the port of Fremantle.
It has built the plant in Malaysia to exploit labour that is cheaper
than in Australia.
The rare earth contains radio-active thorium and thousands of
Malaysians have campaigned against allowing the processing plant
in their country.
Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group owns 9.9 per cent
of the Lynas Corporation mostly held through Morgan Stanley, of
which Mitsubishi owns 22 per cent.
Mitsubishi holds about 0.3 per cent of Lynas in its own right.
The Japanese trader Sojitz has agreed to buy the rare earth that
the corporation produces.
China produces 90 per cent of the world's supply of rare-earth.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| 600
police deployed to protect petroleum company |
|
 |
| Police
protect a convoy of vehicles on its way James Price
Point James Price Point, about 50 kilometres north
of Broome, north-western Australia, where Woodside
Petroleum plans to build a US$30-billion liquefied
natural gas processing plant and port on pristine
Aboriginal-owned land |
|
From News Reports:
Broome, May 16: More than 600 police officers have been deployed
to ensure that protesters do not halt a start to Woodside Petroleum’s
planned US$30-billion liquefied natural gas processing plant
and port on pristine Aboriginal-owned land at James Price Point,
about 50 kilometres north of Broome, north-western Australia.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation quotes Western Australia
Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan as saying he did not expect
Perth-based Woodside Petroleum to pay for the police escort
to the site.
Last year, protesters chained themselves to equipment to stop
bulldozers and vehicles from accessing the land.
“We don't want a lot of interaction with the protesters;
we don't want to be fighting with them,” said the police
commissioner.
"We just want to do our business and enable Woodside to
go about their business, that's why we're up there.
"This is a public road, the public are allowed to use it
and I have a responsibility as police commissioner to make sure
that people can move freely on public access," he said.
"It's not for private companies necessarily to pay that
sort of money."
The Sydney Morning Herald quotes protest coordination Nic Wevers
as saying: “I guess we're surprised that so many police.
“It was over the top.”
Hundreds of the project’s opponents gathered outside the
Broome police station on Monday to deliver a petition against
the increased number of police in town.
“Are they supposed to protect the community of Broome or
a corporate entity?” asked one of the participants Mitch
Torres
In December, Supreme Court Chief Justice Wayne Martin has declared
a Western Australian government’s plan to compulsorily
land at James Price Point for the project invalid.
The judge ruled that Western Australian Lands Minister Brendon
Grylls’s notices to take control of the land for the proposed
gas precinct did not provide a description of the land as the
law required.
“'I will declare that each of the notices is invalid,”
he said.
“However, that declaration will not prevent the minister
from issuing further notices of intention to take land in the
area, and for the purpose required, provided those notices comply
with the requirements of the Land Administration Act.”'
Premier Colin Barnett said of the decision: “It doesn't
mean a great deal. It won't hold up the development.”
The Australian government’s Resources Energy and Tourism
Minister Martin Ferguson said of the ruling: “It's a technicality.
“'The Supreme Court has acknowledged that in bringing down
its decision. The West Australian government is in the process
of rectifying it.”
But a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Andrew Chalk said: “It's
back to square one for the James Price Point option.”
The judge’s ruling raised the possibility that separate
decision negotiated between the Kimberley Land Council, the
federal and state governments and Woodside, for the development
of the hub had also been invalidated.
And it was made before a claim that the proposed project will
disturb Aboriginal song lines and contravenes laws protecting
Aboriginal heritage sites is heard.
The land council, which represents traditional landowners, agreed
abandon to its claim to the site in exchange for a $1.3billion
package of jobs and compensation.
The gas to be refined at
But the agreement was possible only after the Western Australian
government began to compulsorily acquire the land.
The proposed acquisition prompted the dissident indigenous owners
to mount their successful Supreme Court challenge.
Joseph Roe, a member of the Goolarabooloo group, said that James
Price Point was “a special place... for me and my people”
because a song line – a track followed by ancestral spirits
during the “Dreamtime” the era of creation era –
passed through it.
The initiations of young men and other cultural ceremonies,
known as “secret men's business,” took place there,
he said.
The gas to be processed at James Price Point will be piped to
the precinct from numerous off-shore fields.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Lao official
confirms suspension of Xayaburi dam project
From News Reports:
Vientiane, May 16: Lao Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sithong
Chitgnothin has confirmed that work on the US$3.8 billion Xayaburi
dam on the lower Mekong River.
“No construction is going on. It’s discontinued, postponed,”
he told Radio Free Asia.
“The agreement of the four Mekong-River-Commission members
still stands, and the Lao government will always abide by it.”
The confirmation follows a Lao delegate’s announcement
at the Mekong River Commission’s Mekong 2 Rio International
Conference at Karon, Phuket, earlier this month that any work
on the dam had been suspended.
The meeting was held to discuss Trans boundary River Basin Management.
The Thai government is to finance the dam in the northern Lao
province of Xayaburi and buy the electricity but their Association-of
Southeast-Nations-neighbours warn it will disrupt fish supplies
and rice production – especially in the Mekong Delta.
The Lao government notified the Mekong-River-Commission of its
proposed Xayaburi project - the first of 11 proposed for the
lower Mekong – last September.
The Mekong and its tributaries provide food, water and transport
to about 60 million people in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
and Viet Nam.
The commercial production of electricity is expected to begin
in January 2019 and in December, Thailand's National Energy
Policy Committee approved an electricity purchase agreement
that will ensure supply to the country’s State-owned power
utility.
About 95 percent of the project's 1,260MW capacity will be exported
to Thailand.
China has built three dams across the upper reaches of the Mekong,
but otherwise its 4,900-kilometre mainstream flows free.
Xayaburi Dam developer Ch Karnchang announced to the Thai Stock
Exchange on Tuesday, April 17 that it had signed a US$711 million
contract with the Xayaburi Power Company to build the dam and
that work started on Thursday, March 15, 2012.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Police
unlock defiant Yellow Shirt coordinator from his vehicle |
|
 |
| Senior
People’s-Alliance-for-Democracy, Yellow Shirt,
coordinator and former senator Karun Saingam, 59,
refused to leave his vehicle when Crime-Suppression-Division
officers tried to arrest him for his part in the seizure
of Bangkok’s Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports
in 2008 |
|
From
News Reports:
Bangkok, May 15: Senior People’s-Alliance-for-Democracy,
Yellow Shirt, coordinator Karun Saingam, 59, emerged from the
locked cabin of his utility Sunday night where he had remained
for more than 24 hours in a bid to avoid arrest and charges
for his alleged part in the seizure of Bangkok’s Don Mueang
and Suvarnabhumi airports in 2008.
The Bangkok Post says the former senator and refused to leave
his pickup truck even as about 200 police, who had to break
through about 100 Yellow Shirt supporters, loaded it onto the
back of a truck in Buri Ram, about 410 kilometres northeast
of Bangkok, and took it to their headquarters in the capital.
Crime-Suppression-Division officers had intercepted the utility
while Karun Saingam was on his way home to Buriram province’s
Prakhon Chai districts.
A locksmith was eventually hired to unlock the cabin.
The seizure of Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports in 2008
was part of a campaign to topple the government of Somchai Wongsawat
– a protégé of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawarta –that paralysed Thailand.
The Southeast Asian Times
Viet
Nam’s richest citizen, MP, reported ready to resign
From News Reports:
Ho Chi Minh City, May 15: One of the Viet Nam’s richest
citizens, Dang Thi Hoang Yen, 53, will reportedly resign from
the National Assembly rather than wait for an expected vote
for her expulsion later this month.
Thanh Nien, Youth, newspaper says the chairman of the industrial
park and infrastructure developer, Tan Tao, as well as the credit-information
provider Tan Duc Investment, did not attend the meeting the
assembly’s Standing Committee meeting to discuss her possible
dismissal.
The Standing Committee, which meets between the parliament’s
plenary sessions, had asked the Viet Nam Fatherland Front to
assess the accuracy of information Dang Thi Hoang Yen –
the Vietnam-US Business Forum chairwoman - provided before her
selection as a candidate for the May 2011 election.
It decided that the assembly should decide the parliamentary
future of the member for southern Long An Province when it sits
on Saturday, May 26.
Two thirds of the assembly’s 500 members would have to
approve her expulsion.
News portal VietNam Net quotes Deputy Nguyen Thi Nuong as saying
that her fellow parliamentarian wanted to resign because was
“too tired” and suffering from “too much public
pressure.”
The Fatherland Front Central Committee voted last month to have
expelled from the National Assembly.
The decision of Viet Nam’s major “mass organisation”
followed an unscheduled meeting of the Long An Fatherland Front
Central Committee where most of the 76 participants are reported
to have voted for the parliamentarian’s expulsion.
Article 56 of the law governing the National Assembly says deputies
no longer worthy of the people's trust will be removed from
office.
The Long An Father Land Front Central Committee approved Dang
Thi Hoang Yen as a non-Communist candidate for the National
Assembly.
She is accused of not telling the front that she had been a
member of the Viet Nam Communist Party and that police were
seeking her second husband, Vietnamese-American Jimmy Tran,
57, who the Public Security Ministry has accused of “abusing
trust to appropriate assets” when he was general director
of Vietnam Urban Development Joint Stock Company (Vietnam Land),
located in the Tan Duc Industrial park, Long An.
The former public servant is founder-president of the privately-owned
Tan Tao University that describes itself as having “an
educational philosophy, standards, and practices based on the
American liberal arts model of higher education” and a
member of the National Assembly’s Culture, Education and
Youth Committee.
Jimmy Tran returned to the United States in 2010 – two
months before the Public Security Ministry announced its investigation
of his activities.
The
Southeast Asian Times
|
Malaysia anti-Corruption officers quiz Irene Fernandez |
|
 |
| Tenaganita,
or Women’s Force, director Irene Fernandez |
|
From
News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, May 14: Malaysia’s law-enforcement officers
regularly harassed the country’s “guest workers”
whom they forced to pay bribes, Tenaganita, or Women’s
Force, director Irene Fernandez, 65, told the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission on Saturday.
The director, who was summoned to the commission’s headquarters
where she was questioned for about 90 minutes about her assertion
in The Jakarta Post newspaper that Malaysia was not safe for
“guest workers,” later told reporters that she had
provided her anti-corruption interviewer with six examples of
the alleged corruption.
“Migrant workers are regularly confronted by enforcement
agencies such as RELA, and they ask for documents,” she
said.
“But when migrant workers ask enforcement agencies for
their identity, the workers are slapped and beaten for asking
that question. They are searched and money is taken from them.
“We are unable to identify them because officers refuse
to reveal their identity. Therefore how can we bring about issues
of corruption on an individual level?”
Police had also failed to rescue migrant workers, she said.
The director said that she had suggested the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission investigate her allegations.
The Malaysia government established the RELA or Ikatan Relawan
Rakyat Malaysia or Volunteers of Malaysian People as a paramilitary
civil volunteer corps that checks the travel documents and immigration
permits of foreigners.
The Jakarta Post interview of Irene Fernandez was a response
to the police slaying of three Indonesian “guest workers”
at a housing estate in Linggi, near Port Dixon, Negeri Sembilan,
on Saturday, March 24.
Senior Malaysia police said their officers were forced to open
fire after the undocumented “criminals” – three
neighbours in Pancor Kopong, Pringgasela district, East Lombok,
who went to Malaysia in 2010, where they supposedly worked in
the construction industry - tried to attack them with machetes
when ordered to surrender.
The deaths sparked speculation in Indonesia that the organs
of the dead men had been harvested and foreign minister Marty
Natalegawa said his government would continue to ask the Malaysia
government to ensure a thorough investigation to determine the
cause of the deaths.
Irene Fernandez told The Jakarta Post: “Malaysia has no
legal framework or a particular law to protect workers. Even
worse, the Malaysian Government has upheld discrimination against
housemaids and plantation workers, both of whom are excluded
from the newly-issued regulation on minimum wages.
“Migrant workers have been objects of exploitation, physical
abuse, violence and rape in line with the emergence of caregiving
industries and the privatisation of healthcare, which are part
of the neo-liberal capitalism which has damaged Malaysia's economic
system and raised inequalities among migrant workers, mostly
women.”
Malaysia Deputy human Resources Minister Maznah Mazlan described
the director’s assertions as unethical, inaccurate and
unpatriotic.
The Indonesia government has lifted the moratorium on the supply
of housemaids to Malaysia, but its Manpower and Transmigration
Minister Muhaimin Iskandar warns that none will be sent unless
their protection is assured.The Malay-language newspaper, Utusan
Malaysia, was ordered to pay Irene Fernandez ringgit 91,000
in legal costs as part of the settlement of her defamation suit
against it in April 2010.
In November 2008, High Court Judge Mohammad Apandi Ali found
Irene Fernandez not guilty of maliciously publishing an expose
of the abuse of migrant workers in a detention camp 13 years
earlier.
The judge announced his decision after prosecutor Shamsul Sulaiman
said he would not pursue an answering appeal filed by the prosecution.
The publisher established the Tenaganita, or Women’s Force,
Non Government Organisation in 1991 to represent the rights
of migrant workers.
She was arrested on March 18, 1996, and charged under Section
8A (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and
found guilty of publishing the memo entitled “Abuse, torture
and dehumanised treatment of migrant workers at detention camps”
on August 25, 1995.
She was sentenced to one year's jail in 2003 and immediately
appealed.
High Court judge Mohammad Apandi Ali overturned her conviction
and acquitted her on November 24, 2008.
She had not been allowed to leave Malaysia or stand for election
till then.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Thai
police to join joint Mekong murder team
From News Reports:
Bangkok, May 14: A Thai police team will join the investigation
of the slaying of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River on
October 5 last year from Thursday, reports the Thai News Agency.
Thai investigators detained nine Thai soldiers for the murder
in December.
Provincial police commander Lieutenant General Suthep Detraksa
said investigators had determined that “parts of the incident”
occurred near the Myanmar-Lao border and about 25 kilometres
from Thailand's northernmost border in Chiang Rai province’s
Chiang Saen district.
It was not clear who killed the sailors, but the nine members
of the army's Pha Muang Task Force were suspected of involvement
in the murders because they boarded the two vessels and reported
they found about 920,000 amphetamine pills and one dead body
during their anti-drug mission on the Mekong River on October
5.
More bodies were later retrieved from the river. Most were blindfolded,
tied and had been shot.
The nine soldiers denied the charges.
Trade on the Mekong dropped 90 per cent after the murders and
the China government deployed more than 300 armed police to
patrol the river in collaboration with the governments of Myanmar,
Thailand and Laos.
The Xinhua News Agency reported last week the capture of murder
suspect “Naw Kham” in Laos and quotes China Public
Security Minister Meng Jianzhu as saying the arrest marked the
successful application of cooperation in law enforcement along
the Mekong River.
“Naw Kham” had since been extradited to Beijing aboard
a chartered aircraft, he said.
The Bangkok Post quotes Deputy National Police Chief General
Pansiri Prapawat as saying China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand
had successfully acted together to apprehend “Naw Kham”
who is suspected of planning the murders on Wednesday, April
25.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Police stop burning
of Chinese flag at Manila rally |
|
 |
| The
banner saying “Hengyang -Panatag to Filipinos
and Scarborough Shoals on most of the world’s
maps – belongs to China was displayed outside
the Philippine embassy in Beijing on Friday |
|
From News Reports:
Manila, May 13: The more than 100 police deployed outside the
embassy of the People’s Republic in the Makati financial
district, Manila, have stopped the burning of a People’s
Republic flag.
The scores of demonstrators – ranging from representatives
of nationalist political organisations, including Akbayan, or
the Citizens Action Party, to students and Filipino-Chinese business
associations rallied in support of Philippine sovereignty in the
disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
Both governments have deployed vessels to the uninhabited islands
to reinforce their claims.
The administration of President Benigno Aquino did not provide
overt support for the rally, but its spokesperson, Abigail Valte,
freedom of expression was guaranteed.
Retired banker economist and now regular columnist Victor N. Arches
II wrote in the Manila Standard Today newspaper that China’s
fishermen had long worked the disputed islands and historical
documents showed the shoal was an integral part of China's territory
since ancient times.
The confrontation was part of the Aquino administration’s
efforts to revive its dwindling popularity, he later told the
Xinhua newsagency.
Faced with dwindling popularity and diminished credibility, Aquino
is resorting to this “underhanded tactic” to avoid a
possible heavy blow to his Senate seats in the 2013 mid-term elections,
the writer argued.
"The legal circles - especially congress - are supporting
the president for their own vested interests. It's all political,
and they are all playing dumb and blind," the author said.
“Asean, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, remains
neutral. The United States has already declared that it would
not take sides on the issue. So, game over. A big slap on Aquino's
face.”
The author, who said he had no personal or commercial links with
China, said: “I wrote my article to educate my people and
the reading public on the untruths and the twisted facts being
presented in local Philippine newspapers.
“I can support my position with facts; I am only telling
the simple truth; I am concerned about waging a stupid war we
cannot win,” he said.
In Beijing, the Liberation Army Daily newspaper editorialised:
“The United States' shift in strategic focus to the east
and its entry into the South China Sea issue has provided the
Philippines with room for strategic manoeuvre, and to a certain
extent increased the Philippines' chips to play against us, emboldening
them to take a risky course.”
The Manila rally organisers planned similar gatherings in the
United States, Canada, Australia, Italy and other Asian capitals
but no one showed up to a scheduled protest in Sydney.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Funeral-parlour
owner prompts massacre trial walkout
From News Reports:
Manila, May 13: Funeral-parlour proprietor Eliseo Gollago was
called to give evidence for the prosecution in the trial of those
accused of the Maguindanao Massacre of November 23, 2009 and five
defence lawyers walked out.
The witness told the trial judge Jocelyn Reyes that 13 of the
58 victims, including lawyer Cynthia Oquendo Ayon and her father,
were embalmed at his premises.
He had also received the lawyer’s cellular phone which had
been hidden in her underwear and supposedly contained text messages
that she sent moments before she died.
The defence lawyers left the courtroom without hearing the evidence
after saying their clients, prime suspects Andal Ampatuan Sr,
Andal Ampatuan Jr and Zaldy Ampatuan, were not included in a February
order for the funeral parlour proprietor to appear at the trial.
Assistant prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas said that although the
clients of the defence counsels who walked out were not included
the February pre-trial order, the funeral-parlour proprietor’s
testimony showed that the Ampatuans and others had conspired to
kill the massacre victims.
The recipient of the dead lawyer’s messages, lawyer Arnold
Oclarit, testified last week that Oquendo-Ayon had sent several
messages in the morning of November 23 expressing fear that she
and her companions would be killed.
Former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr pleaded not guilty
last March to electoral sabotage.
The family patriarch accused of rigging the 2007 senatorial elections
in his province with election supervisor Lintang Bedol at the
instigation of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 64.
Both the former president, who is now congresswoman, and the election
supervisor have already been charged.
The former Maguindanao governor is accused of having played a
key role in the massacre of the 58 people, including 32 journalists,
near Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao Province, south-western Mindanao.
Earlier this year, three Appeals Court judges confirmed the decision
of a subordinate court to dismiss the charge of rebellion against
him and 23 others.
In a 63-page decision written by Associate Justice Elihu Ybanez,
the trio found that the prosecutor could not bring charges in
“in the hope that some credible evidence might later turn
up during trial.”
The prosecutors had argued that Ampatuans and their co-accused
conspired with each other and “commanded their followers
to rise publicly and take arms against the Republic for the purpose
of removing allegiance to the government.”
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Russian investigators arrive to find cause of
Superjet crash |
|
 |
| Wreckage
of the Russian Sukhoi Superjet passenger aircraft
on the sheer face of Gunung Salak outside the city
of Bogor, south of Jakarta on Wednesday
|
|
From News Reports:
Jakarta, May 12: Russian investigators have arrived in Jakarta
to find out why a twin-engined Sukhoi Superjet hit Gunung Salak
in the Bogor regency of West Java during an exhibition flight
on Wednesday afternoon.
The investigators from the Industry and Trade Ministry; the
Interstate Aviation Committee; the United Aircraft Corporation
and the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corporation would stay in Indonesia
until they had a result, said Russia embassy press attaché
Dmitry Soelodov.
Their spokesperson Vladimir Markin said the investigators would
assess possible criminal negligence linked to the disaster and
this would include an assessment of the technicians who prepared
the aircraft for its exhibition flight and the Sukhoi Civil
Aircraft Corporation employees responsible for the Sukhoi project.
They would assess “the procedure for preparing the flight
crew and also the technical condition of the craft itself before
its departure from Russia.”
Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev ordered the investigation.
The latest manifest has eight Russian crew and 45 passengers
aboard the ill-fated aircraft and the Itar-Tass news agency
says the recovery teams which located it say all were killed.
The pilots of the display aircraft lost contact with traffic
controllers while trying to descend from 10,000 to 6,000 feet
near a small airport in Bogor after taking off from the Halim
Perdana Kusuma airbases, East Jakarta, said Indonesia Transport
Ministry spokesperson Bambang Ervan.
If and why air traffic controllers allowed the descent in heavy
fog is likely to be among the questions investigators will seek
to answer.
They will also ask why the aircraft’s emergency locator
transmitter did not activate on impact.
The aircraft, which was about 50 minutes into its exhibition
flight when it hit the mountain, had made similar flights in
Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Myanmar and was expected to fly to
Laos and Viet Nam.
The 95-100-seat regional aircraft has been in development since
2000. The Boeing Aircraft Corporation is listed as a major partner
in the project as is Italy's Alenia Aermacchi.
It was reportedly equipped with other advanced warning features
including Minimum Off Route Altitude; and Tactical Airborne
Warning Systems with the new version of the Ground Proximity
Warning System.
“I expect that there will be a full and careful investigation,”
Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a telecast
news conference broadcast.
The Jakarta Post quotes, Erwin Sofyan, 30, as asking: “Why
did they fly over Gunung Salak? It is not a popular route to
test an airplane — many aircraft have crashed in the area.”
Erwin Sofyan’s cousin, Insan Kamil Jatnika, 43, an employee
with PT Indo Asia, was aboard the aircraft.
Eighteen people died when an Indonesia Air Force NC-212 hit
Gunung Salak in June 2008.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Company president jailed for
pollution
From News Reports:
Tangerang, May 12: Tangerang District Court judges have sent
Power Still Mandiri president director Agus Santoso to two years
in jail and fined him rupiah one billion, about US$108,254,
for polluting the environment with factory waste.
Power Still Mandiri makes metal plates at the Millennium Industrial
plant in Cikupa, the Tangerang regency.
“The defendant is proven guilty of being negligent in managing
the factory’s waste that it polluted the environment in
the area,” The Jakarta Post quotes the presiding judge,
Suparta, as saying
But prosecutor Sukamto, who wanted the defendant jailed for
five years, said he would appeal the leniency of the sentence.
“We will file an appeal with the Banten High Court, because
the punishment did not reflect the sense of the people’s
justice. It’s unbelievable that a polluter only gets two
years in prison,” he said.
The defendant’s lawyer Gunawan Nanung announced his client
would also appeal.
“The punishment is too severe. My client should walk free
from the court,” he said.
The prosecutor charged the defendant with the violation of Articles
98, 99, 102 and 116 of the 2009 environmental management law.
The Articles carry a maximum punishment of up to ten years in
prison.
The newspaper also reports that villager Fransiska Hadia, 35,
of East Manggarai, Flores, has died after drinking water contaminated
with insecticide in her rice field.
It quotes Kota Komba district administrator Adrianus Salomon
Adjid as saying the victim and five friends were rushed to a
community health centre when they fell ill after drinking the
contaminated water
Tests later confirmed the water had made them ill.
Neighbouring Elar district administrator Yoseph Durahi explained
that the six were forced to consume the contaminated water due
to difficulties with access to clean water.
The
Southeast Asian Times
|
Investigators
seek cause of fire that killed 17 |
|
 |
| Some
of the at least 17 women who died in an early-morning
department-store fire in Butuan City, southern Mindanao,
about 790 kilometres southeast of Manila, gathered
in body bags after their remains were recovered reportedly
near a fire escape on the third floor of the former
theatre |
|
From
News Reports:
Manila, May 11: Fire-Protection officers have been sent to Butuan
City, southern Mindanao, about 790 kilometres southeast of Manila,
where at least 17 people – most of them young women –
died in a two-hour fire that destroyed a three-story department
store on Montilla Boulevard before dawn Wednesday.
“We will send a team from Manila to investigate and establish
accountabilities,” The Star newspaper quotes Interior Secretary
Jesse Robredo as saying.
The investigators would try to determine the cause of the fire
and if fire regulations had been violated.
The proprietors of many Philippines stores allow their “out-of-town”
employees to stay on the premises and the dead women were asleep
when the fire started in the third-floor living quarters of the
commercial building.
Their bodies were reportedly recovered near the fire escape.
The Philippine Inquirer quotes employee Mylene Tulo, who escaped
with two co-workers, as saying she was roused from sleep as the
fire spread rapidly.
“We wanted to rouse others from sleep, but the fire was already
too strong,” she said.
Tenants in the converted theatre included Western Union.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Elderly lese majeste prisoner
died of liver cancer
From News Reports:
Bangkok, May 11: A preliminary autopsy reportedly shows that Ampon
Tangnoppakul, 62, who was serving 20 years jail having sent text
messages that insulted the Thai Queen Sirikit, died in a prison
hospital of liver cancer.
He also suffered from cancer of the mouth.
The dead man had been accused of having sent the messages to Somkiat
Krongwattanasuk, a private secretary to former Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva via a mobile phone between May 9-22, 2010.
Presiding judge Chanathip Muanphawong delivered the verdict and
sentence over a poor video link to the Bangkok remand prison isolated
in the floods on November 24 last year.
.The prison houses 11 people either convicted of lese majeste
or awaiting trial.
The judges found him guilty on four counts of having breached
Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code - Thailand’s notorious
lese majeste law - and Section 14 of the 2007 Computer Crime Act
that supposedly governs national security.
The defendant, known as “Uncle SMS” among those who
followed his messages or “Ah Kong” or grandfather to
his acquaintances, denied the charges saying his mobile phone
was being repaired at the time of the offences and he did not
know how to send text messages.
But the judges found the defendant's evidence without basis.
He had failed to identify the shop where he said his telephone
was supposedly sent for repair and investigators found that the
mobile phone and SIM card belonged to him.
Telecommunications traffic data which mobile phone operators Dtac
and True were required to keep was considered reliable evidence,
said the presiding judge.
Lawyer Anont Nampa applied to the Criminal Court to withdraw Ampon
Tangnoppakul’s appeal against his conviction and sentence
on Tuesday, April 3 because, he said, his client, who was old
and suffering cancer, wanted to seek a royal pardon.
The request was granted.
The harsh lese-majeste law is purportedly designed to ensure that
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 84, and his family are never insulted
The
Southeast Asian Times
Extra
spending sought in Viet Nam
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, May 11: The Planning and Investment Ministry has asked
the National Assembly for permission to use an extra VND4.47
trillion raised through sovereign bonds for two bridges, a university
dormitory and an oncology hospital, reports news website VnExpress.
The parliament has already approved the use of VND5.5 trillion
raised from government bonds issued in 2012-2015 for irrigation
projects, it says.
It quotes Planning and Investment Minister Bui Quang Vinh as
saying the extra projects were urgent and should be funded.
The news portal says legislators are worried about allowing
the extra spending at a time when the national government is
trying to reduce public spending.
It quotes National Assembly deputy chairman Uong Chu Luu as
saying capital shortage was a “chronic” difficulty
for Viet Nam with its limited financial resources and the government
should focus on projects that are at the top of its the priority
list.
“Some hospitals that are funded by government bonds have
not been completed after four or five years,” he said.
The deputy chairman suggested: “Instead of investing in
20 projects, for example, just pick 10 and complete them as
soon as possible.”
The Viet Nam’s government originally intended to save VND13
trillion of VND180 trillion raised from the sale of sovereign
bonds between 2012 and 2015.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| British High Court judges asked to approve Batang
Kali slayings |
|
 |
| Descendants
of 24 unarmed Chinese workers slaughtered by 14 Scots
Guards at the rubber estate Sungai Rimoh, Batang Kali,
Malaysia, on December 12, 1948, Loh Ah Choi, 71, Chang
Koon Ying, 74, and Lim Ah Yin,71, outside the High
Court, London |
|
From News
Reports:
London, May 10: Two High Court judges have been asked to end
the refusal of successive British governments to fully investigate
the slaying of 24 unarmed Chinese workers by 14 Scots Guards
at the rubber estate Sungai Rimoh, Batang Kali, Malaysia, on
December 12, 1948.
The soldiers torched the dwellings of the workers after the
slayings.
Michael Fordham, Queen’s Counsel, who represents relatives
of victims, asked judges Sir John Thomas and Seamus Treacy to
overturn the British government’s refusal last November
to order a formal investigation of the massacre.
There was enough evidence before the court to justify an independent
inquiry into the “war crime” killings, said the lawyer
who described the slaying as “a blot on British colonisation
and decolonisation.”
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and its Defence
Secretary. Liam Fox, jointly resisted the application for the
two-day judicial review at a High Court hearing last September.
The duo argued that previous British government decisions not
to hold any form of inquiry were reached lawfully.
The lawyer for the descendants of the victims said former British
defence secretary Denis Healey had instructed Scotland Yard
to establish a team to investigate the massacre before an incoming
Conservative government dropped it in 1970 due to an ostensible
lack of evidence.
Six Scots Guards had admitted to the unlawful slaughter of the
24 workers before hiding the massacre, he said.
Their admittance was in their statements to the police in 1970.
One member of the Scots Guards platoon, Alan Tuppen, maintained
that a sergeant had said beforehand: “The (villagers) were
going to be shot and we could fall in or fall out.”
Key British Foreign Office correspondence about past investigations
of the slaughter by the British was provided lawyers for the
families of the victims together with Cabinet Office guidance
as to when inquiries should be held in January.
But the Foreign Office has so far refused to release any additional
documents from its still unreleased colonial-era archive.
The descendants of the dead, who have twice petitioned the Queen,
want an official apology and compensation.
The two judges are expected to reserve their decision.
The last Malaysian adult witness to the massacre, Tham Yong,
78,died in April last year.
British colonial officials said at the time of the incident
— at the beginning of a 12-year communist insurgency in
the former Malaya — that the 24 men were shot because they
were suspected guerrillas fleeing the scene.
The massacre occurred during a brutal guerrilla war that followed
the British government's declaration of a state of emergency
in its Malay-Peninsular colony in June 1948.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Health
workers charge former president with human-rights violations
From News Reports:
Manila, May 10: Eight health workers have charged former president
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 64, with violation of their human rights
in accordance with the principle of command responsibility -
the doctrine of hierarchical accountability for war crimes.
The Philippine military and police arrested 43 health workers
– the Morong 43 - who included the eight in Morong, Rizal
Province, on February 6, 2010.
They included r 26 women and two physicians and were arrested
as supposed members of the New People’s Army – the
military wing of the Philippines Communist Party -at a guest
house owned by Consultant to the Philippine General Hospital
and professor emeritus of the University of the Philippines
College of Medicine Dr Melecia Velmonte.
They were charged with the possession of firearms and explosives
and freed without having stood trial after President Benigno
Aquino assumed office.
The eight have also charged several senior military and police
officers with violations of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, reports
Bulatlat online news magazine.
“This will not be easy but it must be done,” the magazine
quotes one of the eight Jane Beltran Balleta as saying.
“We know that our enemies are human rights violators who
respect no one but it is important to file the case if only
to show that the government is violating its own laws.”
The affidavit lodged with the eight’s accusation says they
were subjected to torture, both physical and psychological.
The complainants also allege that the officers who arrested
them took and had not returned personal belongings, office equipment
and cash amounting to more than peso165, 000, about US$3,837.
The former president asked a Quezon Court Judge Luisa Q. Padilla
to dismiss the peso 15-million, about US348, 109, claim for
damages the health workers have lodged against her in January.
The damages are sought for alleged physical and psychological
torture and other indignities
But Mrs Arroyo argues her name is not the affidavits lodged
in support of the claim lodged on April 4 last year.
“The claim does not contain any allegation of bad faith,
malice or gross negligence on the part of defendant,” says
the eight-page petition for its dismissal.
The plaintiffs cannot just sue the now member for Pampanga in
the House of Representatives based on her past position as president
or her alleged failure to stop any supposed abuses, it argues.
The basis of the complaint - her alleged failure to stop human
rights abuses - was “a duty owed to the people in general
and not to anyone in particular.”
The complaint was a “suit against the State.”
They complainants says the damages they suffered were a consequence
of their illegal detention and torture as part of the implementation
of the military’s United States-funded anti-insurgency
operation Oplan Bantay Laya, which the former president knew
about.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Inadequately trained Merpati pilots killed 27 off
West Papua |
|
 |
| Twenty-one
passengers and six crew died when this China-built
Merpati- Nusantara-Airline Xian MA60 twin turboporp
aircraft crashed into shallow water and disintegrated
about 500 metres southwest of Kaimana airport, West
Papua, on May 8 last year. Investigators have found
the aircraft built in 2008 was airworthy and that
the inadequately-trained pilots should not have attempted
a visual landing in heavy rain |
|
From News
Reports:
Jakarta, May 9: The pilots of a Merpati Nusantara Airline Xian
MA60 twin turboporp aircraft that crashed off Kaimana, West Papua,
on May 7 last year killing its 21 passengers and six crew had
been inadequately trained, reports the National Transportation
Safety Committee.
Communications during the flight had also been poor during the
flight from the Domine Eduard Osok airport, Sorong, West Papua.
The pilots had been each trained for less than 250 hours to fly
the aircraft and this led them to take inappropriate procedures
for their approach to landing using visual flight rules, commission
chairman Tatang Kurniadi told a news conference in Jakarta on
Monday.
“Inadequacy in training programme can lead to actions that
deviate from the standard procedure and regress to previous aircraft
type,” he said.
An instructor from the aircraft manufacturer had used the syllabus
from China to train the co-pilot while a Merpati instructor had
used a modified syllabus to train the pilot.
The commission’s accident report found that rain had reduced
visibility to two kilometres and the pilots should not have attempted
a visual approach;
The flight crew had not performed a check list or attended a briefing;
and
The pilots lacked awareness of their situation when they discontinued
their approach after trying to find the runway.
A Transport Ministry audit found that MA-60 was airworthy and
safe to fly but should not operate into the difficult airports
at Ende, Waingapu and Ruteng.
Members of the People’s Representative Council Transport
Committee asked the airline to cancel the purchase of any more
Chinese-made Xian MA-60 aircraft after the crash.
But Transport Minister Freddy Numberi said the purchase would
not be cancelled because Merpati Nusantara Airlines was contracted
to buy 15 of the twin turboprop aircraft.
“We have a contract,” he said.
The agreement to buy the aircraft was signed in 2006.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| A cartoon
goes inside the tour bus in Manila on the day that
ended with the slaying of eight Hong Kong tourists
...Open
page here |
|
| Bombed by the
Americans for Christmas in 1972, Ha Noi Bach Mai hospital
is still a war zone...Christina Pas reports...Open
page here |
|
Published by Pas Loizou Press Darwin Northern
Territory Australia
PASLOIZOUPRESSDARWIN@bigpond.com
|
|
|
Oz $ buys
|
|
Updated daily.
Prices indicative only
|
US...0.9926
Brunei...1.2576
Cambodia. 4,012.19
China..Yuan 6.2767
East Timor....0.9926
Euro..0.7182
Hong Kong..7.7077
Indonesia Rupiah..9,169.53
Japan...79.5359
Laos...7,956.45
Malaysia Ringgit...3.0870
Myanmar..824.077
Papua New Guinea..2.1009
Philippines Peso...42.5639
Singapore dollar...1.2570
Thailand...Baht...31.1444
Viet Nam Dong..20.677.09
Privatisation kills, warns health
worker
From News Reports:
Manila, May 18: Privatisation of medical and hospital services
is killing patients, warns Philippine Heart Centre employee’s
union deputy president Mark Defensor.
The Philippine government was devolving its obligation to provide
the country’s citizens with primary health care to private
investors to generate income that would benefit only them, bulatlat.com
quotes him as saying.
“If a patient has a kidney problem he or she will have to
pay peso 18,000, about US$428, before he or she will be given
dialysis,” he said.
But they could die before they were able to raise the money.
Bulutat says the Japan-sponsored privately-founded Asian Development
Bank, which has just held its yearly meeting in Manila, is assessing
the country’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine for
privatisation.
Privatisation is essential to the prevailing neo-liberal market-driven
ideology that puts “user pay” and supposedly efficient
government ahead of enabling government.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Chip maker jailed
From News Reports:
Singapore, May 17: Delivery Neo Seow Hua, 34, has been was jailed
for 32 months after he pleaded guilty to three counts of using
the counterfeit chips to play baccarat Resorts World Sentosa casino
on January 22 last year.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Terence Chua sought a punitive sentence
after saying the offence had been difficult to detect and the
proprietor had spent more than US$650, 000 to replace the chips
it had to recall.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Discrimination allegedly follows pay decision
From News Reports:
Bangkok, May 16: Thai Labour Solidarity Committee chairman Chalee
Loysung has accused employers of trying to dismiss trade union
representatives since a daily minimum wage of baht 300, about
US$9.77, was introduced for about 5.4 million workers in Bangkok
as well as Phuket, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Pathum Thani, Nakhon
Pathom and Nonthaburi provinces on Sunday, April 1.
The rise will apply in Thailand’s 70 remaining provinces
from January next year.
But The Bangkok Post quotes the Labour Solidarity Committee chairman
as saying: " Union members have been deemed as hostile [by
employers] and some of them have been laid off in many cases,
or assigned to non-paying duties or no longer given overtime work,
which earns them extra income."
Many workers in companies where salaries rise according to seniority
and work experience, especially those in electronics plants, were
laid off even before April 1, he said.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra reaffirmed that her government
would introduce the minim wage- a major Pheu Thai or For Thai
Party, election promise- at this year’s May Day rally at
the Royal Plaza, Bangkok.
The government would also keep the prices for commodities as low
as possible to ease the financial burden on low-income earners,
she said.
The prime minister reported that the House of Representatives
was ready to discuss ratification of International Labour Organisation
Convention No 87 dealing with the right to Freedom of Association
and the Right to Organise (1948) and No 98 dealing with the Right
to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949).
The
Southeast Asian Times
Singapore Airlines loses $38million
From News Reports:
Singapore, May 15: Singapore Airlines lost US$38 million in the
three months from January to March.
The loss meant that the national carrier’s earnings for the
full financial year were $336 million, a dip of almost 70 per
cent against 2010-2011.
The loss was the airline’s first quarter in the red in more
than two years.
An airline statement attributes most of the loss to the cost of
disposing of its last Boeing 747-400 aircraft.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Tax package planned for Viet Nam
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, May 14: The National Assembly will be asked to approve
a tax relief package worth dong 29 trillion, about US$1.4 billion,
later this month in an effort to thwart more bankruptcies, reports
Thanh Nien, Youth, newspaper.
The package would include a 30 percent reduction in the corporate
income tax for small to medium companies and labour-intensive
enterprises, the newspaper quotes government office chairman Vu
Duc Dam as saying.
Enterprises would also be allowed to delay for six months their
value-added tax payments for April, May and June, he told a news
briefing in Ha Noi last Friday.
Almost 18,000 enterprises throughout Viet Nam either closed or
suspended operation in the first four months of the year.
Deputy Finance Minister Vu Thi Mai said that although the tax
concessions were valued at VND29 trilllion, their cost to revenue
would be only VND9 trillion because much of the total figure consisted
of payment extensions.
Planning and Investment Ministry figures show that 17,735 businesses
closed or suspended operations in the first four months of the
year, 9.5 percent higher than for the same months of 2011
More than 5,000 of the enterprises were wholesalers or retailers.
The State Bank of Vietnam capped the interest exporters, agriculture
and small to medium-sized enterprises pay for credit at 15 percent
from last Tuesday.
Although the limit was temporary, it would help ease difficulties
for commerce, said central bank governor Nguyen Dong Tien.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Bananas
left
to rot in
China ports
From News Reports:
Manila, May 13: China government officials have refused entry
to about 1,500 containers Cavendish bananas from the Philippines
and the fruit is now reportedly rotting in the ports of Dalian,
Shanghai and Xingang.
The Philippine Inquirer says importation of the bananas was halted
after the officials allegedly found signs of Aspidiotus destructor
in fruit from Mindanao.
The disease is usually found only in coconuts.
The newspaper quotes Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association
president Stephen Antig as saying the ban could be the result
of the standoff between the Philippines and China at Scarborough
Shoal in the South China Sea.
In Manila, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the tighter
inspections were a “technical issue” and the regulatory
agencies of the Philippines and China were dealing with it.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Superjet
100 sales suspended
From News Reports:
Jakarta, May 12: All planned Indonesia purchases of the twin-engined
Sukhoi Superjet 100 have been suspended until the causes of Wednesday
afternoon’s fatal flight are known, reports Kompas.com.
“The investigation will find out whether the accident was
the result of bad weather or human error," the news portal
quotes Indra Djani of Trimarga Rekatama – the Sukhoi Civil
Aircraft Corporation’s Indonesia representative – as
saying.
Indonesia has four potential buyers of the aircraft including
Sky Aviation and Queen Air.
Kartika Airlines has reportedly ordered 30 of the aircraft.
The aircraft is designed to carry95 100 passengers with an operational
range of 3,048 kilometres for the basic version and 4,578 kilometres
for long-range version at an altitude up to 12,200 metres.
The Prosperous Justice Party chairman of the People’s Representative
Council Commission 1, Mahfudz Shiddiq, forecasts that the fatal
flight will not affect plans to procure six Sukhoi Su-30 MKK jetfighters,
worth US$470 million, to complete the Air Force’s Sukhoi
squadron.
“The discussion to purchase the aircrafts is still ongoing.
But don’t think the recent Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash will
affect ongoing deliberations because the plane that crashed was
different to the planes marked for procurement by the Air Force,”
he said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Extra spending sought in Viet Nam
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, May 11: The Planning and Investment Ministry has asked
the National Assembly for permission to use an extra VND4.47 trillion
raised through sovereign bonds for two bridges, a university dormitory
and an oncology hospital, reports news website VnExpress.
The parliament has already approved the use of VND5.5 trillion
raised from government bonds issued in 2012-2015 for irrigation
projects, it says.
It quotes Planning and Investment Minister Bui Quang Vinh as saying
the extra projects were urgent and should be funded.
The news portal says legislators are worried about allowing the
extra spending at a time when the national government is trying
to reduce public spending.
It quotes National Assembly deputy chairman Uong Chu Luu as saying
capital shortage was a “chronic” difficulty for Viet
Nam with its limited financial resources and the government should
focus on projects that are at the top of its the priority list.
“Some hospitals that are funded by government bonds have
not been completed after four or five years,” he said.
The deputy chairman suggested: “Instead of investing in 20
projects, for example, just pick 10 and complete them as soon
as possible.”
The Viet Nam’s government originally intended to save VND13
trillion of VND180 trillion raised from the sale of sovereign
bonds between 2012 and 2015.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Road to refinery blockaded
From News Reports:
Port Moresby, May 10: Landowners are reported to have blocked
the road to Papua New Guinea’s first oil refinery, at Napa
Napa, to show their anger at what they say is the national government’s
non-payment of promised compensation.
They also demanded a meeting with public officials, says The National
newspaper.
The newspaper quotes Napa Napa Landowners Association deputy chairman
Mabata Ata said then Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare’s
promise of compensation had not been honoured.
The promise had been for kina 286 million reduced to kina 136
million and then k70 million.
InterOil operations manager at the Napa Napa refinery, Anthony
Huai said the land in dispute was State-owned with his corporation
the leaseholder.
IOL had become a scapegoat for the landowners.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Share divestment delayed until August
From News Reports:
Jakarta, May 9: The Indonesia Investment Agency and the Nusa Tenggara
Partnership - the owner of Newmont Nusa Tenggara - have agreed
to extend the requirements for the purchase of the last seven
percent of the United Sates-based miner’s shares to Monday,
August 6, 2012.
The Indonesia Finance Ministry-managed sovereign wealth fund Pusat
Investasi Pemerintah, PIP, director Soritaon Siregar together
with Blake Rhodes and Toru Tokuhisa from the Nusa Tenggara Partnership
signed the agreement last Saturday, says an Indonesia-Investment-Agency
statement.
Divestment of the last shares had been due this week.
The Jakarta Post reports that the People’s Representative
Council has recommended that because the US$246.8 million for
the purchase agreement will be drawn from the State budget without
parliamentary approval, the money should go to the West Nusa Tenggara
administration.
The newspaper says many members of the majority Golkar Party oppose
the Finance Ministry’s effort to thwart the interest of their
party chairman Aburizal Bakrie and Bakrie & Brothers, the
holding company he owns with his family, supports the provincial
government.
In April, Regional Representative Council member Baiq Diyah Ratu
Ganefi argued that Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo should give
the West Nusa Tenggara provincial government the first chance
to buy the last seven percent of shares the United States-based
miner Newmont Nusa Tenggara has to divest.
The purchase would allow the government to maximise gold mining’s
contribution to the province’s people, she said.
Newmont Nusa Tenggara was ordered to divest 51 percent of its
ownership to Indonesians by March 2010.
The Southeast Asian Times
Traders seek compensation
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, May 8: Traders have rallied in Jalan Tuanku Abdul
Rahman in support of their demand to have day Coalition-for-Clean-and-Fair-Elections,
or Bersih, Co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenavasan pay them compensation
for revenue purportedly lost during the violence that followed
the organisation’s mass demonstration in central Kuala Lumpur
on Saturday, April 28.
The Bernama News Agency quotes Jalan-Tuanku-Abdul-Rahman drink
vendor Hazmizi Abu Hashim, 50, as saying: “It's tough to
be in our business; it’s difficult to eat if we don't work.
Even though the assembly is for one day people are afraid to come
out the next day as well.”
The vendor complained that he had not been compensated for the
damage done during the Bersih rally of July last year when, he
said, participants had kicked and broken his drinks containers.
Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Association of Malaysia president
Mohammad Ridzuan Abdullah estimated the damage done to traders
during the rally at ringgit 200,000, about US$65,295.
More accurate figures would be available in about a week, he said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Imelda Marcos declares her wealth
From News Reports:
Manila, May 7: Imelda Marcos, 82, has declared her net worth at
US$22 million -almost 50 per cent higher than in 2010, parliamentary
records show.
The figures, published last Thursday, make the widow of former
president Ferdinand Marcos the second richest member of the Philippine
congress after boxer Manny Pacquiao.
Mrs Marcos succeeded her son Ferdinand Marcos Jr, 54, as the member
of the House of Representatives for Ilcocos Norte, northwest Luzon,
in the general election of May 2010.
Her son “Bong Bong,” who was elected Nacionalista Party
Senator for Ilcocos Norte Province, says that an estimated US$658
million that his father amassed before it was frozen in Swiss
bank deposits has disappeared.
The Oxford-University-economics-and-Wharton Business-School-the-University-of-Pennsylvania-graduate
was making an introductory tour of the senate when he made the
revelation.
Asked the whereabouts of the money which is supposedly held in
escrow at the Philippine National Bank, the senator answered:
“I don’t know why it is now gone.
”What I’ve heard is that the money was used during the
2007 elections. You should look for it. Ask them where the money
is because every time I asked them, they cannot answer me.”
The Swiss government froze the money after Ferdinand Marcos was
toppled in a popular revolt in 1986 and transferred to the escrow
account in 1998.
Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in September 1989.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Rally threatened investment, says minister
From News Reports:
Kuching, May 6: Sarawak’s Resource Planning and Environment
Minister Amar Awang Tengah Ali has blamed the Coalition-for-Clean-and-Fair-Elections
or Bersih, rally in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, April 28, for prompting
potential investors to question Malaysia’s socio-political
stability.
“No investors have pulled out but they are worried about
what had happened in the rally,” The Star newspaper quotes
him as saying.
“All this while, they see Malaysia as safe but after watching
the reports on Bersih 3.0, they are worried,” he said.
“This is what we call budaya samseng (hooliganism),”
the minister said of the rally.”It tarnishes the country’s
peaceful and stable image.
“It went too far in that it jeopardised the safety of others.
Even some members of the media got hurt.
“It is easy to hurl accusations, provocative statements and
simply blog about things without a care as to what the consequences
are,” he said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Miners to pay export taxes
From News Reports:
Jakarta, May 5: Fourteen unprocessed minerals will carry export
taxes ranging from 20 to 50 percent as part of new schedules to
be announced tomorrow, reports The Jakarta Post.
The 14 are copper, gold, silver, tin, lead, chromium, molybdenum,
platinum, bauxite, iron ore, iron sand, nickel, manganese and
antimony.
The newspaper quotes Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa
as saying the taxes were not intended to increase the country’s
revenues, but as a disincentive to persuade mining companies not
to sell unprocessed ore.
“We want miners to process and refine the ore in the country
and therefore stimulate the construction of more smelters here,”
he said.
“We want to control the exploitation of our natural resources,
we don’t want companies to exploit them excessively.”
The 2009 Minerals and Coal Mining Law will prohibit mining companies
will from exporting raw materials from 2014.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry issued a regulation
in February requiring all mining permit holders to stop exporting
raw materials from next Monday.
The regulation was later changed to accommodate the protests of
the mining companies.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Fuel costs
halt fishing
From News Reports:
Ho Chi Minh City, May 4: Fishermen are leaving their boats idle
following the second rise in the price of fuel in less than two
months.
And some plan to sell their vessels following the dong-500-a-litre
rise on Friday, April 20, says Tuoi Tre, Youth, newspaper.
The newspaper says that fishing industry costs have soared but
productivity has slumped and hundreds of vessels have been left
idle.
The
Southeast Asian Times
New workers flood labour market
From News Reports:
Jakarta, May 3: The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
estimates that the country’s number of unemployed increases
by 1.3 million every year.
“There are 2.91 million new workers every year but we create
only 1.6 million new jobs,” the Antara news agency quotes
chamber chairman Suryo Bambang Sulisto as saying.
Lack of qualifications was another factor in the number of unemployed.
“Only 5.7 percent of about 8.14 million unemployed Indonesians
have a bachelor's degree," he said.
The chairman estimated that Indonesia’s economy would have
to grow 8 percent each year to eliminate the unemployment.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Minimum wage set for Malaysia’s private sector workers
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, May 2: Malaysia’s first monthly minimum wage
for the private sector has been set at ringgit 900, about US$
297.521, for Peninsula Malaysia and ringgit 800 for the remainder
of the country.
About 3.2 million workers are expected to benefit from wage that
Prime Minister Najib Razak announced on the eve of May Day.
The new minimum wage will be subject to review and rises will
depend on economic fundamentals such as national income, competitiveness
and productivity.
“The introduction of the minimum wage is a historic moment
for Malaysia. The lowest-paid will now be guaranteed an income
that lifts them out of poverty and helps ensure that they can
meet the rising cost of living,” said the prime minister
in a statement.
The rates were set on the advice of the National Wage Consultation
Council after it “carefully assessed the economic conditions
and the proposed rates take into account the needs of business,
while ensuring that no Malaysian is left behind in the country's
economic progress.”
The
Southeast Asian Times
Minimum
wage for Malaysia
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, May 1: Malaysian Trade Union Congress secretary
general Abdul Halim Mansor says Prime Minister Najib Razak announcement,
on the eve of May Day, that Malaysia was to have minimum wage
for private sector workers was proof that a 12-year struggle had
been worthwhile.
“With a better pay scale, workers’ purchasing power
will improve which will also be a boost for our economy, “This
move will benefit all parties - the government, employees and
employers,” he said.
“We are expecting employees from urban and rural areas as
well as foreign workers to benefit from the revised pay scale.”
The prime minister was to announce the rise yesterday afternoon.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Sailors warned against Ah Long
From News Reports:
Lumut, April 30: Navy commander Abdul Aziz Jaafar has given personnel
who have accepted loans from unlicensed money lenders, Ah Long,
one month to declare themselves or face disciplinary action.
"It was recently discovered that eight members had borrowed
money from Ah Long,” the Bernama news agency quotes the commander
as saying.
“This is unacceptable. They should borrow from the government
if they need funds, not from Ah Long," he said after the
navy's 78th anniversary celebrations at Lumut, Perak.
Such borrowings could endanger their families and cause the personnel
to lose focus at work when they are unable to repay the loans.
"We will work with financial institutions to assist and resolve
their problems," he said.
A notice that warns the public not to be deceived by offers of
loans from Ah Long for bail was posted in the Kuala Lumpur court
house in January.
Kuala Lumpur court director Azizah Mahmud said it was posted to
make the public aware of such activities and to prevent them from
falling prey to unlicensed money lenders, like loan sharks.
“We have also instructed all courts nationwide to put up
the notice at their respective premises,” she said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
US
pays for port security
From News Reports:
Jakarta, April 29: The United States government has provided the
Indonesia Transport Ministry training and equipment worth US$1.02
million to secure the country’s ports so far this year.
The equipment includes 74 personal radiation detectors and four
radioisotope identification devices Deputy chief of mission at
Washington’s Embassy in Jakarta, Ted Osius, delivered to
the ministry’s sea transport director general Leon Muhammad
on Friday.
“This assistance will support Indonesian efforts to manage
the significant issues of transnational crime, including smuggling
activities, trafficking in people, counter narcotics and potential
terrorist transit,” said the diplomat.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Viet Nam seeks to sell loss-making ship
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, April 28: Executives of Vinashinlines want to sell the
passenger vessel Hoa Sen, or The Lotus, that State-owned Vietnam
Shipbuilding Industry Group, Vinashin, bought in Italy in 2007
– reportedly for about US$60-million – and now idle
in China.
Tuoi Tre, Youth, newspaper reports the executives are seeking
permission from the Transport Ministry to offer the loss-making
ship for sale to avoid heavy berth and maintenance costs.
Vinashinlines became a subsidiary of the Vietnam National Shipping
Lines, Vinalines, as part of a government-ordered restructure
of Vinashin.
The ship’s crew, whose employment has expired, are owed months
of pay.
The Hoa Sen had to be docked in December 2008 after just 40 voyages
between northern Quang Ninh Province and Ho Chi Minh City after
fractures were found in her hull below the waterline.
The ship sailed for China in February 2011.
Eight of nine former Vinashin executives, including former chairman
and general director Pham Thanh Binh, 59, who was sent to jail
for 20 years after he was found guilty of the abuse of power and
the deliberate violation of economic-management regulations with
subsequent losses to the State of more than $US43 million, have
appealed against their prison sentences.
Two more accused, Former Vinashin Financial Company director Ho
Ngoc Tung, 54, and former Vinashin Ocean Shipping Company business
manager Giang Kim Dat, 34, have reportedly fled Viet Nam.
Vinashin defaulted on the first payment of a $600 million loan
in December 2010 after it all but failed with debts of more than
$4.4 billion.
The
Southeast Asian Times
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