GATHERINGS: An informed guide to happenings throughout the region.

Renewed call to review sorcery law
From News Reports:
Madang, July 3: Acting Public Prosecutor Jim Wala Tamate has supported a proposed major review into the Sorcery Act, 1971, saying the courts are dealing with “belief systems and not mere criminal acts, or rather, with criminal acts based on belief systems.”
Sorcery was deeply rooted in customs and traditions, he said.
Belief in the effectiveness of magical and sorcery practices were widespread in the country in various ethnic groups and strata of society.
Its practices were based on general and personal interests that included land; courtship; family and marriage.
The subject needed proper research so as to define clearly the meaning of sorcery in Papua New Guinea.
Penalties on sorcery-related crimes also had to be made harsher.
“Sorcery should be clearly defined to help police and the courts to perform their duties effectively,” Mr Tamate said.
The acting prosecutor was speaking at the Law on sorcery and sorcery-related killings conference at the police training centre, Madang.
The conference was organised by the Public Prosecutions office and was attended by Divine Word University academics and officers from the law and the justice system.
In February, it was reported that people were still falling victim to sorcery-inspired murder in Papua New Guinea despite the passing of the Sorcery Act 1991.
Both Constitutional Law Reform Commission and the Public Prosecutor’s office attribute the continuing violence to a failure to enforce the act.
Both were responding to the murder of a man, 40, for alleged sorcery in Eastern Highlands Province.
Law Reform Commission chairman Joe Mek Teine and acting Public Prosecutor Jack Pambel both said the act should be immediately reviewed and changed.
“Sorcery accusations and killings is a very serious issue facing our society, where innocent lives have been lost,” said the Law Reform Commission chairman.
“Reviewing the Sorcery Act is on the agenda of my commission.”
The public prosecutor said: “Whether the Act is being implemented or not is a question that has to be looked at.”
The Southeast Asian Times

Book provides new evidence of Malaysia massacre
George Town, July 1: Evidence gathered by former war correspondent Ian Ward and his wife Norma Miraflor for their new book Slaughter and Deception at Batang Kali is likely to be used by lawyers for victims of the 1948 massacre, reports The Star newspaper.
It will go to the British Foreign Office and Defence Ministry on Friday, the newspaper says.
It quotes Batang Kali Action Committee Coordinator and lawyer Quek Ngee Meng as saying the new evidence highlighted in the book would provide give new insights and perspective.
Mr Quek said the British government had also initiated their own investigations into the killings in 1970 and had interviewed some the surviving Scots Guards “but due to political pressure, the investigating team never came to Malaysia to conclude their probe…
“Finally, after nearly four decades of cover-up by the British government, the investigations can now be put together and concluded.”
Mr Quek’s committee is demanding an apology and US$149million compensation from the British government for the alleged slaughter of 24 unarmed villagers by Scots Guards at a rubber plantation at Batang Kali in Selangor’s Genting Highlands just south of Kuala Lumpur in December 1948.
The slaughtered villagers – all Chinese - were deemed either Communists or Communist sympathizers.
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

Wallace
house found
in Sarawak
From News Reports
Kuching, June 30: British evolutionary biologist George Beccaloni, 41, believes he has found the site where Alfred Russel Wallace spent weeks in 1855 writing a seminal paper about the theory of evolution.
But now an abandoned, two-story guest house stands at Gunung Santubong overlooking the South China Sea, about 35kilometres north of Kuching, Sarawak, instead of the thatched hut that is believed to have housed the major evolutionary theorist.
Dr Beccaloni and British artist Fred Langford Edwards are making an audiovisual project about Wallace and are retracing the scientist's eight-year trip around Southeast Asia.
Sir Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species 150 years ago and Dr Beccaloni told Associated Press: “The Darwin industry is what has distorted the whole of history.
“People have just concentrated on Darwin and his life and work but they fail to see Darwin wasn't alone and he fits into a wider picture.”
The impoverished Wallace, who collected and sold natural specimens for a living, set off for Singapore in 1854 and collected more than 125,000 birds, beetles and other animals during eight years of travel throughout the Malay archipelago.
The expedition followed an earlier trek to the Amazon and his Sarawak Law written in 1855 was his argument in support of evolution against creationism,
Later, after traveling to Bali and Lombok, he saw that bird species were different on each island and concluded that a deep water trench created a boundary that separated the animal species of Southeast Asia and Australasia Australia-New Zealand.
The observation of geographical distribution gave rise to what is now known as the Wallace Line.
The Southeast Asian Times

Malaysia opens insect zoo
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, June 29: Malaysia’s Zoo Negara opened the country's first and Southeast Asia's major Insect Zoo that features 200 species of endangered insects found in the country's tropical rainforest.
The Bernama news agency quotes Malaysian Zoological Society President Ismail Hutson as saying the rare butterflies and insects would help attract more domestic and international visitors to the zoo.
“Its collection includes the Atlas Butterfly which is the largest butterfly in the world and Rajah Brooke's Birdwing butterfly, a species which was first discovered in 1855, and is regarded as the “Prince of Butterflies” for its beauty, and the Orchid Praying Mantis, an insect which can camouflage itself as an orchid,” he said.
Visitors could also obtain their scientific information all under one roof.
The Southeast Asian Times

Papua New Guinea issues coral stamp
From News Reports:
Port Moresby, June 28: Papua New Guinea has issued a stamp showing the country’s coral reefs and other marine flora and fauna.
The triangular stamp is based on the regional Coral Triangle Initiative, CTI, and features turtles, mangroves and coral reefs.
It also carries a message in support of sustainable income and food security.
Post Papua New Guinea’s managing director Peter Maiden said postal services the world over liked to have rare and unique features on their stamps.
“CTI is indeed rare and unique because it contains 75 percent of all coral species known to science.
The World Ocean Conference 2009 at Manado, North Sulawesi, last month included discussion of the CTI that was established at the APEC 2007 Sydney summit.
The Coral Triangle countries are Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and East Timor.
Papua New Guinea is the first of these to issue a stamp in honour of the iniative.
The Southeast Asian Times

Police quiz documentary maker
From News Reports:
Singapore, June 27: Seelan Palay, 24, the producer of the 45-minute documentary about Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has been questioned by the police, reports the Singapore Democrats.
Police and Media Development Authority officials seized the film at a private screening at the Peninsular-Excelsior Hotel last year.
The media development authority officials gave the Singapore Film Act as the basis for their action.
The act makes it an offence “to possess or to exhibit or distribute any film without a valid certificate.”
Thousands of viewers have since watched the documentary on YouTube.
In March, The city state’s parliament has approved changes to the law that will ease the 11-year-old prohibition of films that promote a politician or political party, but also introduce restrictions to dramatised political videos.
The relaxation of rules followed the spread of video and other news content on the Internet, junior Information, Communications and Arts Minister Lui Tuck Yew told parliament.
But the content had to accord with the law, he said.
The amended Films Act allows films that are factual and objective, and do not dramatise or present a distorted picture of politics in Singapore, he said.
“Films with animation and dramatization and distort what is real or factual will be disallowed, as the intent of the amendments is to ensure that these films do not undermine the seriousness of political debate.”
The ban was introduced in 1998, two years after the Singapore Democratic Party applied for a licence to sell a videotape about the party.
Violation of the ban carries a two-year jail term and a fine of US$73,000.
The Southeast Asian Times


Book planned to follow Singapore conference
Melbourne, June 23: A book based on the papers delivered at the international conference that revisited the 1965-1966 Indonesian Killings at the National University of Singapore last week, its convenor, Dr Kate McGregor, Senior Lecturer in Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne, said yesterday.
“A decision is likely in the next two weeks but there will definitely be a book,” she said.
Scholars from throughout the world attended the three-day conferred co sponsored by Singapore's Asia Research Institute and the Australian Research Council's Asia Pacific Futures Research Network.
Indonesian and Singaporean reporters also attended as did students from Sekolah Pelita Harapan a prestigious chain of co-educational Christian schools that has its headquarters in Jakarta.
The Southeast Asian Times

World Heritage Listing sought for Batik
From News Reports:
Cirebon, June 22: Indonesia’s Batik is expected to become world heritage-listed this year, reports The Jakarta Post.
The Indonesian government asked United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, to grant such recognition last September.
Once approved, batik will be the country's third cultural product named a world intangible heritage, after wayang, or shadow puppets, and kris, double-edged dagger.
UNESCO named wayang a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in November 2003 and gave kris a similar status in November 2005.
The listing is likely to provide protection for about 400 traditional batik motifs from Cirebon, West Java, are not patented.
Cirebon batik is believed to have been around since the 14th century, following the establishment of the Kasepuhan Cirebon sultanate.
The Southeast Asian Times

British warship
visits Phuket
From News Reports:
Cape Panwa, June 21: The British warship Bulwark is docked off Phuket together with the United States destroyer Mitscher.
The 22,000-tonne vessel has been on station in Southeast Asia for the past six weeks and will leave tomorrow after its crew of 540 ends their shore leave.
The warship has been in training with the forces of Bangladesh, Brunei, India, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
It 40 marines undertook training in Brunei.
The Southeast Asian Times

Imams use Koran to help protect endangered animals
Kuala Lumpur, June 20: The World Wildlife Fund for Nature, WWF, is extending hits programme to have imam’s use passages from the Koran to raise awareness and help protect endangered species.
The programme began in Terengganu last November when 482 imams throughout the conservative peninsular-Malaysia State spoke about turtle conservation at Friday prayers.
Now the conservationists have held workshops for the imams in an effort to stop poaching, especially of endangered tigers.
“There are several passages within the Koran which talk about the responsibility of humans in protecting our environment and wildlife,” said WWF-Malaysia Tiger Conservation Programme coordinator Umi A’ Zuhrah.
“Religious leaders are very influential and greatly respected in this community, so they are the best people to carry this message across.”
“We hope that religious-based initiatives such as these will complement our monitoring and anti-poaching efforts to conserve Malaysia’s endangered wildlife.”
The sermons were to have been read at 21 mosques in Kelantan’s Jeli district this month and about the need to stop illegal hunting and reduce human-wildlife conflict using specific passages from the Koran
The WWF says poaching is arguably the biggest threat to tigers in Malaysia, with the current population estimated at about 500, down from 3,000 almost 50 years ago.
Tigers are poached for their parts, which often end up in traditional Chinese medicine shops and exotic meat restaurants in Malaysia and other neighbouring countries.
The Southeast Asian Times

International Conference: The 1965-1966 Indonesian Killings Revisited Wednesday, June 17 to Friday, June 19, 2009, National University of Singapore
Co sponsored by Singapore's Asia Research Institute and the Australian Research Council's Asia Pacific Futures Research Network, this conference will discuss the mass killings in Indonesia between 1965 and 1966.
The three-day conference attended by scholars of history, anthropology; political science and law includes practitioners from Indonesia.
A panel will discuss the September 30th Movement.
Discussion of the roles of the military and mass organisations in the slaughter will include a regional study of detention and mass killing; Communist resistance to the pogroms and the impact on women and families.
The purpose of the conference is to discuss the contested views of the past in contemporary Indonesia in an effort to assess the lasting effects of the mass killings in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
Brad Simpson from Princeton University will explore the regional dynamics of the September 30th Movement and the killings that followed with a focus on the United States, Britain and Australia's reaction to and support for the mass murder.
Former foreign editor of the Sydney Morning Herald David Jenkins will include material gathered about the “coup” from his book that covers the 'life and times' of the former president Soeharto in his paper titled The Partai Komunis Indonesia, or PKI, and the Military 1965.
Katherine McGregor and Greg Fealy from Australia's University of Melbourne will examine the role of Indonesia’s major Sunni Islamic organization, Nadhdlatul Ulama, in the 1965-66 killings.
Their paper will assess the nature of Nadhdlatul Ulama involvement in the anti-Communist killings with emphasis on how the PKI was perceived as a threat to the Nadhdlatul Ulama beginning with the Madiun revolt in 1948.
Steven Farram from Australia's Northern Territory’s Charles Darwin University will in his paper titled G30S and the killings in West Timor and Nusa Tenggara Timor, or NTT, discuss the killings in West Timor and Nusa Tenggara Timor, or NTT, following the September 1965 “coup” from the view that the about 2000 killings in sparsely populated eastern Indonesia were coordinated and executed by the Indonesian army.
He says PKI members were taken to Bali or Java and were never seen again.
I Gusti Agung Ayu Ratih from Jakarta's Indonesian Institute of Social History will in a paper titled How to even begin talking about 1965? Discuss stories that were provided by the women victims of the 1965 killings for the Tutur Perempuan, or Women Talk, project.
“These stories are important in demonstrating the state’s responsibility for the violence and to generate sympathy and solidarity with the victims,” she says.
Can other Indonesians enter into a meaningful dialogue with those who are coming from a completely different experience that has been so silenced and misrepresented for 32 years? she asks.
The conference to discuss the killings in Indonesia during the transition from Soekarno to Soeharto includes the screening of the film: 40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy.
The Southeast Asian Times


Parliament to decide future of Collins portrait
Darwin, June 18: Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Speaker has asked the parliamentary committee to decide if a portrait of disgraced former Australian Labor Party Senator and Minister Bob Collins should be removed from public display.
“I have until this point not received a complaint regarding the painting and so therefore the painting stays there just as it would of, just as all the other paintings do,” she said.
“I've now received a complaint and I will refer it to the House Committee for consideration.”
The speaker was responding to Country Liberal Party member John Elferink, who previously told parliament that he, himself, had suffered sexual abuse as a youth.
“We have a portrait hanging in a place of honour in this building to acknowledge a man who has been in two jurisdictions identified by various individuals as a paedophile,” he said.
“I wonder what Mr Collins' victims would think if they knew his portrait was still hanging.
“I understand the Territory Government has acknowledged the allegations against Mr Collins by paying victims compensation for the crimes committed against them.
“Mr Collins was charged by police and only escaped trial because he took his own life.
“It's highly inappropriate that his portrait remain on display in Parliament House and it should be immediately removed.”
Bob Collins who was charged with paedophilia offences dating to 1984 in both the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory in 2004 - the very same year he was made a member of the Order of Australia for his services to the Northern Territory and Indigenous Australians.
But before he could answer questions about his conduct during his 30 years as a member of both the Northern Territory and Australian parliaments, he drove his Toyota land cruiser at high speed into a tree in Kakadu National Park and almost killed himself.
Then, just three days before he was to appear before a Darwin magistrate to answer some of the accusations, he was found dead in his bed.
“The cause of death was intentional overdose of prescription drugs with alcohol following upon a background of three years of significant medical difficulties and in the face of upcoming court cases,” Coroner Greg Cavenagh found.
Mr Collins served as a minister in both the Hawke and Keating Australian governments and before that as Opposition Leader in the Northern Territory parliament representing a predominantly Aboriginal constituency.
The Southeast Asian Times

Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew meets with the Sultan of Pahang, Haji Ahmad Shah, during his now ended eight-day visit to peninsular Malaysia

Dr Mahathir lambastes Lee Kuan Yew as a ''little emperor'' Kuala Lumpur, June 17: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has used his website Che Det to describe Singapore as a “new Middle Kingdom” and its founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew as a “little Emperor.” Dr Mahathir charged that Mr Lee had in his “triumphant visit to Malaysia” made it known to “Malaysian supplicants” that Singapore regarded the lands within a 6,000-mile radius as its hinterland. “This includes Beijing and Tokyo and of course Malaysia,” he wrote. “Of course this self-deluding perception places Singapore at the centre of a vast region. It is therefore the latter-day Middle Kingdom. “The rest are peripheral and are there to serve the interests of this somewhat tiny Middle Kingdom.” Dr Mahathir’s webpage is widely read. Mr Lee spent much of his journey attempting to meeting with rising young Islamic political aspirants in Malaysia in an obvious attempt to gauge their likely attitudes to Singapore. Most were obliging but not very fourth coming. The Southeast Asian Times

Russian gathering sets new agenda
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRIC nations meeting Yekaterinburg, eastern Russia, Monday, June 15 to Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Senior Brazilian representatives are scheduled to join the last day of the two-day six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Yekaterinburg, eastern Russia, today for trade discussions among the so-called BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China.
The organisation, an alliance of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan and Uzbekistan, started its meeting yesterday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in attendance.
Representatives of Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia are also attendees as observers but a United States request for similar status was denied.
American economist Michael Hudson argues that the ultimate aim of the meeting is to begin the de-dollorisation of world trade and cites bilateral agreements that China has struck with Argentina and Brazil to denominate their trade in renminbi rather than the dollar, sterling or euros as an example of the process.
Professor Hudson also uses China’s new agreement with Malaysia to denominate trade between the two countries in renminbi as further proof of the tendency.
The neo-liberal Economist magazine concedes that the meeting may discuss long-term plans to find an alternative to the dollar as a global currency and Bloomberg’s insistent reporting yesterday of Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin’s assurance that the dollar was in “good shape,” “further affirming that there’s no substitute for the world’s reserve currency” gives credence to Professor Hudson’s view.
The Southeast Asian Times

Detainee conference
without a venue
From News Reports:
Singapore, June 15: A forum scheduled to discuss the detention of 22 Singaporeans in accordance with the Internal Security Act in 1987 is without a venue after the management of the Bestway Auditorium cancelled the booking, reports the Singapore Democratic Party on its webpage.
It says the auditorium manager, Bestway Properties, wrote to forum organiser Martyn See to apologise to Mr See saying: “Due to the ongoing CID investigation, our company regrets to inform you of the cancellation of the booking of Bestway Auditorium on 20th June 2009.”
The detainees were accused of conspiring to violently overthrow the government so as to establish a Marxist state in Singapore.
Nine of the detainees issued a statement after their release in 1988 saying that they had been subject to beatings and abuse.
They said that they were deprived of sleep for as long as 70 hours in freezing rooms and regularly beaten.
The detainees who issued the statement were rearrested.
The Southeast Asian Times

Perak to
learn from Singapore
From News Reports:
Ipoh, June 14: The Perak government planned to emulate Singapore’s methods of conserving heritage sites, Mentri Besar, or Chief Minister, Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir told reporters after a meeting with Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
“There are many old areas in Singapore that have been well conserved. Similarly
in Perak, particularly Ipoh, there are plenty of heritage buildings,” he said.
But in Kuala Lumpur, former Malaysia Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad announced that he did does not see any reason why the visitor would want to see him.
“I don’t see why he would request to see me, I am a nobody,” he told reporters
Asked about meetings between the meeting Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia’s politicians, Dr Mahathir replied: “Lee Kuan Yew has much experience. Our politicians know nothing. That is why we have to learn from Singapore. Singapore is a great country, they invest so much money,” he said.
The Southeast Asian Times

Bali posts 422 corruption complaints
From News Reports:
Denpasar, June 13: The Corruption Eradication Commission has received
422 reports on possible corruption from the residents of Bali since it was established in 2004.
But its deputy chairman, Chandra M Hamzah, says only 109 reports were supported with sufficient initial evidence to enable the KPK to launch an investigation.
“We will organise educational sessions to teach the public the correct ways to draft and send a report on possible corruption,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The corruption eradication commission has also identified the judiciary as the country’s most corrupt institution and State-owned pawnshops the least corrupt.
The commission announced its finding after a survey between June and September last year.
The Southeast Asian Times

 

Read the letters to The Southeast Asian Times...open here

.MEDIA CHECK AAl Jazeera – a byword for fearless reporting – hhas failed to show a West Papua documentary aas scheduled…Open page here

Penang’s chief minister admonishes developer

Kampung Buah Pala residents want Penang’s Pakatan Rakyat, or People’s Alliance, government to stop their eviction from the island’s last known Tamil village to allow the building of a housing estate to be called, The Oasis. The village sits on 2.6 hectares of prime land in the heart of rapidly-developing eastern George Town

From News Reports:
Penang, July 4: Penang’s newly-elected chief minister Lim Guan Eng has described developer Nusmetro Ventures reported threat to use bulldozers to demolish the houses and evict residents of Penang’s Kampung Buah Pala as an irresponsible and inflammatory act.
“It’s highly improper to stoke fear into the hearts of the villagers by reminding them that they will have to move out by Sunday, August 2 when the one-month grace period given by the developer expires,” he says in a statement issued yesterday.
The State government negotiated the one-month grace with the developer to find a solution to the problem and not by force, the statement says.
“I wish to reiterate that the State government has nothing to do with the eviction, or the Federal Court order and the bringing in of bulldozers to demolish the houses.”
The Pakatan Rakyat, or People’s Alliance, government will not take a single cent of the so-called “goodwill payment” from the developer unless the residents agreed to the compensation, the statement says.
The estimated 300 residents of Penang’s only remaining Tamil village lost a two-year battle to protect it from destruction and their removal when the Federal Court dismissed their application for leave to appeal against a Court of Appeal decision on Wednesday.
The Court of Appeal ruled for the landowner Koperasi Pegawai-Pegawai Kerajaan Negeri Pulau Pinang and developer Nusmetro Ventures in May and the villagers have been ordered to vacate their houses and surrender the property to its rightful owner without compensation.
The villagers have now asked Penang’s Pakatan Rakyat, or People’s Alliance, government which inherited the development decision from its predecessor –a Barisan Nasional affiliate with Dr Koh Tsu Koon as chief minister
“We just want the government to fulfil what it promised us when its politicians came to promote their manifesto (during the general election) last year,” their association’s assistant secretary Tharamaraj told reporters.
“They cannot just wash their hands of this problem and say that it is up to the previous government to explain.
“Our ancestors worked and developed this land during colonial times. The Straits Settlements Statutory Land Grant in 1937 confirms that we are pioneers of this land. How can that be denied?” he asked.
Association chairman Sugumaran said Penang’s chief minister would be asked to use Lim Guan Eng to use Article 76 of the National Land Code to give the villagers the land.
The war had just begun, the chairman said.
The villagers were now thinking of petitioning the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Unesco, to have George Town removed as a World Heritage Site.

Developer stands firm
Nusmetro Ventures executive director Thomas Chan said the villagers would be given no more extensions and no more offers of compensation.
“If they do not vacate their houses by then, they will be in contempt of court and the police have said they will assist us,” The Star newspaper quoted him as saying.
“We have a writ of possession and we are going in,” he told a media conference.
The company was in the midst of working out a “goodwill payment” to the state government, which can choose to deal with the residents if it wished.
Developers were under no obligation to pay a single sen to the villagers, described as squatters.
“We have made offers ranging from ringit 40,000 to ringgit 260,000 to the temporary occupation of land (holders as well as their immediate and extended families,” he said.
But some villagers had demanded payment of ringgit 600,000.
The Southeast Asian Times

Anwar Ibrahim to stand trial in the High Court
From News Reports:
Putrajaya, July 4: Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister and now the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat, or the People's Justice Party’s senior parliamentarian, Anwar Ibrahim, 61, will stand trial for sodomy in Malaysia’s High Court for his sodomy next Wednesday unless he appeals an Appeal Court decision that the high court and not a subordinate court is the place to settle the issue.
Three judges ruled unanimously for the High Court in a judgement delivered during the week.
Justice Abdul Hamid Embong, who delivered the ruling, said there was “absolutely no evidence, not even misgivings, that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would not get a fair trial in the High Court”.
“The assurance given by the former Prime Minister that the Public Prosecutor - Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail - will not take any part in his prosecution is essentially a firm statement that he will get a fair and open trial,” he said.
Justice Abdull Hamid, who sat with Justices Abu Samah Nordin and Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha, handed down the judgment from a 17-page decision.
The grounds for their judgement will be provided later.
Anwar Ibrahim has pleaded not guilty to a charge of carnal intercourse against the order of nature with Mohammad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 24, at a condominium in Kuala Lumpur on June 26 last year.
Free on a personal bond of ringgit 20,000, he faces 20 years in jail and whipping if convicted.
Anwar Ibrahim has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The Southeast Asian Times

Indonesia, Malaysia agree to coordinate naval patrols

Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s defence ministers Dr Ahmad Zaid bin Hamidi, left, and Juwono Sudarsono, right, and have met in Jakarta in an effort to ease tension between the Association-of-Southeast-Asian-Nations neighbours who dispute ownership of the oil-and-gas rich waters of the Sulawesi Sea off the coast of Indonesian’s East Kalimantan Province and the southeast of the Malaysian Sate of Sabah, Borneo Island

From News Reports:
Jakarta, July 3: The defence ministers of Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to have their navies coordinate patrols of the disputed Sulawesi Sea off the coast of Indonesian’s East Kalimantan Province and the southeast of the Malaysian Sate of Sabah, Borneo Island.
The oil-and-gas rich waters are known as Ambalat to Indonesians and Blok ND to Malaysians.
The meetings between the two defence ministers - Juwono Sudarsono, Indonesia, and Dr Ahmad Zaid bin Hamidi Malaysia – were held during the latter’s three-day visit to the Asean neighbour.
“This will help avoid physical contact by patrol boats as they will keep to the border agreed thus preventing a territorial dispute,” Malaysia’s Bernama news agency quoted the country’s defence minister as saying.
Cooperation in patrolling other disputed borders such as Sandakan in Sabah and Tarakan in East Kalimantan were also possible and the Malaysia-Indonesia border joint-technical committee will meet next month to study the proposal.
The minister said the Malaysian Armed Forces and the Indonesian National Army had agreed to complement each other's expertise and resources.
“Such cooperation will prevent Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asean countries from becoming dumping grounds for weapons and defence equipment,” he said.
“We must have smart partnership in marketing defence products.”
“From now on, we need to organize more informal meetings as an alternative to settling things in the future,” Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono told journalists.
“I even strongly suggest that retired generals contact each other and see if they can contribute to settling problems in the future,” he said.
Both Malaysia and Indonesia, which fought an undeclared war over the future of Borneo from 1962 to 1966, have awarded major contracts to international companies for either production or exploration of the disputed waters.
Indonesia awarded Italy's ENI a production sharing contract in 1999.
Malaysia’s State-owned Petronas signed an exploration agreement with Royal Dutch Shell in 2005.
The dispute originated with the publication of a Malaysian map published in 1979 that placed the disputed territory within Malaysian waters.
The Southeast Asian Times

Bintang Kejora flies defiantly, Tempo reports
From News Reports:
Jayapura, July 3: The illegal Bintang Kejora, or Morning Star flag of an independent West Papua was flown in at least four places on Wednesday, July 1, for the anniversary of the founding of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or OPM, 34 years ago, reports Tempo Interactive.
The news portal quotes its own correspondent as saying the Bintang Kejora was flown at a palm oil plantation near Worwoma in Arso, the capital of the Keerom regency that borders Papua New Guinea where an Indonesian military patrol shot and seriously wounded West Papuan Isak Pesakot, 13, late last month.
It was also flown near the Sentani Airport and the Hawai hills in the outskirts of Jayapura, says the correspondent.
West Papua police chief Inspector General Bagus Ekodanto had earlier said that his officers were anticipating the flying of the flag, especially in the regencies of Yapen Waropen, Puncak Jaya, Keerom and Nabire.

Tensions
Use of the Bintang Kejora continues to create tension between the Indonesian government and West Papuans, reports The Jakarta Post.
“It's like a thorn through the flesh,” the newspaper quotes senior parliamentarian Yance Kayame as saying.
“Papuans wants it to become their provincial symbol while the government is against it. This is provoking conflict.”
The Papuan Tribal Council recommended that the flag should be accepted as the provincial symbol in July 2007.
The recommendation won the support of the Papua People's Council and has been included in the special provincial draft law submitted to the Papuan legislative council for endorsement.

More time in jail
In January, judges of West Papua’s High Court increased the jail terms for 11 separatists who flew the Bintang Kejora.
Prominent separatist Jack Wanggai had been sentenced to three-and-a-half years and the 10 others to three years following protests in March 2007.
But their sentences were increased after the prosecutors in Manokwari, where the protests were held, appealed against the leniency of their eight-month sentences.
“The activists were carrying out peaceful demonstrations ... and they brought the Morning Star flag,” said their lawyer Yan Christian Warinussy.
“The court said that if it didn't deal with this case harshly then it will set a bad precedent for all of Papua.”
The defendants planned to appeal to Indonesia's Supreme Court.
In August 2008, Otinus Tabuni, 35, was shot dead in the remote highland city of Wamena when the flag was raised during the celebration of World Indigenous People’s Day.
Indonesian officials admit that police fired several warning shots after flag was raised during the ceremony.
The dead man had helped organise the celebrations.
Wikipedia says the morning star flag represented the territory of West New Guinea from December 1, 1961 until October 1,1962 when the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority administered the territitory.
OPM was founded on December 1, 1965, four years after the Papuans declared their independence from the Netherlands.
The Southeast Asian Times

Swine flu threatens to become entrenched in central and northern Australia’s Aboriginal communities...Dr William Bartlett Day reports ...Open page here

Former West Java government jailed for four years

Former West Java governor Danny Setiawan prepares to appear before Corruption Eradication Commission judges in Jakarta earlier this week. The province’s first non-military governor for 30 years was jailed for four years for his part in procuring deliberately over-priced fire trucks and ambulances for the province about five years ago

From News Reports:
Jakarta, July 2: Corruption Eradication Commission judges have sent former West Java Governor Danny Setiawan to jail for four years for his part in procuring deliberately over-priced fire trucks and ambulances for the province.
Two of his former subordinates, Wahyu Kurnia and Ijudin Budhayana, were also found guilty. Each was also jailed for four years.
The trio were also ordered to pay rupiah 200 million, about US$19,557, each or serve an extra six months in jail.
The Corruption Eradication Commission judges found that Danny Setiawan – first as provincial secretary in 2003 and then as governor in 2004 – had with appliances division director Wahyu Kurnia and programme monitoring division director Ijuddin Budhyana violated Indonesia’s Anti-corruption Law when they approved the direct appointment of suppliers of vehicles for provincial departments.
The trio appointed Istana Sarana Raya, owned by Hengky Samuel Daud, and Setia Jaya Mobilindo, owned by Yusuf Setiawan, to procure fire trucks and ambulances for the province between 2003 and 2004.
They also gave Traktor Nusantara, Setia Utama Mobilindo and Satal Nusantara a piece of the rupiah 140 billion project.
Their unchallenged appointments allowed the companies to mark up prices that earned them massive profits.
Losses to the State have been estimated at rupiah 72 billion.
Prosecutor Ketut Sumedana told the judges: “Danny Setiawan received rupiah 2.75 billion; Wahyu Kurnia rupiah 1.3 billion and Ijuddin Budhyana rupiah 385 million.
“It’s clear that they all collaborated and misused their authority to financially benefit…,” he said.
Defence witness Kokom Qomariah told the trial that a memo from former Home Minister Hari Sabarno encouraged municipal officials to appoint Sarana Istana Raya to supply fire engines worth rupiah 5.9 billion, about $513,000, each.
“The defendant …Danny Setiawan… directed us to use the supplier and vehicle type as mentioned in the memo,” Kokom – director of the purchasing programme -said.
Kokom admitted receiving “gift money” for the purchases.
The Corruption Eradication Commission has not named the former minister as a suspect, although its investigators have questioned him several times.
Former Medan mayor Abdillah is now serving a five-year jail term for similar embezzlement while former Makassar mayor Baso Amiruddin Maula and former Riau governor Saleh Djasit are both serving four-year sentences.
Defendant, Yusuf Setiawan, died in custody late last month.

Resignation
In November, the then governor of Bangkok, Apirak Kosayodhin, 47, resigned after the National Counter Corruption Commission voted unanimously to seek his prosecution in the Supreme Court for alleged dereliction of duty, abuse of authority and corruption.
The governor had just been re-elected with 45 percent of the vote.
The accusations against Apirak Kosayodhin stemmed from alleged irregularities in the about US$20million purchase of 315 fire trucks and 30 fire boats from Austria’s Steyr Daimler Puch.
The National Counter Corruption Commission also wants former Bangkok governor and People Power Party Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and nine other former senior officials, including former commerce minister Watana Muangsook, former interior minister Pokin Polakul and former deputy interior minister Pracha Maleenont, prosecuted.
All are accused of ordering the Krung Thai Bank to issue a letter-of-credit to buy the supposedly overpriced fire engines and boats.
The Southeast Asian Times

Briton accused of allowing Sri Lankan to use his pass
Darwin, July 2: Briton Robert Derek Davies, 63, was remanded in custody until Wednesday, August 12 when he appeared before a magistrate yesterday to be charged with allowing a Sri Lankan to use his boarding pass to enter Australia illegally.
The offence is alleged to have occurred when Mr Davies arrived in Darwin aboard a flight from Singapore on Monday.
He has also been linked to the alleged attempted illegal entry into Australia of two other Sri Lankans who used the boarding passes of other passengers.
Mr Davies has been charged with three offences contrary to section 233 of the Migration Act 1958. 
The maximum penalty for these offences is 10 years jail.
In Perth, District Court Judge Stephen Scott sentenced 11 Indonesians convicted of attempting to smuggle refugees into Australia each to a minimum three years in jail.
The men, aged from 19 to 67, were crewmen aboard vessels intercepted in Australian waters between December 2008 and March this year.
The judge ruled that all money paid to the men be forfeited to the Australian government.
The Southeast Asian Times

People’s tribunal accuses US government of “ecocide”

The International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience in Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange sat in Paris between May 15 to 16 2009 to hear evidence of the impact of the use of Agent Orange by the United States military in Viet Nam from 1961 and 1971

Paris, July 1: An International People’s Tribunal has found the United States Government guilty of what it defines as “ecocide” for its use of defoliants that included deadly Dioxin during its occupation of southern Viet Nam.
It has found the chemical companies that supplied the defoliants guilty of complicity.
The tribunal says the United States Government and the Chemical companies which manufactured and supplied the defoliant must now fully compensate the victims and their families.
The US Government and the Chemical companies must also repair the environment and remove Dioxin contamination from the soil and the waters, and especially from the “hot spots” around former United States military bases.
It says a summons and complaint announcing the Tribunal was sent to the United States Government and the Chemical Companies which made Agent Orange.
Despite notice neither the Government nor the firms responded.
The Southeast Asian Times

The International Peoples' Tribunal of Conscience in Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange wants Agent Orange Commission. ...Open page here

Papua New Guinea, China agree to military exchanges
From News Reports:
Beijing, July 1: Papua New Guinea’s Defence Force Chief Peter Ilau and China’s Defence Minister Liang Guanglie have agreed to further expand military exchanges and cooperation, reports The People’s Daily.
China paid great attention to ties with Papua New Guinea and wanted to promote friendly cooperation based on equality and mutual benefit, the newspaper quotes the defence minister as telling the visiting Papua New Guinea commander.
China also attached great importance to bilateral military cooperation and was ready to take substantial measures to advance military ties to a new height, he said.
The two armed forces had conducted productive training cooperation with senior exchanges during the past 10 years.
The visiting commander assured his host that Papua New Guinea would uphold its one-China policy.
China and Papua New Guinea established diplomatic ties in 1976 and the defence force chief said bilateral military ties had made remarkable progress since exchanges began in 1999.
The defence force chief had what the People’s Daily described as “in-depth talks” with Chinese People's Liberation Army chief of general staff Chen Bingde before meeting with the defence minister.
The Southeast Asian Times

Democratic Party cadre held after reporter assaulted

From News Reports: Jayapura, June 30: Police are reported to have arrested a Democratic Party cadre after he allegedly assaulted a female journalist covering the presidential election campaign. The Antara news agency says the assailant, identified only as RK, allegedly kicked Sinar Harapan daily reporter Odeadata Julia Vanduk at the Swissbell Hotel, Jayapura, during the campaign tour of former Bank Indonesia governor and now the Democratic Party and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s nomination for vice president, Boediono. “We have decided to fire RK,” the news agency quotes a representative of the Papuan chapter of the Democratic Party, Carolus Bolly, as saying after the arrest. Vice President and now presidential candidate Jusuf Kalla in a traditional Papua hat as he campaigns for the Wednesday, July 8 election in Jayapura, West Papua

“The Democratic Party regrets the incident and humbly asks for forgiveness from victim Odeadata, both of her parents, everyone at Sinar Harapan and all journalists in Papua and the country,” he said.
The Democratic Party would not meddle in any charges made against RK.
Kompas.com identified the assailant as Rudolph.
Odeadata was admitted to hospital in Jayapura after she sustained a severe back injury in the attack that left her unconscious.
The Jakarta post says the Yudhoyono-Boediono campaign team spokesman Rizal Malarangeng has apologised to reporters, but the journalists assigned to the tour said they would be boycotting coverage of the tour.
Journalists were later reported to be planning a rally outside the Democratic Party central executive office in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, to protest the attack
They also planned to hold a long march from Jakarta Legal Aid Institute office in Central Jakarta to the party's office.
The Southeast Asian Times

Thaksin Shinawatra supporters easily win by-election
From News Reports:
Bangkok, June 30: Unofficial results give the Puea Thai, or For Thais Party, candidate Surachart Charnpradit an overwhelming victory in Sunday’s House of Representatives by-election in northeastern Si Sa Ket Province.
The Thaksin Shinawatra supporter won 124,327 votes while his rival Sakulthip Angkasakullkiat of the Chart Thai Patina Party – a member the ruling coalition government – won 76,435 votes.
The tally showed 61.80 per cent of 351,688 eligible voters cast their vote.
The seat was previously held by the disqualified Chart Thai Party.
The victory, a week after Puea Thai defeated the candidate of another Prime Minister Atheist Vejjajiva’s coalition partners in Siphon Nacho Province, shows the popularity of the fugitive former prime minister in rural northeastern Thailand has far from dissipated.
The Southeast Asian Times

Tak Bai judges reportedly targeted for assassination
From News Reports:
Bangkok, June 30: Songkhla Provincial Court judges Yingyut Tanor-Rachin and Jutarath Santisevee have been targeted for assassination reports The Bangkok Post.
The newspaper says the Interior Ministry's intelligence office has warned the courts administrators of the plan in a confidential letter.
The judges, who it says have asked for a transfer out of Songkhla, found both the army and police not guilty of misconduct for their part in the notorious “Tak Bai incident” of October 2004 when 85 Malay-Muslims died.
Both had acted according to the law, used sound judgement and done their best given the circumstances, the duo found in their finding delivered on Friday, May 29.
The judges were delivering their verdict after their delayed inquiry into the deaths of 85 young men, 78 of whom died from suffocation after they were stacked one atop the other in the back of military trucks.
Judge Yingyut Tanor-Rachin told a packed courtroom that military and police officers had compelling reasons to transport more than 1,000 detained demonstrators from the protest site near the border with Malaysia to an army camp in Pattani Province several hours from Tak Bai.
The demonstration had been held not far from the Taksin Ratchanivej Palace and the security forces acted in accordance with an emergency law that protected them from civil, criminal or disciplinary liabilities arising from their actions while performing their duty, he said.
On Monday, judges of Thailand’s Criminal Court rejected a petition lodged by relatives of the dead to have the Songkhla Provincial Court's ruling revoked.
The judges ruled the petition should go to the Songkhla Provincial Court.
The Southeast Asian Times

MPs defy Gusmao to pass their own anti-corruption law
Dili, June 30: East Timor’s Parliament passed with near unanimity
yesterday – there was a single abstention - its own law for the establishment of an Anti-Corruption Commission.
In doing so, it rejected a draft law that Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao sent to it last October.
Fretilin MP and former Prime Minister Estanislau da Silva told reporters that the new law would provide a good start to combating the official corruption that had become entrenched in the republic during the last two years.
But it was unlikely to become the “silver bullet” many wanted.
The continued vigilance of the people, the media and the opposition was the only way for the evil of corruption to be eradicated from East Timor’s national life, he said.
The new law was the result of multi-party consensus that rejected the government’s flawed and unconstitutional draft law.
It showed that it was not just Fretilin that was worried about the growing corruption in government.
Mr da Silva said the crucial parliamentary vote would by law maximise the effectiveness of the commission and end the prime minister’s sense of impunity and unaccountability.

First task
National Unity Party MP, former finance minister and East Timor's Constitutional Committee chairperson Fernanda Borges told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that one of the anti-corruption commission’s first tasks would be to investigate Xanana Gusmao’s awarding of a $US3.5 million contract to import rice to Prima Foods, a company partly-owned by his daughter Zenilda Gusmao.
Ms Borges described the Prime Minister’s authorisation of the contract as “…highly -unacceptable, highly irregular in any democracy.”
East Timor government spokesperson Agio Pereira has issued a statement saying the Prime Minister had acted within the constitution in approving the contract.
The East Timor magazine, Tempo Semanal, has added to the allegation of corruption against Mr Gusmao with the publication of a contract he signed with Pualaka Petroleo for the supply of fuel to the republic’s public power utility.
The co-signatory to the contract was the company’s executive director and 30 percent shareholder, Americo “Pualaka” Lopes, - the husband of Justice Minister Lucia Lobato.
The Justice Minister also a senior member of the PSD Party a key ally in Mr Gusmao’s almost certainly illegal government.
Mr Gusmao became prime minister via a constitutional coup that the Australian government heavily supported as it has his neo-liberal economic policies.

Legal advice
The legal adviser to dual Australian-East Timorese citizen Angelita Pires, 42, the Timorese-born Australian who faces 23 charges including attempting to kill President Ramos Horta in 2008, Darwin-based lawyer John Tippett, QC, has described the republic’s justice system as a "bloody hopeless" mess, riddled with corruption and incapable of providing anyone with a fair trial.
“The problem is that Australian people are pouring tens of millions into East Timor each year and into the UN effort and the legal system is just hopeless,” he said.
“I think our Government is entitled to say to the East Timorese Government . . . we want some bang for our buck, we want to see an open, accountable legal system that is free of corruption and free of the impediments that it contains.”
The Southeast Asian Times

Vessel caught with 194 refugees onboard

An Australian naval patrol boat escorts a refugee vessel to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, about 2,600 kilometres northwest of the mainland and the A$396 million Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre

From News Reports:
Darwin, June 29: An Australian patrol vessel intercepted a refugee boat with 194 people aboard – most of them adult men - near Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, about 2,600 kilometres northwest of the mainland, yesterday.
It was the 15th suspected “people-smuggler” to have been stopped in northern Australian waters or to have made landfall since January.
Although Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor did not reveal the nationalities of those aboard, most of the asylum seekers intercepted this year have been from Sri Lanka or Afghanistan.
The arrested boat was first detected from a surveillance aircraft on Friday.
The vessel and its occupants were to be escorted to Australia’s Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre on Christmas Island for health, security and identity checks.
Last week, the Australian National Audit Office revealed that the cost of the centre – approved by the former government of John Howard was more than A$100 million over budget because it was approved before the final design plans were drafted.
The 800-bed facility took two years longer than estimated to build and cost $396 million.
The Southeast Asian Times

Red Shirt rally demands pardon and new elections
From News Reports:
Bangkok, June 29: An estimated 30,000 red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship supporters have agreed to seek a King’s Pardon for fugitive, ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a new election for the House of Representatives within a month.
The protesters made their demand at their first major gathering since they forced abandonment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Asean, summit at Pattaya during early April 11 followed by two days of disturbances in Bangkok that left at least two people dead and 123 persons injured amidst a declaration of emergency rule.
The rally in Bangkok’s historic Sanam Luang public square began Saturday and finished early yesterday morning.
But the Thai news agency quoted Puea Thai, of For Thais, Party MP, Jatuporn Prompan, as threatening more rallies unless Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolved the House of Representatives in preparation for an election within one month.
The Bangkok Post quoted that Thaksin Shinawarta-ally as saying the United Front for Democracy’s primary purpose was to rid Thailand of what he called amarthaya-tipatai - a governing system of nobles or bureaucrats.
The Thai news agency reports that Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a bloodless coup on September 19, 2006, told the rally that the government temporarily suspend household debts at baht 500,000 for each family and to restructure small-to-medium-sized enterprises.
The former prime minister, who spoke by telephone, apparently from Dubai for almost one hour, said the government’s plan to borrow baht 800 billion to jump start the national economy would leave business without funding and force them to close.
The Bangkok Post quoted him as telling the rally: “My brothers, don't leave me alone. I would like to come back home, don't leave me alone.”
He also praised the Pheu Thai win in last week’s Sakon Nakhon by-election in north-eastern Thailand. A win for the party’s candidate Surachart Chanpradit in a by-election in north-eastern Si Sa Ket province scheduled for yesterday would help him re-enter Thailand.

Prime Minister’s response
Thaksin Shinawatra’s younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra campaigned for the Pheu Thai candidate.
The Thai news agency quotes Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as saying yesterday that dissolving the House of Representatives was “no problem,” but the political and economic problems facing the country must be addressed first.
The democratic system in the country would deteriorate if there was no guarantee that severe violence would not occur after the election, he said.
“Currently, the opposition, Senate and the government are working on ways to amend the Constitution and problems facing the country.
“They should be allowed to work. I would have no objection if calls are made later for a fresh election,” the prime minister said.

Women teacher shot dead in Narathiwat Province
From News Reports:
Narathiwat, June 29: A teacher was shot dead early yesterday while riding to sell vegetables at a market in the Rangae district, reports the Thai news agency.
The husband of Sunee Kaewkongtham, 38, who was riding another motorcycle behind her found her dead on the road.
The victim’s father and brother were killed by presumed insurgents in 2007.
The news agency says she was admitted to the Thai government’s rehabilitation project for victims of the ongoing violence and became a contract teacher before promoted as a full-time teacher late last year.
Her husband was former director of a school in the Sukhirin district but resigned following the attacks on teachers.
The Southeast Asian Times

Librarians in Australia's Northern Territory Parliamentary-public library are busy censoring photographs of naked Aboriginal tribesmen Dr William Bartlett Day reports...Open page here

Indonesian maid says employer beat her with a cane

Indonesian maid Modesta Rengga Kaka, 26, shows the injuries she says were caused when her employer punched, kicked and beat her with a cane. Police have a woman, 37, in custody while they investigate the allegations

From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, June 28: Indonesian maid Modesta Rengga Kaka, 26, has been admitted to hospital after saying that her employer had punched, kicked and beat her with a cane.
But the Bernama news agency quotes Ampang Jaya district police chief Abdul Jalil Hassan as saying that the young woman was too traumitised to give the police a formal statement. "We need the maid's statement to complete our investigation,” he said.
“The doctor has examined her and taken X-rays, but the victim still can hardly speak,” he said, adding the woman would be at the Indonesian embassy’s shelter for maids after her discharge from hospital.
Modesta Rengga Kaka, who is from Kupang, West Timor, alleges that the employer, who she started working for in November 2007, beat her for unsatisfactory work performance and did not pay her salary.
A sympathetic neighbour helped her escape to hospital last Thursday.
Police have arrested a woman, 37, and confiscated a cane suspected to have been used to beat the maid.
The woman has been remanded for four days while police continue their investigation.
The Star newspaper says the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry will open its doors to the public on Tuesday for a public discussion about the employment of maids in Malaysia.
The newspaper quotes minister Seri Shahrizat Jalil as saying: “Issues that will be discussed include concerns over Malaysia’s diplomatic relations with Indonesia, the impact of foreign labour and culture and violence.”
Indonesia’s Manpower Minister, Erman Suparno, has ordered employment agencies to stop sending its citizens to Malaysia to work as maids.
The prohibition – effective immediately – will remain in place until safeguards are implemented in Malaysia, the minister says in a statement.
The Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies has responded to the prohibition with a request to the federal government that it allow the employment of maids from China.
A favourable decision would help reduce the dependence of the Chinese community on Indonesian maids and minimise incidents of maid abuse owing to problems related to language, culture and religion, the Bernama news agency quotes its president Raja Zulkepley Dahalan as saying.
The Southeast Asian Times

Indonesia stops the export of maids to Malaysia

From News Reports: Jakarta, June 27: Indonesia Manpower Minister Erman Suparno has ordered employment agencies to stop sending its citizens to Malaysia to work as maids. The prohibition – effective immediately – will remain in place until safeguards are implemented in Malaysia, the minister says in a statement. “I spoke of the temporary halt in bilateral talks with the Malaysian Human Resources Minister Dr Subramanian during the International Labour Conference in Geneva on June 12,” the statement says. The safeguards will be embodied in a Memorandum of Understanding to be negotiated with the Malaysian government .It follows a flood of complaints from domestic workers that their employers had abused them. Deputy Minister for Women, Family and Community Development and Wanita Malaysia Chinese Association chairwoman Paduka Chew Mei Fun wants special laws written to protect Indonesian maids.Wanita MCA also opposes importing Chinese women to replace the Indonesian maids

More than 300,000 Indonesian women work as maids in Malaysia with about 3,000 arriving in the Asean country each month, most of them placed through specialised employment agencies.
The Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies has responded to the prohibition with a request to the federal government that it allow the employment of maids from China.
A favourable decision would help reduce the dependence of the Chinese community on Indonesian maids and minimise incidents of maid abuse owing to problems related to language, culture and religion, the Bernama news agency quotes its president Raja Zulkepley Dahalan as saying.
In Ipoh, 25 women from China have been found hiding in secret rooms to evade detection during a raid on a karaoke bar.
The Southeast Asian Times

Criminal libel charge against mother-of-two dismissed

From News Reports: Jakarta, June 26: Tangerang district court judges have dismissed the State prosecutor’s charge that Prita Mulyasari, 32, criminally libeled the Omni International Hospital, Tangerang. The prosecutors accused the bank- worker mother-of two of having breached the Information Technology law when she distributed her complaints about the hospital’s poor service and the inability of its physicians to diagnose her dengue fever via email and posted them on the internet. The maximum sentence for the offence is six years jail and a fine of rupiah 1 billion about US$ 100,000. But presiding judge Karel Tuppu said the law was ineffective until the Indonesian government issued the regulations necessary to its administration. “Taking into account the fact that this law is not yet effective, the court hereby declares the charges inapplicable, he said, when delivering judgement yesterday. The young accused burst into tears Prita Mulyasari, 32, acknowledges reporters in the Tangerang District Court yesterday. The judges dismissed the State prosecutor’s charge that she had criminally libeled the Omni International Hospital when she sent her complaints to friends via the email and posted them on the internet

and observers in the packed courtroom burst into applause when the decision was announced.
The young woman’s lawyer, Syamsu Anwar, later told reporters that legal action against the hospital's physicians was now possible.
“We may sue them for giving false testimony [during the civil lawsuit trial],” he said.
The prosecutors said they would review the decision to dismiss the charges.
Prita Mulyasari, who was arrested on Wednesday, May 13, was ordered to pay rupiah 50 million, about $4,700, of the rupiah 400 million, about $30,000 compensation demanded by Omni International Hospital and apologise in two print media outlets in September last year.
She had spent three weeks in custody without charge until a public campaign forced the police and prosecutors to free her and take her before judges to face harsher criminal-law charges.
The Southeast Asian Times

Yellow-shirts allowed to register new Thai political party
From News Reports:
Bangkok, June 26: Thailand's Election Commission has approved registration of the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy as the New Politics Party.
The alliance, formed three-years ago as a pro-royalist movement against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, lodged its application to become a political party with the Election Commission three weeks ago.
“It's a unanimous decision as the submitted documents were considered to fully comply with the law,” Agence France Presse quoted commission spokesperson Ruengroj Chomsueb as saying yesterday afternoon.
New Politics Party secretary general Suriyasai Katasila told a news conference that People's Alliance for Democracy supporters would stand with the party.
“Our five PAD leaders will remain a strong driving force to pursue our goals while we use our political party as a tool in the main arena,” he said.
Three of the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s five coordinators confirmed the plan to form a new political party during the first of a two-day general assembly of its followers at the Thammasat University, Bangkok, to assess its 193 days of demonstrations against the People Power Party-led government late last month.
Media magnate Sondhi Limthongkul, who escaped assassination in April, said he and his four fellow alliance coordinators would oversee enforcement of the party’s rules.
Alliance MPs could not become cabinet members and party executives would have no right to nominate party candidates.
The new party could be expected to win between 30 and 40 seats in the next general election and would support retention of the 2007 military-sponsored constitution, he said.
About 2,000 people attended the assembly.

Red-shirt rally planned
The Thai military had been asked to post 16 companies of reserve troops to help ensure law and order during the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship planned anti-government rally at Sanan Luang, central Bangkok, metropolitan police commander Police Lieutenant-General Worapong Chiewprecha said yesterday.
The soldiers would be used if the situation turned violent and it was felt necessary to seal Government House, The Bangkok Post, quotes him a saying.
The newspaper also quotes Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban as saying intelligence agencies have provided details of an alleged front plot to use violence to topple the government.
The Southeast Asian Times

‘Merauke Five,’ finally arrives home on Horne Island

The 'Merauke Five,' Australians Keith Mortimer, Karen Burke, Hubert Hofer and Vera Scott-Bloxam during their trial for illegally entering Indonesia's West Papua Province

From News Reports:
Jayapura, June 25: Five Australians found guilty of entering Indonesia illegally when they arrived in West Papua aboard their own light aircraft without the necessary flight approval and visas last September for a three-day sight-seeing visit returned to Horn Island, off Cape York, northern Queensland yesterday.
In January, pilot William Scott-Bloxam, 62, was jailed for three years; had his aircraft ordered confiscated and was fined about US$4,463 when Merauke District Court judges found him guilty of violating Indonesia’s aviation and immigration laws.
His wife, Vera, 54, and their companions Karen Burke, 51, Hubert Hofer, 57, and Keith Mortimer, 60, were sentence to two years jail and each fined about $2,229.
In March, the Jayapura High Court overturned their convictions and ordered they leave immediately aboard their V-68 aircraft but the decision was stayed when the Merauke prosecutor appealed the decision.
The high court judges found that air-traffic controllers at Merauke on West Papua’s northern coast had given them permission to land.
They were allowed to fly after the Supreme Court rejected the prosecutor’s appeal their lawyer Efraim Fanghoy told the Antara news agency.

‘Goldfish’
“I feel like a goldfish that has escaped a pool of piranhas,” pilot William Scott-Bloxam told Australian Associated Press after their arrival in the Torres Strait Islands between northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Passenger Hubert Hofer said the group had been unable to arrange a visa before their visit but were under the impression they could easily secure one upon arrival.
“There were lots of factors involved, it was not just one mistake ... the faxes on the island don't work, messages don't get through, people have a different mentality of doing things,”' he said.
“We got information that visas would be available on arrival because Merauke is an intentional airport but nobody realised that West Papua was so sensitive that it was like flying into a military base.”
The Southeast Asian Times

Interception
Darwin, June 25: Forty nine suspected asylum seekers and four crew intercepted aboard a boat six kilometres south-east of Ashmore Reef, northwestern Australia will be transferred to Christmas Island.
The vessel is the 14th to be intercepted carrying suspected asylum seekers to Australia this year.
The Australian National Audit Office reports that the Christmas Island's detention centre cost A$100 million more than its budget because the former Australian government of John Howard approved it before final design plans had been drafted.
The 800-bed offshore cost $396 million and took two years longer to build than initially planned, the audit office says.

Lombok arrests
Mataram, June 25: Twenty-one Afghan migrants who allegedly planned to seek asylum have been arrested on Lombok.
The Afghans apparently had travelled to the eastern Indonesian island from Jakarta and were on their way to Rote, off Kupang, West Timor for disembarkation to northern Australia.
The Southeast Asian Times

Indonesian police abuse widespread, reports Amnesty
Jakarta, June 25: The Indonesian police practice widespread abuse against criminal suspects, the poor and the marginalised with impunity, says Amnesty International in a report titled, Unfinished Business: Police Accountability in Indonesia, published in Jakarta yesterday.
“The report shows how widespread the culture of abuse is among the Indonesian police force,” said Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Deputy Director Donna Guest.
“The police’s primary role is to enforce the law and protect human rights, yet all too often many police officers behave as if they are above the law.”
Although the 84-page report acknowledges the Indonesia government has attempted to regulate police conduct and introduce greater accountability in police codes and practices, it says these changes have failed to eliminate physical abuse and intimidation.
The report says police internal disciplinary mechanisms are unable to deal effectively with complaints about police abuse.
Victims usually do not know where to report abuses and are vulnerable to further abuse if they make a complaint directly to the police.
External police oversight bodies are impotent, it says.
“At a time when the governments of Indonesia and senior police figures have made the commitment to enhance trust between the police and the community, the message is not being translated into practical steps on the ground,” said Donna Guest.
“Too many victims are left without access to real justice and reparations, thus fuelling a climate of mistrust towards the police.”

Interviews
The report is based on Amnesty International interviews with scores of victims of abuse, police, lawyers and representatives of human rights organisations in Indonesia during the past two years.
It finds that drug users, repeat offenders and women, including sex workers, are particularly vulnerable.
Many of those interviewed said police officers attempted to extract bribes from them in return for better treatment or a reduction in sentencing.
Amnesty International’s report wants the Indonesia government to acknowledge publicly that police abuse is widespread and initiate prompt, impartial and effective investigations into every credible complaint.
It says those found responsible must be brought to justice and victims granted reparations.
It also says the government should review the internal system for submitting and processing complaints of police abuse to ensure that investigations into police misconduct are prompt, impartial and independent.
The Southeast Asian Times

Railway workers return to work after two-day strike

Bangkok, June 24: State Railway of Thailand workers returned to the job yesterday evening with 23 trains departing Bangkok’s Hua Lampong station after a two-day strike, reports the Thai News Agency. Regional services were to resume this morning. The resumption of work followed negotiations led by State Railway of Thailand Union chairman Sawit Kaewwan and the network’s governor, Yutthana Thapcharoen, yesterday afternoon. The strike followed the Thai government’s decision of

Wednesday, June 3 to restructure the loss-making system. The union chairman threatened that the strike would end only when the government stayed its decision and began negotiating with worker representatives. Railway workers fear the plan to divide the State-owned enterprise into subsidiaries, including a corporation that would manage a new electric service that is scheduled to open before the end of the year and link the city centre with Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, is the road to privatisation. The Southeast Asian Times

Owner, skipper of ill-fated ferry to face charges

Manila, Philippine Justice Department officials yesterday approved the laying of charges of criminal negligence against the owner and the missing captain of the ferry Princess of the Stars, Florencio Marimon, which sank just 500 metres off Sibuyan Island in the Romblon archipelago, about 300 kilometres south of Manila on June 21 last year. The about 24,000-tonne vessel was reportedly carrying 724 passengers, 109 crew members and 26 supernumeraries when it capsized in the heavy seas generated by Typhoon Fengshen. More than 400 bodies have been recovered and identified with another 316 trapped in the wreckage.The skipper is believed to be among the dead but he will remain a respondent until a death certificate is issued for him Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said the charges stemmed from a criminal complaint that the owner of vessel, Sulpicio Lines Incorporated, ignored storm About 50 relatives of those who died aboard the ferry Princess of the Stars threw white flowers into Manila Bay during a memorial Mass on Monday. A cardboard replica of the ferry was released into the bay, where it slowly sank in the waves

warnings to allow the vessel to sail.
“This is the initial justice that we can give the victims and the families,” she told reporters.
“The families I know are still in anguish, there can be no substitute for any death and this is the most that we can do,” she said.
The other respondent to the complaint, Sulpicio Lines Incorporated deputy president Edgar Go, faces up to six years in jail if found guilty.
Civil action has also been taken against the owner.
The justice department is still studying the evidence against three other ferry officers and the coastguard official who allowed the ship to sail.
Sulpicio Lines Incorporated also owned the Dona Paz, which sank in December 1987 with 4,340 people onboard after colliding with a fuel tanker in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.
Two other ferries that it owned also sank before the MV Princess of the Stars.
The Southeast Asian Times

Indonesian patrol shoots West Papua teenager
From News Reports:
Jayapura, June 24: An Indonesian military patrol has seriously wounded West Papuan Isak Pesakot, 13, as he was returning to Kibai kampong in the Keerom regency, West Papua, after a visit to relatives in Skoscahu, across the border in Papua New Guinea, reports the Antara news agency.
The agency quotes Papua Military Command spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Susilo as saying: “TNI soldiers at the Bewan military post in Keerom were responsible for the shooting.”
The incident was now being investigated, he said.
The news agency’s quoted Isak Pesakot’s father, Anton Psakor, as saying the wounded boy’ and his two brothers, Wens and John Psakor, had fled up trees after dogs had barked at them as they walked through jungle on Monday afternoon.
Suddenly, there were shots and Wens and John Psakor saw their brother, Isak Psakor, fall down to the ground, he said.
They then saw soldiers emerging from the behind the trees and shouted to them: “We are inhabitants of Kibai kampong, why did you shoot our brother?”
The soldiers did not reply, and, instead of helping the youths, ran away.
The boys then covered their brother with leaves and returned to their village for help.
Last week Papua New Guinea officials detained a member of the Jayapura Police who allegedly illegally crossing the border at Wutung Beach, Keerom.
Antara quotes National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, Kontras coordinator Harry Naturboga as telling a news conference in Jayapura that must be taken against the soldiers who did the shooting.
Catholic priest Father John Jonga apologised for initially reporting that the teenager had died.
Instead, he was now in a critical condition in the Jayapura general hospital.
The Southeast Asian Times

Forum asked to discuss ‘deteriorating’ West Papua
Sydney, June 24: The secretary of the Sydney-based Australia West Papua Association, Joe Collins, has written to members of the Pacific Islands Forum asking them to discuss what he says is deteriorating situation in West Papua when they meet in Cairns next year. The people of West Papua are facing increasing intimidation from Indonesian soldiers and police, the letter says.
The letter quotes Amnesty International’s State of the world's human rights report, 2009, as saying that in West Papua: “Local community leaders were intimidated and threatened by the military and police.
“There were reports of torture and other ill- treatment, excessive use of force and extrajudicial executions by security forces.”
Earlier this month, members of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation called for peaceful dialogue with Indonesia as the only viable way to settle the conflict in the Indonesian province.
The members made their call after a five-day coalition-sponsored workshop in Vanimo, the capital of Papua New Guinea’s north-westernmost province, Sandaun.
The workshop followed their summit held in Vanuatu in April 2008.
The coalition again asked the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the Pacific Islands Forum to grant West Papua observer status at their forthcoming meeting.
The statement asks the “international community” to approach the complex issues in West Papua with objectivity and understanding.
The Southeast Asian Times

Aborigines living on the outskirts of one of their country’s resource-rich cities, Darwin, are still hostage to the whim of settler Australians and policies decided without consultation in the national capital about 6,000 kilometers away…Dr William Bartlett Day reports ...Open page here

Participants at an international meeting that revisited the 1965-1966 Indonesian killings have included Indonesian school students who traveled to Singapore to attend...Open page here

 

Academics and journalists will deliver 29 papers at Singapore’s National University dealing with the Indonesian anti-communist mass killings of 1965-66 ... John Loizou reports...Open page here

Princeton historian Brad Simpson explains why the forthcoming conference in Singapore that will revisit the 1965-1966 Indonesian killings is important...Open page here

 

The Balinese have begun to liberate themselves from the anti-Communist slaughter of 1965-66 by openly using the once feared phrase “seda gestok”...Open page here.

Scholars assess Indonesian slaughter: Twenty nine papers that deal with the mass slaughter will be discussed at a unique conference in Singapore later this month. For two of the abstracts and the chance to ask questions of the participants...Open page here

West Papua cannot be ignored says Sydney-based Australia West Papua Association to all members of Australia's House of Representatives and Senate...Open page here

 

What they're saying open page here

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