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GATHERINGS:
An informed guide to happenings throughout the region.
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Posters
against palm oil displayed at Adelaide zoo
From News Reports:
Adelaide, September 3: Visitors to Adelaide Zoo are
greeted with huge posters claiming that oil palm plantations
are killing the orang utan and contributing to global
warming.
The posters – erected by the so-called Palm Oil
Action Group – are plastered on the wall of an
orang utan enclosure at the zoo.
In one poster, the activists allege that there are
only between 45,000 and 60,000 orang utans left in
Borneo and that the primate will be extinct within
20 years “at the present killing rate of 50 orang
utans per week”.
Another poster claims that the orang utans are being
killed by oil palm plantation workers clearing land
with guns, machetes, wooden stacks and fires.
Yet another poster asks for the global community to
apply pressure on governments and private land companies
to put a stop to this “orang utan killings”
and halt the destruction of forests.
In March, Swiss food and beverage company Nestle stopped
buying directly from the Sinar Mas Group following
its own investigation into damage caused to rain forests
and peat fields in Southeast Asia by palm oil plantations.
But Nestle spokesperson Ferhat Soygenis said the company
could not guarantee that palm oil sourced from other
suppliers was sustainable.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Anwar
Ibrahim’s daughter plans newspaper
From News Reports:
Petaling Jaya, September 2: Lembah Pantai MP and daughter
of Anwar Ibrahim, Nurul Izzah Anwar, 30, has submitted
an application to publish a daily newspaper to be
titled, Utusan Rakyat.
The Star newspaper says a letter of intent was sent
to the Home Ministry on Monday.
It asks Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein’s
to help quicken the application process.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Indonesia,
Singapore agree sea boundary
From News Reports:
Jakarta, September 1: The Indonesian and Singapore
governments have signed a charter that fixes the boundary
of the two countries south of Singapore.
Indonesian and Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and
his Singapore counterpart George Yong-Boon Yeo signed
the charter agreement, reports the Antara news agency.
The agreement is the result of eight rounds of negotiations
between the two
countries that began in 2005, it says.
It became effective on Monday.
The sea boundary agreed o is the continuation of the
boundary agreed between Indonesia and Singapore o
on May 25, 1973.
The basis for the agreement is the 1982 Law of the
Sea Convention.
The news service says negotiations of a sea boundary
between Indonesia and East Timor have failed.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Seminar discusses Thailand in time of change
From News Reports:
Phuket, August 31: Thailand’s Economic Advisory
Council has held a seminar at the Phuket City Hotel
entitled, “Reforming the Country at a Time of
Change,”
Former Prime Minister and now advisor the ruling Democratic
Party Chuan Leekpai told participants that the country’s
political crisis stemmed not from flaws in the democratic
system, but from the self-serving actions of some
individuals.
Change was a continual process and not confined to
any particular period; over the years the country's
various crises had had many causes, both internal
and external, the Phuket Gazette quoted him as saying.
The 1997 financial crisis had internal causes but
the difficulties of 2008 and 2009 stemmed from global
factors.
But the democratic system had not caused the conflict,
and it was necessary to define this as a conflict
arising from individuals, not from the system, he
said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Two Chinese to miss collecting Filipino awards
From News Reports:
Manila, August 30: Two of three Chinese winners of
the yearly Ramon Magsaysay Awards have cancelled their
journeys to Manila to receive the awards today, reports
The Philippine Inquirer.
But a third Chinese winner, photojournalist Huo Daishan,
is already in the country and is participating in
the series of lectures and meetings that have been
arranged by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation,
it says.
The two who will not be collecting their awards are
farmer and village elder Fu Qiping, 62, from Zhejiang
province, and a deputy minister in the Environmental
Ministry Pan Yue, 50.
Both were to be given Magsaysay Awards for “their
exemplary vision and zeal as public servants.
Earlier, China’s deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang
“postponed indefinitely” an official three-day
visit to Manila scheduled for this week.
Philippines Foreign Affairs Ministry Ed Malaya said
the postponement was made before the slaying of eight
Hong Kong tourists during a bus siege in Manila last
week.
“The visit was postponed in view of the natural
disasters that have recently beset China which resulted
in many casualties and destruction,” he said.
But China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang
Yu had announced the cancellation of the planned visit
of a senior Philippine delegation that was to have
travelled to Hong Kong and Beijing last Thursday saying
the Philippine government should first complete its
investigation of the hostage deaths.
The eight Hong Kong tourists were slain during a 12-hour
siege aboard a bus at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s
historical Rizal Park.
Autopsies showed five of the eight died from bullet
wounds mostly in the head and neck.
Fifteen of the hostages, including three Filipinos
and two British nationals, were either freed or escaped.
Former policeman, Ronaldo Mendoza, 55, who armed himself
with an M16 United States army rifle, to seize the
bust was reportedly the father of three children and
was due to retire next year.
Named as one of the country’s ten top police
officers in 1986, he was among five Manila policemen
dismissed after they were found to have extorted money
from a hotel chef whom they allegedly forced to take
shabu, the Filipino parlance for a mixture of methamphetamine
and caffeine.
The
Southeast Asian Times
15,000
expected to tally for religious pluralism
From News Reports:
Bekasi, August 29: About 15,000 people are likely
to attend a Huria-Kristen-Batak-Protestan-organised
rally for religious pluralism in the Bekasi stadium
today, reports The Jakarta Post.
The rally has been organised in response to Muslim
attacks against Christians in Greater Jakarta.
Thousands supported a similar rally near National
Monument Park in Central Jakarta earlier this month.
“We urge the government to guarantee the rights
of its citizens to establish houses of worship, regardless
of their religions,” the newspaper quotes Huria-Kristen-Batak-Protestan
minister Palti Panjaitan as saying.
Hundreds of Islam Defender Front supporters attacked
members of the Batak Protestant congregation –
the pastor’s church in Pondok Indah Timur, the
Mustika Jaya district, Bekasi, - earlier this month.
Lawyer for the church Sahara Pangaribuan said the
congregation had been granted a permit from local
residents to conduct their prayer group.”
In June, about 200 Islamists, including members of
the Islam Defender Front; the Bekasi Movement against
Apostates and the Islamic Ummah Forum, attended a
two-day conference in Bekasi to discuss the “Christianisation”
of the city.
In May, a Christian school was attacked by a group
of people after a former student allegedly posted
a picture showing him putting Koran in a toilet on
the school's blog.
Later, the Bekasi municipal administration decided
to tear down a 17-metre Tiga Mojang, or three ladies,
statue in the Kota Harapan Indah residential complex
after Islamists called the newly-erected statue as
obscene and symbolising the Christian Trinity.
In January, more than 100 Christians held their services
in a village hall in the Jejalen sub district after
fellow residents blocked the road to their church,
which is still under construction.
The protesters had demanded they stop holding any
religious activities until they had obtained a building
permit for the church.
The Batak Protestant congregation bought 1,000-square-metres
of land to build its own church in 2007.
Earlier, about 1,000 people attacked a Catholic church
being built in the Harapan Indah residential complex,
Bekasi, leaving a motorcycle, a guard post and at
least two makeshift offices severely damaged.
In the Riau Islands police halted the building of
two churches because the say they will stoke conflicts.
The German Rhenish Missionary Society’s Dr Ludwig
Ingwer Nommensen founded the Batak church in Tarutung,
North Sumatra, in the 1880s. It became the first independent
self-governing Christian organisation of the Dutch
East Indies in 1930 and now has Indonesia’s major
protestant congregation.
Rapid industrial development in Bekasi, located in
the outskirts of Jakarta, has made it a more culturally
and religiously diverse city,
The
Southeast Asian Times
Criminology lecturer spurns Indonesian award
From News Reports:
Bandung, August 28: Padjadjaran University Criminology
lecturer Yesmil Anwar has rejected the Satya Lencana
Karya Satya award for 20 years of service because
of his disappointment at President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono’s response to Malaysia’s arrest
of three Indonesian fisheries officers.
“I'm disappointed by the very weak stance on
the part of the president,” tempointeraktif.com
quotes him as saying.
Yesmil was scheduled to receive the presidential award
for his dedicated work as a civil servant and lecturer
for 26 years on Independence Day, August 17, together
with the 40 other lecturers at the university's Bandung
campus.
“What was done by the Malaysian government was
humiliating, but our president did nothing,”
he said.
“If the problem of demarcation and dignity is
not settled in an elegant way, Indonesia will be considered
as a nation without any sovereignty, he said.
The exchange of seven “Malaysian fish thieves”
for the three officers particularly angered the lecturer.
“Sovereignty is a kind of a fixed price and not
negotiable,” he said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
New stamp honours Hindu temple
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, The Sri Maha Mari Amman temple, Malaysia’s
oldest functioning Hindu temple, has become the first
to be depicted on a postage stamp.
The stamp commemorates the temple’s sixth consecration
ceremony, reports the Bernama news agency.
The ceremony is held once every 12 years.
The agency quotes temple information officer Vivekananda
as saying the ceremony would celebrate the completion
of the temple’s upgrade and energise its worshippers.
“The funds for the upgrading are collected through
donations from the public and from the temple’s
savings account,” he said yesterday.
Founded in 1873, the temple originally stood near
the Kuala Lumpur railway station but was transferred
to Jalan Tun H.S. Lee in 1885.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Vo
Nguyen Giap celebrates his 100th birthday
Ha Noi, August26: Viet Nam’s legendary military
commander Vo Nguyen Giap celebrated his 100th birthday
yesterday.
General Giap, who was born to farmers at An Xa, Quan
Ninh Province on August 25, 1910, is recognised as
a principle architect of the “People’s War”
that defeated first the French colonialists and then
the American imperialists.
French-educated, he worked as a school teacher in
Ha Noi and through his study of military doctrine,
including the Prussian soldier and military theorist,
Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz, and Napoleon,
especially the latter’s use of artillery, became
a military strategist of genius.
The veteran revolutionary was the Viet Nam People’s
Army commander for 30 years and was associated with
the historic defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu
on May 7, 1954.
He was also the commander of the liberation forces
when they captured Saigon, no Ho Chi Minh City, on
April 30, 1957.
The Viet Nam Communist Party and Ho Chi Minh emphasised
the importance of a comprehensive and long-lasting
people’s war of resistance and General Giap is
credited as a major organiser of its success.
It was his idea to build what became the Ho Chi Minh
trial and argued that the greatest tactical error
of his enemies was that their wars were unjust.
A man who lived a simple life –he travelled to
his home village by train and revisited the Dien Bien
Phu battlefield by commercial flight - General Giap
said: “If there was no good and clear-sighted
collective leadership, the people and the heroic army,
we - the commanders – cannot make victories ourselves
no matter how good we are.”
The
Southeast Asian Times
Prime
Minister wants alleged prayers for chief minister
investigated
From News Reports:
Pekan, August 25: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib
Razak wants the Penang Islamic Religious Council and
police to investigate allegations that the name of
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was invoked instead
of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s during Friday
prayers in several mosques in Penang.
“I want a full investigation and for the persons
to be identified,” The Star newspaper quotes
him as saying.
“Any sermon must be approved by the religious
council,” he said after presenting aid and contributions
at the United Malay National Organisation’s headquarters
in Pekan. “Reading a sermon written by the cleric
himself is prohibited.
“This allegation must be investigated and people
found to have violated the rules must be penalised,”
the prime minister said.
The Bernama reports that Home Minister Hishammuddin
Hussein has received three complaints following Friday
prayers.
“There are those who say that the Friday sermon
has been misunderstood ... wrongly reported,”
he said.
“So, we need to know the facts.”
Complains have been lodged
Three worshippers at the Kubang Buaya Mosque have
lodged complaints at the Butterworth police station.
The trio claimed that the name of the king and the
Penang governor had been omitted while those of the
chief minister and his “fellow leaders in the
Penang state government” had been included in
the sermon.
A second complaint was also lodged at the Tasek Gelugor
police station.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Chinese-language talk-show host removed
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, August 24: The host of Chinese-language
radio station 988's morning show, Jamaluddin Ibrahim,
has been taken off the air.
Broadcaster Star RFM director Linda Ngiam, which operates
the station, issued a statement saying the company
received a letter from the government's telecommunications
watchdog “"regarding certain contents aired
over the radio station that it deemed to be offensive.”
Star RFM's statement did not explain the government’s
complaint and representative for the Malaysian government's
Communications and Multimedia Commission declined
to elaborate.
News portal Malaysiakini said Jamaluddin had invited
a guest last Friday to talk about racial discrimination.
The guest reportedly accused government officials
of having manipulated racial issues to undermine multiethnic
harmony.
Malaysiakini reported that at least two other personnel
from the station had also been suspended amid a company
investigation.
Jamaluddin's two-hour morning show was aired on weekdays
and encouraged listeners to call in and discuss issues
facing Chinese Malaysians.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Don’t
pray for corrupt, Indonesians reminded
From
News Reports:
Jakarta, August 23: Nahdlatul Ulama general chairman
Aqil Siroj has reminded Muslims not to pray for the
dead who have found to have been corrupt.
“This is part of the efforts made by the ulemas,
or scholars, to help fight corruption,” the Antara
news agency quotes him as saying.
The decision was the result of a meeting of Nahdlatul
Ulama – one of the world’s major Sunni Muslim
organizations - clerics - in the Pondok Gede hajj
dormitory in Jakarta in 2002.
“This is the result of the discussions and consultations
of the ulemas but this is not binding like a law,”
he said. “We just present it as it is. With regard
to its implementation it is up to the government apparatus.”
The decision sprang from the Prophet Muhammad’s
reluctance to conduct prayers over the body of his
fellow as he still had to pay debts to someone or
owed a right to someone.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Japanese
high school students petition for peace in Geneva
From News Reports:
Geneva, August 22: Six high school students from Nagasaki
presented United Nations Disarmament Conference deputy
director Jarmo Sareva petitions of about 75,000 signatures
of people calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Before presenting the signatures collected in Japan
and other countries, Masanori Aoki, 17, one of the
six high school messengers of peace, said young people
should convey the message that after Hiroshima and
Nagasaki there should never be a third city targeted
with an atomic bomb.
It is the 13th time that Japanese high school messengers
of peace have visited a United Nations office since
1998.
The
Southeast Asian Times
President’s
wife, son feature for Independence Day
From News Reports:
Jakarta, August 21: Books that feature the wife and
eldest son of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have
been distributed to guests at Independence Day celebrations
at the State Palace, Jakarta.
The books Sekarang Kita Makin Percaya Diri or We Are
Increasingly Self-Confident, which is based on an
interview with president’s eldest son, Agus Harimurti
Yudhoyono, and Batikku, Pengabdian Cinta Tak Berkata
or My Batik, A Silent Devotion of Love, that features
his wife, Ani Yudhoyono.
Guests also received Richard Green’s book Words
That Shook the World that has a picture of Yudhoyono
and US President Barack Obama on the cover.
Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told tempointeraktif.com:
“The gifts were to enliven the event.
“As long as the gifts don’t cause any negative
feelings regarding the Independence Day celebration,
I don't think there's anything wrong with it.”
In June, a song president wrote for an environmental
conference in Oslo, Norway, was preformed at the State
Palace for World Environment Day,
Titled “To Oslo” and Sung by Indonesian-born
German Idol Sandi Sandoro its words include:
There far away in a corner of the world
I come with my friends full of hope
All God's servants be united to save nature.
This world of ours
the garden of life, forests and oceans
under the blue sky
come as one all nations of the world.
The Norwegian government announced a US$1 billion
grant to Indonesia as part of the effort to save the
latter’s forests and peat lands during the conference.
The
Southeast Asian Times
New film identifies discriminatory laws against women
From News Reports:
Jakarta, August 20: Indonesia’s Violence against
Women Commission or Komnas Perempuan has shown a documentary
that shows how regional laws discriminate against
women.
“The movie is a visual interpretation of Komnas
Perempuan's monitoring of discriminatory bylaws in
the name of religion, morality and the desire of the
majority,” its Commissioner for Community Participation
Andi Yentriyani explained to The Jakarta Post before
screening.
Titled “Atas Nama” or In the Name Of, the
documentary features testimonies of people who fall
victims to the bylaws, including the family of a woman
who was detained for allegedly practicing prostitution
in Tangerang, Banten; Ahmadiyah Islam followers and
women in Aceh.
The commission says it has identified at least 154
bylaws that discriminate against women.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Ipoh
business warned to
fly the
national flag
From News Reports
Ipoh, August 19: All businesses in the predominantly
Chinese city must fly the State flag on the Sultan
of Perak Azlan Shah’s birthday on April 19 and
the national flag the Jalur Gemilang on Malaysia’s
Independence Day on Tuesday, August 31 if they want
their licences renewed, warns Ipoh Mayor Roshidi Hashim.
“If the businesses don’t fly the flags on
both these days, they will be considered to have violated
the new condition for their licences,” he told
reporters after presenting the Jalur Gemilang to Ipoh
City Council managers.
The decision was part of the council’s effort
to inculcate patriotism in the citizen’s residents,
particularly the business community.
Proprietors should take the initiative to buy their
own Jalur Gemilang and not wait for the national flag
to be distributed free to them.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Life, death
and magic on display in Canberra
Canberra, August 18: The National Gallery of Australia
opened an exhibition titled, Life, Death and Magic:
2000 Years of Southeast Asian Ancestral Art that will
continue until Sunday, October 31.
The exhibition includes valuable displays of Indonesian
ancestral art on loan from the Museum Nasional Indonesia.
“This is not the first time Museum Nasional Indonesia
has worked together with the National Gallery of Australia,”
said Museum Nasional Indonesia director Retno Sulistianingsih.
The National Gallery of Australia is known for its
collection of Southeast Asian textiles and has acquired
new animist sculptures from the region particularly
for this display, the first major exhibition of ancestral
art from Southeast Asia to be held in Australia.
In addition to work from Indonesia, it features work
from the Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Malaysia,
Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam and China.
The
Southeast Asian Times
2,000 police deployed for Indonesia's Independence
Day
From News Reports:
Jakarta, August 17: At least 2,000 extra police will
be deployed for the celebration of Indonesia's Independence
Day, today, at the State Palace, Jakarta.
“This is the number of personnel to be deployed
by the Jakarta Police... it doesn't involve security
officers from other institutions,” Jakarta Police
spokesman Senior Commander Boy Rafli Amar told tempointeraktif.com.
The policeman said all people entering the palace
and its compound would be inspected as protection
against possible “terrorists.”
National Police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri
has warned that “terrorists” have threatened
to disrupt the ceremony for Indonesia's 65th Independence
Day and targeted two hotels and three embassies.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Aquino orders radio stations to play Filipino music
From News Reports:
Manila, August 16: President Benigno Aquino wants
his mother’s executive order 255 that makes it
compulsory for radio stations to play original Filipino
music and songs enforced.
Speaking during the oath-taking ceremonies of Organisasyon
ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit officers and trustees –
the country’s major organisation for professional
singers at the Malacañang Palace, the president
also pledged that his administration would strengthen
the campaign for the protection of intellectual property
rights, particularly the effort against illegal downloading
of music via the internet.
Filipino music and songs contributed 4.25 percent
to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, he said.
The Philippine Inquirer quotes the president as having
suggested the creation of an organisation that would
promote the welfare of singers, artists and other
personnel involved in the domestic music industry.
“For a country that is developing like us that
has so many problems, the arts for man’s sake
really deserve all the support we can have,”
he said.
Earlier the president said that funds from the Philippine
Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes Office as well as the President’s
Social Fund could be used to assist ageing and ailing
Filipino artists.
President Corazon Aquino issued the executive order
which requires radio stations with musical format
programmess to broadcast a minimum of four original
Filipino musical compositions in every hour of air
time.
The directive imposes a fine of peso100, about $2.21,
for each violation and suspension or cancellation
of the radio station’s registration for repeated
violations.
The order was mostly ignored during the presidency’s
Presidents Fidel V; Ramos, Joseph “Erap”
Estrada, and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Johor sultan freezes honours, titles
From News Reports:
Johor Baru, August 14: The newly-installed Sultan
of Johor, Ibrahim Ismail, has the ordered the bestowing
of State honours and titles after it was discovered
they were being sold, reports The Star newspaper.
The newspaper quotes anonymous palace informants as
saying the Sultan had told the Johor Royal Court Council
there would be no investiture ceremony this year as
he had yet to complete a year as ruler.
“Sultan Ibrahim also ordered the Council to stringently
vet all people shortlisted for any state award in
future before they can be considered,” the informant
reportedly said.
“His Majesty wants all nominees for awards to
undergo an interview by the council as well as scrutiny
by the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Ibrahim Ismail was installed as Johor’s 25th
sultan last January.
Johor Baru police have won an order to detain an unidentified
titled Malaysian while they investigate allegations
that he attempted to sell a royal title.
The
Southeast Asian Times
First organs “donated” without
written permission
From News Reports:
Tokyo, August 13: Organs taken from a brain-dead young
man have been transplanted into patients at several
of the city’s hospitals after his family gave
its consent in accordance with the revised organ transplant
law, reports the Kyodo News agency.
The transfers were the first since the first since
the changes became effective on Saturday, July 17,
it says.
The man’s family had agreed to the donation without
his written consent because he had previously voiced
such wishes, says the Japan Organ Transplant Network.
Previously, the organ transplant law, which dates
from 1997, required the written permission of the
prospective “donor.”
The change to the law enables organs to be harvested
with the consent of the family unless the person gave
instructions to the contrary.
The
Southeast Asian Times
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| Jamaah
Ahmadiyah must go, religious minister tells parliament
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Jamaah
Ahmadiyah followers participate in the first day
of evening prayers for Ramadan at their mosque
on Jalan Balikpapan, Central Jakarta. Police have
foiled an effort to torch the building |
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From News Reports:
Jakarta, September 3: The Indonesian government must dissolve
Jamaah Ahmadiyah because it has the potential to become
more troublesome, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma
Ali has reportedly told the House of Representative.
The minister based his demand on a ministerial decree that
says Jamaah Ahmadiyah must not be allowed to spread because
it deviates from Islamic teaching; tempointeraktif.com quotes
the minister as saying.
“If that is what is called freedom of worship then
that freedom has gone too far,” the news portal reported
the minister as saying.
The basic right of other Muslims “is the right that
must be protected when one group says the Prophet Muhammad
is not the last prophet.”
The Jakarta Post says the minister reiterated his earlier
statement that the group had violated a 2008 joint ministerial
decree on Ahmadiyah, which stated that members of the faith
could not propagate their teachings.
The decree said Jamaah Ahmadiyah followers could continue
practice their faith through prayers and visits to mosques.
It is based on a 1965 law on the prevention of blasphemy.
Last month, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono s instructed
Indonesia’s national police to ensure there was no
violence in support of calls to disband Jamaah Ahmadiyah
in the Kuningan regency, West Java.
Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto
said after a meeting with the president that he had been
instructed to ensure that any anarchy, anywhere by anybody
was strictly dealt with.
The instruction followed battles between members of more
than five Muslim organisations from outside the Kuningan
regency and Jemaah Ahmadiyah followers living in Manis Lor
about 40 kilometers south of Cirebon and home to about 3,000
Jamaah Ahmadiyah faithful.
The Islamists, who demand the disbandment Jemaah Ahmadiyah,
forced their way into a compound, destroyed houses and stoned
police.
The Jemaah Ahmadiyah followers fought back with sticks and
at least three people were injured.
Former religious affairs minister Maftuh Basyuni, home minister
Mardiyanto and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji signed
a joint decree which prohibits followers of Jemaah Ahmadiyah
from seeking converts in June, 2008 but stopped short of
banning their religion.
The decree also ordered Indonesia’s estimated 200,000
Ahmadiyah followers to turn to the beliefs of “mainstream
Islam.”
Indonesia’s highest Muslim authority, the Indonesian
Ulema Council, found that the Sufi-orientated Jemaah Ahmadiyya
was defiant and should be banned.
Jemaah Ahmadiyya was founded in what is now Pakistan in
the late 19th century and arrived in Indonesia in the 1920s.
Its opponents argued that it was devised by British colonialists
to divide Muslims.
It was registered with the Justice and Human Rights Affairs
Ministry on March 13, 1953 – just seven years after
Indonesia became independent.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Yudhoyono
attempts to dampen irritation with Malaysia
From News Reports:
Jakarta, September 3: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
has emphasised the historical, cultural, political and economic
links between the peoples of the Malay archipelago in an
effort to dampen his people’s irritation with Malaysia’s
detention of three Indonesian fisheries officers.
The irritation has become so acute that nationalists are
volunteering for war; venerable university lecturers have
refused State awards in protest at the government’s
failure to assert Indonesia’s sovereignty and Malaysians
in Indonesia are in danger of attack.
“We have the responsibility to nurture and continue
this brotherhood,” the president said in a televised
speech delivered from military headquarters in Jakarta
“At least two million of our fellow countrymen works
in Malaysia, about 13,000 Indonesian students are studying
in Malaysia and about 6,000 Malaysian student study in Indonesia,”
he said.
“Malaysian tourists are the third largest coming into
the country, and Malaysia has 285 investment projects in
Indonesia in the last five years worth US$1.2 billion.”
The president also demanded an immediate start to the definition
of sea boundaries with Malaysia.
“I boldly underline that negotiation process which
is to be resumed by both governments would produce a real
achievement,” he said.
“I care about the emotions you feel,” the president
said.
“But we have to avoid violence because it often begets
more violence.
“Indonesia will keep pushing Malaysia to negotiate
borders as border disputes are a major source of tension.”
But the response to the speech among Indonesians has been
mixed.
The rich media conglomerates welcomed it and the Antara
news agency quoted House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki
Alie as saying: “The speech was appropriate. The problem
is his ministers, who are not synergistic, no coordination.
His ministers talk all they like, turning the people against
Yudhoyono.”
But the country’s antagonism to its Asean neighbour
and former British colony with is reputation for mistreating
Indonesian maids and guest workers has its antecedents in
the nationalism of the country’s first president Soekarno
and appeals for diplomacy rather than assertion of sovereignty
is likely to fall on millions of deaf ears.
The detention of the Indonesian fisheries officer followed
the arrest of seven Malaysian fishermen allegedly poaching
off Middle Rocks at the eastern opening to the Singapore
Straits.
Both Singapore and Malaysia claimed the two uninhabited
rocks but the International Court of Justice ruled that
they belonged to Malaysia in 2008.
In February, Malaysia’s Defence Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid
Hamidi announced that the two governments had agreed rules
of engagement at sea.
The rules include patrols in the disputed Ambalat zone in
the Celebes Sea.
Association-of-Southeast-Asian-Nations neighbours Malaysia
and Indonesia, which fought an undeclared war over the future
of Borneo from 1962 to 1966, began sparring over the oil-rich
waters of the Celebes Sea in June 2008.
During the hostilities members of the Betawi Brotherhood
Forum rallied outside the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta to
support Indonesia’s claims to the waters off the coast
of Indonesian’s East Kalimantan Province and the southeast
of the Malaysian Sate of Sabah, Borneo Island.
The brotherhood portrays itself as representative of the
indigenous population of Jakarta – it draws its support
from the urban poor and unemployed and first emerged after
violence between Betawi and Maduranese youths in east Jakarta
in July 2001.
Its members say they are ready to go to war with Malaysia
to defend their country’s rights to the oil-rich waters
of the Celebes Sea.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Indonesians
volunteer for war against Malaysia |
|
 |
| An
Indonesian protester outside the Malaysian embassy,
Jakarta |
|
From
News Reports:
Jakarta, September 2: More than 230 volunteers from the
young to a man, 81, have registered with the so called Ganyang
Malaysia, Crush Malaysia, command in preparation for war
with Indonesia’s Asean neighbour Malaysia, reports
temponteraktif com.
“We answer to the call of duty,” the news portal
quotes command coordinator Sonny P.Sasono saying at the
place of registration, the Proclamation Monument, central
Jakarta.
“Why does the government always looks weak when dealing
with Malaysia?” he asked. Registrations would remain
open until Idul Fitri which is likely to be declared for
next Friday.
The volunteers would undergo military training to prepare
themselves for war, he said.
The Bernama news agency reports that the residence of an
unidentified Malaysian engineer, 60, has been stoned at
an oil palm plantation in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.
Five young men wearing headbands carrying the message “Ganyang
Malaysia” were responsible for the assault as pat of
a "sweeping" hunt for Malaysians, it says.
The news agency quotes the engineer as saying he was almost
hit by a stone when he opened his front door to check the
noise.
The Indonesian police had prevented further violence.
The man, who had sent his wife home to Malaysia, was alone.
The Jakarta Post reports that the House of Representatives
foreign affairs committee has met with senior defence and
other government officials to discuss the continuing dispute.
The newspaper says Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa
told the committee that his office was finalising a diplomatic
note to protest Malaysia’s detention of three Indonesian
fisheries officers.
The arrests followed the arrest of seven Malaysian fishermen
allegedly poaching.
House-of-Representatives-member Yories Raweyai sought an
official protest to Malaysia late last month.
“Malaysia’s actions show a lack of respect for
Indonesia,” he said..
The Malaysian government deported the three Indonesian Maritime-Affairs-and-Fisheries
Ministry officers following their arrest about six days
earlier.
Seven Malaysian fishermen the Indonesians had detained in
apparent retaliation were also freed.
The Indonesian fisheries officers reportedly abducted the
seven fishermen off Middle Rocks at the eastern opening
to the Singapore Straits.
Both Singapore and Malaysia claimed the two uninhabited
rocks but the International Court of Justice ruled that
they belonged to Malaysia in 2008.
The detained Indonesian officers were aboard a patrol boat
when they reportedly met with 15 Malaysian fishermen who
allegedly strayed into Indonesian waters.
The Bernama news agency says the fishermen had sailed from
Kota Tinggi.
In February, Malaysia’s Defence Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid
Hamidi announced that the two governments had agreed rules
of engagement at sea.
The rules include patrols in the disputed Ambalat zone in
the Celebes Sea.
Association-of-Southeast-Asian-Nations neighbours Malaysia
and Indonesia, which fought an undeclared war over the future
of Borneo from 1962 to 1966, began sparring over the oil-rich
waters of the Celebes Sea in June 2008.
Both countries have awarded major contracts to international
companies for either production or exploration of the waters
off the coast of Indonesian’s East Kalimantan Province
and the southeast of the Malaysian Sate of Sabah, Borneo
Island.
Indonesia awarded Italy's ENI a production sharing contract
in 1999.
The dispute originated with the publication of a Malaysian
map published in 1979 that placed the disputed territory
within Malaysian waters.
During last year’s hostilities members of the Betawi
Brotherhood Forum rallied outside the Malaysian Embassy
in Jakarta to support Indonesia’s claims to the waters
off the coast of Indonesian’s East Kalimantan Province
and the southeast of the Malaysian Sate of Sabah, Borneo
Island.
The brotherhood portrays itself as representative of the
indigenous population of Jakarta – it draws its support
from the urban poor and unemployed and first emerged after
violence between Betawi and Maduranese youths in east Jakarta
in July 2001.
Its members say they are ready to go to war with Malaysia
to defend their country’s rights to the oil-rich waters
of the Celebes Sea.
The
Southeast Asian Times
$2.4
billion sought in damages for Timor Sea oil spill
From News Reports:
Perth, September 2: The Indonesian government wants US$2.4
billion in compensation from Thai-owned rig operator PTTEP
Australasia for the alleged damage done in the country’s
waters following the spill from the Montara well about 250
kilometres off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia
and 100 kilometres from Timor on Friday, August 21 last
year.
Transport Minister Freddy Numberi, who is overseeing the
claim, has confirmed the figure saying it was presented
during talks at the company’s Australian headquarters
in Perth last week.
“Our calculation includes potential damage to the coral
reef in the affected area,” Dow Jones Newswires quoted
him as saying.
PTTEP executives had responded with a request for detailed
scientific evidence to support the Indonesian claim.
“PTTEP has joined hands with Australian authorities
concerned to closely follow the environmental situation,”
says a company statement.
But the spill was limited to the surrounds of the damaged
Montara well.
“The result of these studies will be released to the
public when completed,” the statement says.
In July, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
reiterated his demand that the Australian subsidiary of
a Thai oil company pay compensation for the damage done
to the Timor-Sea fishery.
“We have to do our duty by demanding settlement of
claims to the company responsible for the oil spill,”
he told a plenary session of his Cabinet.
The Jakarta Post newspaper reported that Australian Foreign
Minister Stephen Smith and Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty
Natalegawa had agreed that their countries would cooperate
to ensure that rig operator was held responsible for the
spill.
The Indonesian foreign minister said the spill damaged 38
percent of his country’s part of the Timor Sea as shallow-water
fish and whales died and seaweed farms were destroyed.
Both the Indonesian and Australian government had communicated
with the Thai government about the spill, he said.
A 1996 Indonesia - Australia signed memorandum of understanding
to deal with oil pollution had been used as the legal basis
for communications during the spill.
In May, West Timor Care Foundation advisor Christine Mason
lodged a complaint with the Australian Commission of Inquiry
into the 74-day spill of oil, gas and condensate on behalf
of eastern Indonesia’s 200,000 fishermen.
The spill followed an explosion aboard the West Atlas rig.
Sixty-nine workers were evacuated almost immediately to
Darwin, about 690 kilometres to the east, when the exploratory
hole “blew” and the subsequent fire that engulfed
prevented the plugging of the leak until Tuesday, November
3.
West Timor Care Foundation chairman Ferdi Tanoni said the
complaint had been lodged with the inquiry because the Indonesian
government was not giving the damage the attention it deserved.
“The foundation has decided to file the charges by
themselves because of the complicated procedure between
the central government, local authorities and the National
Team for Sea Oil Spill Emergency Responses,” he said.
The foundation had also presented the inquiry with a report
about ecological and economic losses suffered by the societies
of West Timor, Rote Ndao, Savu, Sumba, Flores, Lembata and
Alor.
In addition, an Independent Team for the Timor Sea would
be formed from experts in oceanology, international laws,
geology, fisheries, environment and economy to support the
complaint.
Mr Tanoni estimates that the spill fouled about 38.15 percent
of Indonesia’s portion of the Timor Sea.
It would take decades to clean up, he said.
Thousands of fish of many species had been found dead and
the catch of the traditional fishermen had dropped dramatically.
In March Counsel Assisting the Inquiry Tom Howe asserted
that the failure to test a concrete casing was a major cause
of the “blow out.”.
PTTEP Australasia and West Atlas drilling – in a submission
to the inquiry - identified a missing 34 centimetre pressure
cap and concrete that failed to set properly as a major
cause of the spill in now estimated to have totalled 3,500
tonnes.
The management of both PTTEP and the West Atlas drilling
unit, which is owned by Norway's Sea Drill Limited, say
instructions for the cap to be installed were given in March
when work on the exploratory well stopped.
Both managements believed the work had been done.
The slick, first estimated at eight nautical miles long
and about 30 metres wide, was in a part of the Timor Sea
described as a probable super highway linking the Indian
and Pacific Oceans for marine life.
The West Atlas rig was built in Singapore in 2007.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Thousands
of evacuees fall ill after fleeing volcano |
|
 |
| Mount
Sinabung, north Sumatra, erupts after it was dormant
for more than 400 years |
|
From News Reports:
Medan, September 1: More than 2,470 of the about 30,000
evacuees from rumbling Mount Sinabung, north Sumatra, are
reported to have suffered from a variety of illnesses, including
throat inflammation, diarrhea and eye irritation.
“The illnesses are possibly caused by cold temperatures
and thick ashes in villages where the evacuees are temporarily
accommodated,” Karo regency health office director
Diana Elita Ginting told kompas.com.
Two had been admitted to hospital vomiting blood and with
a high fever, she said.
Mount Sinabung, which had been dormant for more than four
centuries, erupted for the second day in succession on Monday,
spewing white clouds of smoke and ash more than 2,000 metres
into the air.
Thousands of people living along the slopes of the mount
have been evacuated to emergency shelters, mosques and churches.
Rumah Berastagi village evacuation coordinator Naksir Purba,
51, said that the quick spread of the illnesses was caused
by the unhealthy e environment where the evacuees lived.
Evacuation centers were mostly dirty as the evacuees left
garbage anywhere, including the gutters, the coordinator
said.
Difficulties to obtain potable water made conditions worse.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Briton,
Thai wife charged with Red Shirt violence
From News Reports:
Bangkok, September 1: Police have charged Briton Keith Bush,
49, and his Thai wife, Alisa, 33, with attempted arson,
illegal assembly and inciting violence at an anti-government
protest on May 19 following the dispersal of the red shirt
rally in Bangkok.
The duo, who are allegedly linked to United Front for Democracy
against Dictatorship, or Red Shirt, violence in Chiang Mai
in May, were arrest at Suvarnabhumi airport.
Keith Bush was returning from the the United Arab Emirates
and his wife had gone to the airport to meet him.
The Chiang Mai provincial court issued warrants for their
arrest after they were allegedly caught by surveillance
cameras trying to set fire to government property.
Last month, a Pathumwan District Court magistrate ordered
the release of Irish-Australian Connor David Purcell, 30,
after the Red Shirt supporter admitted to violating emergency
rule.
The magistrate had sentenced him to 45 days in jail for
his part in the March-to-May protests in Bangkok but took
into account the two months he had already served in remand.
In July, Briton Jeff Savage, 49, was quickly deported from
Thailand after he pleaded guilty before a magistrate of
the Pathumwan Municipal Court, Bangkok, to violating the
state of emergency.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Ruling
Democratic Party easily wins Bangkok election |
|
 |
| Key
People’s-Alliance-for-Democracy, or Yellow
Shirt, coordinator Sondhi Limthongkul surrendered
to police in Bangkok last week to answer charges
that followed the blockades of Bangkok’s
Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports in November,
2008. He and 58 of the alliance’s cadres
were allowed to go free without having to apply
for bail. The alliances political arm, the New
Politics Party, did not win a single seat in Bangkok
municipal elections at the weekend |
|
From News Reports:
Bangkok, August 31: The ruling Democrat Party has won more
seats than both the Puea Thai Party or Thai for Thai Party
and the political arm of the People’s Alliance for
Democracy, the New Politics Party, which failed to win a
single seat, in Sunday’s municipal elections.
But voter turnout was estimated at just 42 percent.
But Democratic Party advisor Ong-art Klampaibul cautioned
people against assuming the results would portend a decisive
victory for the party in a national election.
“This election does not reflect what would happen in
the next general election,” said Mr Ong-art, who also
serves as the Prime Minister’s Office minister.
“Voters in the council elections made their decisions
based on individual candidates, while in general elections,
voters tend to cast ballots for particular parties.”
City clerk and Bangkok Electoral Commission office director
Charoenrat Chutikarn said poor weather and not an ineffective
commission campaign, was to blame for the low turnout.
The Democrats won a by-election for Constituency 6 in Bangkok's
outer eastern suburbs, last month.
Fifty-nine key People's Alliance for Democracy cadres have
surrendered to police to answer charges that followed the
blockades of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang
airports in November, 2008.
Police have summonsed 79 of the alliance’s cadres.
Those to surrender before they were freed without having
to apply for bail included Sondhi Limthongkul.
The media magnate told reporters that he was turning himself
in to answer terrorism and other charges.
“All the PAD leaders find the charges unacceptable
and will fight the charges according to due process of law,”
he said.
Airports of Thailand president Serirat Prasutanond has told
Civil Court judges that alliance’s rally was held on
the landside access point of Suvarnabhumi airport and had
not inflicted any damage on the airport property.
In April, Sondhi Limthongkul was admitted to hospital after
he was wounded in an ambush while enroute to his newspaper
and television office.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Displaced
Semarang residents demand higher compensation
From News Reports:
Semarang, August 31: Dozens of residents of Kalirejo in
the Semarang Regency, Central Java, have blockaded the construction
of a toll road to Surakarta saying the compensation paid
for their land was inadequate.
The Jakarta Post says the residents raised a 15-metre tall
bamboo barrier and built a bamboo hut on the highway to
stop vehicles entering and leaving the construction site.
The newspaper says residents have been in dispute with the
contractor since 2008 and were evicted from their houses
on July 30 last year.
“We will stay in the hut until they deliver decent
compensation,” it quotes protester Budiono, 38, as
saying.
The protestor told the newspaper that before his forced
eviction he had a two-story house on a 125 square metre
plot.
He had asked for rupiah 965 million, about US$107,103, in
compensation from the contractor but had been paid only
rupiah 288 million.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Indonesian
seafarers riot at Darwin detention centre |
|
 |
| Indonesian
seafarers riot at a detention centre in Darwin,
Australia's Northern Territory |
|
From
News Reports:
Darwin, August 30: Indonesian seafarers awaiting trial for
people trafficking have rioted at an immigration detention
centre at the Coonawarra Naval Base, Darwin, apparently
in protest at the time it takes for them to go before an
Australian judge.
Immigration Department spokesperson Sandi Logan said the
protest erupted about 4am when two Indonesians climbed a
tree at the centre and refused to come down.
They were joined by other Indonesians and the situation
escalated about 8am, when the rioters set fire to rubbish
and mattresses they had stacked in the grounds of the centre.
More than a dozen men gathered on the roof of one building
brandished two-metre-long poles, which they used to stop
security guards.
The men also jumped between the roofs of demountable buildings
at the centre, and one man threw a chair from the roof.
The riot continued for more than seven hours.
There are 151 Indonesian detainees at the centre, which
is holding 487 people.
There are 97 Indonesian detainees in the compound where
the violence erupted.
The fire caused a huge plume of black smoke to rise above
Darwin's outskirts.
People trafficking carries a minimum of five years jail
in Australia.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Playboy
editor banned from leaving after judges order him jailed
From News Reports:
Jakarta, August 30: The Immigration office has been formally
asked to ban chief editor of Playboy, Indonesia, Erwin Arnada,
from leaving the country after Supreme Court judges granted
a prosecution appeal and found him guilty of public indecency
and sentenced him to two years jail last Monday.
Kompas.com quotes senior prosecutor Muhammad Yusuf as saying
the travel ban was needed to prevent the editor from fleeing
Indonesia.
“We requested the travel ban to the immigration office
on August 26,” he said.
But the editor, whose office was relocated to Bali following
a series of Islamist protests, had not appeared when prosecutors
went to his house in Jakarta to execute the Supreme Court’s
verdict.
Force would be used if he did not answer a second summons,
the prosecutor said.
The editor has posted a message on his Twitter account saying
he was he was in Jakarta and would not flee.
South Jakarta District Court judges had found the editor
not guilty in 2007.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| China’s
Deputy Prime Minister cancels Manila visit |
|
 |
| China's
Deputy Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, has cancels
a three-day official visit to the Manila this
week |
|
From News Reports:
Manila, August 29: China’s deputy Prime Minister Li
Keqiang is reported to have cancelled an official three-day
visit to Manila scheduled for the first week in September.
But GMA NewsTV quotes Foreign Affairs Ministry Ed Malaya
as saying the postponement was made before the slaying of
eight Hong Kong tourists during a bus siege in Manila last
week.
“The visit was postponed in view of the natural disasters
that have recently beset China which resulted in many casualties
and destruction,” the spokesperson said.
But China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu had
announced the cancellation of the planned visit of a senior
Philippine delegation that was to have travelled to Hong
Kong and Beijing last Thursday saying the Philippine government
should first complete its investigation of the hostage deaths.
The Philippine Inquirers says China’s embassy in Manila
had sent emails to the media objecting to the draping of
a Philippine flag over the coffin of hostage-taker, senior
inspector Rolando Mendoza at his funeral.
The flag has since been removed.
The eight Hong Kong tourists were slain during a 12-hour
siege aboard a bus at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s
historical Rizal Park.
Autopsies performed on five of the eight victims showed
they died from bullet wounds mostly in the head and neck.
But a police spokesman said further investigations were
required to determine if the victims had been shot by the
hostage taker disgraced senior police inspector Ronaldo
Mendoza.
Fifteen of the hostages, including three Filipinos and two
British nationals, were either freed or escaped.
The former policeman, 55, who armed himself with an M16
United States army rifle, to seize the bust was reportedly
the father of three children and was due to retire next
year.
Named as one of the country’s ten top police officers
in 1986, he was among five Manila policemen dismissed after
they were found to have extorted money from a hotel chef
whom they allegedly forced to eat shabu, the Filipino parlance
for a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Indonesian
who murdered Japanese jailed for 20 years
From News Reports:
Denpasar, August 29: Three judges of the Denpasar District
Court have sentenced building worker Mawardi, 31, to 20
years in jail for the rape and murder of Japanese Hiromi
Shimada, 41, last December.
Presiding judge Gusti Bagus Komang Wijaya said the murder
had hurt Bali's image as a tourist destination.
The police arrested Mawardi and fellow building worker,
Abdurrahman, 20, after the woman, who had visited Bali for
10 years, was found dead in her rented Kuta residence at
Jalan Sadasari, 17, Kuta.
Her ankles were bound and she had suffered numerous stab
wounds.
The police chief said a knife and a used condom had been
retrieved and autopsy results suggested the woman, who had
twice married on Bali and arrived for her last visit on
November 30, had been raped.
Bank transfers indicating that the victim regularly received
money from her grandmother in Japan.
These ranged from rupiah15 million, about US$1,500, to rupiah
20 million.
In May, the Denpasar District Court judges sentenced David
Goltar Wicaksono, 26, to 20 years in jail after he was found
guilty of robbing, raping and murdering Japanese tourist
Rika Sano, 33, at Kuta beach on September 25 last year.
Prosecutor Edi Artha Wijaya had sought a life sentence.
The judges were told that the defendant first tried to rape
the victim’s friend, Mayumi Someya, 30, who escaped
to her hotel.
While Someya was reporting the attack to police, the young
man went to the hotel posing as a policeman and lured Ms
Sano to an isolated thicket where he hit her on the head
with a piece of timber and then raped her as she died.
He then returned to her hotel room and stole her property.
The police found the semi-naked body of the young woman
from Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, three days later.
David Goltar Wicaksono was arrested in Malang, East Java,
in October and returned to Denpasar to stand trial.
Many single women are among the Japanese who visit Bali
and who rank second after Australian tourists.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Singapore allows condemned trafficker
extra time |
|
 |
| Malaysians
rally outside the Singapore High Commission, Kuala
Lumpur, in an effort to spare the life of drug
trafficker Yong Vui Kong, 22, who has been sentenced
to death in Singapore |
|
From
News Reports:
Singapore, August 28: The Singapore Prisons Department has
given condemned Malaysian drug trafficker Yong Vui Kong,
22, more time to seek presidential clemency. Malaysia’s
Bernama news agency reports the young’s man’s
lawyer, Ravi, has been told of the extension to a date to
be fixed by letter.
Thursday had been the last day for the young man to petition
for clemency after which he could have been hanged at any
time.
Yong Vui Kong from Sabah was convicted on January 7 last
year for trafficking 47grams of diamorphine and the Singapore
High Court refused him a judicial review of his bid for
clemency.
His lawyer is now appealing the High Court’s ruling
in the Court of Appeal and the extension has been granted
to allow the appeal to be settled.
Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act makes hanging mandatory
for the offence.
Malaysia’s deputy Foreign Minister Kohilan Pillay has
revealed that the country’s foreign ministry has written
to Singapore’s President, Sellapan Ramanathan Nathan,
seeking clemency.
“Yong’s family had also written to the President
of Singapore,” he said.
Yong Vui Kong was arrested on June 13, 2007 and was 18 when
he committed the offence.
The deputy foreign minister said that the government of
Guangzhou, China, had commuted to life in prison the sentence
of death passed upon former Universiti Malaysia Sabah student
from Kelantan Umi Azlim Mohammad Lazim found guilty of trafficking
2.983kg of heroin at Shantao airport.
She had been sentenced to death on May 15, 2007 at the age
of 23.
More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition
organised in Malaysia to save Yong Vui Kong.
The petition’s organisers say the condemned young man
grew up in poverty and had taken on odd jobs at the early
age of 10.
He was now a devote Buddhist.
Malaysia’s Deputy Information, Communication and Culture
Minister, Joseph Salang, has said that the government would
also request clemency for Jabing Kho and Galing Kujat, both
26, who have been sentenced to death in Singapore for the
murder of a Chinese national on February 17, 2008.
They had been robbing the victim.
Malaysia’s National Agency for the Protection and Placement
of Migrant
Workers chairman Mohammad Jumhur Hidayat has announced that
19 Indonesians have been deported after the Appeals Court
ruled against their execution.
“The Indonesian Embassy data reveals there are 177
Indonesian nationals facing capital punishment, 70 of them
sentenced to death,” kompas.com quoted the chairman
as saying.,
“The Malaysian court however has turned down appeals
filed by two Indonesians, Tarmizi Yakup and Bustaman bin
Buchori,” he said.
“We are helping them seek clemency from the king.”
The
Southeast Asian Times
Young
detainee will breastfeed her baby in hospital
From News Reports:
Manila, August 28: Morong Regional Court Judge Gina F. Cenit-Escoto
has ruled that Morong 43 member Carina Judilyn Oliveros,
26, can be freed from detention to breastfeed her infant
son in the Philippine General Hospital for the next three
months.
The order will have Ms Oliveros pay stay in the hospital
at her own expense and with three police escorts.
Her lawyers had sought six months.
Allowing the new mother to breastfeed her infant would substantially
serve the purpose of her lawyer’s petition to have
her released for humanitarian reasons, the judge said.
The order would also avoid any harm and danger that the
child may suffer during incarceration.
Officers of the police Camp Bagong Diwa, detention centre,
Taguig City, southern Metro Manila, must submit written
reports dealing with the young woman’s status to the
court every other Friday from Friday, September 10. hospital.
Free the 43 Health Workers Alliance spokesperson Carlos
Montemayor said that although the decision not to grant
Ms Oliveros the extra three months was a disappointment,
it was now hoped that another of the Morong 43, Mercy Castro,
would not have to suffer the same ordeal when she gives
birth in October.
“This welcome development is clearly the result of
the unwavering perseverance of the detainees, their families
and supporters of the detainees, their families and supporters
to further the call to free the Morong 43,” he said.
“We continue to challenge President Noynoy Aquino to
prove that he is sincere in upholding justice and democracy
by releasing the Morong 43 and all political prisoners in
the country.”
Twenty-three armed men, who arrived in three vehicles, took
mother and son from the Philippine General Hospital to the
detention centre earlier this month after Judge Cenit-Escoto
originally ruled against her application.
The men, members of the Jail Management and Penology Bureau,
took her handcuffed and in a wheelchair while her mother
was settling the bill.
The Morong 43, now 38 after five supposedly admitted they
were members of the New People’s Army and turned State
witnesses, include 26 women and two physicians who were
arrested 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
in Morong, Rizal Province, on February 6 this year.
The military held them in detention for almost three months
before they were transferred to the Taguig City Jail.
Both Carina Judilyn Oliveros and Mercy Castro are health
workers from Central Luzon.
The
Southeast Asian Times
|
Philippines suspends four SWAT
team members |
|
 |
| China’s
Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao and
an unidentified survivor of the Manila bus siege
at the Ninoy Aquino International airport where
family members of the woman survivor who were
killed during the siege were loaded abaord a chartered
Cathay Pacific aircraft |
|
From
News Reports:
Manila, August 27: Four police officers have been suspended
after eight Hong Kong tourists were slain during a 12-hour
siege aboard a bus at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s
historical Rizal Park.
National police spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero
Cruz told reporters in Manila that the suspended officers
had led the 200-strong Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT)
team in attempting to storm the bus.
They had been suspended to ensure they “did not exert
undue influence” in a police investigation into the
affair, he said.
The policeman in charge of the hostage rescue, Chief Superintendent
Rodolfo Magtibay, has been ordered to take leave.
Autopsies performed on five of the eight victims showed
they died from bullet wounds mostly in the head and neck.
But the police spokesman said further investigations were
required to determine if the victims had been shot by the
hostage taker disgraced senior police inspector Ronaldo
Mendoza.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Police
name suspect after Maluku reporter’s slaying
From News Reports:
Ambon, August 27: Police have identified a suspect in the
slaying of Sun TV and RCTI Ambon reporter Ridwan Salamun,
28, in Kota Tua, Maluku.
The villager has been identified only as I.R.
The Jakarta Post quotes national police spokesman Senior
Commander Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said that Maluku as saying
the suspect had been one of 14 witnesses who had been questioned.
Ridwan Salamun, the father of a three-year-old son, was
killed while reporting a fight between youths from the Banda
Ali complex and Mangun hamlet, Fiditan, Tual, about 8.30
a.m. Saturday.
Some of the combatants set upon him with machetes as he
was shooting pictures and he subsequently died of his wounds
on his way to hospital.
The communal battle was reportedly sparked after residents
of Banda Ali warned a youth from Mangun who passed the complex
on a noisy motorbike while they were holding their fasting-month
evening prayers.
Three houses were damaged.
About 100 members of Indonesia’s elite anti-terrorist
squad were deployed to the boundary that divides the two
communities.
The reporter, who celebrated his 28th birthday last Thursday,
was himself a resident of Banda Ali.
He worked for Ambon TV from 2006 to 2008 and when that station
closed, the Jakarta-based TPI as a stringer in 2009 and
to RCTI in 2010.
He was more recently appointed as a contributor to SUN-TV,
which like RCTI and TPI, is a subsidiary of the MNC Group.
He was stationed in Tual and southeast Maluku.
SUN TV news network president director Arief Suditomo told
kompas.com that the dead man had “suffered from hack
wounds on his neck and his back.”
Independent Journalist Alliance, Makasar chapter, Chairperson
Ana Rusli has demanded the police investigate the death.
“The State has failed to provide safety for journalists
who fight for the people and human rights,” said the
chairperson.
Journalists rallied out Maluku police headquarters to demand
an investigation as did about 70 journalists in Denpasar,
Bali.
Earlier this week, journalists of Tangerang’s Journalists
Working Group gathered outside the Tangerang Metro police
headquarters in a show of solidarity for the slain reporters.
They also distributed a written statement which expressed
their concern about the killing and their protest against
use of violence against the press.
“We demand that the police fully investigate the case
and take stern measures against the suspects,” said
their chairman Andre Somanegara.
In Jayapura, journalists have agreed to boycott any news
related to the West Papua police in protest in what they
say is the absence of an investigation of the mysterious
death of a Merauke reporter, Ardiansyah Matrais, 31.
“So long as Ardiansyah's death is still a mystery,
we will never cover news from the Papua police, even when
we are invited to,” said Jayapura Independence Journalists
Association secretary Cunding Levi.
TV reporter Ardiansyah has been found floating dead in the
Gudang Arang River, the Merauke Regency, West Papua, his
hands handcuffed behind his back.
Merauke newspaper Koran Rajawali editor Jojo, as saying
that in journalists in the regency had received text messaged
threatening them with death because of their reporting of
the forthcoming regional election.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Malaysia
to launch indigenous land-rights inquiry
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, August 27: Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission
will hold a public inquiry into indigenous rights, reports
The Star newspaper.
The newspaper quotes Commissioner Jannie Lasimbang as saying
that although non-governmental organisations often received
complaints about land ownership and use settlement was arduous.
These had included objections to the construction of dams
in Sabah and Sarawak that were affecting the lives of the
indigenous people.
“The inquiry would bring about public awareness of
issues and human rights violations,” she said.
The Commissioner told a news conference held after a meeting
with NGOs to discuss economic, social and cultural rights
issues that Sabah had 39 indigenous; Sarawak 35 and peninsula
Malaysia eight.
Commissioner James Nayagam conceded that the reported abuse
of Penan women had spurred the need for the inquiry.
“A lot of things had ‘allegedly happened’
but we need to confirm them,” he said.
“A national inquiry could bring together experts and
the presentation of facts and research, not assumptions.”
“With the findings, individuals can take action against
those responsible for wrongdoings,” he said.
In Miri, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that Native
Customary Rights landowners in Sarawak will soon have their
land surveyed and gazetted to guarantee their ownership.
Ringgit 20million had been approved for the perimeter surveys,
he said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Philippine president acknowledges “inadequacies”
after slaughter |
|
 |
| Hong
Kong national, Amy Ng Yau Woon Leung whose husband
and two daughters were killed, her son shot and
left fighting for his life in a Manila hospital,
is helped from the tourist bus that was held hostage
by disgraced senior inspector Rolando Mendoza.
"No, I'm not blaming the Chinese government
but the Philippine government. I really can't
accept how they could do such a thing," she
told the Hong Kong media |
|
From News Reports:
Manila, August 26: Philippines President Benigno Aquino
acknowledged “inadequacies” in the police response
to a twelve-hour siege aboard a bus at the Quirino Grandstand
in Manila’s historical Rizal Park that left eight Hong
Kong tourists dead.
Fifteen of the hostages, including three Filipinos and two
British nationals, were either freed or escaped during the
siege.
The president had also declared yesterday a day of mourning
in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong to “share
their sorrow,” said his spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
The president also met with China’s ambassador, Liu
Jianchao, and telephoned Hong Kong chief minister Donald
Tsang to brief them about the investigation of the siege
and how it ended.
The need for the “redefinition of limitations”
was among the lessons learned from the shooting, the president
said.
“What were the limitations imposed on the media, I
think none.”
The media’s intensive coverage “provided a wealth
of information” to Mendoza, whom he noted was watching
television on the bus and listening to the radio “throughout
the whole time.”
“And each time he got a new piece of information that
obviously factored into his equations and it didn’t
help our security forces any,” he said.
Philippine Interior Secretary Jessie Robredo echoed the
president’s view of the failed negotiations with disgraced
former senior policeman Rolando Mendoza, 55, that ended
in slaughter.
“Had we been better prepared, better equipped, better
trained, maybe the response would have been quicker despite
the difficulty.
“All the inadequacies happened at the same time.”
Of the 25 people originally on the bus, 13 of the Hong Kong
tourists and four Filipinos survived. Nine of the survivors
had been freed before the shooting began.
Two of the freed hostages were British nationals.
Britain's Foreign Office said Tuesday that two of the hostages
who were released were Survivor Amy Ng mourned the deaths
of her husband Ken Leung, whom she said confronted the disgruntled
policeman and daughters Doris, 21, and Jessie, 14.
Her son, Jason, is still in hospital with serious head wounds.
“I thought I would fight for survival so I could take
care of my children, but two of them have already died,”
she said.
The former policeman, who armed himself with an M16 United
States army rifle, to seize the bust was reportedly the
father of three children and was due to retire next year.
Named as one of the country’s ten top police officers
in 1986, he was among five Manila policemen dismissed after
they were found to have extorted money from a hotel chef
whom they allegedly forced to eat shabu, the Filipino parlance
for a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine.
Hong Kong Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph
Tung said the passengers aboard the Hong Thai travel agency-chartered
bus were aged four to 72 and were scheduled to return to
Hong Kong late Monday night.
Philippine Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said the crisis
would likely damage the industry.
About 140,000 Hong Kong tourists visit the Philippines each
year.
The
Southeast Asian Times
MP
wants Indonesia to lodge protest with Malaysia
From News Reports:
Jakarta, August 26: House-of-Representatives-member Yories
Raweyai wants the Foreign Ministry to issue an official
protest to Malaysia following last week’s arrest of
Fishery Ministry officers off the Riau Islands.
“Malaysia’s actions show a lack of respect for
Indonesia,” he told reporters.
Police in Jakarta have tightened security at the Malaysian
embassy in Kuningan, West Jakarta, following an hour-long
demonstration by members of the nationalist Benteng Demokrasi
Rakyat outside the building in south Jakarta.
The demonstrators had threatened to “sweep” Malaysians
from Jalan Diponegoro, Jakarta, if Indonesian police did
not release their comrades who were arrested at the rally.
In response,
The Bernama news agency reports that Malaysia's Ambassador
to Indonesia, Munshe Afzaruddin Syed Hassan, has complained
to the Indonesian foreign ministry that the protesters damaged
embassy property.
“If they want to stage a demonstration outside the
embassy, by all means, go ahead, because they have every
right to do so, but they must not destroy the embassy's
property,” he said.
The Malaysian government deported the three Indonesian Maritime-Affairs-and-Fisheries
Ministry officers following their arrest about six days
earlier.
Seven Malaysian fishermen the Indonesians had detained in
apparent retaliation were also freed.
The Indonesian fisheries officers reportedly abducted the
seven fishermen off Middle Rocks at the eastern opening
to the Singapore Straits.
Both Singapore and Malaysia claimed the two uninhabited
rocks but the International Court of Justice ruled that
they belonged to Malaysia in 2008.
Talks between foreign ministers Anifah Aman, Malaysia, and
Dr Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia, are credited with having
secured the release of the ten.
The detained Indonesian officers were aboard a patrol boat
when they reportedly met with 15 Malaysian fishermen who
allegedly strayed into Indonesian waters.
The Bernama news agency says the fishermen had left Kota
Tinggi.
In February, Malaysia’s Defence Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid
Hamidi announced that the two governments had agreed rules
of engagement at sea.
The rules include patrols in the disputed Ambalat zone in
the Celebes Sea.
Association-of-Southeast-Asian-Nations neighbours Malaysia
and Indonesia, which fought an undeclared war over the future
of Borneo from 1962 to 1966, began sparring over the oil-rich
waters of the Celebes Sea in June 2008.
Both countries have awarded major contracts to international
companies for either production or exploration of the waters
off the coast of Indonesian’s East Kalimantan Province
and the southeast of the Malaysian Sate of Sabah, Borneo
Island.
Indonesia awarded Italy's ENI a production sharing contract
in 1999.
The dispute originated with the publication of a Malaysian
map published in 1979 that placed the disputed territory
within Malaysian waters.
During last year’s hostilities members of the Betawi
Brotherhood Forum rallied outside the Malaysian Embassy
in Jakarta to support Indonesia’s claims to the waters
off the coast of Indonesian’s East Kalimantan Province
and the southeast of the Malaysian Sate of Sabah, Borneo
Island.
The brotherhood portrays itself as representative of the
indigenous population of Jakarta – it draws its support
from the urban poor and unemployed and first emerged after
violence between Betawi and Maduranese youths in east Jakarta
in July 2001.
Its members say they are ready to go to war with Malaysia
to defend their country’s rights to the oil-rich waters
of the Celebes Sea.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Armed men snatch Morong 43 mother
from hospital |
|
|
From News Reports:
Manila, Twenty armed men, who arrived
in three vehicles, have taken Morong 43
member Carina Judilyn Oliveros, 26, and
her infant son from the Philippine General
Hospital to jail in Bicutan, Taguig City.
The men, members of the Jail Management
and Penology Bureau, took her handcuffed
and in a wheelchair while her mother was
settling the bill.
The news Bulatlat.com reports the young
mother was taken from the hospital after
Judge Gina Cenat Escoto of the Morong
Regional Trial Court rejected to her temporary
release for humanitarian reasons.
“They handcuffed me but they did
not want the public to see it. I told
them,” quoted her as saying ‘Don’t
cover the handcuffs.’
“As I was being brought out of the
room, I shouted repeatedly ‘Free
the 43!’ “The people looked
at us. They have probably seen my picture
at the posters outside the hospital,”
she said.
Ms Oliveros, who is determined to breastfeed
her first child, now has him in the detention
cell she shareswith 22 other women
|
|
 |
|
Armed
guards used a wheelchair and handcuffs
to return Judilyn Oliveros, 26,
and her newborn son to jail from
the Philippine General Hospital
after Judge Gina Cenat Escoto of
the Morong Regional Trial Court
rejected to her temporary release
for humanitarian reasons. Members
of the so-called Morong 43 has now
started fasting in support of their
demand to be freed from detention
where they have been held for seven
months without trial
|
|
|
|
detainees, all members of the Morong 43.
The 43 have since issued a media statement saying they would
begin fasting in support of their demand for release.
The workers, who include 26 women and two physicians, were
arrested as supposed members of the New Peoples Army 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 in Morong, Rizal Province,
on February 6 this year.
The military held them in detention for almost three months
before they were transferred to the Taguig City Jail.
A second detainee Mercy Castro, 27, gave birth to her second
child in October.
Both women are health workers from Central Luzon.
In June, supporters of the Morong 43 gathered outside the
residence of President-elect Benigno Aquino to appeal for
their release.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Eight
tourists confirmed dead in Manila bus siege
From News Reports:
Manila, August 25: Disgraced former senior policeman Rolando
Mendoza, 55, shot eight tourists dead before a sniper’s
bullet felled him to end a twelve-hour siege aboard a bus
at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s historical Rizal
Park.
Another seven tourists were reportedly admitted to hospital
with unspecified wounds.
The former policeman, who had demanded the return of his
benefits and salary, had free nine hostages, including children,
during the day.
The Filipino bus driver escaped from the bus only moments
before police commandos stormed the vehicle.
“I shot two Chinese. I will finish them all if they
do not stop,” Ronaldo Mendoza told a local radio station
as the police assault was about to get under way.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino, who confirmed the death
toll, defended the police assault saying negotiators had
initially believed Mendoza would surrender but the situation
later deteriorated.
The former policeman, who armed himself with an M16 United
States army rifle, to seize the bust was reportedly the
father of three children and was due to retire next year.
Named as one of the country’s ten top police officers
in 1986, he was among five Manila policemen dismissed after
they were found to have extorted money from a hotel chef
whom they allegedly forced to eat shabu, the Filipino parlance
for a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine.
Hong Kong Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph
Tung said the passengers aboard the Hong Thai travel agency-chartered
bus were aged four to 72 and were scheduled to return to
Hong Kong late Monday night.
The Xinhua news agency says China’s foreign minister,
Yang Jiechi, has telephoned his Philippine counterpart Alberto
Romulo to express Beijing's shock and demand a thorough
investigation of the slayings.
The
Southeast Asian Times
| Manila bus
siege ends as police commandos storm aboard |
|
 |
| Police
commandos storm a chartered tourist bus with disgraced
senior inspector Rolando Mendoza and 15 hostages
aboard in heavy rain at Manila's historic Rizal
Park about 9pm last night |
|
From News Reports:
Manila, August 24: Disgraced former senior policeman Rolando
Mendoza, 55, was apparently dead together with an unknown
number of his hostages after commandos stormed a tourist bus
in central Manila about 9pm last night.
The hostage-taker had been among five Manila policemen dismissed
after they were found to have extorted money from a hotel
chef whom they allegedly forced to eat shabu, the Filipino
parlance for a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine.
Armed with an M16 United States army rifle, the former policeman,
reportedly the father of three children and due to retire
next year, took the hostages aboard the bus at the Quirino
Grandstand in historical Rizal Park about 10am yesterday and
demanded the return of his benefits and salary.
He had freed eight of 25 tourists he had taken hostage by
yesterday afternoon but shooting started after his brother,
Gregorio Mendoza, who is also a police officer, complained
to reporters that the police had wanted to implicate him in
the hostage-taking.
Police decided to storm the bus when the Filipino driver escaped
and shouted that everyone on board had been killed.
Six of the estimated 15 hostages, most of them Chinese nationals,
were shown crawling out of the bus after police assault teams
attacked.
Others were carried motionless from the bus, but the police
did not say how many people had been killed or wounded.
A man shown slumped and apparently lifeless by the main door
of the bus was identified as the gunman.
“We have never had anything like this before. We are
very much concerned,” Agence France Presse quoted Hong
Kong Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung
as saying.
“We hope the tour members will be released as soon as
possible.”
Executive director Tung said the passengers aboard the Hong
Thai travel agency-chartered bus were aged four to 72 and
were scheduled to return to Hong Kong late yesterday.
“We have heard nothing like that so far,” he said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Ambon
police hunt killer of young TV reporter
From News Reports:
Ambon, August 24: Police are hunting the men who killed Sun
TV and RCTI Ambon reporter Ridwan Salamun in Kota Tua, Ambon,
reports the Antara news service.
The news agency quotes Maluku regional police commander Brigadier
General Totoy Herawan Indra as saying: "We will investigate
after collecting evidence and finding witnesses, we will go
after the suspects.”
The commander called on all Maluku citizens and especially
the young reporter’s family, who include his widow Nurfi
Saoda Toisuta, and three -year old son, Rizky Zaky, not to
retaliate to the killing.
Antara says Ridwan Salamun was killed while reporting a fight
between youths from the Banda Ali complex and Mangun hamlet,
Fiditan, Tual, about 8.30 am Saturday.
Some of the combatants set upon him with machetes as he was
shooting pictures and he subsequently died of his wounds,
the news agency says.
The communal battle was reportedly sparked after residents
of Banda Ali warned a youth from Mangun who passed the complex
on a noisy motorbike while they were holding their fasting-month
evening prayers.
Three houses were damaged.
About 100 members of Indonesia’s elite anti-terrorist
squad had been deployed to the boundary that divides the two
communities. Ridwan, who celebrated his 28th birthday last
Thursday, was himself a resident of Banda Ali.
He worked for Ambon TV from 2006 to 2008 and when that station
closed, the Jakarta-based TPI as a stringer in 2009 and to
RCTI in 2010.
He was more recently appointed as a contributor to SUN-TV,
which like RCTI and TPI, is a subsidiary of the MNC Group.
He was stationed in Tual and southeast Maluku.
SUN TV news network president director Arief Suditomo told
kompas.com that the dead man had “suffered from hack
wounds on his neck and his back,” and died on his way
to hospital.
Independent Journalist Alliance, Makasar chapter, Chairperson
Ana Rusli has demanded the police investigate the death.
“The State has failed to provide safety for journalists
who fight for the people and human rights,” said the
chairperson.
Journalists rallied out Maluku police headquarters to demand
an investigation as did about 70 journalists in Denpasar,
Bali.
The
Southeast Asian Times
A
cartoon shows a judge sitting in the dock instead
of on the bench.
He was the second judge in six years to have been
found guilty of breach of the Indonesian Corruption
Act
...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
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Oz $ buys
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Updated daily.
Prices indicative only
|
US...0.8998
Brunei...1.2070
Cambodia...3,731.22
China..Yuan 6.0585
East Timor..0.8896
Euro...0.7038
Hong Kong..6.9218
Indonesia Rupiah.8,122.33
Japan..75.6925
Laos...7,348.29
Malaysia Ringgit...2.8208
Myanmar..5.7665
Papua NewGuinea..2.4459
Philippines Peso...40.6090
Singapore dollar...1.2168
Thailand...Baht...28.0412
Viet Nam Dong...17,533.53
Pirate
attack surge in South China sea
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, September 3: Pirate attacks in the South China
Sea shipping lane have surged, says International Maritime
Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre director Noel Choong.
There have been eight attacks off Indonesia's Mangkai Island
in the past two weeks, he says.
“It appears one or more groups of pirates are operating
in the area.
“Pirates are armed with guns and machetes and robbed
vessels of cash and crew valuables.”
“Mangkai Island lies on a busy sea passage running along
the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula. It is a major route
for ships heading between East Asian nations and the Pacific
Ocean.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Another $12 million to clean up Da Nang airport
From News Reports:
Da Nang, September 2: President Barack Obama had approved
another US$12 million to clean Agent Orange from the surrounds
of Da Nang airport, American Samoa’s non-voting delegate
to the House of Representatives, Eni Faleomavaega, announced
during a three-day visit to Viet Nam.
The Viet Nam veteran’s visit was to help the cooperative
effort to mitigate the effects of the defoliant in Viet Nam.
The Obama administration allocated $3 million for the Da Nang
cleanup last year.
The airport was used as a military base during the American
War in Viet Nam and drums of the chemical were abandoned there.
The Southeast Asian Times
Thousands donate to mega church
From News Reports:
Singapore, September 1: Supporters have donated S$21 million
to the mega church New Creation in just 24 hours, reports
The Straits Times.
The newspaper says church founder Joseph Prince announced
the figure during services.
“You people, you are amazing,' he told the packed auditorium.
Twenty-one million in 24 hours. Amazing.”
An estimated 22,000 people attended the service and the mass
collection was the church’s third in three years.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Bank
credit for East Kalimantan up 26 percent
From News Reports:
Samarinda, August 31: The amount of bank credit distributed
in East Kalimantan to June 30was rupiah 28.135 trillion or
an increase of 26.39 percent against the same six months of
last year, reports the Antara news agency.
“The amount of credits by conventional banks in East
Kalimantan was rupiah 28.135 trillion but with all the credits,
including those provided by banks outside East Kalimantan,
the total was rupiah 44.960 trillion,” the news agency
quotes Deputy Bank Indonesia manager, Samarinda, Gentur Wibisono
as saying.
The money was loaned for agriculture, mining, industry, construction,
transport, trade, social and business services.
The
Southeast Asian Times
US
missing at Asean meet
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, August 30: The United States government was not represented
at the 42nd meeting of the Asean Economic Council in Da Nang
last week although ministers from China, Japan and India attended.
Agence France Presse quotes Asean secretary general Surin
Pitsuwan as saying “we are disappointed” the US
could not attend the annual economic discussions but he described
Washington's commitment to the region as “quite strong.”
The
Southeast Asian Times
Executives barred from Singapore casinos
From News Reports:
Singapore, August 29: Second Chance Properties has banned
its senior executives and finance personnel from visiting
Singapore’s two casinos after Far Ocean Sea Products
managing director Henry Quek lost S$26 million at the gaming
tables, reports The Straits Times.
Seven employees will have to apply for exclusion from World
Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands while employed at Second Chance
says the newspaper.
It quotes chief executive Mohamed Salleh Marican as saying
the ban was a matter of corporate governance.
The memory of a manager who stole S$190,000 worth of gold
ten years ago after losing heavily in stocks had reminded
him that it was “better to be safe than sorry.”
Earlier this month, it was reported that an unidentified Singaporean,
50, who lost about US$208,000,000 in a three-day gambling
spree, planned to sue the casino that loaned him the money
to lose.
Legal documents claim the unidentified casino loaned the money
without proper checks in three installments during March and
April.
The documents say the casino had continued with their loans
although the higher-roller had exceeded his credit limit.
In June, the organiser of the first conference held at Marina
Bay Sands Casino, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association 2010,
counter sued the Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s after
its Singapore subsidiary sued the association for US$214,000.
The association had withheld payment for the event saying
the power failed during a speech by the Chief Justice of New
South Wales James Jacob Spigelman and delegates complained
of unfinished rooms.
In its counter-claim, lodged with the High Court, the association
says the Marina Bay Sands Casino made many promises in an
effort to convince it to hold its yearly conference there.
Instead, its reputation was damaged when water leaked into
the rooms of some delegates; there were intermittent power
failures and guests were locked in their rooms.
The plaintiff’s are seeking aggravated damages.
Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was
a keynote speaker at the Inter-Pacific Bar Association conference
held from May 2 to 5 and the law firm he founded, Lee &
Lee, was one of the sponsors.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Wealth
divide an obstacle
for Asean
From News Reports: Da Nang, August 28: The widening gap between
Asean’s rich and poor countries was a major obstacle
to the association’s development, Viet Nam’s Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has told the 42nd meeting of its
Economic Council in Da Nang.
This was especially true in the context of accelerating economic
integration, he said.
Asean wants to establish a single market and manufacturing
base of about 600 million people by 2015..
The discrepancy between Asean’s rich and poor members
“is quite wide” and could undermine efforts to create
the single market, its secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told
reporters.
“A house divided by such a gap is not stable,” he
said.
Asean statistics show that GDP per capita within the ten member
countries ranges from a yearly US$419 in Myanmar to more than
$36,000 in Singapore.
The Southeast Asian Times
Peugeot to make an Asean car
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, August 27: Peugeot is working on a new Asean
Car, to be made in Malaysia for the domestic market and also
for regional export, reports The Star newspaper.
The car is scheduled for launch in 2012, it says.
It says the Asean Car could either be a subcompact or compact
although discussions about the type to be introduced are still
at the preliminary stage.
Peugeot deputy managing director Nicolas Wertans announced
in January that it would make Malaysia the regional production
hub for right-hand drive models.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Displaced
villagers seek compensation
From News Report:
Phuket, August 26: Villagers in Patong whose modest residences
were destroyed by a backhoe last week are seeking baht 10
million in compensation from the development company that
ordered the demolition work, reports the Phuket Gazette.
The newspaper says the compensation request was lodged at
a meeting with Kathu Police Superintendent Arayaphan Pukbuakhao
and Patong Mayor Pian Keesin who has ordered municipal workers
to provide food for the displaced villagers.
The backhoe took less than an hour to do its early-morning
work.
The 10-million-baht compensation averages about baht 145,000
baht for each of the families that had occupied the long-disputed
plot of land.
Most of the residents were immigrant street vendors.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Two
men accused of attempted illegal
timber sale
From News Reports:
Kuala Terengganua, August 25: Two men have been charged with
forging documents for the sale of reserve timber worth ringgit
114million.
Wan Lateff Wan Embong, 54, was charged with forging a document
purportedly “an agreement for the sale of standing trees”
worth ringgit 102 million between Tuanku Mizan and International
Ship Industry on a 5,113 hectare site in the Tembat forest
reserve area in the Hulu Terengganu district.
He was also charged with forging a document purportedly an
agreement between Tuanku Nur Zahirah and International Ship
Industry for the sale of trees worth ringgit 12 million on
a site covering 568 hectares.
The offences were alleged to have committed the offences between
September 30 and October 5 last year.
The other accused, former private college lecturer Tengku
Nikman Tengku Mahmud, 56, from Kajang, Selangor, was charged
with abetment.
Both men pleaded not guilty before Judge Bakri Abdul Majid
who allowed them bail.
The Southeast Asian Times
Former people’s committee chairman jailed
From News Reports:
Ho Chi Minh City, August 24: Former Hoc Mon District People's
Committee chairman Nguyen Van Khoe has been sentenced to 26
years in jail for the acceptance of bribes totalling VND1.4-billion,
about US$71,942, and abuse of power in the approval of two
infrastructure projects.
Ho Chi Minh Supreme Court judges also found Nguyen Van Khoe
guilty of abusing his official capacity to influence others
and appropriate property, reports the flagship publication
of the Viet Nam Youth Union, Thanh Nien.
They found that the former people’s committee chairman
had received bribes from former Thanh Phat company director
Tran Thi Ha and her deputy Ha Van Hoa to approve a housing
estate and an industrial zone in the district’s Dong
Thanh Commune in late 2002 and early 2003, it says.
The former chairman had also asked them for cash and gifts
worth a total of $15,000 and VND780 million, about $40,082,
to bribe other officials to secure the approval, despite Thinh
Phat not having the money to pay them.
Former Dong Thanh People’s Committee chairman Tran Van
Te was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the acceptance
of bribes and abuse of power.
Former Hoc Mon District Planning and Investment overseer Duong
Minh Trung was sent to jail for seven years and Dong Thanh
Commune People’s Committee member, Nguyen Van Do, went
to jail for three years for abuse of power.
Developers, go-betweens and Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development officials were also jailed for up to 20
years.
The
Southeast Asian Times
China to build PNG centre
From News Reports:
Port Moresby, August 23: China’s economic and commercial
office third secretary, Zhao Chunfeng, and National Planning
and Monitoring deputy secretary Jacob Mera have signed an
agreement that will have Chinese companies design and build
an international convention centre in Port Moresby.
Work is expected to begin next January, reports The Nation
newspaper.
“The centre will be built adjacent to the Parliament
House at Waigani,” the newspaper quotes deputy secretary
Mera as saying.
In November last year, Papua New Guinea and China have signed
five agreements intended to enhance social and economic development.
The agreements, concluded at talks between China’s deputy
premier Li Keqiang and senior government ministers led by
deputy prime minister Sir Puka Temu, will have the Export
and Import Bank of China provide the Papua New Guinea Finance
Ministry with preferential loans of up to kina 313 million;
In July last year, Papua New Guinea’s Defence Force Chief
Peter Ilau and China’s Defence Minister Liang Guanglie
agreed to further expand military exchanges and cooperation.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Malaysian Chinese want race quota dropped
From
News Reports
Kuala Lumpur, August 22: The Malaysian Chinese Association-organised
Chinese Economic Congress wants the 30 percent Bumiputera
preference quota gradually removed.
Malays want it maintained.
The congress argues that removal of the preference would promote
good governance and greater transparency.
Malays are now Malaysia’s majority population and their
support is essential to the survival of the Barisan Nasional
government.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Singaporean loser sues casino
From News Reports:
Singapore, August 21: An unidentified Singaporean, 50, who
lost about US$208,000,000 in a three-day gambling spree, plans
to sue the casino that loaned him the money to lose, reports
China Press.
The news service cites legal documents that claim the unidentified
casino loaned the money without proper checks in three installments
during March and April.
The documents say the casino had continued with their loans
although the higher-roller had exceeded his credit limit.
In June, the organiser of the first conference held at Marina
Bay Sands Casino, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association 2010,
counter sued the Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s after
its Singapore subsidiary sued the association for US$214,000.
The association had withheld payment for the event saying
the power failed during a speech by the Chief Justice of New
South Wales James Jacob Spigelman and delegates complained
of unfinished rooms.
In its counter-claim, lodged with the High Court, the association
says the Marina Bay Sands Casino made many promises in an
effort to convince it to hold its yearly conference there.
Instead, its reputation was damaged when water leaked into
the rooms of some delegates; there were intermittent power
failures and guests were locked in their rooms.
The plaintiff’s are seeking aggravated damages.
Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was
a keynote speaker at the Inter-Pacific Bar Association conference
held from May 2 to 5 and the law firm he founded, Lee &
Lee, was one of the sponsors.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Philippines anticipates Guam work bonanza
From News Reports:
Manila, August 20: Labour Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz estimates
that about 1,000 skilled construction workers will be needed
on Guam for the transfer of United States military facilities
from Okinawa, Japan, to its Pacific trust territory.
The Labour Secretary uses a report from Saipan-based Labour
Attaché Carmelina Velasquez to make the estimate.
The attaché says contracts for the construction of
the first major project of the transfer, a naval hospital
worth US$700 million, will be awarded before the end of September.
The Labour Secretary says in a statement that construction
will continue until 2020 with a project requiring about 7,000
to 10,000 workers beginning each year.
A Filipino contractor on Guam has told the Philippine Overseas
Labour Office that easily half of the required manpower can
be sourced from the Philippines, the statement says.
The Labour Secretary says the US military is assessing the
island of Tinian in the Northern Marianas to train groups
of 200 marines or more because of a shortage of suitable land
on Guam.
In February, Annual Pacific Island Local Government conference
executive director Dean Alegado said more than 1,500 Filipino
contractors were expected to bid for contracts in the United
States military’s US$15-billion building programme on
the island.
In July, Guam governor Felix Camacho told reporters in Manila
that Filipino workers could be among the 10,000 to 15,000
needed to build the new military bases.
Skilled workers would be needed to meet job demands that could
not be met by the islanders, he said.
“It is not exclusive but the likelihood is that most
will be from the Philippines,” he told reporters
Chinese workers would not be hired.
The Japan Press Weekly says the Japanese government has agreed
to pay US$6 billion to have United States marines transferred
from Okinawa to Guam.
The agreement will have Japan pay 60 percent of the total
cost for the relocation, including $2.8 billion in cash.
The agreement says conditions of the transfer include Japan's
financial contribution; infrastructure on Guam and replacement
facilities on Okinawa.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Farmers accept MSG maker’s compensation offer
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, August 19: Farmers in Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria
- Vung Tau Province have agreed to drop their legal demands
against Taiwanese MSG maker and polluter, Vedan, provided
it pays them their promised compensation, reports the flagship
publication of the Vietnam National Youth Federation, Thanh
Nien.
The newspaper says Vedan has agreed to compensate farmers
of the Can Gio district in mangrove wetlands 40 kilometres
southeast of Ho Chi Minh a total of VND45.7 billion, about
US$2.39 million for the damage it has done to the Thi Vai
River during the past 14 years.
The newspaper says Can Gio District Farmers Association representative
signed an agreement to postpone litigation if Vedan pays 50
percent of the sums promised within the next week.
The agreement provides for the second tranche to be paid by
January 14, 2011 with the Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd as guarantee.
Farmers in southern Ba Ria -Vung Tau Province signed a similar
agreement [for VND53.6 billion, about US$2.8 million, the
same day, says the newspaper.
Farmers in southern Dong Nai Province - where the pollution
has done the most damage - have yet to respond to the company’s
offer of almost VND120 billion, about $6.29 million.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Singapore’s budget hotels face prosecution
From News Reports:
Singapore, August 18: Dragon-Hotel-Mosque-Street- Chinatown,
licensee Teo Eng Heng, 41, has been charged with two counts
of allowing prostitutes to use a hotel room for their work
on two occasions in February and April this year.
Last week, the general manager of the Hotel 81 - the biggest
budget hotel chain in Singapore with about 30 hotels, Chu
Poh Yong, 41, was accused of allowing prostitutes to operate
at two outlets.
In April, Siah Chen Long, the licensee of the Shing Hotel,
Little India, was charged with allowing non-Singaporean prostitutes
to work from his premises.
Hearings against all three are pending.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Jakarta told not to encourage beggars
From News Reports:
Jakarta, August 17: The Jakarta public order agency has asked
the public not to give money to street beggars and encourage
more into the capital city ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday.
“We expect people in Jakarta who happen to be on streets
to avoid giving money to the beggars,” agency director
Effendi Anas told a news conference.
The public could donate money for the poor through places
of worship; their neighbou rhood unit or charity organizations
but not in the streets, he said.
Jakarta has always undergoes a sharp increase in the number
of beggars during Ramadan, many of them coming from West and
Central Java.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Police seize fake notes in East Java
From News Reports:
Kediri, August 16: Police in Kediri, East Java, have confiscated
counterfeit foreign currencies with a nominal value of rupiah
1 trillion, reports the Antara news agency.
It quotes Adjunct Senior Commissioner Hasudungan Ritonga as
saying four suspects had also been arrested.
“We received a tip from local people about a plan by
a fake-money-dealer gang who were about to make a transaction
with fake foreign currencies,” he said.
“It led us to tail and arrest them.”
The suspects were named as Budi, 50 of the Cianjur district
West Java; Acep Supandi. 50, also of Cianjur; Bambang Supriheriyanto,
45, of Magelang and Rusendi, 47, of Cimahi.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Kelantan launches Syariah currency
From News Reports:
Kota Baru, August 14: The Malaysian state Kelantan has launched
a Syariah currency with the introduction of the gold dinar
and silver dirham to be used as legal tender with bank notes.
Mentri Besar, or chief minister, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said
it was intended to expand the use of the currency for all
transactions, including the paying of civil servants.
The chief minister said 1,000 traders as well Lembaga Tabung
Haji – the major share holder in Bank Islam Malaysia
and Bank Islam Malaysia had agreed to use the gold dinar and
the dirham silver currency in their transactions.
“There is no reason why transactions in syariah currency
cannot be practised in the state as it was widely used thousands
of years before the fall of the Ottoman Empire,” the
Bernama news agency quotes him as saying.
The Kelantan Mentri Besar Incorporated’s subsidiary,
Kelantan Gold Trade, will manage the currency.
All the new coins worth about US$631,328.50 are reported to
have been sold.
Islamic law specifies that the dinar must total 4.25 grams
of gold and the dirham 3.0 grams of pure silver.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Malaysians pay more for garlic
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, August 13: The heavy floods in northwest China
have Malaysians paying almost ringgit 10, about US$3.13, and
more for a kilo of garlic, reports The Star newspaper.
The wholesale price for garlic has risen from between ringgit
33.50 per kilo to ringgit 8.50 per kilo, it says.
The newspaper quotes Malaysia Foodstuff Import and Export
Association president Chuah Poh Khiong as saying the floods,
particularly in garlic growing provinces like Henan and Shandong,
had caused the price rise.
“Malaysia imports 100 percent of its garlic from China,”
he said and accounts about 77 percent of global production.
The shortage had sparked a global bidding war for garlic.
“Importers are paying $3,000 for a tonne of garlic now
compared with $800 tonne last year are getting worried,”
he said.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Tobacco officials accused of accepting bribes
From News Reports:
Bangkok, August 11: The United States Justice Department has
accused Thailand Tobacco Monopoly officials of accepting bribes
of more than US$1.93 million from American companies to ensure
Brazilian-grown tobacco is sold in Thailand.
The accusations was made after came after the Universal Corp
of Richmond, Virginia, and Alliance One International of Morrisville,
North Carolina, agreed to pay almost $30 million to settle
charges that they bribed foreign officials to get lucrative
overseas tobacco sales contracts.
Universal was accused of bribing officials in Thailand, Malawi
and Mozambique, while Alliance One was accused of bribing
officials in Thailand, China, Greece, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Mudflow victims demand money
From News Reports:
Surabaya, August 11: Hundreds of Lapindo mudflow victims have
rallied outside the office of the East Java governor to demand
that the payments for their losses be paid.
“In the previous meeting - on Friday, June 4 - the governor
promised us that he will urge the central government to give
us compensation,” rally coordinator Susatyo told tempointeraktif.com.
“But it's an empty promise.”
Fellow protester Bambang Kuswanto said the mudflow had made
houses unsafe.
The protesters want compensation of rupiah 1.5 million, about
US$160 per square metre for buildings and rupiah 1 million
per square metre for land.
The mudflow had displaced more than 50,000 people have been
displaced at Sidoarjo, about 20 kilometers south of Surabaya,
since May 2006.
The
Southeast Asian Times
Ha Noi luxury villa market tumbles
From News Reports:
Ha Noi, August 10: The Ha Noi market for up market villas
and townhouses was down 20 percent against two months ago,
the Vietnam News Agency quotes retail website www.batdongsan.com.vn
managing director Le Xuan Truong as saying.
The number of investors looking for new property has declined
by 50 percent.
“The market is now in a bad situation,” the director
said.
“It cannot get worse.”
Vinh Gia Construction Investment JSC director Ngo The Vinh
said his company had not completed a single residential agreement
in the last month.
The
Southeast Asian Times
425,000
debtors banned from travelling
From News Reports:
Kuala Lumpur, August 9: Almost 425, 000 Malaysians who have
not paid their tax or education loans or are bankrupt have
been banned from the leaving the country.
They include titled Malaysians and the youngest is just 25.
The
Southeast Asian Times
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