LAKSAMANA.Net, July 18, 2004 11:52 PM
Review - Politics: Megawati Vs SBY
Laksamana.Net - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and incumbent President Megawati
Sukarnoputri will fight it out in the run-off presidential election after jointly winning 60%
of the vote in the first round.
With some 105 million votes from the 153 million eligible voters already in from the
July 5 first round of the nation's first direct presidential polls, Yudhoyono, of the
Democrat Party, had 34% of the total. Megawati, who heads the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had 26%.
Megawati on Tuesday (13/7/04) expressed optimism she would make the September
20 run-off but said she would decide on coalitions only after the final result of the first
round.
Former armed forces chief Wiranto, the candidate for the largest party, Golkar, with
22%, seems certain to be eliminated.
Fourth in the presidential race was Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party and last
was current Vice President Hamzah Haz of the United Development Party.
MPR Speaker Rais said Thursday he was shocked by his defeat. Addressing
housewives on a televised program from his official residence, he said he was
"shocked for two days" and then underwent a phase of self-questioning.
He told his audience he planned to a make brief pilgrimage soon and will decide his
future plans after that.
The National Tabulation Center of the General Elections Commission (KPU) was
officially closed from Thursday, but the final results of the election are not expected to
be made public until July 26.
PPP May Support Megawati
Chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) and the incumbent vice president,
Hamzah Haz, said on Thursday (15/7/04) that his party may support Megawati and
her running mate Hasyim Muzadi in the second round of the presidential election.
Hamzah said that recently he had met with Megawati to discuss the possibility of a
coalition of both parties.
"Yes, of course, if it happens. Let's wait for the announcement of the electoral
commission (KPU)," Haz told reporters before attending a limited cabinet meeting at
the State Palace.
"As chairman of the PPP I was invited by Megawati to seek a possibility of a
coalition," he added.
He said that the PPP would not reject a coalition with the PDI-P, as the two parties
had always had a good relationship.
But PPP leaders at the party's national convention refused to confirm Haz's
statement. They said no decision would be made until July 26.
Megawati Wants Gender Equality
Megawati called Wednesday (14/7/04) for equal opportunities for women. Speaking at
an event commemorating World Population Day on July 11, Megawati said
empowering women meant improving the nation's welfare.
Women should have a greater role in development programs, she said. "We have to
improve women's education, health and skills. But we also have to improve protection
for them," she said.
Penultimate House Session Ends
The House of Representatives closed its two-and-a-half-month-long session on
Thursday (15/7/04) with Speaker Akbar Tanjung delivering his closing speech at a
House plenary session attended by only around 100 of the 500 legislators in the
House.
He said House members were committed to continuing the deliberations of more than
40 unfinished bills in the next sitting period, which will be the legislators' last session
before their term ends.
The House will go into recess from July 17 through August 15 and hold their last
sitting period from August 16 through September. New legislators will be sworn in on
October 1.
Tanjung said 13 bills deliberated in the latest session were among 39 bills endorsed
by the House in the period between August last year and July 2004. Of the 39 bills,
the House members drafted seven.
He said House members had also taken part in the selection of Miranda S. Goeltom
as senior deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, 14 candidates for Supreme Court
justices and 21 candidates for State Audit Agency (BPK) members.
Former E. Timor Governor Jailed
Former East Timor governor Abilio Soares on Saturday (17/7/04) began a three-year
prison term for his role in the 1999 violence in the former Indonesian province,
becoming the first person to be jailed in Indonesia for the bloodshed.
Soares was sentenced to three years in prison by an ad hoc human rights tribunal in
2002 for failing to control his subordinates during an attack on a Liquisa church that
left 22 civilians dead.
He was flown to Jakarta from his home in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, and taken to
Cipinang Prison to begin serving his sentence.
Soares had sent a letter asking prosecutors to postpone the execution of his
sentence while he filed a review of his conviction with the Supreme Court, which had
already dismissed his appeal.
The former governor, who said earlier he would rather be shot dead than sent to
prison, had defied a summons to begin serving the sentence on Friday, claiming he
was seeking a Supreme Court review of his conviction.
"There was no backroom deal. I just found out that the AGO (Attorney General's
Office) rejected my request to delay the execution of my sentence," Soares said
before leaving Kupang.
Soares claims he was a scapegoat for the bloodshed in East Timor when the territory
voted for independence in 1999, saying the former military and police chiefs there
should be held responsible for the violence.
He said that as a civilian governor, and with East Timor under martial law at the time,
he did not control the security forces.
Three Army officers, a former Dili Police chief and a militia member were all
sentenced by the rights tribunal to a year in prison but all five remain free pending
their appeals.
Eleven military members and a civilian were acquitted by the tribunal, which many
observers say failed to deliver justice according to international law.
Malaysia Spat Ahead
Malaysian Home Minister Azmi Khalid announced Monday (12/7/04) that Kuala
Lumpur would round up some 1.2 million illegal workers, mostly Indonesians, and
deport them.
While acknowledging Malaysia's right to crack down on illegal workers, Foreign
Minister Hassan Wirayuda has reminded Malaysia that it must adhere to a bilateral
memorandum of understanding (MOU) on labor recruitment signed by the two
countries in May.
"There are certain arrangements that both governments agreed upon regarding the
deportation of illegal migrants, so we can do it properly," Wirayuda said in Jakarta on
Wednesday (14/7/04).
The Ministry of Manpower estimates that there are 500,000 illegal Indonesian workers
and 580,000 legal workers currently working in Malaysia.
"There are points in the agreement like cost-sharing and gradual deportation, and we
expect it to be conducted within the framework," the minister warned.
The MOU, signed by Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea and
his Malaysian counterpart Fong Chan Oan, Malaysian employers, states that from
August 10, Indonesian workers will only be hired from authorized Indonesian labor
recruitment companies. The recruited workers must have undergone training prior to
recruitment and may then work there up to 10 years.
Jakarta Questions Suspected Terrorist
Agents from Indonesia's intelligence agency BIN are questioning a school teacher
accused of leading the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group in Australia and he may
be extradited to face charges, The Australian newspaper reported.
Abdul Rahim Ayub was tracked down three months ago in Puncak, a town near the
West Java city of Bogor, the newspaper said, citing unidentified security officials.
Though they have questioned Ayub, a dual Australian and Indonesian citizen, he
hasn't been arrested, the paper said.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization and Attorney General Philip
Ruddock have been told of Ayub's whereabouts, the paper said.
Ayub has told BIN he is not a member of JI, the paper said, but he has given agents
information about other men linked to the organization, it said. JI is blamed for the
October 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians, and an
attack in a Jakarta hotel in August 2003 that killed 12 people.
Aussie Police Probe Hijack Threat
Australian Federal police said Thursday (15/7/04) they were still investigating an
alleged threat by a passenger who terrorized passengers on a Bali-bound tourist flight
from Perth.
Official sources say David Mann, 31, from New South Wales, told passengers that he
had explosives, and lunged past flight attendants towards the cockpit of the Garuda
Indonesia flight on June 30.
He yelled he was going to crash the plane and kill everyone and that he was armed
with an automatic weapon. He was downed by another passenger but airline
handcuffs used to restrain him became a weapon when they broke and he used them
to threaten fellow passengers, the sources said.
"We are interviewing witnesses in relation to it to ascertain if Australian laws have
been breached and we are in the process of locating and identifying witnesses and
taking statements," an Australian Federal Police spokesman said.
The man, who was detained briefly by authorities at Bali's Denpasar airport before
being released without charge, is reportedly still in Bali after Garuda refused to allow
him onto a flight to Amsterdam.
Malaysian Gets 3 Years
The South Jakarta District Court on Thursday (15/7/04) sentenced Samsul Bahri bin
Husein, alias Farhan, to three years in prison for his role in the August 5, 2003,
Marriott hotel bombing that killed 12 people and injured 47 others.
The court found the 37-year-old Malaysian guilty of violating Article 13(c) of
Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1/2002 -- as amended by Law No. 15/2003
on terrorism -- for facilitating an act of terrorism.
"The defendant was proven to have assisted in the bombing through his concealing of
information about the group's activities, which eventually lead to the bombing,"
presiding judge Ariansyah B. Dali said in the verdict.
The court also found the defendant guilty of violating Article 266 of the Criminal Code
for asking another party to include false information in state documents, through the
forgery of identification cards using his alias Farhan.
In addition, the defendant, who is a member of the Southeast Asian terrorist network
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was also found guilty of illegally entering and residing in the
country, which is a violation of Article 53 of Law No. 9/1992 on immigration.
The court, however, dismissed charges that the defendant was directly involved in the
plotting and execution of the bombing, citing lack of evidence, even though witnesses
testified that the tech-savvy, Afghanistan-trained defendant had coached the attackers
on how to assemble bombs.
Bahri has been in custody since September last year, which will count toward his
three-year sentence. Prosecutor Ramos Hutapea said he accepted the verdict,
although it was more lenient than the five years he had been seeking.
Bahri is the seventh person sentenced for the Marriott bombing. Earlier this month,
Samhuri was sentenced to three years in prison for attending JI meetings that were
held to plot the attack, while Mohammad Solihin and Heru Setyanto were each
sentenced to seven years in prison for storing and transporting the explosives used in
the bombing.
In June, Malikul Zurkoni was sentenced to three years in prison, also for storing
explosives, while Slamet Widodo and Lutfi Fadilah were each sentenced to three
years in prison for failing to notify authorities of the planned attack.
In May, Muhammad Rais was sentenced to seven years in prison for helping the two
main suspects in the bombing -- Azahari and Noordin M. Top -- to obtain, store and
transport the explosives.
Another suspect, Edi Suprapto, is awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors case have asked
for a 10-year prison term for the defendant.
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