IBRAHIM ISA'S - INDONESIAN NEWS AND VIEWS
Saturday, 30 October 2010
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New alarms after Indonesian volcano erupts again
Slamet Riyadi, The Associated Press, Yogyakarta | Sat, 10/30/2010.
Indonesia's military forced villagers off the slopes of the country's
most volatile volcano Saturday as it unleashed a new powerful explosion
that claimed another victim and temporarily shut down an airport.
Officials warned it would be some time before life returns to normal.
Camouflaged troops stood guard in front of ash-covered homes and local
television showed one woman who refused evacuation orders being pinned
to a stretcher as she screamed and cried in protest.Hundreds of miles
(kilometers) to the west, aid workers were struggling to deliver food
and other supplies to desperate survivors on islands hardest hit by a
tsunami.
The twin catastrophes, striking earlier in the week at different ends of
the seismically active country, together have killed at least 449 people
with hundreds more missing, severely testing the government's emergency
response network.
All but 36 of the deaths were in the tsunami zone, where more than 700
homes were destroyed by a towering wave Monday that left at least 23,000
people homeless, said Suryadi, a Crisis Center official.Government
agencies have been forced to pull back boats and helicopters that had
been ferrying noodles, sardines and sleeping mats to the most distant
corners of the Mentawai islands because of stormy weather and rough seas.
They were hoping for a break in the weather Saturday to airdrop boxes of
aid from planes.
But on a borrowed 75-foot (24-meter) cruiser, a private group of aid
workers - battling sheets of rain and miserable seasickness - succeeded
Friday in reaching some villages that had not received any help since
the tsunami hit.
Dozens of injured survivors languished at an overwhelmed hospital Saturday.
"We need doctors, specialists," nurse Anputra said at the tiny hospital
in Pagai Utara - one of the four main islands in the Mentawai chain
slammed by the tsunami, which was triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
The death toll from the tsunami rose Saturday to 413 as officials found
more bodies, and 163 people were still missing and feared swept out to
sea, said Suryadi, the Crisis Center official.
On the country's main island of Java, meanwhile, the rumbling Mount
Merapi volcano erupted once again early Saturday, said Surono, chief of
the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation.Some
villagers refused to leave their homes along the mountainside's fertile
slopes, saying they wanted to check on their livestock and protect their
homes, and the military was called in to help.
A 35-year-old woman died during a chaotic evacuation, bringing the death
toll since the first big blast Tuesday to 36, the Indonesian Red Cross said.
Saturday's powerful 21-minute eruption briefly forced the closure of the
airport in the nearby city of Yogyakarta, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south
of the volcano.
"We were worried about visibility and thick dust that piled up on the
south of the runway," said Naelendra, an airport official. "But things
are back to normal now."
At least 47,000 people who live around Mount Merapi are staying in
government camps or with friends and relatives, the National Disaster
Management Agency said.
Officials earlier said the volcano's activity appeared to be easing
pressure behind a lava dome that has formed in the crater, but
Subandrio, who heads the nearby volcanology center, warned Saturday the
worst may be yet to come.
Magna forming in the crater appeared to be thickening and high-pressure
gas was building up behind it, he said. -< The Jakarta Post>---
Associated Press writers Achmad Ibrahim and Kristen Gelineau in the
Mentawai islands and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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*Editorial: Indonesian Lawmakers' Travels a Wild Goose Chase *
Jakarta Globe, Oct 26, 2010
It seems there is no dissuading legislators from undertaking expensive
study tours abroad on the taxpayers' dime, despite the barrage of public
criticism that has greeted earlier trips.
And it's not just legislators who feel the need to widen their horizons
through so-called comparative studies.
Even the House of Representatives' Ethics Council, which has no
law-making duties, has sent a delegation to Greece, supposedly to study
parliamentary ethics there --- including to verify whether Greek
lawmakers smoke during hearings.
And now, apparently oblivious to the flak the House has received for
such costly visits, more than 50 lawmakers are scheduled to take
overseas trips this week alone.
Not only are many of these trips tremendously costly, their purpose is
often shrouded in mystery.
Past trips have resulted in nothing more than two-page reports simply
outlining where delegations visited.
Being transparent and accountable to the public appears to be of little
importance for our lawmakers.
In upcoming trips to Britain, Germany, South Korea and Japan, 30
legislators --- and their families, if media reports are to be believed
--- will travel at a total cost of Rp 1.7 billion ($190,000) to conduct
research for the Financial Services Supervisory Authority (OJK), which
is expected to strip Bank Indonesia of many of its powers to monitor
non-banking financial institutions.
Another 25 legislators will then head off for India and China to study
their universal identification systems, border issues and general
elections.
Even if such trips are necessary and useful, the question remains as to
why so many legislators travel with their families.
Many other countries also send lawmakers abroad on study trips, but at
most three to four members travel together, without bringing their
families along.
Such abuse of authority and total disregard for public funds is not only
worrying but utterly unacceptable. There needs to be better transparency
and accountability to the public.
There needs to be greater oversight by the House on how its members
utilize taxpayer money, especially in light of the country's poor public
infrastructure and services.
For example, the government has allocated Rp 100 billion to build four
sports stadiums in Java.
By most accounts, Rp 25 billion is inadequate to build a modern,
well-equipped stadium.
House Speaker Marzuki Alie has defended these expensive trips,
justifying them as required under House regulations and because the
funds have already been allocated.
He did promise to evaluate how the trips proceeded so that in the future
members could prepare more effective trips.
Such evaluations should already be in place, as well as a system to
assure trips are absolutely necessary.
If legislators continue to disregard public opinion they should be voted
out of office. After all, they are ultimately answerable to the voters.
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*Indonesian language at 82: Hindsight and foresight*
Setiono Sugiharto, Jakarta | Sat, 10/30/2010 - The Jakarta Post
The inexorable influx of foreign terminology ubiquitous in many fields
such as entertainment, politics, journalism, economics and education
implies two fundamental things.
First, the anachronistic national language-coining policy, which has
long been established since the first language congress in Solo, Central
Java, is no longer germane to current conditions.
Both print and electronic media exert considerable influence on
exemplifying "models" of language use to the community at large. The
policy stipulates that in coining words for the national language, the
country's local and indigenous languages must be the first resource to
be used. Provided that no lexical items are available in these
languages, borrowing words from foreign languages should become the last
resort.
Second, language users are showing recalcitrant attitudes towards a
proposed language law proscribing the use of foreign terminology the
public sphere. This further implies that the Language Center --- the
purportedly non-governmental agency that proposed the law --- has failed
in an attempt to control people's language use.
Now under the dominion of advanced sciences and technologies, the
influence of language use by the media and public figures such as
politicians, entertainers, advertisers and businessman in disseminating
a so-called de facto language policy cannot be overlooked.
There is fear, however, voiced by conservative language custodians that
these figures often employ a massive amount of loan words, particularly
from English, in daily communication acts, giving the impression that
English terminology is often given precedence over the use of Indonesian
and local languages.
There is no need to worry about this natural phenomenon. If two
languages come in contact, the dominant one tends to be preferred and
used by the language community. On a positive note, if English
terminology is used properly in the sense that the loan words serve as
synonyms for existing Indonesian and local words, they can certainly
enrich the lexicon of the Indonesian language.
In the process of language development, we have witnessed a rapid growth
of the language, especially in its lexicon. We cannot therefore simply
dismiss the fact that throughout its history Indonesia has owed much of
its lexical enrichment to foreign borrowings.
The process of these borrowings have been taken the form of loanwords
such as eksis (exist), kandidat (candidate), and presisi (precision);
loan blends such as anti-rayap (termites) and polusi udara (air
pollution); and loan shifts or loan translations such as pencakar-langit
(skyscraper), tendangan pojok (corner kick) and peluru kendali (guided
missile).
The late Indonesian linguistic professor Soenjono Dardjowidjojo
estimated that the language's lexicon reached approximately 70,000
lemmas, not to mention the tremendous development in its phonology and
syntax.
Though Soenjono never explicitly mentioned where the sources of the
lexicon came from, it is plausible to surmise that both the country's
indigenous languages and foreign terminology have historically
significantly contributed to the Indonesian language. The tremendous
development of the Indonesian lexicon is evidenced in the latest
publication of the Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language (KBBI) by
Balai Pustaka.
For reasons briefly alluded to above, what has become an issue of
concern is not whether massive foreign borrowings can discourage the use
of local languages, but rather how we can promote the logical use of our
national language as well as a sense of cultivating pride of using local
languages via education.
It is intriguing to observe that concomitant with the rapid development
of the language, the use of illogical language is now prevalent not only
among the uneducated, but also the educated. Such a fallacious use is
also common in colloquial and even formal registers.
We can find numerous instances of anomalous language used, for instance,
in giving warnings, such as in yang membawa HP harap di matikan, which
literally means those who bring cell phones will be killed. The intended
meaning, however, is please turn off your cell phone. Another infamous
illogical phrase --- kawasan dilarang merokok --- is ubiquitously found
in many areas in Greater Jakarta where people are advised not to smoke.
Observe also the following nonsense uttered by a TV reporter: Genangan
air menggenangi hampir seluruh kawasan Jakarta, or water stagnated
almost Greater Jakarta.
Local language cultivation also needs reinvigorating in the face of
tough competition from the English predominantly used by people of all
ages. While issuing a policy banning the use of English terminology is
counterproductive, the viable options are to encourage the use of local
language as a language of instruction and for publications (e.g., books,
magazines, and newspaper) to be written in local languages.
The daily use of spoken language between students and students; and
students and teachers stimulates a sense of pride in consistently using
their home languages. In addition, written documentation helps to
preserve local languages from the threat of language extinction and
language death. These documentations are, in fact, "treasures" which can
be passed into young generations so that they can appreciate the
precious value of their ancestor's language.
/The writer is an associate professor at Atma Jaya University in
Jakarta and chief editor of the Indonesian Journal of English Language
Teaching/
/--------/
Is the Indonesian history only for old fogeys?
Dewi Anggraeni, Jakarta | Sat, 10/30/2010 , The Jakarta Post
Three years ago I was asked to be a judge for a short film competition
run by that year's Indonesian Film Festival in Melbourne. One of the
entries made us, the judges, laugh long and hard.
A comedy? No, at least, the film was not in a conventional comedy
format. It was a series of sketches, of short interviews, by the
director-cum-cameraman of the film, a young Indonesian man studying at
an Australian university.
On that day, May 20, he went around the campus, cornering and asking any
Indonesian students he came across what day and date it was, and whether
the date had any historical significance for Indonesia.
Most of those he accosted had no idea, but had a shot anyway. The
answers were mostly so way off the mark that they sent us falling about
in our seats hooting.
We only sat up and gathered ourselves in seriousness when one student,
after pondering for a few seconds, answered, "Uh, I know what it is, but
can't remember exactly. It has something to do with Jong Java, Jong
Sumatra and all that jazz. Right?" looking tentatively proud of himself.
The film saved the twist until the last minute when the producer quietly
took the camera and filmed the director surreptitiously consulting
Wikipedia.
It transpired that the director-cum-cameraman had not been sure of the
answer himself, but had
taken up the task when his friend, the producer, had offered it to him
that day.
Is it such a national tragedy not knowing Boedi Oetomo Day? Not exactly,
unless it is symptomatic of something more serious and more crucial to
our society and our collective consciousness as a nation.
Does it have any bearing whatsoever on how we live today?
It may be inconsequential immediately or at a given moment of a young
Indonesian's life, except of course in history exams. Ah yes, history.
History, as we know it, has been dropped from the national curriculum.
In its place is social sciences, which includes sociology, anthropology,
geography and history.
This is well and good, if this measure has not had the effect of
diluting any of the subject's components. Anecdotal evidence at least
indicates that among the young of today there is very little interest in
learning about the past, and that the past, to them, is irrelevant to
what happens today.
History however, is not just a series of past events and dates that we
have to learn off by heart, to be promptly forgotten the moment we leave
school. It is part of our lives and has shaped our lives, and unless we
become proactive it will keep shaping our lives while we have no control
whatsoever to counter its power.
It is necessary to stop and think before swallowing whole whatever is
dished out to us by anybody, including those in power. To be able to do
so we need to maintain an interest in historical facts as well as what
is happening around us that touches our lives, directly or indirectly.
Earlier this year, for example, there were a series of incidents in Aceh
that should be of concern
not only to those in Aceh but anywhere else.
The sharia police were arresting Muslim women who were not wearing the
supposedly required headscarves, known in Indonesia as jilbab, and
herding them to the sharia police "station" to be "briefed", which
effectively means they were told the next time they were arrested
without jilbab would earn them lashings as a penalty.
At least one of the women bravely protested, saying that for Muslim
women, head coverings were
recommended but not compulsory. Her protests were ignored, and she was
sent home, along with the rest of the women, with a stern warning.
At other times, in separate incidents, sharia police arrested couples
found at "remote" beaches after dark who were unable to produce marriage
documents.
In these cases, after detaining them for some time, the sharia police
would let the men go, and continued to detain the women. A number of the
women later alleged that they had been sexually assaulted, but were
unable to go to any authority to seek justice.
Fortunately for them, the local media did not ignore them and ran the
story, which was followed by heated arguments in Facebook.
Outraged women wrote in, understandably, saying that the alleged
perpetrators should be brought to justice. Then a worrying picture
emerged. While many men, young and old, posted their support for the
women, many also, defended the alleged act as justifiable.
These people believed that the women had not only broken sharia law, but
also turned their backs on local traditions that had been in place for
many generations. It was Acehnese tradition, they claimed, for women to
wear the jilbab. So if they lived in Aceh, these Muslim women would have
to wear it. Full stop.
Leaving aside the simplicity of this argument, it was also inaccurate, a
well-known and well-resourced writer and journalist said in her Facebook
account.
She went on to explain that before jilbab wearing was imposed by local
sharia, Acehnese women
wore a different head-dress, and to illustrate this, she also posted a
picture of an Acehnese woman in traditional clothes. She also initiated
a lengthy debate on whether wearing jilbab was compulsory in Islamic
teaching.
No more was heard from the original senders of comments justifying the
sharia police's action. One can only hope that they have by now reviewed
their local history more carefully.
It is fortunate that Indonesia still has outspoken young people like
this writer who has her gaze on the nation's affairs and has an
extensive knowledge of history.
These people work toward preventing the subjugating willy-nilly of
ordinary citizens to anything
dictated by those in power who may well have vested interests in
imposing a particular law, astute enough to have it package in religious
language.
The conferring of the Nabil Awards on Oct. 14 to historians Anhar
Gonggong, Mona Lohanda and Asvi Warman Adam, is a timely reminder of how
crucial it is to keep history as part of our consciousness. A fair
awareness of history is also needed to assess whether the late former
president Soeharto deserves to be named a national hero.
And does Indonesia really need national heroes to be instituted? Aren't
national heroes those who grow in the people's hearts and minds
naturally, instead of figures presented to the people as such?
/The writer is a journalist and an adjunct research associate at the
school of political and social inquiry, Monash University, Melbourne,
Australia./
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