Text your say: Shocking video of Salemba prison

Text your say: Shocking video of Salemba prison

| Mon, 11/21/2011 9:03 PM

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Your comments on a video released by a former Salemba penitentiary inmate that shows inmates gambling, indulging in prostitution and enjoying luxury facilities at the prison:

Our poor low-grade prison officers are no match for seasoned inmates. “Well-to-do” prisoners easily employ prison officers on meager salaries so they can do whatever they want — almost anything.

They cover for each other easily. However, no one seems to believe this goes on and higher authorities are not aware of it, which means we still don’t have a prison for the well-to-do who treat prison like a low-grade hotel.

Their money really does talk.

The Chinese government knows all about it, and simply does away with well-to-do prisoners. Indonesia doesn’t have the heart for it … yet.

Moeljono Adikoesoemo
Jakarta

Luxury facilities, gambling and prostitution in prisons will inevitably increase crime and thus the number of inmates, which means the government
will have to prepare more and
bigger prisons.

Is the government ready for this?

E Nurdin
Jakarta

Is it a prison? I thought they held corruption convicts in luxury hotels next to malls and sports arenas while they wait for their sentence reductions.

Sheldon

It’s about time to reveal the shocking facts behind Salemba’s bars.

Here is proof that law in our country is upheld poorly.

Bimo Ario

Something went wrong with this institution to let these things happen.

Akmonika

What crime do I have to commit to go there? It’s better than
my house.

John Andri

We do not need Salemba prison, or other prisons, perhaps. We need capital punishment.

Veronica Sulistianingsih

When an inmate is allowed to keep a cell phone, anything else (mentioned earlier) is possible!

Eddy Arjuna Zainy

I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. But the tip can block any gigantic ship or yacht trying to pass through it.

So, let’s wait and see which gigantic figures will fly into a rage because of this footage.

Happy Indriyono
Yogyakarta

Why do you call it shocking? It’s not as if it’s a secret that money talks in Indonesia.

Des Pegler

Next topic

The US plan to establish a military base in Darwin, the closest Australian city to Indonesia, has sparked outrage from the Indonesia. What do you think?

Send your thoughts by email, SMS, Twitter or Facebook.
Include your name and city.

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Polri Telusuri Foto Nunun Nurbaeti

Metrotvnews.com, Jakarta: Polri akan menelusuri foto
tersangka kasus korupsi terkait pemilihan Deputi Gubernur Bank
Indonesia, Nunun Nurbaeti. Untuk itu, Polri akan berkoordinasi dengan
Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK).

"Itu nanti akan ditelusuri.
Pertama, apakah foto itu lama atau baru. Kemudian kapan itu diambil
dengan lensa apa. Itu kan bisa diketahui oleh ahlinya," ujar Kepala
Divisi Humas Polri Irjen Saud Usman Nasution, di Mabes Polri, Jakarta,
Rabu (23/11).

Menurut Saud, hasil penelusuran itu akan
diserahkan ke KPK sebagai penyidik perkara pokoknya. Sebab, lanjutnya,
Polri hanya membantu mencari Nunun yang saat ini menjadi buron polisi
internasional.

Sebelumnya, Tempo.co melansir foto-foto istri
mantan Wakil Kepala Kepolisian Republik Indonesia itu. Pada gambar
tersebut, Nunun sedang berjalan-jalan di pusat perbelanjaan di
Singapura bersama seorang wanita. Tempo.co juga mengungkap foto lain
juga saat Nunun sedang berada di Thailand.(MI/DNI)

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Lenovo is now No.2 PC maker; Dell says it doesn’t care

According to data from Gartner, HP remained the top dog in PC market share, Lenovo vaulted to No. 2 as its share rose from 11.1% to 13.5%, while Dell dropped to 3rd place as its share came down to 11.6%.

Yang Yuanqing, CEO of Lenovo, ascribes this increase to Lenovo’s long-term promise to PC customers. As a result, Lenovo got a bump in both consumer and commercial markets.

But Dell didn’t pay much attention to Lenovo’s getting ahead. In this week’s Dell World in Austin, Texas, Dell’s CEO Michael Dell told reporters: Lenovo may get a larger share in the PC market, but Dell is better at revenue and profit, at which Lenovo cannot catch up.

Michael Dell, CEO of DELL

Michael Dell says that Dell is not only a PC manufacturer but also a solutions company, which provides its customers with PC, storage, server, data center and cloud computing technology, etc.

However, both Lenovo and Dell are challenged by Apple’s competitiveness in mobile market.

In the coming months, to rise to the challenge, Lenovo will launch new products including a ThinkPad Tablet. By the end of this year, it will launch a  second-generation LePhone- Phone S2.

Michael Dell says Dell is keen on the opportunities brought by Microsoft Windows 8 to Tablet PC. He stresses Dell will not give up in the PC market, “DELL is an end-to-end IT solution provider.”

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An irony to religious tolerance

An irony to religious tolerance

Izak Lattu, Berkeley, California, Jakarta | Sun, 11/20/2011 12:25 PM

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It has been years of agony for GKI Taman Yasmin Protestant church congregation members as Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto has defied a Supreme Court decision to allow them to attend Sunday mass in their place of worship.

Budiarto’s bureaucratic move reflects the failure of not only law enforcement in the city, but also of the country’s civil justice system.

A number of civil society groups under the Bhineka Tunggal Ika Forum, which also includes Muhammadiyah Student Association and Nahdatul Ulama’s Indonesian Islamic Student Association, have tried to resolve the issue to no avail. The Asian chapter of Human Rights Watch and the World Church Conference have also stepped in, but their efforts did not work either.

Indeed, the Bogor case reflects the irony of Indonesian religious tolerance, which has been dubbed a global model for inter-faith relations. In an international discussion at the Islamic Studies Program at the Graduate Theological Union Berkeley, Marriane Farrina, a professor in Christian-Muslim dialogue, ranked Indonesia among the most preferable sites of peaceful relations among religions.

Thus, in the eyes of the international community, Indonesia is an interesting phenomenon where Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists can live in one house or get along side-by-side peacefully.

Is Bogor a reflection of religious relations on the whole in Indonesia? I do believe that Islam is a blessing for the universe and what’s happening in Bogor doesn’t reflect the general state of religious relations in Indonesia. I would rather say Budiarto represents his political allies’ perspective instead that of Indonesian Muslims.

The contribution of Muhammadiyah and Nahdatul Ulama youth groups in efforts to resolve the case proves my point.

My research on Christian-Muslim Dialogue in Indonesia has come up with a unique Christian-Muslim relationship in Hunitetu land (negeri) in Maluku. Hunitetu is a predominantly Christian society with only one Muslim member of its population. Fascinatingly, the current Raja, the traditional leader of the area, is a Muslim. The only Muslim leads the Christian community.

Culturally speaking, the example of the negeri shows that unprejudiced relations are possible. The collective memory narrates that they are more Hunitetu people than Christians or Muslims.

Here, the Christian people of Hunitetu feel no problem for having a Muslim Raja as for folk narrative opens the gates of tolerance and respect for others. Hence, the Hunitetu cultural narrative, which perceives other religions with a friendly image, unites people regardless of their religious affiliation.

From the perspective of the collective memory, cultural relations create a “topos” or common ground for religious relations in the minds of the people. Besides relations within the Hunitetu community, a strong cultural attachment (Gandong or blood relationship) with Latu, a Muslim negeri, strengthens the collective memory of the friendly image. Therefore, with such a cultural relationship, communities would have a communal image of peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians.

Budiarto and his allies’ beliefs are the enemy image of other religions. Their beliefs have nothing to do with economic status or education levels. People in Hunitetu who live in poverty and go to elementary or high schools do not mind to be led by Muslims since their cultural narrative has created a friendly image toward Islam.

Unlike Bogor, which has advanced levels of education, Hunitetu does not have any colleges or universities. Therefore, comparing Hunitetu with Bogor also leads me to criticize the common theory of religious conflict, which blames poverty and a lack of education for religious violence. In my opinion, the core factor of religious violence is political interest.

Junaid Rana’s book Terrifying Muslims supports my study. His study of terror in Pakistan argues that orientalism and colonialism are the source of religious violence (Rana: 2011, 52-53). Hatred toward Christians in Pakistan is triggered by the image of the enemy. In memory of narrow-minded Muslims in Pakistan, Christianity came to Pakistan through Western missionaries, so Christianity is the enemy of Islam because of its attachment with the Western paradigm.

However, Islam teaches Muslims to respect and tolerate people of other religions. The Prophet Muhammad’s understanding of the Christian prophet Waraqah’s prophecy upon his prophethood, the first Hijrah (migration) of the Prophet Muhammad to Abbesyah (a Christian kingdom) and when he graciously allowed a Christian delegation from Najran to pray in the Nabawi Mosque after a long, peaceful discussion with the Prophet are historical foundations of peaceful relations between these two Abrahamic religions.

Political agendas and the construction of an image of “the enemy” have driven Budiarto and his allies away from the peaceful relations that the Prophet established in the Golden Age of Islam. Removing political interests is the best way to resolve the GKI Taman Yasmin case. As Nietzsche said, politics assumes that there is always a strategic victory (Hyde 2010:44). Thus, politics is always seeking a strategic victory, not amicable action.

In the Benedict Anderson concept, Indonesians live in an imagined community. Although one never knows or meets his/her national fellow, the imagination binds people as a community (2006: 6). Living in an imagined community, Indonesia needs to develop a friendly image, or else it will not achieve persatuan (unity) but persatean (coerced unity).

The GKI Taman Yasmin case is a challenge for Indonesia as a nation, and whether or not it can manage its imagined community. At this point, the friendly image serves as a lesson from the Hunitetu community to promote better interfaith relations in Indonesia.

The writer is a Fulbright PhD student at the Graduate Theological Union Berkeley and an extended member of North California Islamic Cultural Center.

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2012 City Minimum Salary Raised

The demand of labor who requested 2012 Jakarta Province Minimum Salary
(UMP) is finally granted. From its initial proposal of Rp 1,497,838 is
raised again Rp 31,162 into Rp 1,529,150. As planned, this 2012
Jakarta UMP amendment will be submitted by Jakarta Wage Council to
Jakarta governor today (11/21)

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Guess what?: Nugie laments forest destruction

Guess what?: Nugie laments forest destruction

The Jakarta Post | Tue, 11/22/2011 8:27 PM

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JP/P.J. LeoJAKARTA: Nature-loving pop singer Nugie says he is extremely worried about the decreasing size of forests in Indonesia.

“I am worried that the natural forests in Indonesia will be just a fairy tale for our children and grandchildren in the future,” he said recently.

He added that raising awareness about the importance of preserving forests in Indonesia was key to protecting them in the future.

“How shameful it would be if these children, who live in a country with many forests, are not familiar with these forests,” he said as reported by tribunnews.com.

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Ratusan Penarik Becak Tinggalkan Jakabaring

Metrotvnews.com, Palembang: Tiga ratusan lebih becak
beriringan keluar  saat upacara penutupan SEA Games XXVI di
Kompleks Jakabaring Sport City, Palembang, Sumatra Selatan, Selasa
(22/11) malam. Maklum saja, kontrak para penarik becak itu berakhir
seiring berakhirnya pesta olah raga negara-negara se Asia Tenggara
itu. Para tukang becak itu dikontrak penyelenggara selama 12 hari
perhelatan olah raga tersebut.

Antrean 326 becak itu menyita
perhatian ratusan warga bergerombol di pintu utama Stadion Gelora
Sriwijaya, Kompleks JSC. Para tukang becak itu pun senang karena
selama menjadi sukarelawan di SEA Games XXVI mereka memperoleh upah
Rp200.000 per harinya. Mereka juga mendapat makan.

Mereka
mengaku senang selama ada perhelatan SEA Games di Palembang.
"Alhamdullillah. Lumayan lah buat keluarga," celetuk seorang tukang
becak. "Kapan ada Asian Games di Palembang kita mau ikut lagi,"
seloroh rekannya yang lain.(RIZ)

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