Eat, Pray, Love Gives Bali A New Title: Island of Love

The film production of Eat, Pray, Love (EPL) starring Julia Roberts has given Bali a new title, Island of Love. The movie, based on Elizabet Gilbert's bestselling memoir tells about the author's journey for self-discovery to three countries: Italy (Eat), India (Pray) and Indonesia (Love). In Ubud, Bali, the author rediscovered the combination of Eat, Pray and found she could Love once more. Hence the new Bali title, Island of Love.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika has no qualm about it. "We have to be thankful, because the presence of the Hollywood movie star has given birth to Bali's new title, Island of Love, which will of course support our tourism," said him in Denpasar on Saturday (7 November 2009)

He referred Island of Love as a new title because Bali has already been awarded several, namely Island of Gods, Paradise Island, and Island of Thousand Temples. The travel industry has also recognized Bali by giving the island awards like "The World's Best Island" by Travel and Leisure magazine, "The Top City in Asia" and "The Friendliest Town of All" (for Ubud, Bali) by Conde Nast Traveler and the inclusion in Lonely Planet's Best in 2010 Travel's Top Regions.

The EPL filming is still ongoing until 15 November 2009 in several Bali locations such as Pasar Seni Ubud, Padang Padang, Ungasan and Beno port.

source : http://www.indonesia.travel

President urged to put an end to law mafia practices

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is facing mounting pressure, including from Indonesians abroad, to combat rampant mafia practices in the country's legal institutions.

A group of Indonesians living in London urged the President on Monday to find the courage to put an end to rampant law mafia practices and find a clear solution to the graft scandal between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The request was announced by Amika Wardana, a University of Essex student from the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) in London.

The request was made in a joint statement signed by representatives from the ICMI in the UK, the UK branch of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, and also from the Association of Indonesian students in the UK, reported state news agency Antara.

The request was prepared in response to the fierce dispute over alleged efforts to incriminate two suspended KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.

"The President has to seriously listen to complaints and demands from the public, who are getting increasingly fed up with the dispute," said Winarno, a legal observer from the University of Jambi.

"The fact-finding team should have been given more authority to enable them to disclose the truth and impose stern actions," Winarno told Antara in Jambi.

Amien Rais, the 1998 reform figure, who helped topple Soeharto, said the conflict between the "Cicak and Buaya" (Gecko versus Crocodile) or between the KPK and the police and Attorney General's Office had created the momentum necessary to reform the legal sector.

"The dispute should be used by all involved parties to increase awareness and put pressure on those bodies to ensure the law is upheld.

"If this issue is not given necessary attention, it will have serious repercussions for proper legal practises being upheld in the future," Amien said in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Monday.

"The total reform of legal mafia practices should be conducted as soon as possible by thoroughly processing the dispute and punishing those who are guilty. This will make it clear to the public that justice is being upheld," he added.

Hendardi, from the Setara Institute, said in Jakarta on Monday the current uproar over efforts to weaken the KPK should be used to improve the performances of law enforcement institutions, namely the National Police, the Attorney General's Office and the KPK.

"The individuals involved from the three institutions *in the graft scandal* have to be dismissed and investigated," Hendardi told Antara.

He said the officials from the three institutions that were not found guilty must be rehabilitated and reinstated to their earlier positions.

"Not all policemen and prosecutors are clean, but we have to be just, objective and critical.

"We can't just indiscriminately back the KPK as if all of their officials are clean," he said.

Meanwhile, Facebook support for the two suspended KPK deputies continued to increase on Monday or 11 days after the online group was formed.

The number of Facebookers registering their support reached over 1,162,000 as of 6 p.m. on Monday.

source : http://www.thejakartapost.com

Internet users support for disgraced KPK deputies breaks 1,000,000 barrier

The number of people joining a group on social networking website Facebook to support digraced Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies, who were allegedly framed in criminal cases, has surged pas the 1,000,000 mark.

The group, titled “Gerakan 1.000.000 Facebookers Dukung Chandra Hamzah & Bibit Samad Riyanto”, has recorded 1,007,664 members as of 9 a.m. on Saturday, since it was created in Oct. 29.

KPK deputies Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto have been named suspects in bribery and power abuse charges by the police.

A government-sanctioned fact-finding team is currently working to unravel an alleged plot, allegedly constructed by businessman Anggodo Widjojo, brother of graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo, with high ranking officials of the Attorney General's Office and the National Police.

source : http://www.thejakartapost.com

Carrefour Fined $2.6m for Monopolizing Indonesian Market

Indonesia’s competition regulator on Tuesday ruled that the Indonesian subsidiary of French retail giant Carrefour was guilty of breaching antitrust laws, fining it Rp 25 billion ($2.6 million) and ordering it to sell its stake in a local retailer.

The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) ruled that PT Carrefour Indonesia had violated the 1999 Anti-Monopoly Law by dominating the wholesale supplier market and forcing unfair trading terms on its suppliers following its acquisition of PT Alfa Retailindo in 2008. The acquisition gave the company an effective 58 percent share in the national retail market, the KPPU said.

Carrefour must sell its 79 percent stake in Alfa Retailindo within a year, said Dedie S Martadisastra, the head of the KPPU’s legal tribunal.

“Since its Alfa Retailindo acquisition in 2008, the French retailer has been in control of the retail market nationwide with a 58 percent share, an increase from 46.3 percent in 2007,” he said.

“The KPPU decision to sanction Carrefour has been made after a long investigation and with an objective analysis of evidence, including information from witnesses and relevant business partners such as the suppliers of Carrefour.”

Dedie added that Carrefour’s Rp 25 billion fine had to go into the state coffers through a state-owned bank.

Irawan D Kadarman, Carrefour’s corporate affairs director in Indonesia, said the retailer was likely to appeal the ruling. Carrefour believed that the verdict was not based on the proper research and lacked a legal basis, he said.

“We still maintain the KPPU was not objective in its decision. Its verdict is groundless without the strong support of evidence or proper fieldwork.”

Carrefour had strongly denied all charges about its relations with suppliers and, citing an AC Nielsen survey, maintained that the Alfa Retailindo acquisition only garnered it a 17 percent share of the national retail market.

KPPU Chairman Benny Pasaribu, who is also member of the legal tribunal, said the commission had also found evidence that Carrefour had violated another law on mergers and acquisitions.

“However, the commission dropped these charges because there are yet no government regulations implementing this law,” he said.

Nugroho Setiadharma, a member of the Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo), said the ruling could jeopardize both existing and future foreign investment in the retail sector.

Natalia Sutanto, a retail analyst at PT Ciptadana Securities, said the decision was unlikely to change the competition among the large supermarket retailers.

source : http://thejakartaglobe.com

Yahia-Cherif builds bridges to link Indonesia and Algeria

One of Hamza Yahia-Cherif’s main goals during his five year term as Algerian ambassador to Indonesia was to build more bridges — literally and figuratively.

And he is confident in saying he has done his best to achieve that goal. “When I came here in December 2004, only 200 Indonesians got visas to his North-African homeland, but in December 2008, this figure had reached more than 2,000,” the outgoing ambassador told The Jakarta Post, at his office recently.

The rising number of Indonesians visiting Algeria indeed reflects increasingly dynamic relations between the two nations in various aspects. Trade volume between Indonesia and Algeria had increased from US$216 million in 2004 to $431 million in 2008, Yahia-Cherif said.

“But the most important thing,” he said, ”is that Indonesian enterprises discovered Algeria during my term.”

source : http://www.thejakartapost.com

An oil-rich country, Algeria had laid out $150 billion worth of infrastructure projects and invited foreign companies to carry out these projects. State-owned construction company Wijaya Karya (WIKA) has already taken part in a massive project by building 110 kilometers of a 1,050-kilometer highway that Algeria is currently developing.

“WIKA is the first, but definitely not the last,” Yahia-Cherif said, adding that he wished more Indonesian construction companies would bid for the projects — including the building of one million houses, 10 ports, six airports, 3,000 kilometers of railway, and also school and health facilities.

The Algerian government was pleased with WIKA’s work and had begun to pay more attention to Indonesian enterprises, Yahia-Cherif said.

“I want to see Indonesian enterprises going to Algeria not as subcontractors but working directly [for us]. All these projects are using Algerian money. We do not want people to bring their money, just their know-how.”

An Indonesian trading house will also soon be established in Algeria to boost trade, Hamza said. Indonesian exports to Algeria include palm oil, coffee, plywood, vegetable oil and pharmaceutical products.

Yahia-Cherif believed Indonesian contractors would help build bridges for the future relations between the two Muslim-majority countries, which share common stories of struggle against colonial oppressors.

Indonesia is also part of Algerian history. It was one of the first nations to lend its full support to Algeria in its struggle against French colonial powers. The people-to-people contact between the two nations, Hamza said, had begun even before the official diplomatic relations had.

In 1960, in a critical moment before the November First Revolution that led to Algeria’s independence on July 5, 1962, Sukarno offered a full state visit reception to Ferhat Abbas, the first provisional president of the yet-to-become-independent Algeria.

In 1955, Indonesia also invited two representatives of Algeria’s National Liberation Front (NLF), an anti-colonial political party, to the Asia-Africa conference in Bandung.

This history has prompted Yahia-Cherif to initiate the building of a bridge — this time metaphorically — that will not only bring the people of Indonesia and Algeria closer, but which will also preserve the historical events that once bound the two states.

“I wanted to create a sister city between Bandung and Setif, as a symbol of the bond and the focal point when two people started to meet and fight colonialism,” Yahia-Cherif said.

Yahia-Cherif has been working on this plan since 2007, but due to sluggish bureaucracy only recently has he managed to finalize the MoU and letter of intent for the program, which will hopefully be signed within the next two months.

While Bandung is known for the Bandung Sea of Fire incident during the revolution, Setif is known as the city in which thousands of Algerians were killed by the French colonialists on May 8, 1945, an event that consolidated the spirit of nationalism among Algerians and also marked the beginning of the Algerian war against the French, writes Mohammed Harbi in Le Monde Diplomatique.

“I was happy to meet [Bandung] mayor [Dede Rosyada]. We have the draft of the MoU now and are in the process of one in Algeria. By this, there will definitely be much more people-to-people contact, and it will be more enthusiastic,” Yahia-Cherif said.

Yahia-Cherif , who had formerly been posted in Tokyo, New Delhi and Stockholm before coming to Jakarta, submitted his credentials on Jan. 10, 2005. He will be leaving Jakarta for Algiers on Nov. 4.

Yahia-Cherif says he was blessed to be posted in Indonesia since it became a democracy, adding that the republic had shown remarkable achievements, politically and economically, in the last five years.

Jakarta has provided Yahia-Cherif both with excitement and perhaps a little frustration. Residing in Pondok Indah in South Jakarta, he had to bear the heavy traffic jams to reach his office in Kuningan. “Life in Jakarta is nice once you get out of the car,” he said. “I promise I will come back to Indonesia, be it personally or professionally.”

Jakarta to host international air-con exhibition

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 10:26 PM

Jakarta to host international air-con exhibition

Hasyim Widhiarto , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 11/03/2009 9:41 PM | Jakarta

An association of experts and practitioners in air-conditioning engineering will hold an international exhibition of air conditioning technology in Jakarta this month.

Rana Yusuf Nasir, the president of the American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) Indonesian chapter, said Tuesday around 100 local and international companies had agreed to participate in the exhibition, which will take place at the Jakarta International Trade Expo from Nov. 19 to 21.

During the three-day exhibition the association will also run two conferences, discussing energy efficiency in air conditioning technology and the future of the industry following global restrictions on HCFCs.

HCFCs, or hydrochlorofluorocarbons, are a group of chemicals used as refrigerants and propellants in aerosol cans. They are considered less destructive to the ozone layer compared to CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon), which have already been banned.

“We hope the conference and exhibition will help drive more people to use environmentally friendly technologies,” he told The Jakarta Post.

source : http://www.thejakartapost.com

Indonesia

Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia. It is part of the Malay Archipelago. It has 18,108 islands. 6,000 of these islands are inhabited. The most important islands of Indonesia are Java, Bali, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Sumatra. The capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, on Java. The current president is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Modern Indonesia began on the 17th of August 1945. At 10 o'clock on that Friday morning, Ir. Soekarno read Indonesia's Declaration of Independence. Indonesia's Independence Day is a national holiday.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with a population of 238,452,952 (2004 est.) There are 111 inhabitants per km². The official language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, but a total of 737 languages are spoken throughout Indonesia mostly confined to remote tribal groups. Other languages widely spoken in Indonesia include Javanese, Balinese and Sundanese. The closest countries are Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and East Timor which share land borders with Indonesia. Other neighbouring countries are Australia to the south, Singapore to the Northwest, and Philippines to the Northeast.

The religion that most people follow is Islam, which is the country's official religion. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population on earth. Other religions include Christianity (Protestant, and Roman Catholic), Hinduism, and Buddhism.

History
Pre World War II

Indonesia has written history dating to the 7th century. Before the colonial Dutch came in the 1700s, Indonesia consisted of many kingdoms in perpetual warfare. Indonesia was ruled by the Netherlands from the 17th century until World War II.

Modern Indonesia
During World War II, the Japanese drove out the Dutch and took charge of Indonesia. After the Japanese surrender, Indonesia claimed its independence on the 17th of August 1945. The proclamation was read by Ir. Soekarno in Jakarta. Soekarno later became Indonesia's first President.

British troops came into Indonesia to restore peace and to rescue Europeans who had been prisoners of the Japanese. The British troops also had the job of shipping home 300,000 Japanese troops. The Indonesian Republicans fought the British troops, because it was expected that the British would give Indonesia back to the Dutch. The Indonesian Republicans killed many of the Japanese prisoners, before they could be sent home. They also began killing people from minority groups who might be against the new Republic. Many European and Indonesian European people were killed. Many Chinese business people and other minority groups were killed or made homeless. In Java there were many thousands of homeless people.

In 1946, the Dutch came back. When the British left in 1947, there were 55,000 Dutch soldiers in Indonesia. The Dutch action was called "Operatie Product" or "Politionele Acties". The Indonesian Republicans fought the Dutch until 1949. But the Indonesian Republicans were badly organised and often fought among themselves. As the Dutch forced the Republican soldiers out of different areas, they moved in more troops until there was 100,000 Dutch troops. The Dutch refused to obey the United Nations who said they should stop the fighting in Indonesia. The United States of America organised for meetings between Dutch and Indonesian leaders. The Dutch finally agreed to recognise Indonesia's independence in November 1949.

Because of the fighting and the bad organisation, it took a long time for the country to become peaceful, and for the economy to get better. Many Indonesian soldiers had died, between 45,000 and 100,000. Also, a very large number of civilian (people not in the army), Indonesians, Europeans and Chinese, had died; perhaps as many as 200,000.

source : http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia