1. party -- 2 columns, 4 lines, 15
1. party -- 2 columns, 4 lines, 15
29 political parties fail to qualify for 2004 poll Twenty-nine political parties have failed to pass the government's preliminary screening to contest the 2004 general election.
The 29 parties represent about a quarter of the total 112 parties that registered at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. The registration closed on Monday.
An official at the Ministry said on Tuesday that the 29 parties had failed to meet some basic requirements, that include provisions such as the need for a party to have a permanent headquarters, equipment to support the work of the headquarters as well as a complete organizational structure, Wicipto Setiadi said.
Nine out of the remaining 83 parties have been given the green light to. They are. the Justice and Prosperity Party (PK Sejahtera); Democratic Catholic Party (PKD), Indonesian Union Party (PSI), Justice and Unity Party of Indonesia (PKP Indonesia), Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Crescent Party of Reform (PBR), the Love the Nation Democratic Party (PDKB), the National Concern Party (PKPB) and the Love the Nation Peace Promoter Party (PPDKB). These parties need only one more step to be eligible for the election.
An announcement will be made by the Ministry today (Wednesday) whether or not nine other parties will passed the final screening stage, Wicipto said.
The remaining 65 political parties will be screened from Sept. 1 to Sept. 27 which is the third batch of screening held by the Ministry.
The Ministry screened nine political parties in the first batch of party verifications that started in June, and nine others in the second batch.
Among things to verify included whether or not a party has sufficient branches and chapters nationwide. A party is required to have chapters in more than half of the total 32 provinces throughout the country.
The Ministry is to complete its screening by early October, as party registration for the election will be closed on Oct. 9.
Registration with the General Election Commission (KPU) is the final step for a party to contest the election, set to be held in April next year.
2. first aid -- 5 columns, 1 line, 30 Govt to teach first aid skills in case of emergency In anticipation of emergencies -- such as fires, flood and bomb attacks -- the government will provide basic first aid training within communities, says a minister.
"All communities should know what to do when they are faced with natural disasters. In an attempt to minimize victims and losses, firstly, they have to be able to identify what kind of disaster they are facing," Minister of Health Achmad Suyudi said on Tuesday.
According to the minister, many people panic and do not know what to do in emergency situations.
Training to face such conditions is much needed to help the people living in both in rural and urban areas, he said, adding that this will be conducted by government institutions.
"There are three important steps that must be taken in dealing with emergencies: First, revive or keeping the victim alive; second, review, identifying the injuries; and third, taking the victims to hospital for medical treatment," said Suyudi.
"Reviewing is done by medical practitioners because this usually requires further skills. But, ordinary people could do the first step at least," he said.
Aside from establishing communities proficient in first aid, the minister also said that communities should build networks, including with hospitals, ambulance services and the nearest police office.
"In Jakarta, there has been a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Ministry of Health, Jakarta city administration and hospitals on handling natural disasters or other emergencies," said the minister.
He cited the case of the JW Marriot Hotel bombing, saying that ambulances arrived just three minutes after the blast on Aug. 5.
"Fortunately, the hospital is quite close to the hotel and the traffic was not so bad, so the ambulances got there quickly," he said.
He only regretted that ambulances attending the victims of the Bali blasts took 42 minutes to arrive at the scene.
Dr. Kuning Atmajaya who was involved in treating the blast victims at the Sanglah Hospital, Denpasar, said the crowded location and congested traffic caused the delay.
Tri Wahyu Murni, a surgeon from the Hasan Sadikin General Hospital in Bandung -- and also the spokesperson for the recent 10th International Symposium on Shock and Critical Care -- said the ideal number of ambulances is one per 5,000 citizens.
"For Indonesia, one ambulance per every 10,000 citizens would be good enough. In Bandung, with a total citizenship of 4.9 million there are only 28 ambulances, all owned by hospitals. In Jakarta, with about 10 million people, there are only about 400 ambulances," she said, concluding that the number of ambulances is not proportional with the population here.
According to her, those in the public service, such as policemen, security officers, and firefighters should also be skilled in first aid.
"In most cases they are the first people to arrive at the location and they might be able to save the victims' life, or at least alleviate their sufferings," she said.
3. logging -- 4 columns, 2 lines, 25 Ministry wants taxpayer money given to loggers unable to log The Ministry of Forestry is demanding financial compensation from the government for state-owned forestry firm Perhutani to stop cutting down Javanese forests to mitigate ever-worsening weather extremes, including the severe drought across Java at present.
The ministry's spokesman Tachrir Fathoni said on Tuesday that compensation for carbon absorption and fees from forest- exploiting companies that used its land, such as tap water firms and power plants, would facilitate Perhutani in focusing on its non-logging business activities, including ecotourism, medicinal plants and beekeeping.
"We think banning Perhutani from its logging activities should be thoroughly calculated economically, socially, and environmentally," Tachrir told The Jakarta Post Tuesday.
He also emphasized that the demand for logs and the derivative products on Java was still high, while many home-based industries relied on local wood.
"If Java tries to import logs from other countries to meet local demand, it will be too expensive," he said.
Besides, the government, particularly the office of State Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) should stop demanding that Perhutani generate more profit and instead consider environmental preservation as one of the company's achievements, Tachrir said.
Separately, Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) said on Tuesday that the government had to enforce its decision to ban all logging on Java, but also should provide financial incentives for Perhutani to save Java's forests.
"The logging ban for Java is correct, but it is also fair for Perhutani to receive incentives from the government in order to shift its business to something other than chopping down what remains of the forests," FWI executive director Togu Manurung told the Post on Tuesday.
Manurung said the government could provide incentives to Perhutani by allocating reforestation funds and special allocation funds to the company.
Tachrir and Manurung were commenting on the announcement by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla on Monday that the government had decided to ban logging activities on Java due to the present drought and water crisis that is starting to affect more and more of the 128 million people who call the island home.
Javanese forests now account for a mere 5 percent of total land, far below what 30 percent level that many consider the minimum for maintaining ecological balance, according to data from the Ministry of Forestry.
Perhutani controls all commercial plantations and logging activities on Java. In addition, it also is involved in ecotourism, beekeeping and medicinal plants.
The Ministry of Forestry had earlier given Perhutani permission to process 931,000 cubic meters of natural forest wood this year, down from 1.46 million in 2002.
In addition to the logging ban, the government also urged people to reduce farming on Java and for farmers to do more on other islands in the country.
Manurung went on to say that Perhutani should comply with the government's decision even if demand for wood and its derivatives remained high.
"We know that local demand for wood is still high. The government can import logs to meet the demand, but of course that would be far more expensive, or allow some of the companies that rely on wood to close down," he added.
4. jibril -- 3 columns, 1 line, 20 RI police to grill Iqbal over terror attacks Indonesia hopes to clarify details surrounding the possible deportation of a man from Malaysia, and question him over possible top-level links to regional terror network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said Tuesday that the government was waiting for details regarding the deportation of Mohammad Iqbal Abdul Rahman, alias Abu Jibril.
"... and Iqbal will be asked to clarify his possible involvement with several militant groups here."
He said Indonesia wished to question Iqbal in relation to a number of terror attacks carried out in Indonesia and his links to militant organizations and JI.
Hassan dismissed earlier reports that Iqbal had been sent to Jakarta.
"They (Malaysian authorities) have yet to decide when and where the process will be conducted."
Iqbal was arrested under Malaysia's Internal Security Act in June 2001 and is expected to be deported when the maximum allowable detention period expires.
Though Iqbal was detained along with 90 other people on suspicion of belonging to JI, he has never been charged with any crime.
Both Iqbal and the alleged leader of JI, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, fled Indonesia for Malaysia together in 1985 to escape former president Soeharto's repressive regime.
Ba'asyir is currently being tried in connection with plotting to kill President Megawati Soekarnoputri when she was vice president, and a series of bombings in Indonesia.
Iqbal is the brother of Irfan S. Awwas, a senior leader of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), which is chaired by Ba'asyir.
Separately, Iqbal's wife, Fatimah Zahrah Abdul Aziz, who still lives in Malaysia, said she met her husband at the immigration detention center in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
"He is in good health. We are appealing to the government not to deport him," she told AFP.
"My husband said he is not involved in any militant activities nor linked to Jamaah Islamiyah. My husband is just a simple religious preacher," he said.
Fatimah, an Indonesian who like her husband holds permanent resident status in Malaysia, said "no date has been fixed when the government will deport him."
Malaysian terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, however, told AFP on Tuesday that Iqbal was "a very significant figure" in JI.
"After Ba'asyir, he is the senior ideological leader in the organization. He is a very important man, comparable to Hambali, but he is ideological, less operational," he said.
5. flood -- 4 columns, 1 line, 25 Denuded forests, worse weather The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has warned of possible floods and landslides in the rainy season that is expected to start in October.
"Let's not forget about landslides and floods as we have been focusing more on how to overcome the current drought," BMG forecast division head Ahmad Zakir said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Flash floods and landslides are expected to hit provinces south of the equator, most of which are now suffering from drought.
The equator runs from west to east, crossing Sumatra just north of the town of Payakumbuh, to Pontianak in Kalimantan and on to a point just to the north of Manokwari, Papua.
Java, Bali, the Nusa Tenggara islands and parts of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua all lie to the south of the equator.
"The rainy season will start first in the western part of West Java in October or early November," he said.
The dry season normally runs from April to October, while the rainy season is from November to March.
Western and southern parts of West Java, western parts of Central Java, southern parts of East Java, the Nusa Tenggara islands, western and southern parts of South Sulawesi and South Sulawesi will get more rainfall than other areas, or more than 400 millimeters.
As most of the provinces are among the areas hardest hit by the drought, combined with the fact the provinces have insufficient forests as water catchment areas, it is predicted that those areas are prone to floods and landslides.
"Local administrations must be cautious over the issue. Residents deserve to get early warnings so they can be prepared prior to the floods," Zakir said.
Early this year, local administrations failed to act to lessen the impact of floods and landslides in parts of the country despite repeated warnings from as early as November last year from the BMG, the State Ministry for the Environment and other institutions.
Dozens of people died.
While local administrations continue their reforestation programs, Zakir advised them to make comprehensive plans on how to anticipate floods and landslides in a bid to prevent further loss of life and property.
"Do not wait until the rainy season comes as extreme natural phenomenon may happen anytime."
Zakir also urged people to be cautious over possible floods and landslides in their areas and asked them to get accurate weather information from BMG offices across the country.