1. WATER: 2 col 4 lines (4 x 12)
1. WATER: 2 col 4 lines (4 x 12) 'Public access to water a basic human right' A non-governmental organization has asked the House to make a fundamental change to the water resource bill by stating that access to water is a basic human right, saying the principle will prevent discrimination against people regarding water services.
Nila Ardhianie of the Indonesian Forum on Globalization (Infog) said water as a basic human right had been recognized by the United Nations since November 2002 as stipulated in the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights.
"But this country's policy on water contradicts the covenant as it will give a greater role to private firms to manage water," she said on Friday after a discussion to mark World Environment Day.
World Environment Day, which fell on Thursday, was themed: "Water, two billion people are dying for it!"
Infog has long criticized the government's plan to privatize water management, which is justified by the water resource bill.
Infog said that water privatization would only allow the rich to enjoy water services as they have the money to pay for the service.
The NGO also said that private companies would not place public interests as their main goal.
The House is currently deliberating the water resource bill, but it does not expect to complete the debate during the current sitting period, which will end in mid-July.
According to Nila, water as a human right should be treated with non-profit principles, without having to inflict losses to water management.
"I think the government should tackle water services to ensure that all people have equal access to water," she said.
Besides, with the government managing water, people would still have the authority to control the service. If private firms take over the management, shareholders instead of the public will be in control, she said.
Some 95 percent of water management around the world is run by the government, including that of developed countries except for England and France.
"Therefore there is no solid grounds for the government to give a greater role to private firms in managing water," she said.
Business Watch Indonesia (BWI) also agreed with Infog.
It said in its report that water, along with non-manufactured goods or public goods like education, health and electricity, should be provided by the state and the service should reach as many people as possible without discrimination.
Consequently, the management of the public goods must be conducted under a non-profit principle, it said.
Nila further said the bill must also clearly stipulate that water services would reach the poor.
The use of water resource, Nila added, should not harm the ecosystem.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri admitted on Thursday that despite scarcity and poor access to water, people had failed to show consistency and discipline to help improve conditions.
The country's report on water said at least 80 percent of Indonesia's 215 million people have no access to safe and clean piped water.
Many fear that the water problem would serve as a pretext for the government to allow private companies to provide tap water to people, by giving them a greater role to manage water.
2. KONSTI: 3 cols 2 lines (2 x 24)
Bills contain conflicting solutions to election rows A lack of coordination among legislators has resulted in conflicting articles on the resolution of disputes over vote counting in a presidential election.
Possible disputes are provided for in the presidential elections bill and the constitutional court bill, both of which are currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives.
Regarding possible disputes over the results of ballot counting, the presidential elections bill states that only presidential candidates and their running mates will be allowed to lodge complaints.
But the bill on the constitutional court opens the chance for political parties or coalitions of parties, as well as presidential candidates, to challenge the results of the count.
Firman Jaya Daeli, a member of the House committee deliberating the presidential elections bill, asserted on Friday that the constitutional court bill should follow the presidential elections bill in this matter.
"All factions (on the special committee) have reached an agreement on the issue. Therefore, the constitutional court bill must follow suit," Firman said.
The constitutional court bill was initiated by the House, while the presidential elections bill was sponsored by the government.
The House committee deliberating the presidential elections bill agreed to allow only presidential candidates and their running mates to file complaints with the Constitutional Court for the sake of efficiency and the quick resolution of disputes.
Another legislator, Baharuddin Aritonang, who helped draft the constitutional court bill, suggested that the two special committees deliberating the presidential elections and constitutional court bills should arrange a meeting to synchronize the provisions of the two bills.
"Laws must not clash with each other. There must be a meeting to iron out the differences before endorsement," Aritonang told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The two bills are scheduled for endorsement at the end of this month.
The establishment of the Constitutional Court is mandated by the amended Constitution. It says the court should be set up by Aug. 17, 2003.
Unlike the existing Supreme Court, which oversees the religious, public, military and administrative courts, the Constitutional Court will deal with election-related disputes and disputes between state institutions.
The Constitutional Court will have the authority to settle disputes over ballot counts and conflicts among state institutions, to dissolve political parties and to give final judgment over violations committed by the president as complained of by House legislators. The latter could lead to the impeachment of the President.
Pressure has mounted for the President, the House and Supreme Court to select the nine members to sit on the Constitutional Court in a transparent manner as the positions are highly strategic.
3. NURSES: 5 col 1 line (1 x 40) Nurses need proper management skills: Survey Indonesian nurses need better management systems and more education to improve both their knowledge and service, according to a survey jointly conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health.
"(For) the research -- we actually interviewed nearly a thousand people (nurses) from all levels of the district of health system -- and everybody was offering ways to improve through all the regencies and provinces," a WHO consultant on nursing and midwifery, Deborah Hennessy, told The Jakarta Post at the sidelines of the International Nursing Conference 2003 here on Friday.
"Everybody needs to know exactly what they are expected to do and have to do it well. And evaluating the quality is actually by monitoring ... and encourage people, give good feedback and help them if they are not achieving that standard. That's the management's responsibility," she said.
Indonesian nurses generally work without good management, with the result that they rarely improve their knowledge or skills.
For example, Budi Anna Keliat, the chairperson of the conference's organizing committee, said that in the mental hospital Marzuki Mahdi, Bogor, West Java, the average length of treatment was 115 days.
"After a practical model management on professional nursery under the International Standard Organization (ISO) was adopted there, treatment was reduced to 13 days or 14 days for a similar result," she said, "It is a big saving for patients and they are happy with that."
Most nurses actually wanted to change, said Hennessy, but as she found through the research that they did not know how to do it.
"We need to change the system but for a big country like this (Indonesia), it takes time," she said.
Dean of the Nursing School at the University of Indonesia Elly Nurachmah T. said she was concerned over the quality of nurses and midwives in the country.
"Nurses should give humane and holistic care to their patients, including their physical, psychological and spiritual conditions as well as their cultural background," she said.
She said that within a pluralistic society, particular approaches would be necessary to treat patients according to their own habits and culture, "And it will have positive impacts for their recovery time."
She, however, said the fact that 75.65 percent of Indonesian nurses had graduated from nursing schools (SPK) which were equivalent to high school, was also of a great concern because that is below international standards, in which an undergraduate degree is the minimum requirement.
Out of a total of 180,000 nurses, only about 4,200 nurses have an undergraduate degree, leaving Indonesia behind other countries in the region which have more educated nurses.
"What's more is that nurses who have obtained their undergraduate degrees are hired for managerial tasks, instead of serving patients," said Elly.
4. MEGA: 5 cols 1 line (1 x 45) Megawati, siblings mark father's anniversary In celebrating the 102nd anniversary of founding president Sukarno's birth, President Megawati Soekarnoputri held a purifying ceremony for her father's amulets at the Bogor Presidential Palace on Friday.
Clad in a kebaya (traditional blouse), Sukarno's eldest daughter attended the ceremony, which was led by five preachers from Karangasem and Gianyar, Bali.
Sukarno's mother was Ida Ayu Nyoman Rai Srimben, a Balinese Hindu high priest's daughter, and Raden Mas Soekemi Sosrodihardjoe, a Javanese school teacher.
The ceremony, titled Karya Agung Pasupati Pusakaning Bung Karno in Indonesian, was also attended by Sukarno's sons Guruh Soekarnoputra and Guntur Soekarnoputra.
The press were barred from covering the sacred ritual.
Purifying amulets such as traditional daggers and spears is considered sacred by most Indonesians who still believe in such traditions.
Many believe that Megawati is among those Indonesians who believe that keeping amulets will ensure the welfare of the deceased and also maintain ties between the deceased and his offspring.
But not all of Sukarno's children attended the ceremony. Local newspapers reported that Rachmawati Soekarnoputri was against the celebration.
"Even if I was asked to participate, I would have said no," she was quoted by the Rakyat Merdeka daily as saying on Friday.
She suspected that Megawati was trying to invoke supernatural powers to maintain her presidency, which has come under sharp criticism recently.
Rachmawati has always been Megawati's staunchest critic and has allied herself with Megawati's political opponents, such as former president Abdurrahman Wahid and National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Amien Rais.
Instead of attending the ceremony, Rachmawati staged a large ceremony attended by 1,000 supporters of her newly-founded Pioneer Party (Partai Pelopor).
In Bandung, Sukarno's anniversary was celebrated by dedicating an Indonesia Menggugat (Indonesia Demands) plaque at the former Dutch Landraad (District Court) building.
The plaque was signed by Megawati on Dec. 30, 2002, when she visited Bandung.
West Java Governor R. Nuriana said that the dedication marked the renovation of the building, which was where Sukarno and three of his colleagues, Gatot Mangkoepradja, Maskoen Soemadiredja and Soepriadinata, were tried by the Netherlands Indies administration on Dec. 22, 1930 for attempting to subvert the lawfully established government.
At the trial, Sukarno read out his own defense, which later came to be known as Indonesia Menggugat. He was convicted and sentenced to four years in Sukamiskin jail.
5. PARTY: 2 col, 2 lines (18 x 2) Four parties pass initial screening Of the nearly 240 political parties registered with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, only four have passed preliminary screening to be deemed legal entities.
The four parties are: the Prosperous Justice Party (PK Sejahtera), the Indonesian Catholic-Democratic Party (PKD), the Indonesian Union Party (PSI) and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKP Indonesia).
Ramly Hutabarat, the ministry's director of state administrative affairs, said preliminary screening was needed to check whether a political party's central board met the administrative requirements set by the ministry.
The requirements include the presence of a party secretariat at the national level, the submission of names of party executives and the party's ownership of secretariat stationary, including computers and fax machines.
Obtaining legal entity status is mandatory for political parties before they undergo another round of verification conducted by the General Elections Commission (KPU). The latter stage will determine whether a political party is eligible to contest the general election in 2004.
The preliminary screening will last until the end of September, before the verification by the KPU.
Ramly, who heads the screening team, said the ministry would further examine whether parties that had obtained legal entity status fulfilled the ministry's requirements in their respective chapters and branches.
Five more parties will be examined later this month.
The nine parties were screened first because they had confirmed their participation in the elections to the ministry and completed administrative requirements.
Two more parties that have reregistered but not yet met the requirements are the Golkar Party and the Nation Unity Party (PPB). The will be screened for a second time in July.
There are 237 political parties listed in Indonesia, but only 50 have registered for the 2004 general election.
Political parties have until the end of September to register for the 2004 election and meet the requirements.
The KPU will announce the eligible parties in December this year.