An idea of a general
An idea of a general
Warning for tardy
civil servants
Civil servants who fail to return to work in the days after
the Idul Fitri holiday will be punished. State Minister of
Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin revealed the government's
policy on Monday, saying that anyone not on official leave must
be at their desk on Dec. 1, 2003.
Idul Fitri will fall on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, but the
government has declared an extended holiday, from Nov. 22 through
Nov. 30, meaning that the total holiday for civil servants will
be nine days. With such a policy -- hopefully -- all government
office employees will have no reason to skip work after the
holiday has ended.
Feisal's intentions could be achieved if a monitoring system,
involving the public, were run properly, because electronic
attendance records can be manipulated.
The bosses (at state institutions or offices) usually want
their offices to look clean and disciplined; therefore, there is
a possibility that they may be concealing the fact that many of
their staff are unpunctual.
Almost all government offices are usually empty on the days
following the Idul Fitri festivities. A few workers turn up at
the office just to greet each other, with no sanctions taken
against those who fail to show up on work days after Idul Fitri.
-- Warta Kota, Jakarta
Victory for the people
The Central Jakarta District Court turned down last week
Sinivasan Marimutu's lawsuit against Tempo weekly magazine. The
same panel of judges -- on the same day -- also agreed to
Sinivasan's request to withdraw the lawsuit his company (PT
Texmaco Group) had filed against Kompas daily.
The court's decisions, like candlelight in the dark for the
nation, boosted the hope that efforts to build a better Indonesia
in the future are not futile.
It is not just because the court favored Tempo, Kompas or the
national press community. It is because the court has just
favored the people of Indonesia, who should no longer worry about
losing access to information in the public domain.
It is true that the national press was shocked upon learning
the plaintiffs' demand for a huge sum in compensation. There is
also a belief among the public that court decisions depend more
on the size of the bribe offered (to law enforcers) than the
evidence under consideration.
Wednesday's verdicts indicate strongly that we still have
bright judges who want the public to enjoy the right to
information, as stipulated in Law No. 40/1999 on the press.
We do hope that in the future the courts will use the press
law to deal with press-related cases on the basis of lex
specialis or special law, which involves special professions,
instead of lex generalis or (general) criminal law.
-- Koran Tempo, Jakarta
Terror in Istanbul and beyond
The murderous car bomb attacks in Istanbul at the weekend will
achieve none of their apparent political objectives. Turkey is
the most secular of Islamic nations and was possibly targeted for
that reason. It will not be distancing itself from either the
United States or Israel, with both of which its ties are
longstanding and unusually cordial. Turkey is more likely to
remain close to the U.S. and seek, among other things, an
abatement of criticism of its stern treatment of its Kurdish
minority, whose defiance of its authority Istanbul customarily
describes as its own terrorist problem.
Not that those behind Saturday's bombings were of Kurdish
origin. Rather, a radical Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda, the
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, has claimed responsibility for the
bombings outside two synagogues in Istanbul which killed 18
Muslims and six Jews. It threatens further attacks in other
countries, including Australia.
The group says "Jews around the world will regret that their
ancestors ever thought about occupying the land of Muslims". It
says the U.S. and its allies must "put an end to the war they are
waging against Islam and Muslims in the name of the war on terror
and withdraw from all Muslim lands desecrated by Jews and 3 73 U3