Sat, 17 Jul 2004

Citizenship bill discussed

JAKARTA: A plenary meeting of the House of Representatives agreed on Friday to further deliberate a bill on the revision of the Citizenship Law.

The bill was drafted by the House's Legislation Body (Baleg) to revise Law No. 62/1958 on citizenship, which legislators say is outdated.

Under the bill, foreigners can obtain Indonesian citizenship after living for at least 15 years in the country consecutively or for 20 years accumulatively.

The prevail law requires foreigners to live here for five years consecutively or 10 years accumulatively to be eligible for citizenship. - JP

;JP;NFK; ANPAa..r.. Science-Olympiad-Host

JP/5/scene17

RI to host int'l science Olympiad

JAKARTA: Indonesia will for the first time host an international science Olympiad for junior high school students from Dec. 5 to Dec. 14, an official said on Friday.

At least 17 countries, including some from Asia, have confirmed their participation in the International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO), said Indonesia's director general for primary and secondary education, Indra Djati Sidi.

The education ministry teamed up with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Indonesian Physics Association (HFI) in February to select students from 30 provinces for the competition.

The ministry then chose the top 12 from the selection, and is training them from March until November.

Only the host of the event is allowed to enter 12 students in the competition. Other participating countries will enter six students each. --Antara

;JP;Naomy ANPAa..r.. Pusri-scam-BII Police arrest two suspects in BII scam JP/4/BII

Police detain two suspects in BII scam

JAKARTA: Police said on Friday they had arrested two suspects for their alleged roles in a Rp 31 billion bank scam involving the pension fund of fertilizer firm PT Pupuk Sriwijaya and Bank International Indonesia (BII).

The detained suspects are the head of the BII Juanda sub- branch in Central Jakarta, Wahyu Hartanto, and politician Tonny Marthawinata.

The two are being interrogated at the National Police Headquarters. The number of suspects is expected to rise to more than 10, said Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko, director of the police fraud squad.

"We will question another 10 people to establish their roles in the case," he said

The scandal was revealed after BII rejected a request from three senior officials in the foundation that manages the pension fund to cash in two fake redemption certificates worth a total of Rp 31 billion. --JP

;JP;MTR; ANPAa..r.. KPU-Members-Data

Number of voters to rise by 11,000

JAKARTA: The General Elections Commission (KPU) said on Friday that an additional 11,000 people would be eligible to vote in the Sept. 20 runoff.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the additional voters would be those who turned 17 years old by election day.

The young voters will be registered during what he called a "passive" reregistration period that would start soon. "We will have complete data on eligible voters by August 18," Ramlan said. -- JP