It would be spectacular if Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh's

It would be spectacular if Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh's
statement that some 1,000 village heads in the regency of Bireuen
in the war-torn province were prepared to resign came to pass.

Puteh did not elaborate on why the village heads would give up
their posts. However, it is obvious that the desire to cripple
the administration at the lowest level, following the maneuvers
of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), is behind the threatened
resignations.

Administrative chaos at the low levels is commonplace in Aceh.
Yet some villages have two heads; the state's version and the GAM
version. And some village heads did not have the courage to do
their jobs because of GAM intimidation.

Therefore, the home ministry's plan to replace those village
heads without the guts to do their jobs could be considered as
being responsible for the threatened resignations.

A statement from the ministry was answered by 76 village heads
who stated they were ready to resign. They may have thought that
sooner or later they would be dismissed, in line with the
government's actions against GAM.

It would, therefore, be wise for the government to review its
stance on village heads. Village administrations must be
reactivated to serve the public and to protect the people from
GAM's propaganda and terror.

The presence of the TNI and police should be increased in the
villages to boost the spirit of the villagers, and we suggest
that soldiers and police officers become patrons of the village
heads going about their daily duties.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta

The annual disaster comes again

It is really ironic that forest fires have begun to rage in
several Indonesian islands only a week after the country
commemorated Environment Day.

Kalimantan and Sumatra have for the past six years been facing
the disaster every year. Fires have destroyed some 2,000
hectares of forest land in Riau province this week alone. They
have also damaged forests in Jambi, South Kalimantan and Central
Kalimantan provinces.

The forest fires reportedly started in the two islands last
May. Smoke from the fires have disrupted land, air and water
transportations. The fires have also posed threats to the
people's health.

Head of forest and land protection of the provincial forestry
office in Riau, Fadrizal Labay, attributed the forest fires to
the onset of the land-clearing season, usually during the dry
season.

Unfortunately, the annual practice of land-clearing has not
only caused forest fires but also transportation disturbance.

If the practices remain uncontrolled, its bad impact would not
only threaten the local people but also those in neighboring
countries like Malaysia and Singapore.

Thus, trusting provincial administrations to deal with forest
fires is unrealistic as they do not have enough money, facilities
and human resources to face the disaster.

If the government handles the forest fires without any effort
to change the local people's attitude and regreen the damaged
areas, the same disaster will recur next year.

We should take stern and integrated actions to manage the
problem. -- Kompas, Jakarta