JP/4/scen-21

People told to choose trustable leaders

PADANG, West Sumatra: Chairman of the Freedom Party Adi Sasono urged people to vote for leaders who are ethical and moral, and have common sense in the 2004 elections.

He said on Sunday that moral and ethical leaders would help the nation overcome its multidimensional crisis.

Adi, formerly the state minister of cooperatives and small and medium enterprises, said a lack of credible leaders would only make Indonesia suffer.

He noted that many national leaders often ignored the public interest and instead made their personal interests a top priority. He said that the state assets sales was an example of a decision that was made only to benefit the leaders.

Adi said Indonesia's future generations would not be able to enjoy the state assets, because many had been sold to foreign companies.

Indonesia is scheduled to hold its first general elections in April 2004 and a two-step direct presidential election from June to August 2004. -- Antara

;JP;ANTARA; ANPAa..r.. Scene-pkb-solidary Solidarity required to combat corruption JP/4/scene

SALATIGA, Central Java: Deputy secretary general of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Yahya Staquf urged cadres in Salatiga to boost their cooperation for the 2004 elections.

He suggested that cadres in the mayoralty improve their evaluation guidelines and organize a meeting once every three weeks.

Yahya, spokesman of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, emphasized that solidarity was the key to helping the party gain more votes in the 2004 elections.

During the 1999 elections, the PKB ranked fourth and won 51 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR).

Yahya also called on cadres to unite and combat the practices of corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN) blamed for the current multidimensional crisis. -- Antara

;AFP; ANPAi..r.. Indonesia-liondance Indonesian city to host Chinese lion-dance festival JP/INDONESIA

Singkawang to host Lion Dance Festival

JAKARTA: The city of Singkawang in Kalimantan, which is predominantly Chinese-Indonesian, is to host the next World Chinese Lion Dance festival in 2004, a report said on Sunday.

Zeet Hamdy Assovie, secretary of the Singkawang town administration, said Singkawang "probably has the biggest reserve of Chinese lion dancers in Indonesia".

The first Indonesian city to hold the festival was Padang, West Sumatra, in March last year.

Singkawang is located 145 kilometers north of the West Kalimantan provincial capital of Pontianak, and is known as "the city of a thousand Chinese temples".

Lion dances and other public demonstrations of Chinese culture were banned during the iron-fisted rule of former president Soeharto, who was toppled from power in 1998.

Ethnic Chinese-Indonesians account for about three percent of the 214-million-strong national population. -- AFP

;AFP; ANPAi..u.. Iraq-war-demos-Indonesia Indonesian anti-US rally urges boycott of American goods JP/IRAQ

Protesters urge boycott of U.S. goods

JAKARTA: Some 2,000 Indonesians on Sunday held an anti-U.S. rally in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta, calling for a boycott of American goods in protest against the "invasion of Iraq".

The protesters, who came from the Yogyakarta chapters of the Ukhuwah Islamiyah Forum, the Prosperous Justice Party, the Hizbut Tahrir, the Indonesian Muslim Students Committee, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, rallied at a main intersection in the center of the city to protest the war.

"We call on people not to consume Coca-Cola, McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) products because it has been proven that they contributed to the U.S. aggression on Iraq," Chairman of Ukhuwah Islamiyah Forum Ahmad Mursidy told protesters, reported Detikcom.

Posters at the rally bore slogans such as "The United Nations is a puppet of the United States", "People reject U.S. terrorism", "The United States is the real terrorist" and "Boycott all U.S. products".

The protesters also called on Muslims to continue to pray for the Iraqi people and urged the government to severe diplomatic ties with Washington.

Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation and a strong critic of the war, has seen almost daily protests since the war began.

The government is now pressing for a key United Nations role in the interim government following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. -- AFP

;Antara;IWA; ANPAa..r.. Overseas-workers-resend

JP/4/scene

Migrant workers go back to work

JAKARTA: The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration has issued a letter that allows Indonesian migrant workers to go to Saudi Arabia starting next month, after the Iraq war is over.

The chief of the Federation of Manpower Service Agencies (Himsataki), Yunus Yamani, said he had received a copy of the official letter No. 350/2003 issued on April by manpower minister Jacob Nuwa Wea to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta regarding the recommencement of migrant worker placement to Saudi Arabia.

"The letter stipulates, among other things, that the placement of Indonesian workers to Saudi Arabia can resume in May," said Yunus on Sunday.

He said the ministry would only allow those companies that had proper facilities for migrant workers, including a bed for each worker, to resume placement.

Many believed that the placement of migrant workers overseas was banned by the government due to the Iraq war.

However, the government said placement agencies needed to improve the communications skills, especially language proficiency, of Indonesian workers before sending them overseas. -- Antara