JP/4/scen9
JP/4/scen9
New party offers free education
SURABAYA: The newly established United Regional Party (PPD) is offering free education and health services in a campaign to attract recruits and to lure voters in the general elections next year.
Party chairman Oesman Sapta said on Friday that his party would be an instrument for regions to convey their aspirations.
Oesman, who is a deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), promised his party's executive board would never intervene in decisions made by its regional chapters.
He said the PPD was ready to be verified to be legible to contest the 2004 elections, claiming that it had 28 provincial chapters across the country.
Oesman, who was accompanied by PPD's East Java chapter chairman Andi Matulessi, was speaking during his visit to Surabaya to meet party cadres and disclose the party's programs.
He refused to say how many votes the party was targeting in the elections. --Antara
;JP;SPS; ANPAa..r.. Borobudur-ship- Ten Indonesian ship crew passed the Borobudur expedition selection JP/4/scen9b
Shipmates chosen for historic journey
JAKARTA: The Borobudur ship expedition team has selected 10 people out of hundreds of applicants to join an historic journey tracing the cinnamon trade route.
"Indonesians interested in joining the selection is very high. We have received a total of about 800 applicants," committee chairman Sapta Nirwanda said on Friday.
Two of the selected candidates are women and they will join the journey that is separated into four parts.
The expedition will start from the Ancol seaport in North Jakarta on Aug. 15, and is expected to arrive in Ghana, Africa, in December.
The reconstruction of the Borobudur boat was designed by Australian marine archaeologist Nick Burningham. --Antara
Irregularities found in seven provinces
BANDUNG: The General Inspectorate of the Ministry of Home Affairs has said it had found at lest 674 cases of irregularities in the use of state funds in seven provinces.
The largest number were found in West Sumatra with 131 cases.
Of the 674 cases, at least 94 involved corruption (14 percent), while others respectively were violations of internal regulations (326 cases) and job shirking (88 cases), ministry deputy inspector-general Bambang T said.
He said the irregularities had caused losses of Rp 1.7 billion to the state. -- Antara
RI among the worst for birth record
BANDUNG: The United Nations has rated Indonesia among the worst countries in the world for keeping birth records, which has contributed to massive child exploitation in the country.
"Indonesian birth records is also among the worst in ASEAN," head of the Banten and West Java chapter of the United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef) Hilda Winarta said on Thursday.
The national census in 2001 revealed that 11 million children were born without birth records, or only four out of 10 children in the country had birth certificates.
Hilda said the low rate of birth certificate possession stemmed from people's inability to pay fees to obtain such documents, lack of awareness and complicated procedures.
"Without birth certificates, children have no citizenship. Therefore they will get no protection from the state," Hilda said. --Antara.