JP/6/E04
Telephone rates
The government has finally delayed the new telephone tariff increases, which should be effective this month. The delay was announced after a meeting between three coordinating ministers and members of the House and Representatives (DPR) and People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on Wednesday. However, it is not clear for how long the delay will be.
The delay is somewhat comforting for the people, who had been complaining about the 15 percent increase in telephone rates.
House member Sutradara Ginting said the meeting also reached a deal that the executive and legislature would not blame each other for the increase. Both sides had been blaming each other.
In fact, it was the House that approved the 2003 state budget, which became the basis of the government's development plans. The increase in the fuel prices was supposed to save Rp 17 trillion in state funds.
Now that the people have registered their opposition against the policy, it's time for the House to ask the government to find other sources of income, including dealing with the country's so- far immune debtors.
-- Warta Kota, Jakarta
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JP/6/E02
Cheap rice for the poor stolen
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso was upset upon hearing that the central government had distributed cheap rice for poor families in Jakarta without his awareness.
He said that it was the city administration that is the most informed about the number of poor families and where they live in the capital city. Sutiyoso became even angrier after housewives in Klender, East Jakarta, complained that no single family in the area has received the cheap rice, worth Rp 1,000 per kilogram.
Locals said that each family should have received 10 kilograms in December.
Subdistrict officials denied the reports, claiming that the rice had been distributed through the neighborhood chiefs. Thus, it is the neighborhood chiefs that must be responsible for the distribution.
Shockingly the central rice market in Cipinang, East Jakarta, reported that some people, reportedly from the Klender subdistrict office and several neighborhood chiefs had tried to sell cheap rice to a rice seller in the market.
Distribution is obviously the main problem in such a scheme. Therefore non-governmental organizations always voice their concern about the implementation of compensation programs for poor families.
We just hope that whoever is in charge of distributing the rice or anything else for the poor will have the compassion not to steal or misuse what the poor families deserve.
-- Warta Kota, Jakarta
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JP/6/E03
Organ donation
Organ donation remains a touchy, highly personal matter to this day. Most people, bar those with overt cultural taboos and religious leanings, affect a fetching altruism when asked if they would pledge to have vital organs removed upon death. But of course, they would. Transplant techniques have made amazing strides. The act of giving a kidney or a liver saves lives. All true.
The letdown comes, as is usually the case, in the unspoken 'You first' reflex. Taken down the chain, it would mean that precious little would ever get done in the way of giving express consents. Singapore has had an opt-in organ donation law - the Medical (Therapy, Education and Research) Act - for 31 years now.
Only 30,451 persons had given consent as of 1999, out of the 2.3 million people eligible.
Is this indifference, or does it show that squeamishness remains a barrier? It would seem the latter. Public education is going to be key to the success of the ministry's campaign.
-- Straits Times, Singapore
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JP/6/E04
Japan's policy on refugees
As a person or as a nation, we have a moral imperative to extend a helping hand to people in severe distress.
Japan, however, has never been eager to help the international society's most vulnerable given the fact that it has so far taken in only 300 refugees, although it singed the Convention Relating the Status of Refugees more than 20 years ago. Japan admitted only 11 refugees last year, according to a group of lawyers providing support to asylum seekers.
We have been calling on the government to assign the job of screening asylum applications, which is now performed by the immigration authorities, to a new independent screening agency to be helped by experts in refugee problems who belong to credited international or civil organizations. That's because we believe accepting refugees and supporting their lives in Japan is a mission different in nature from the tasks of the immigration authorities.
"The government should listen to the voices of ... asylum seekers and take steps to improve its asylum system to accept more refugees, taking account of the unstable situations in east Asia.
-- Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo
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JP/6/E05
Cricket and Zimbabwe
Sport and politics have never been easy bedfellows. The decision of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to proceed with the World Cup international against Zimbabwe is deeply regrettable. It will be condemned not merely by ministers here but in Zimbabwe itself. It cannot, realistically, be argued that any team which represents this country must always avoid every nation which fails to meet every standard of human rights and democracy. That is an unreasonable demand on sporting authorities. It is, however, legitimate to ask that these bodies seek to avoid engagements that actively assist dictatorships and provide no plausible prospect that ordinary citizens will benefit. This is a test that the ECB may fail.
-- The Times, London
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JP/6/E06
North Korea's 'great leader'
North Korea's "Great Leader," Kim Il-sung, believes the best way to negotiate with the rest of the world is through escalation of threats. ...
Kim is enigmatic, isolated, and paranoid but he is not dumb. His timing has been impeccable. He created the current crisis when the Bush administration was focusing on a possible war with Iraq. He exploited the anti-American attitude of the new South Korean president. And he is playing off the United States against the probable reactions of China and Russia. ...
Nuclear power is the only real poker chip Kim has. It is his leverage in dealing with the most powerful country in the world. And as demonic and irrational as Saddam Hussein sometimes appears, Kim is even more dangerous.
The United States cannot fix this problem alone. But it must provide leadership by working with the United Nations, and especially with neighboring South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, in order to defuse this crisis and, most importantly, develop programs to bring North Korea out of its Stalinist isolation and into the world community.
-- The Daily Times, Farmington, New Mexico