Other Opinion

Other Opinion

The right of assembly

The question of licenses needed for various purposes has once
again come to the fore. Among the reasons is the fact that Police
Brig. Gen. (ret.) Mrs. Roekmini Koesoemo was recently denied the
opportunity to speak at a meeting in Surabaya because of the lack
of a permit. And most recently a get-together planned for W.S.
Rendra at Emha Ainun Najib's house in Yogyakarta was canceled
because no permit had been obtained.

It is no wonder that questions have arisen among the public as
to the need for such licenses. Among other things, the legal
grounds and the criteria for such actions have been questioned.

Actually it has long been proposed that this matter of
licenses for meetings be regulated by legislation, as stipulated
by Article 18 of the 1945 Constitution.

If we are truly consistent in our intent to foster a climate
of openness, then the passing of a law to ensure the freedom of
assembly has become an urgent matter.

-- Suara Pembaruan, Jakarta

Man and technology

The events leading to the crash of a China Airlines jetliner
last month began when an automatic "circling" procedure was
accidentally triggered.

The pilots of the CAL Airbus A300-600R attempted to lower the
nose of the plane for landing while the jet's computer worked to
raise it in order to circle. These conflicting operations
continued until the last moment, causing the aircraft to stall
and crash at Nagoya airport, killing 264 people.

An interim report released recently by a Transport Ministry
panel vividly details the tension in the cockpit and events
during the flight immediately before the April 26 crash, the
nation's second worst air disaster.

However, the report did not go so far as to identify the cause
of the crash, leaving unanswered many mysteries surrounding the
tragedy, including why the automatic flight procedure was
triggered.

There is a dispute between French and Taiwanese aeronautic
authorities as to whether the crash was due to pilot error or
equipment. But the disaster poses a more fundamental question:
How man can live in harmony with rapid advances in high
technology?

We hope the panel's final report will not only identify the
cause of the crash but also examine basic concepts of high-tech
aircraft and present proposals to ensure safe flights, including
improvements in pilot training.

It is the fundamental duty of airlines to identify the cause
of minor accidents and use their findings to raise the overall
safety of flights.

We also believe a new perspective is needed regarding aircraft
design. For years, many aeronautic specialists have noted that
the noses of such craft become pitched at an increasingly higher
angle when manually operated during an automatic landing mode. It
remains to be seen whether this peculiarity of the model may have
played a part in the crash.

It is not easy to determine which should take precedence,
manual or automatic navigation. Nevertheless, high-tech aircraft
must be equipped with a more advanced fail-safe system that can
contain pilot error to avoid tragedy when manual operations
override the automatic mode.

In consideration of all these factors, it is apparent that
fourth-generation jetliners leave much room for improvement. All
the argument about the China Airlines' tragedy should not end in
a dispute over whether it was caused by pilot error or a
technical breakdown.

--The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo