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