War in Aceh
War in Aceh
Peace talks between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels from Aceh province held in Tokyo broke off Sunday with no agreement. Within hours, Indonesia's President Megawati Soekarnoputri declared effective martial law in Aceh and ordered an army assault on the Free Aceh Movement, the pro-independence rebel group, known locally as GAM.
Indonesia is a multicultural, multiracial nation of many religions and languages. It is not hard to understand why the Megawati government was so quick to crack down on any separatist movement. But history shows this problem cannot be solved solely by military force.
GAM also needs to back away from insisting it will never stop its pursuit for independence, no matter how long it takes. No nation in the world would support a revival of the Aceh Kingdom. Most people in the region prefer a peaceful and quiet life above all.
Although the peace negotiations in Tokyo failed, Japan holds some leverage with Indonesia as its largest aid donor. The government should press Indonesia and other concerned nations to try harder to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
-- Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo
Fight against terrorism
While terrorism spreads carnage throughout the world, feeding the demand for public security "at every cost," the European Union is indicating that the protection of personal information is a fundamental right of its citizens. Security and privacy seem to inhabit two separate, distant worlds.
Are privacy rights really in conflict with security rights? Defending individual privacy isn't necessarily a limitation; it's an opportunity. More privacy can mean more security. The protection of data as innocuous as airline passenger lists, for example, can be crucial. ...
The protection of personal data must be addressed through precise regulation, as a type of habeas corpus for citizens of the third millennia. If one opts to sacrifice his right to privacy on the altar of security, there should be measures in place to protect his personal information. Those who compile private data must be held accountable. They must explain what the data is for, who it's for, and for how long it will be kept on file.
-- Corriere Della Sera, Milan, Italy
GlaxoSmithKline's chief executive KALAU NGGAK TERPAKSA JANGAN DIPAKAI
Finally someone has rebelled against rewarding failure. GlaxoSmithKline's chief executive, Jean-Pierre Garnier, should never have been in line for tens of millions of pounds if he had lost his job. Trade unionists, the public and politicians were angry about the insouciance and arrogance of a boardroom deaf to their pleas for wage restraint. ... Shareholders in Europe's biggest drug company voted against the proposed pay deal - a first in British corporate history. The detachment of managerial rewards from economic reality is to blame for this. While share prices and profits fall and the pall of financial bad news hangs over the stock market, executives in the top FTSE-100 companies trousered pay increases of 23 percent in the last quarter. Watching directors' salaries rise as jobs are cut and wealth is destroyed rather than created is indefensible and immoral. But it is not illegal - yet. ...
Executives should make do with much less - a three-month notice period sounds right. Their contracts should be put to a shareholders' vote. Pay-offs, too, need to be linked to performance. The size of bosses' pensions, which expand as fast as their employees' shrink, requires urgent attention. Those managers who often view their vice as virtue claim that without such incentives entrepreneurs would not take risks. But the only risks being taken are with share prices, which fund our pensions. The notion that globalization sees Wall Street salaries in the Square Mile is also bogus. It should be innovation and success - difficult quantities to measure -- that merit pay rises, not the fact that a company's interests span borders. Even then riches should be shared. Too often the only beneficiaries of a successful business are its executives. The disparity between boardroom and shopfloor wages is now too large to justify. We have to accept that market states produce income inequality. That is why governments must act. Unrestrained greed is not a proper basis for society. ...
The Guardian, London