What do high-ranking officials, including the President, think

What do high-ranking officials, including the President, think upon seeing the floods that have hit many areas in the country?

Recent reports gave the impression that they considered the flooding a trivial problem -- an annual event in the rainy season.

There has been no special discussion by Cabinet ministers, focusing on the floods. Yet, Vice President Hamzah Haz has made a trip to the holy land of Mecca for the haj pilgrimage. It's not the pilgrimage that we are criticizing, but the Vice President is in a high-profile position, which carries public responsibility.

Members of the House of Representatives? They have acted as if they were not representing the people. Both the executive and legislators have no sense of crisis and seem to be more interested in political affairs.

The recent natural disasters, including landslides and floods in East and Central Java, Jambi, Bengkulu and West Java, have claimed several lives and displaced thousands of survivors.

In Jakarta and Bekasi hundreds of homes have been submerged by floodwaters.

The disasters have simply emphasized the suffering of ordinary people. For the people, who are suffering from the economic crisis, life means now, while the managers of the country are focusing on the 2004 elections.

-- Republika, Jakarta

Exonerated by the court, arrested by the police

The Tangerang District Court exonerated on Wednesday three people from African countries, Kholisan Nkomo, alias Izuchukwu Okoloaja, Michel Titus Igweh and Hilary K. Chimieze, charged with drug dealing, for technical reasons.

Police officers arrested the three as they were leaving the penitentiary gate -- on a previous allegation -- for possession of drugs.

The trial of the three started after the police found 50 grams of heroin believed to belong to Okoloaja's girlfriend at a house in the Regensi Melati Mas housing complex in Tangerang, and another 5.9 kilograms of heroin at a Kelapa Gading apartment rented by Chimieze.

However, the court freed the three on Wednesday because the names on the dossiers were different to the names the court had.

The court decision has apparently incited the anger of Regensi Melati Mas housing complex residents. The residents said they were disappointed by the prosecutors' indictments, which proved to be weak. The police were also disappointed with the court proceedings. This gave a strong impression that cooperation among law enforcers were very poor.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta

The rush to war

There is great temptation - especially for those opposed to military action in Iraq - to blame the upcoming adventure on Americans to control oil in that part of the world. It is an interpretation also embraced by most of the Arab and Muslim world.

Then there is the even shallower argument that the rush to war is all about this president's desire to get the man his father failed to nail.

Most of the world loves a simple answer.

The truth is more complex. This is not only about oil, although it certainly plays a part, and it isn't about a son's revenge. This is about enormously complicated geopolitics. It is about maintaining and slowly altering a delicate balance of power in the Middle East and it is about disarming a disgusting dictator.

So, let us not be shallow about the reasons for war in Iraq. They are many and they are deep.

That, however, does not answer the question of why and why now.

Why, after tolerating the nonsense of Saddam Hussein for a decade, must we send 100,000 troops into war now? Why must we expend the wealth of the nation at a time when most Americans are struggling with a stagnate economy? Why must we delve into this firestorm knowing it will bring on the wrath of most the Arab nations and feed the trough of terrorists worldwide? ...

The Anniston Star, Anniston, Alabama

Shuttle Columbia

The outpouring of international sympathy, grief and scientific solidarity for the United States space authorities after the tragic disaster with the Columbia shuttle is vivid testimony to the esteem their work enjoys throughout the world. ...

The 80 pieces of research work the crew was doing, ranging from analysis of Saharan dust to the nature of high altitude flashes in the earth's most upper atmosphere, are reported and commented on in this newspaper today. They draw unusual public attention to a basic feature of the world we inhabit and take for granted. The death of these seven crew members will delay construction of the International Space Station. It is already substantially behind schedule and dogged with controversy; but this tragedy should not stop it.

Yesterday's responses by U.S. political leaders and scientific representatives underlined their determination not to let the tragedy affect their commitment to the basic work involved - nor to let it affect morale in other spheres. Such exploration is very expensive. Nevertheless, the basic research/scientific, practical/economic, and military/security benefits and payoffs involved should ensure the program goes on despite this grave upset. It is a genuinely international endeavor in a globalizing world more and more reliant on space-based research and communications. This work must continue after the Columbia disaster.

-- The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland