Why should the police lie?

Why should the police lie?

The sloppy arrest of Islamic terrorist suspects by the police
won't help the country deal with terrorism. Instead, it will be
counterproductive.

During the past year the police have been vigorously showing
to the people how dangerous the terror threat is from Jamaah
Islamiyah (JI). They have also demonstrated their seriousness in
dealing with the threat. However, the fact is that the police are
not that serious and they tend to lie to the public.

The police announced they have arrested 15 (Islamic) activists
in Surakarta, Semarang (Central Java), Jakarta and Lampung
(southern Sumatra) over bomb blasts, including the JW Marriott
bombing.

National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar defended the arrests,
saying that they were in-line with the new antiterrorism law. The
law allows the police to arrest terrorist suspects for not more
than one week based on preliminary evidence gathered by the
intelligence agents and the court. This means that the arrests
must be acknowledged by the court - through a warrant letter. The
facts show that Da'i Bachtiar has lied to the public.

We know that material evidence that was collected through
illegal procedures cannot be used in court, meaning that what the
police have done is nothing. The police must be aware of their
actions, but why have they done that? Why should Da'i lie?

If such malpractice by the police continues, what we are doing
is not eradicating terrorism. The police move is apparently
triggering suspicion that antiterror campaigns are identical to
antiIslam campaigns. This could trigger unnecessary radicalism
and inter-religious tension.

-- Koran Tempo, Jakarta

It is indeed difficult
to manage the country

Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri has several times
complained about how heavy her duty is as head of state.

She has already expressed dissatisfaction over government
bureaucracy and the performance of cabinet ministers.

This daily has long reminded that the structure of our
bureaucracy is no longer fit to be used in the present situation.
The president should thus take concrete steps to build a new
structure of bureaucracy, which can support national development.

We appreciate people who have chosen to become politicians and
devote their lives to the nation's interests. A politician
should know that setting up democracy could not be done in one
night. It is a long-term investment, the returns of which will
be enjoyed only by the next generations.

Consequently, we should not become hopeless in bringing this
nation out of its many crises. We should be optimistic that
Indonesia could survive.

We thus hope that the president could encourage all components
of the nation to do their best for the country.

Indonesia has the chance to emerge out of its many crises as
it has a very good macroeconomic condition.

We need a leader who does not easily become desperate -- a
leader who can raise the people's hopes for a better future.

-- Kompas, Jakarta

Do not ignore
macroeconomic stability

Meeting with a number of media leaders last Tuesday, central
bank Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said the
stability of the macroeconomy should not be ignored.

He invited all parties to prevent unemployment and poverty in
particular, by keeping the macroeconomic stability that has been
achieved.

Burhanuddin said macroeconomic stability should by no means be
neglected because it was not achieved arbitrarily and that
macroeconomy is never static.

Thus, all of us should make use of this stability, especially
those from the banking and business sectors.

Once again, we have successfully kept our economic stability
by being able to lower the budget deficit from 4.8 percent
against the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2000 to 2 percent in
2003.

We have also pushed down government debts from 100 percent in
2000 to about 70 percent in 2003, and pressed inflation from 60
percent in 1998 to about 6 percent at present.

However, we have to be aware that poverty rate is recorded at
16 percent and that some 40 million people remain jobless.

If we can make use of the macroeconomic stability to combat
poverty and unemployment, we would all be lucky.

-- Kompas, Jakarta

The WTO summit

Europeans had nothing to be proud of at Cancun. Our economic
superpower -- so rich that it can pay every farmer 17,000 a year
each in public subsidies -- had a decisive role in the failure of
the summit: we impeded an agreement with Third World countries
where the majority of the population lives on less than 2 a day.
Our negotiators brought back home intact the agricultural
protectionism that is anachronistic and cause for global shame.

An agreement (at the summit), it was calculated, could have
saved an estimated 144 million people from poverty.

From the disaster there is only one thing to celebrate: The
new politics which manifested itself in the emergence of a
coalition of 23 developing countries.

The wrecking of the WTO is not a defeat for globalization, but
rather the victory of a more savage and less regulated
globalization.

Cancun was the occasion for showing what values we want to
present to the rest of the world.

Europe failed the trial, and such an important test does not
arise often.

-- La Repubblica, Rome

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Why should the police lie?
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Israel's war against Hamas

In one week, Palestinian resistance group Hamas lost a dozen
activists slain in Israeli missile hits. Two senior leaders,
however, survived the Israeli strikes.

No end looms in sight for this Israeli rampage, which dashes
any lingering hopes that the damage of the past two weeks would
be repaired. Israeli officials have vowed to pursue their war
against what they brand as Palestinian terror groups.

According to Israeli calculations, reducing Hamas to its knees
would force the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table
-- but on Tel Aviv's terms. A recent decision by the European
Union blacklisting Hamas as a terror group has undoubtedly
embolden Israel to press ahead with its bloody crackdown.

The United States, the self-styled peace broker, has bought
Israel's twisted logic and militarism, putting the blame squarely
on the Palestinians for derailing an internationally backed peace
plan.

Israel must expect deadly reprisals from the Palestinians, now
left with no hope or option but to revenge. As the latest
Palestinian retaliatory hits must have demonstrated, Israel's
stringent security measures or the "separating fence" are not
deterrent.

-- The Egyptian Gazette, Cairo, Egypt

Sweden's rejection of the euro

Deep down, even the most fanatical supporters of the euro must
now recognize that it isn't going to happen. Their two main
contentions -- that the euro is inevitable, and that Britain is
too small to go it alone -- have been blown away by Sweden's
"nej."

The British, Swedish and Danish opt-outs now look permanent.
The question is no longer, "Will Britain join the euro?" or even,
"Should Britain join the euro?", but, "Given that Britain is not
joining the euro, what kind of relationship should we forge with
our neighbors?"

All three parties need to do some muscular thinking about this
for, at present, our foreign policy is built on a falsehood.
Central to Britain's diplomacy is the notion that, by "leading in
Europe," we can make the EU more receptive to our needs, and so
amplify our power in the world. Yet, whatever the pretensions of
our successive leaders, it is clear that the British people have
no desire to "lead in Europe" if that means surrendering their
currency and diminishing their independence. The way in which
British Europhiles disregard this reality is, in its way,
awesome. What part of "no" don't they understand? ...

-- Daily Telegraph, London

The development of AIDS treatment

The development of new treatments for AIDS represents a
triumph of medical research, but this scientific miracle also has
produced some unexpected pitfalls.

It's wonderful that so many HIV-positive people are leading
healthy lives thanks to complex drug regimens. But because some
people perceive that AIDS is no longer a death sentence, they
feel less motivated to avoid such risky behaviors as drug use and
unprotected sex.

A new study conducted at Johns Hopkins University has given
public health experts yet another reason to worry. Researchers
told HealthDay News ... that intravenous drug users in Baltimore
who think that AIDS is treatable are less likely to use condoms
during sex and less likely to seek out sterile needles.

The survey produced some other alarming statistics: Two-thirds
of sexually active participants in the Johns Hopkins study say
they engage in unprotected sex, and half say they share needles
with other users.

These factors go a long way toward explaining why infection
rates among IV drug users have not declined, as they have for
some other groups at risk of contracting HIV.

The first priority is to increase opportunities for
rehabilitation so that IV drug users have the chance to break
their addictions. But it's also obvious that public health
officials need to intensify efforts to inform IV drug users in
particular of the continuing danger that HIV poses.

-- Times-Picayune, New Orleans

U.S. policy toward Arafat

If he is sidelined, there is still at least a chance that a
moderate leader may emerge to lead the Palestinian people on the
road to peace. The Israeli policy of expelling him from the West
Bank or, as some extremists urge, killing him will make matters
far worse.

That was demonstrated when thousands of Palestinians took to
the streets in the West Bank and Gaza to declare that they would
give their lives to prevent the expulsion of their longtime
leader. ...

If Mr. Arafat is killed, as some extremists in Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet, including Mr. Mofaz and
Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman, have suggested, he
will become a martyr. If he is forcibly taken into exile, Mr.
Arafat will be center front on the international stage.

Both possibilities alarmed Secretary of State Colin Powell so
much that both he and the White House openly criticized
Israel. ...

Israel's interests, as well as those of the Middle East and
the world at large, would best be served by isolating Mr. Arafat
so that his leadership powers are weakened and his voice muffled.
Then rival, moderate voices could be heard by the Palestinian
people.

If Israel insists on a policy as dangerous as the expulsion or
assassination of President Arafat, the Jewish state would be
isolated from world opinion, never mind the possibility that
whatever method may be chosen to "remove" him could set the
Middle East ablaze.

-- The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina