blog @abdulmanan

The Mayor of Balikpapan has sued Pertamina et al to the court for polluting the city beaches. MAYOR Imdaad Hamid was incensed at the sight of sludge oil polluting the waters of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan. The oil slicks, 3 meters wide, are spread over a 3-kilometer area, blighting the beaches. "I don't want to see the waters dirtied by the oil spills," Hamid says with anger. Lantung, that's what the locals call the sludge oils. On June 26 last year Hamid led a month-long clean-up operation and ordered oil companies operating in the area, including Pertamina, Total Indonesie, Unocal and Expan, to take part. Earlier Hamid set up a team to assess the damage and bring the polluters to court. "The mayor is determined to teach a lesson to those who have polluted the waters," says Neil Makinudin, an environmental activist of the Friends of the Beach. Officials charge the sludge oils were spilled by MT Panos G, a Cyprus-flagged tanker chartered by Pertamina from ...

AFTER `tactical fund' became the most popular terminology since corruption in the General Elections Commission was exposed not too long ago, a new word has been appearing quite frequently in the press, associated with the alleged corruption in the Religious Affairs Department. That word is `Community Perpetuity Fund' or DAU. So far, two persons have been investigated and detained. They are suspected of embezzling the haj pilgrimage funds. The first is Taufik Kamil, former Director-General for Islamic Community Guidance and Haj Organization, who was detained last Friday. He was followed by former Religious Affairs Minister, Said Agil Husin al-Munawar, who was arrested the following Thursday. Former Religious Affairs Minister (1993-1998) Tarmizi Taher is of the opinion that the obvious element in this case is the management of the DAU. "I see a certain amount of naivete," he told Tempo reporters Abdul Manan and Tulus Wijanarko in a special interview last Friday. Excerpt...