The Roots of Terrorism

Today the National Police announced the identity of terrorist who blew himself at the Church in Solo, Central Java, last Sunday i.e  Pino Damayanto a.k.a Ahmad Yosepa Hayat (31) who was wanted by the Police for his involvement in the suicide bombing at the Police mosque in Cirebon, West Java, last April.

The mass media reported that Ahmad Yosepa and three others were prepared by the Cirebon Terrorist group to carry out suicide bombings.

As a normal human being, I strongly believe that normal human beings would never want to kill themselves and other people for decent reasons.

People who commit suicide to kill others are either frustrated or suffer mental depression or politically or religiously fanatic because of the situation and condition in their lives. Or, alternatively, they are brainwashed or hypnotized by other people who has the power to do so.

All of which can be caused by poverty, lack of education, lack of jobs, injustices, corruption, ugly political condition, etc.

Considering the above, I felt that terrorism cannot be eliminated just by eliminating people who are allegedly involved in any acts of terrorism like urging people to take illegal actions against other people who have different ideology or religion, and/or campaigning illegal actions to the society for example through the internet

Terrorism cannot also be eliminated by merely giving extra-power to the intelligence agencies whose ability and seriousness to detect acts of terror is under question. This is proven from the fact that the Solo bomb exploded just 5 months after the suicide bomb at the Police mosque in Cirebon, although the Police has issued a wanted persons list.
This can also be seen from the fact that violent organizations and website that advocate radical actions like arrahmah.com were allowed to exist.

The best way to eliminate terrorism would be by eliminating all the things that causes terrorism i.e. provide enough job, decent and inexpensive housing, schools, eliminating corruption, fair business competition, decent political practices, law enforcement based on equality before the laws, presumption of innocence and respect of human rights.

Who Should be Responsible for the Solo Bombing?

A man killed himself by blowing a bomb he carried with him at the Kepunton Church in Solo, Central Java, 10.45 a.m today, injuring 19 others.

In this regards I would like to express my deepest sympathy to those who have been hit by the bomb.

President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) condemned the bombing, saying that it is the work of the Cirebon Terrorist Group whose member blew a bomb at a mosque in Cirebon, West Java, killing himself and injuring a Police officer on 15 April 2011.

The President also said that preventive and proactive actions shall be taken to find out about this bombing incident.

Further, an internal investigation on the Police, Intelligence and Military units, especially those in Central Java, shall be carried out to find out whether they have coordinated well to prevent terrorist action.

Furthermore, he said that this bombing proves that what he has often warned about terrorists threat is real, not just a make-believe.

I hope that an overall investigation will be conducted immediately to find out who is the suicide bomber, the people behind him and what is the motive, why can it happen ? why can't our intelligence detect it ?

Jakarta Social Media Festival

If you are a social media activist, or you want to know what the social media is about, and you are living in Jakarta and vicinity, or you just happened to be visiting Jakarta between 22 and 24 September, you better come to this event which is held at the FX Life X'nter building, Jalan Jendral Sudirman, Central Jakarta.

For details, please visit the website : http://www.socmedfest.com.

I'd like to go there but I'm not sure when, I shall be happy if I can meet you there, for which purpose you may contact my e-mail: harrynizam@gmail.com.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Harry Nizam

The Wasted Monorail Project

As a capital city that has a total population of more than 8.5 million people (2010), Jakarta needs a mass rapid transportation (MRT) system.

For this purpose, the government of former Governor of Jakarta i.e. Sutiyoso has given a license to PT Jakarta Monorail to build and operate a 26 kilometers Monorail Transportation system.

Construction of the project began on June 2004, but was stopped after 13 kilometers of  concrete pillars was erected in 2007 when Sutiyoso ended his office term, because his successor Fauzi Bowo refused to provide a guarantee needed by PT Jakarta Monorail to finance the project.

Since then, the Monorail's concrete pillars remain standing for four years like some kind of wasted monuments on the streets of Jakarta.

Last Monday, Fauzi Bowo announced that his government has decided to stop the Monorail project, and the  government shall compensate PT Jakarta Monorail with the amount of Rp 204 Billion. This is much lower than the Rp 600 Billion compensation requested by the said company.

This is a very sad news for me, because I have been expecting for so many years to ride on the Monorail in Jakarta.

School Students Vs Reporters

Last Friday, some students of State High School No.6 in Kebayoran, South Jakarta, attacked a cameraman of TranTV i.e. Oktaviardi, and took his video cassette, when he was taking pictures of a fighting between students of said High School and neighboring State High School No. 70.

Tempointeraktif reported that on Monday angry reporters from various news media came to High School No.6 to look for the students who attacked Oktaviardi. After they found the student, they beat him badly.

After they know about the reporters' attack, hundreds of other students came to rescue their badly beaten friend, and fought back the reporters.

The Police tried to stop the fight by shooting their guns three times to the air but failed, because their they were outnumbered.

So the reporters ran away to nearby headquarters of the National Police.

According to Kompas six reporters were injured, i.e. Panca Syaukani from Media Indonesia, Yudistiro Pranoto from Seputar Indonesia, Aldi Gultom from Rakyat Merdeka, Wahyu from Elshinta Radio, Anton from MetroTV and Ardhi from Kompas.

This is a very shameful incident which would not have happened if the High School management and the students' parents could control those students, and the Police could prevent the reporters from hanging around the school.

Justice for Victims of the Rawagede Massacre

After Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces at the end of the World War II, on 17 August 1945, people of the former Dutch colony in South East Asia declared the independence of the Republic of Indonesia.

In spite of this fact, the Dutch Armed Forces wanted to re-conquer said former colony, for which purpose they tried every efforts, including mass murder of hundreds even thousands of Indonesian people.

One of the bloodiest massacre took place on 9 December 1947 in Rawagede (now called Balongsari) a village located between Karawang and Bekasi, West Java, where the Dutch killed 431 innocent people.

In the past I would think that the Rawagede Massacre would remain a mystery, and those responsible would not be touched by the laws, just like the Westerling Massacre in Sulawesi, or victims of Nazi massacre in Europe. Especially that the Indonesian government doesn't seem to support this action.

That's why I was pessimistic when I read that 10 widows of the victims of the Rawagede Massacre initiated legal action against the Netherlands on 10 September 2008.

But thank God, I was very happy when I read on The Jakarta Globe and the blog of Dutch blogger Colson that last Wednesday, 14 September, a Dutch Court has ruled that the Netherlands must pay compensation to seven of the widows (the other three widows died while waiting for the verdict).

I hope this success would inspire the families of victims of other mysterious killings, such as people who died after the 30 September 1965 tragedy, and/or Trisakti University students and others who were killed after the Reformasi on May 1998, and/or the killing of Munir, to initiate legal actions against anyone allegedly responsible for those killings.

Of course it would not be easy considering that it has been very long time, therefore witnesses and/or evidences might not be available anymore, but who knows ?

Orangutan Smoking Cigarettes

Orangutan are endangered animals which according to the Indonesian law must be protected from anything that might endanger its existence.

That's why I was very surprised when AFP reported that Orangutan are 'allowed to smoke in Indonesian  zoos' (below).

I hope that the zoo authority in Indonesia will clarify this disturbing report.

Orangutans 'allowed to smoke in Indonesian zoos'

JAKARTA — An activist said Saturday that orangutans in many of Indonesia's zoos were allowed to smoke as visitors could freely toss cigarettes to them without proper monitoring.

"Cigarettes are bad for orangutans' health. We demand the zoos closely monitor the orangutans," Centre for Orangutan Protection campaigner Hardi Baktiantoro told AFP.

"Orangutans can also smoke cigarettes because they tend to imitate human behaviour," he said.

Baktiantoro said the apes were able to receive any food or cigarettes thrown to them as there were no barriers between them and zoo visitors.

In Malaysia, an orangutan named Shirley that amused visitors by smoking cigarette butts thrown into her cage was being forced to go cold turkey after authorities seized the great ape from a state-run zoo last week.

The Never ending Lapindo Hot Mud Flow

On 28 May 2006, PT. Lapindo Brantas, owned by Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie, failed to follow standard procedure for drilling natural gas in Sidoarjo, East Java, since then Hot Mud has been flowing continuously.

According to Wikipedia, at its peak the Hot Mud spewed 180,000 m3 a day, at mid August 2011 the quantity decreased to 10,000 m3 from 100,000 m3 a year earlier, all of which has inundated large area of farmland, houses, factories, warehouses, roads.

It is predicted that the Hot Mud in Sidoarjo will keep on flowing for the next 25 to 30 years.

There were different (and conflicting) scientific explanations as to the cause of the Hot Mud Flow, some said that it was caused by an earthquake in Jogyakarta a day earlier, but the Indonesian government has seemingly considered this tragedy as a natural disaster and therefore helped the payment of compensation for the damages suffered by the people hit by the Hot Mud Flow.

I hope that there will be a thorough scientific research conducted by legitimate and credible international scientific organizations that would reveal the truth about the Lapindo Hot Mud tragedy.

This truth is very important, especially for the Golkar Party that has planned to nominate Aburizal Barkrie as a candidate in the 2014 Presidential Election.

Fauzi Bowo and Mini Skirt

In the last few days, the news media have been reporting about some women who were raped while they were riding public transport in Jakarta.

In reaction to these incidents, Republika reported that last Friday the Governor of Jakarta Fauzi Bowo a.k.a Foke has asked females not to wear Mini Skirt when they ride on public transportation so as not to arouse Sexual desires of male passengers.

This controversial statement has angered female activists who asked others via Twitter to launch protest called Mini Skirt Action tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon at the Jalan Thamrin Fountain Roundabout.

VivaNews reported that the Governor finally realized that what he has said was a mistake and apologize to the public. But unfortunately, damage has been done, Jakarta females have already been hurt by his statement.

Hmmmmmm .......... CRAZY!

The Sex & Business Activities of Gayus Tambunan

Former Taxman Gayus Tambunan was arrested by the Indonesian Police in Singapore and brought back to Jakarta at the end of May 2010.

Last May, the Jakarta High Court sentenced Gayus to ten years in prison for misuse of Taxpayers money, which is seven years higher than the sentence of the South Jakarta District Court.

In spite of the facts that I just mentioned, Gayus's life in prison is far from miserable, as a matter of fact he seemed to be having a good time and can get what he wants, including Sex and Business sctivities.

He was able to get his wife Meilana pregnant (6 months), which means that he can have sex while in prison, something that cannot be done by other prison inmates because our Prison Law does give possibility for prison inmates to have sex.

Further, he was also able to make a business deal with another prison inmate that caused him to suffer financial loss amounting to Rp 4 Billion. Which means that he can bring that amount of money to the prison, something that not many innocent people can do even outside prison.

The Ministry of Law and Human Rights which manage jails in Indonesia is currently investigating the above cases.

Nomination of Ical Bakrie as Presidential Candidate

In 2014 President SBY will end his second term in office, therefore according to our Constitution he cannot be nominated again as a candidate in the next presidential election.

Although it is only three years from now, President SBY and his ruling Democrat Party have still not mention anyone who is being prepared as the next president.

One political party that has named a presidential candidate is the brand new and almost unknown SRI Party which nominated former finance Minister currently Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) i.e Sri Mulyani.

The opposition PDIP most likely will nominate its chairperson former President Megawati.

The most interesting perhaps would be the candidate of Golkar Party, the second largest and member of the coalition government. According to Kompas (below) Golkar plan to nominate its chairperson business tycoon Aburizal (Ical) Bakrie as candidate president.

One of Biggest Threats to Ical's Presidential Aspirations

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia’s second-largest political party Golkar on Monday picked tycoon and power-broker Aburizal Bakrie as its presidential candidate for elections in 2014, it said.


Bakrie and his entrepreneurial family are collectively worth billions and run businesses in Indonesia selling everything from telecommunications to coal to education. But the Bakries and their companies are mired in allegations of corruption and tax fraud.


A Bakrie family spokesman has denied any wrongdoing, saying such allegations are “baseless and untrue”. Bakrie is currently the chairman of Golkar and was chosen as its representative for the next polls at a party board meeting in Denpasar on the island of Bali, officials said.


“The entire board of Golkar agreed on one thing — that Bakrie would become our presidential candidate in 2014,” the state news agency Antara quoted Ketut Sudikerta, the chairman of Golkar’s Bali chapter, as saying. The decision will be formalised at a future meeting of national party leaders, he added.
Read More

Disharmony in Ambon

Two groups of people clashed in the town of Ambon, Maluku Province, killing at least three people and injuring eighty nine others.

Beside that, two cars, four motorcycles and three houses were burned to the ground during said violence.

The Jakarta Globe quoted the spokesman of the National Police Anton Bahrul Alam as saying that the violence was sparked by a traffic accident that caused the death of an Ojek (Motorcycle Taxi) driver i.e Damin Saiman.

However, an sms sent by unknown people saying that Darmin was tortured to death by members of the other group. Word of mouth prompted a violent clash between the two group, one of which includes the family of Darmin.

The spokesman also said that the Police is now investigating who is responsible for the sms, but no arrest has been made so far. The over-all situation in Ambon is stable now.

The above violence show that the relationship among people in Ambon is still fragile whereby they can be provoked to do violence against each other very easily just by the circulation of  a mysterious sms.

As a first step, the laws should be enforced very strictly on anyone alleged to be responsible for the violence and must be processed in Court.

Freeport Workers Plan to Strike Again

PT Freeport Indonesia, 81.28% owned by U.S Gold and Copper company Freeport-McMoran, is the world's largest producer of Gold and Copper, with its mines located in the Indonesian Province of Papua.

Freeport started mining Copper in the late '60s, but after several years it admitted that it has also been mining Gold.

Today, more than 40 years later, very large quantity of Gold and Copper have been mined and shipped to many countries of the world, making Freeport and its owners getting more richer every day.

Platts reported that Freeport's Copper production rose to 284 Million Lbs, in the January-February quarter from 279 lbs a year earlier. Gold output increased to 441,000 oz from 429,000 oz last year.  Their first half production figures were not available.

Freeport estimates its 2011 sales to hit 1 billion lbs of Copper and 1.3 million troy oz of Gold. WOW!

Unfortunately, Freeport's profit is not felt by its workers, therefore causing them to protests for better wages and working conditions.

Last July, around 8,000 workers went on strike disrupting production and halted ore shipments at the time. The workers union had then asked for a review of workers wages and welfare and also cancel the plan to fire some union members from the company's board.

But considering that Freeport has not given in to the workers demand on wage adjustments, the workers union has informed the company that around 11,025 workers plan to go on strike from 15 September to 15 October.

Meanwhile, a Freeport spokesman asked the union to keep on negotiating, saying that since negotiations started on 20 July, it has offered a good compensation package for the workers. When annualized, the package will amount to 26 times the basic monthly wage [excluding overtime]. In addition, other benefit increases include more value for housing loans, bonuses for shift work, and educational assistance for their dependent children.

I hope that the Indonesian government, which also own Freeport's shares, will persuade Freeport to give much better compensation package for the workers.

Imported Film Monopoly

Since the late President Soeharto stepped down from power on May 1998, Indonesia has been forced by foreign creditors especially the IMF to adopt a liberal economy and prohibit business monopoly.

As a result, state owned companies that used to have monopoly on the sales of their products must allow other companies to compete with them in the business.

State owned companies like sole distributor of petroleum PT Pertamina must allow Shell, Total and, Petronas to sell their products directly to the consumers.

However, there is one business which is still monopolized by one business group i.e import and circulation of Hollywood film, which is done by by the Group-21 as owner of 570 out of the 676 screens in theaters all over Indonesia.

According to Associated Press, Hollywood film producers fully supported the Group-21, this can be seen from the fact  that when the government imposed import duty on films, film makers like Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Century Fox Film, Universal Pictures and others stopped sending their films last February.

Even after the government revised the import duty regulation last June, Hollywood producers were reluctant to send films because Group-21 was challenging more than US$ 30 million unpaid levies and other penalties in Court. They only want to start sending the films again to Omega Film which is related to the Group-21.

Several weeks ago, the Customs office temporarily halt Omega Film's  import license because there were allegations that it is related to Group-21.

Those Hollywood film producers cannot  have their own distribution company here like in other countries because our investment law does not allow foreigner to invest on this kind of business.

I hope that the government and the fair business competition commission would seriously investigate the allegations that Group-21 have been monopolizing the import of films.
I also hope that film businessmen in Indonesia would import more films from Europe and Asia.

Blackberry, Indonesia, Malaysia

Blackberry smart-phone producer RIM recently announced that it will set up a factory in Malaysia.

This decision has angered the Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Gita Wirjawan who said that RIM should consider Blackberry's market in Indonesia as a factor, whereby every year RIM sold 4,000,000 smart-phones in Indonesia, compared to only 400,000 in Malaysia.

In this connection I would like to share with you an article (below) written by a PR Consultant in Jakarta, i.e. Unspun on his blog: http://theunspunblog.com.

Introspection, not revenge, needed over loss of RIM to Malaysia

Investment Coordinating Board Chairman Gita Wirjawan is right to ask why indeed would a company like RIM that has exponentially more consumers in Indonesia and Malaysia choose the latter for its production base. It makes little financial and political sense.

Gita is also right to speculate that it may be because Indonesia last year required RIM to set up a regional network aggregator, or data center, in the country, establish at least 40 authorized customer care centers, facilitate lawful interception of its encrypted BlackBerry Messenger services by officials and filter pornographic content.

But he does not ask and speculate on the important questions: Were there other factors behind RIM’s decision to locate its base in Malaysia? Is Indonesia’s corruption and lack of legal certainty a factor? What about the red tape in setting something like this up here, compared to Malaysia? And how much of a concern should IT and communications-related companies have over an Information Minister as mercurial as Tifatul?

But at least Gita did make an effort at asking. The Industry Minister just went straight for the revenge bit. Companies make business decisions based on what’s good for their business. Being close to their market and winning the goodwill of their largest markets are very important factors for businesses in their decision-making processes. Unspun is sure that RIM, and Bosch for that matter, considered the pros and cons of Indonesia and Malaysia carefully and the sad truth, for them, is that the cons in Indonesia outweigh the very strong pro of a huge consumer base in Indonesia.

Instead of acting with the fury of a woman scorned the Indonesian ministers would do well to do, as the late Suharto would have advised, some introspection on what Indonesia needs to change to make itself more attractive as an investment destination. Or at least to mitigate the cons that help outweigh its pros of a huge population and market, a stable and growing economy and vast store of resources.

Read More

WTO confrrmed U.S ban on Kretek Cigarettes

Every year, Indonesia exports Kretek/Clove flavored cigarettes to other countries at a value of US$ 500 million, a fifth of which go to the United States. 

On June 2009, the U.S government issued a Tobacco regulation that ban Indonesian Kretek/Clove flavored cigarettes from entering the U.S market.

This regulation was designed to prevent teenagers in the U.S from starting to smoke cigarettes..

The Indonesian government claimed that this regulation was discriminatory because it only outlawed Kretek/ Clove flavored cigarettes but not Menthol flavored cigarettes. Due to which fact, on April 2010 the Indonesian  government filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Bloomberg reported that on 2 September, WTO has rejected Indonesia's complaint saying that there is extensive scientific evidence supporting that the ban of Kretek/Clove and other flavored cigarettes could reduce youth smoking.

However, WTO said that the ban is inconsistent with the national treatment obligation because it accords Kretek/Clove-flavored-cigarettes less favorable treatment than that accorded to Menthol-flavored cigarettes.

Considering that the Kretek cigarette industry employs around six million labors in Indonesia, I hope that the above WTO's decision would not be followed by other countries. 

Nepotism in Banten

The Province of Banten, formerly part of West Java Province, was established in the year 2,000 and have its own governor, government and regional Houses of Representatives.

The current Governor of Banten, Ratu Atut Chosiyah (49) of the Golkar Party, was elected on January 2007. Previously, she was Acting Governor (2006-2007) and Vice Governor (2002-2006).

According to Kompas newspaper, many members of Ratu Atut's family held various government offices in the province, and also members of regional and central parliaments.

Her husband and son are members of the national House of Representatives in Jakarta, her sister is the Vice Regent of Serang, her step mother is Vice Regent of Pandeglang, sister in-law is Mayor of South Tangerang, her daughter-in-law, step-mother and brother-in-law are members of the Banten House of Representatives, her step-brother is the Mayor of the Province's capital city of Serang.

Nepotism also occur in Lebak Regency whereby two daughters of Regent Mulyadi Jayabaya are members of the national House of Representatives, and his two brothers are members of the regional House of Representatives.

In Tangerang Regency, the son of Regent Ismet Iskandar is a member of national Houses of Representatives and his daughter is a member of local House of Representatives.

Liberal democracy adopted by Indonesia since May 1998 allow every citizens to hold public offices provided that he or she meet all requirements set forth by the laws and regulations, supported by the majority of people, and capable of doing the jobs properly and legally.

However, in order to avoid any conspiracy among public officers, I hope that family relationship among public officers can be avoided or at least minimized in the future. For which purpose the election law and regulation should be amended accordingly.

The New Air Cargo Regulation

On 21 April 2011, the Ministry of Transportation issued a new cargo processing regulation, SKEP/255/ TW2011, designed to optimize security surveillance at all airports in Indonesia..

The regulation stipulated that only three companies would be responsible for security screening of cargo shipments. Those three replaced eight companies that had been contracted to do the job previously.

Besides, packages are to be inspected individually, causing 10 to 14 times increase in the inspection cost from Rp 60 (US 0.007 cents) per Kilogram to Rp 850 (US$ 0,10) per Kilogram.

When the regulation was implemented at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta last July, the result was disastrous. A long backlog developed of cargo waiting for inspection, hundreds of tons of cargo, including newspapers, medicine and even human remains, were stranded, incurring losses in the billions of Rupiah. This prompted cargo companies to strike working.

In order to stop the chaos, the government has postponed the implementation of the regulation until 3 September.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) has urged the government to postpone the implementation of regulation for six months, saying that lack of infrastructure and manpower will cause bottlenecks.

However, the government insists that the regulation will be implemented on 4 September.

Considering the huge impact that cargo clearnce has on businesses and the economy as a whole, I hope that the government would postpone implementation of the new regulation and talk to all the parties involved to find the best solution for this case.

U.I and the Saudi King

On 21 August, the University of Indonesia (UI), Jakarta, granted an honorary degree (Doctor Honoris Causa) to the King Abdulah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.

Antara news agency reported that the degree was presented to the King by UI's Rector Professor Gumilar Rusliwa Somatri at the King's palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During which the rector said that the King was presented the honorary degree because of his role in establishing Peace and upholding Humanity.

I am very disappointed with the granting of honorary degree to the King of Saudi Arabia, a country ruled by authoritarian regime that recently beheaded an Indonesian migrant worker, that treats women as second class citizen. Especially that the ceremony was not carried out at UI's campus but in Saudi Arabia.

Remission for Corruption, Illegal Drug and Terror Criminals

In connection with the Eid Ul-Fitr celebration, the government has been very kind to Criminals who were sentenced to jail by the Courts of Law for their involvement in Corruption, Illegal Drugs and Terrorism.

Tribune News reported that the government has granted Remission (Jail Sentence Discount) to 235 Corruption Criminals (8 released), 6,793 Illegal Drug Criminals (65 released) and 36 Terror Criminals.

This is the second time in one month that the government granted Remission to Corruption Criminals after it granted to many other Corruption Criminals during Independence Day on 17 August 2011.

The granting of Remission has been criticized by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Rakyat Merdeka quoted Johan Budi of KPK as saying that grating of Remission to Corruption Criminals should be restricted considering that Corruption is an extraordinary crime therefore should not be treated ordinarily.

I hope that in the future the government would not grant anymore Remission to Corruption, Illegal Drug and Terror Criminals, so that they would really learn to obey the laws.

My 2nd. Day of Eid

Today is the second day of Eid Ul-Fitr celebration for me and most Moslems in Indonesia.

I stayed at home to rest for a while after yesterday spending the whole day from early morning until evening starting from the Eid Prayer at 7 a.m in a mosque not far away from my home, to my mother and elder relatives' homes.

Day before yesterday I went to a mosque near my old house in Bintaro to pay Zakat (English = alms), a ritual before Eid whereby we donate certain portion (2.5%) of our treasure to be distributed to poor people. 

What really surprised me was that the traffic condition was not as empty as I have predicted, on the contrary many of the roads including toll roads were badly jammed especially in the afternoon. This is because people are going to their families, relatives, friends.

According to the news on TVs, recreational sites like the Ancol Beach resort, Ragunan Zoo and Taman Mini Indonesia were full of visitors like in previous years.

This morning I weigh myself on the the bathroom scale and saw that my weight is 5 kg.lower than before the Ramadhan fasting 30 days ago. That's quite good. I hope that I can lose more weight, but it would not be an easy thing to do because during Eid celebration there are lots of delicious food available at my home and at the homes of people that I will visit.It would not be easy to resist.