Prita's Case Carries On .......

Prita Mulyasari, mother of 2 infants, was arrested and charged with Defamation for sending e-mails to her friends complaining about the terrible services of the Omni International Hospital in Tangerang.

After very strong supports shown by bloggers via online social media, and presidential candidates, on 25 June the District Court of Tangerang passed an Interlocutory Verdict that released her from the charges. As a reaction, the Prosecutor filed an Appeal against this Verdict, with the Banten High Court.

On 27 July, the Banten High Court accepted the Appeal and canceled the Interlocutory Verdict of the Tangerang District Court. According to the Chairman of the Banten High Court Sumarno, the High Court considered that the Electronic Information & Transaction Law No. 11/2008 Art. 54 (1) stated that the law is valid since the date of its promulgation and Art. 54(2) which stated that it would be valid not later than 2 years afterwards.
This is contradictory to the District Court’s interpretation of Art. 54(2) i.e should be valid two years afterward. Beside that, Sumarno said that the District Court did not pay attention to the other basis of prosecution i.e. Defamation based on Penal Code Art. 310 & Art. 311.

In reaction to the High Court’s verdict, Prita told news reporters that she was shocked but she will follow the court proceedings till the end.
And the Tangerang District Attorney said that they are ready to carry on with the Court proceedings, but do not know yet when will the trial start again.

For details on the above, please click here, here, and here.

Photo: Courtesy of Detik

Let's Save the Komodo

The Komodo is an ancient Giant Lizard, often called Dragons, that can only be found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo and Flores.
And today, there are 2,500 of them living in Komodo Island and 17 in Flores Island.

Many efforts have been made to preserve the Komodo from extinction, among others by declaring their habitat in Komodo Island as a protected National Park.
Last year, the Komodo National Park has been participated in the campaign for the World’s New 7 Wonders of Nature. And on 21 July, the New 7 Wonders Foundation has announced that Komodo Island is one of the 28 Finalist which will continue to compete in the final stage of the campaign until 2011 in order to be the Final 7 Wonders of Nature.
This is a very good achievement considering that there were more than 440 participants from all over the world when the campaign started in 2008.

Further, in order to make them breed healthily, 10 of the 17 Komodo in Flores shall be moved to the Taman Safari in Bali. This plan has been protested by the environmental agency WALHI who doubted the plan’s successfulness, and by the local people who feared that tourist would not come to Flores if there is no Komodo.

For details regarding the above, please click here and here.

I hope that the efforts to safe the Komodo would really be based on the interests of the Komodo themselves, so that they would live healthily and their numbers would increase in the future.


Photo: Courtesy of Visit Indonesia Year

After the Elections

On 25 July, incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) & former Central Bank Governor Boediono have officially been announced by the General Election Commission (KPU) as the President elect/Vice President elect for 2009-2014.

If everything goes fine, they will both be inducted as President & Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on 20 October 2009.

However, the current political developments in Indonesia shows that the road ahead might not be smooth for both of them. Here are the obstacles that they might face:

1) Rival candidate President/Vice President: Megawati/Prabowo & Jusuf Kalla/Wiranto are very unsatisfied with the result of Presidential election on 8 July, and they have filed complaints with the Constitutional Court (MK). There are several grounds for complaints, but the significant one being irregularities in the Permanent Voters Lists (DPT). In this case, MK Chief Mahfud MD has stated that if there is evidence massive foul play, a new election can be held.
2) Last week the Supreme Court (MA) passed a judicial review which cancelled KPU regulation regarding distribution of seats in the national Parliament (DPR), as a result more than 60 seats will be shifted from six smaller parties: PKS, PKB, PAN, PPP, Gerindra and Hanura, to 3 major parties: Democrat Party, Golkar and PDI-P.

For details on the above (in bahasa Indonesia), please click here, here, here and here.

Considering the above mentioned facts, I felt that all irregularities during the elections should be settled immediately by MK, in which case all parties involved should be willing to accept whatever decision that will be made.
Regarding MA's Judicial Review, all parties including KPU and the political parties should seat together and work things out based on the best interest of our country, therefore they should shed away their individual ego.

Children's Trial in Tangerang

Are children playing a tossing-coin game dangerous for our society ?

That's the question that I asked myself after I read the news about 10 children, aged between 11 and 15, who were found Guilty of Gambling by the Judges of the District Court of Tangerang on Monday 27 July.

My above question is obvious, because the basis of the Court's verdict is Penal Code Article 303 which bans Gambling and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. While actually those children were merely playing a tossing-coin game with the prize of Rp 1.000,-(= 10 US Cents), when they were arrested by the Police at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on 29 May. For which, those children have to spent 29 days in confinement at the Tangerang Juvenile Detention Center.

Although the Court did not sent the children to prison, but sent them home to their parents based on the Children Protection Law, however the whole Court proceedings, which required the children to wear masks, have been widely criticized by the public, especially human rights activists and children protection agency. They argued that the guilty verdict will give the children labels as convicts.

In reaction to the public criticism, the chief of the council of judges for the trial explained that the guilty verdict was meant to educate those children so as not to repeat their action.
While the Attorney General Office explained that the Children Protection Law cannot be used as basis for indicting a case of Gambling by children, because Gambling is regulated by the Penal Code.

For details on the above, please click here, here, here, here, and here

As a father of a young son, I pray to God that such kind of verdict would be the last one passed on children playing games. I also hope that in the future all the judges in Indonesia would always be careful whenever trying cases that involve children i.e. by always using the Children Protection Law as basis, and consider the children psychological characteristics.

Photo: Courtesy of Detik

Manohara's Mom's New Enemy

Since Indonesian-American model Manohara Odelia Pinot (17) left her husband Tengku Fakry, Prince of Kelantan Kingdom, Malaysia, last May, the media have been reporting about her and her Mom Daisy Fajarina every day.

The reports were so massive that my sympathy toward Manohara eroded, especially after she seemingly favored publicity and highly paid film contract than prepare legal action against her husband for the alleged horrible treatments that he gave to her during their short lived marriage. Due to which fact, I have been avoiding any stories about her since then.


Last Saturday, my interest on this case returned after TV stations reported about a 25 years old woman, Shaliha Lanti, who told reporters that she has been brutally treated by Manohara’s Mom when she lived with them for around 10 years in France. Saliha said that Daisy took her from a small town in South Sulawesi and promised that she will be sent to school abroad. However, Daisy has made her as a Servant. At first, Daisy was kind to her, until her French husband Noack Pinot showed interest on her & abused her sexually. Instead of protecting Saliha, Daisy have tortured her.
In 2007 a French Court sentenced Noack Pinot to four and a half month imprisonment for the Sexual Abuse, and Daisy 18 months imprisonment for the Torture and Providing Inhuman Working Condition since 1998. However, Daisy never went to jail because she left France.
Saliha explained that she wants Daisy to return to France and serve the Court sentence.

Earlier, on 23 July 2009, Shaliha and her lawyer have reported with the National Police headquarters in Jakarta, about Daisy's above alleged Torture based on our Penal Code Art. 361 and the Domestic Violence Eradication Law No. 23/2004 Art. 44.

In reaction to Shaliha's above allegations, Daisy Fajarina told TV reporters that
Shaliha is her foster daughter therefore her family never treated her as a Servant, and Shaliha's allegations were not true.

For details on the above media reports, please click here, here, here and here.

Considering the above, it would be very interesting to know how Manohara and her Mom would end up.


Photos: Courtesy of Detik

Suicide by a Student

While we were still shocked and angered by the terrorists' suicide bombings of the Hotel JW Marriot and Hotel Ritz-Carlton on 17 July, the media reported another shocking news about a 12 years old Indian school girl who jumped from her 12th floor apartment in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, on 24 July.

The girl, Okeshi Naharan, a 7th grade student at the Jakarta Gandhi Memorial School, was believed to be very disappointed and depressed because of the bad result of testings at her school.

For details regarding the above, please click here, here and here.

In this regards, I wish to express my condolence and sympathy to the family of Okeshi Naharan. As a parent, I felt so sad with the suicide of a very young child merely because of failure to meet the school's requirements.
In my opinion, the knowledge and ability of a student cannot be determined merely by the results of testings and/or examinations at the school. Because we cannot expect a student to always perform well. For example, a student who usually performed well, may not get good markings at a test/exam if at that time he/she does not feel well or any other reasons.

Santri & Swine Flu

According to the Islamic regulation, Pork (= Pig/Swine Meat) is considered as a food that is Haram (forbidden), therefore cannot be consumed by a Muslim.

Considering this regulation, I was very shocked when I read media report last week ago about 300 Santri/Students at the Dar Qolam Islamic school in Tangerang, Banten, have been suspected of being infected by the Swine Flu.
I was more shocked when the media reported that 8 Santri at the Gontor Islamic school in Ponorogo East Java, have also been suspected of being infected by the virus.

For details on the above media reports, please click here, here and here.

Due to the fact that those Santri do not consume Pork/Pig/Swine Meat therefore they must have been infected by the virus through other sources i.e either through contacts with others who have been infected or through the air that they breath. Whatever the reasons are, I hope that those Santri would not feel so humiliated because they have been infected by virus originating from Pig/Swine.
Morever, the above incidents show that the Swine Flu or H1N1 Virus can infect anyone in Indonesia, therefore a much more serious and harder efforts should be made to stop the spread.