Syekh Puji's case

For many years, our news media has been reporting about cases of Pedophiles i.e. matured men who love to have sex with children under the age of 16 years.

The latest of such case involved a 66 years old Australian English Teacher Alfred Charles Barnet who was arrested by the Police in Depok, West Java, last February. According to Viva News, Barnett was charged for Sodomizing 9 under aged children in Indonesia. Considering that he was also wanted for similar crime in his country, the Police has extradited him to Australia.

Currently, our media has been reporting a case that took place in Semarang, Central Java, about a 43 years old man Syekh Puji (above photo) who married a 12 years old girl Ulfa on August 2008, based on Islamic way called SIRI. This is controversial, because according our Marriage Law No. 1 year 1974, a girl can only be married at the minimum age of 16 by a man who is at least 19. Due to this fact, Surya reported that last Friday, the Semarang Police has summoned and questioned Syekh Puji for 13 hours. The Police accused Syekh Puji of violating a.o the Children Protection Law Articles 82 & 88, and the Criminal Law Article 290, which can be punished for a maximum 5 years imprisonment.
This Police action was welcomed by the Central Java office of the Indonesian Moslem Ulema Council (MUI) & the National Human Rights Committee (Komnas HAM).

I am very glad that the Police have finally take action on this case, that way other people would know that waht Syekh Puji did was against the national laws, thereby preventing similar cases from happening again in the future.

Pic: Doktertomi

Melamine contamination

In 2008, people in many countries around the world was shocked by news reports regarding the distribution of Milk and Dairy Products originating from the People’s Republic of China contaminated by Melamine that has caused the death of many babies.

After the Chinese government made high profile efforts to ban the production of those lethal products, including punishing the producers, people’s fear of those products subside.

Then came the announcement of the Indonesian Consumers Association (YLKI)
on 4 March 2009 about the circulation of 10(ten) Food and Beverage products, as
reported by Duta Masyarakat :
1) KINO BEAR Crispy Chocolate, Reg.no: MD662211108168
2) YAKE Assorted Candy, without Reg.no
3) F&N Sweet Condensed Milk, Reg.no: ML505417006156
4) TIROL Choco Candy, Reg.no: ML237103407045
5) DUTCH Mill Yogurt Milk, Reg.no:ML406505001229
6) PURA Low Fat, Reg.no:ML405708002189
7) NESTLE BEAR BRAND Low Fat Milk, No Reg.no:
8) CROWN LONX Biscuit, Reg.no:ML827118009109
9) FAN FUN Sweetheart Biscuit, no Reg.no.
10) YAKE Candies, no Reg.no
According to YLKI Chairperson Zahir Husna, those Melamine Contaminated products were found in a joint survey by YLKI and the Chemical Lab. of the University of Indonesia on the circulation of 28 Food & Beverage products in certain area in Jakarta which are known to be selling legally & illegally imported products among others Kelapa Gading-North Jakarta and Pasar Baru-Central Jakarta.

YLKI’s above announcement has been protested by the producers and distributors of those products, said Viva News. Beside that, according to Kompas, the Australian Ambassador Bill Farmer denied the circulation of Melamine contaminated Milk & Dairy products from Australia.
In its reaction to these protests, YLKI suggested that a third (neutral) party conduct a survey to clarify this matter.

Considering that YLKI’s above announcement is very serious, we hope that our government and its law enforcement agencies would pay very serious attention to this matter and take necessary actions to prevent circulation of Melamine contaminated products in our country.

MUI's threat

Not long ago, the Indonesian Moslem Cleric/Ulama Council(MUI) passed controversial Fatwa/Edicts which determined that Cigarette Smoking, Yoga chanting and Refusal to Vote as Haram/Sinful acts.

While many people are still questioning about MUI's real reason for passing such Edicts, suddenly the news media reported that MUI is now forcing President SBY to follow their wish. According to The Jakarta Globe, a leader of MUI Cholil Ridwan has threatened the President to ban the religious secte Ahmadiyah, otherwise it will pass an Edict banning people from casting votes for the incumbent President in the next Presidential election.
Fortunately, said threat was later on denied by MUI's Chairman Umar Shihab who said that Cholil's statement was his own opinion and does not represent MUI.

I am happy that Cholil's threat does not represent MUI and hope that in the future, leaders of MUI will take actions based on the best interest of Indonesian Moslems as a whole. Because although such Fatwa/Edict are not recognized by our country's legal system, however considering MUI is the highest Moslem religious authority in our country, they will no doubt be obeyed, especially by those living in the rural area.

Outsourced Prosecution

Maintaining permanent status employees seems to be very difficult for employers nowadays, that they tend to outsource the works in their company.

In the legal proffession, lawyers often delegate the authority they obtained from their clients to other lawyers. But, I never heard public authority being delegated to third parties especially private enterprise. However, that seems to change now in America.

According to CNN, since the year 2006, prosecution offices in 17 U.S states have retained a collection agency i.e. American Corrective Conselling Services (ACCS) to pursue consumers who write bad checks. ACCS then splits the collection proceeds with the Prosecutors. Beside that, ACCS also make money from conducting Financial Management courses that people who wrote bad checks are required to attend by the law at their own expenses. With this incentives, ACCS became very aggresive in hunting bad checks that their actions not only victimized people who wrote bad checks on purpose, but also others who did it accidentally. For example, Michael O'Neil who bounced a US$ 14 check to a Florida drugstore ended up spending $285, including $160 for the course fee. Although O'Neil tried to resolve the situation with the drugstore he was told that it was too late, because they had turned the matter over to ACCS.
This kind of outsourcing practices have strongly been protested by Consumer Groups, who accused that prosecutors are also passing on their prosecutorial powers as well. In many cases, stores are sending checks directly to ACCS, and ACCS is sending out collection letters with prosecutor letterhead, and no prosecutor has actually reviewed those cases.

The above shows that although outsourcing maybe good for private businesses, but for public services, especially prosecution offices, its application should be carried out very carefully, so as to avoid bad excess.

Crimes by Lawmakers

Since the year 2008, our news media have been reporting about the arrests of many members of the Parliament (DPR) for charges of receiving Bribes that caused great financial loss to the state.

According to Okezone , from January 2008 until early March 2009, at least seven lawmakers have been arrested i.e Al Amin Nur Nasution, Sarjan Tahir, Yusuf E. Faishal, Bulyan Royan, Abdul Hadi Jamal, Hamka Yamdu, and Antony Zeidra Abidin. These arrests have caused Sebastian Salang, an NGO activist, to suspect that there is a relationship between the crimes commited by those lawmakers and the preparation for general election next April.

According to The Jakarta Post, Abdul Hadi Djamal was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last Monday, carrying with him US$ 90 thousand and Rp 54 million. Beside him, KPK arrested Darmawati Dahore, offical of the Department of Transportation, and Hontjo Kurniawan, businessman. An unnamed source said that Hontjo gave Rp 2 billion to Abdul, and Rp 600 million to Darmawati.
In a press conference last Tuesday, KPK Chairman Antasari Ashar suspected that the money is related to the development of airport and seaport in Eastern Indonesia. He said that the three suspects shall be charged with violating the Anti Corruption Law Articles 5 & 11 regarding Gratuities and Article 12(a) & 12(b) regarding Bribery, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The series of arrests of those lawmakers brings mixed feelings for me. On the one hand I am very sad that people who are supposed to make law have violated those laws instead, but on the other hand I am glad because they will face legal proceedings thus pay for their crimes. I hope that the general elections on 9 April will result a lot much better lawmakers for our country.

Porn Addiction

Children experts said that pornography addiction among children might cause brain damage that could lead to depression and behavioral problems similar to those caused by illegal drugs.

According to The Jakarta Globe/D.Sagita, this alarming theory has been mentioned by several speakers at a Seminar on the Effect of Pornography on Monday, as follows :
Dr. Jofisal Janis, the Head of Intelligence Development Center of the Department of Health, said that pornography addiction among children would damage the function and structure of their brain. He also said that children are vurnerable to brain damage because their brains absorb information faster than adults, and pornography addiction is likely to degrade their intelligence potential.
Donald Hilton Jr., a neurosurgeon from the Methodist Specialty & Transplant Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, said that pornography addiction could cause changes in the brain’s neurotransmitters and may interrupt oxygen metabolism in the brain. Such changes would cause the brain to focus too much on pleasure receptors, thus failing to control behavior.
We and Our Children Foundation reported a 2008 survey claiming that 66 percent of the 4th. through 6th. grade students in Jakarta & vicinity have seen pornography from various media, including comics, games, the Internet, movies and magazines.
The Children Protection Committee reported a 2007 survey claiming that 97 percent of 4,500 teenagers they surveyed in 12 big cities of Indonesia, had seen a blue movie.

Considering the dangerous effect that Pornography might bring to the children, many efforts have been made to ban pornography, such as by imposing strict laws e.g the Anti Pornography Law, Communication and Electronic Exchange Law etc. However, in my opinion, the main cause of Pornography Addiction among children is caused by their parents unability to take a good care of their children. If they always pay full attention on their children, such addiction could be prevented or minimised.

Abandonment of Babies

Yesterday morning, I saw two TV channels reporting young girls committing illegal abortions at two medical clinics, one in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, and another one in Paseban, Central Jakarta.

In the evening, I saw TransTV’s Termehek-Mehek reality show that has helped people locate someone they have not seen/heard for a long time. This time, the story was about Nana (30) who abandoned her baby girl 13 years ago in an Orphan Home in Tangerang, Banten, because her parents forbid her to marry her boy friend, i.e. Angga whose age is the same as hers but belong to a different social class.
Now, Nana (30) lived in Surabaya, East Java, has married twice, has no child and has been suffering from Womb Cancer.
As any normal woman, she feels a growing need to see her long lost baby, for which purpose few weeks ago she contacted TransTV. Not long after, she and several crews of TransTV visited the Orphan Home in Tangerang. Their persistence enabled them to locate the child, whose name is Rizkia and now living with her father, Angga in Jakarta.
Angga was furious when they came to meet him, and did not allow Nana to meet Rizkia. So, few days later Nana picked Rizkia at school and kept her at a friend’s house.
Angga helped by the TransTV crews later found Rizkia and take her back to his home.

The above two paragraphs show the tragic results of human behaviors i.e. pre-marital sex, unwanted babies and abandonment of babies. In the first paragraph the young girls abandoned their babies by ‘killing’ them before they were born, while in the second paragraph a young girl abandoned her baby after it was born, by leaving it at an orphanage, which she regretted 13 years later. The baby can be considered lucky because her father took her out of the orphanage and raised her by himself.