[Meutia Sudah Henti Bertanya (Meutia Has Stopped Asking). Written by T.I. Thamrin Foreword by Otto Syamsuddin Ishak. 155 pp. Published by Imparsial & AWG (Aceh Working Group), 2005.]

A. Junaidi – The 81st birthday of internationally acclaimed writer and multiple Nobel Prize nominee Pramoedya Ananta Toer was celebrated with zest and spirit on Feb. 6.

Jakarta – About 500 Muslim protestors rallied in the Indonesian capital to denounce caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed, calling the cartoons part of a "war on Islam".

There is no doubt that almost nobody in Indonesia openly agrees with pornography. However, it is doubtful that the current antipornography drive, starting with busts of roadside magazine vendors and their seductive tabloids, will eliminate what the police define as pornography.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Vice Marshall Herman Prayitno has been appointed as the new Air Force chief of staff, replacing his boss Marshal Djoko Suyanto, who will soon head the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Jakarta – When it comes to the problems faced by Indonesian industry, the same words crop up again and again: smuggling and soaring imports.

Metal products manufacturers say the impact has been particularly severe in their industry, claiming that last year alone they lost 20 percent of their domestic market share.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Illegal logging and land clearance around Bukit Barisan Selatan and Way Kambas national parks have destroyed the water catchment area for the Batutegi hydropower plant in Lampung, an official said Friday.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe and resolve past human rights abuses here is unnecessary, Vice President Jusuf Kalla says.

In a statement Friday, which is likely to provoke a strong reaction from rights activists, Kalla said he could not think of any human rights cases that needed to be resolved through reconciliation.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Indonesian media received a welcome gift for National Press Day on Thursday, when the Supreme Court cleared Tempo weekly chief editor Bambang Harymurti of defaming businessman Tomy Winata.

Jakarta – The government and lawmakers have agreed on a plan to revise the 2003 Law on Terror before ratifying two international conventions aimed at strengthening national efforts to root out terrorism.

Gede Suardana, Bali – The controversy over the draft law (RUU) on pornography is growing stronger. Bali has explicitly declared that it rejects the draft law because it will damage Bali's economy if tourists can no longer sunbathe on the beaches of Kuta.

Several groups of demonstrators vied Thursday with people lining the streets in Bandung, West Java, to get the attention of visiting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Ibrahim Zuhdhy Fahmy Badoh, Jakarta – Every year, from November to December, the budgeting process in local governments enters its final stages. Intensive negotiations take place in drafting the next year's budget between local executives and legislative councils. Both sides try to get the best possible outcome, supposedly in the interests of the people they represent.

Riyadi Suparno, Bandung – The planned launch of Playboy Indonesia and the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by European newspapers are two issues that could affect press freedoms in Indonesia, journalists say.

Thousands of officials and politicians across the country, including 200 executives of state companies, are currently embroiled in corruption investigations, as the government escalates its fight against graft to promote good governance.

The uproar over the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has yet to blow over. Violent protests continue, while even more editors decide to reprint the pictures, and as the list of casualties rises.

Leony Aurora and Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – The question of agreements on power prices between the business sector and state electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) is irrelevant as the law provides that it is the government that determines tariffs.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Playboy magazine, which was due to make its debut in Indonesia next month, is at the center of a growing anti-pornography debate in Indonesia.

Some 20 ships loaded with illegally cut logs and sawn timber are docked outside Tanjung Balai Karimun Customs Office in Riau Islands province.

The ships were detained by the customs office while attempting to smuggle their illegal cargo into Malaysia and Singapore, the head of the office, Bambang Prasodjo, told The Jakarta Post.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Police and media in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, are too lax in their treatment of radical Islamic groups and their violence, a leading moderate Islamic cleric said on Thursday.

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Greenomics, a local non-governmental organization supporting good forestry governance, has warned the government that the devastating floods affecting many parts of Java are likely to continue in the future.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Pematang Siantar, Jakarta – When the recruiter passed through the small village in North Sumatra promising young women good-paying jobs in Malaysia, "Salma" seized what she thought was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve the future she always dreamed of, for herself and her family.

Cirebon – Environmentalists blame illegal sand mining for recent floods that damaged thousands of hectares of paddy fields and houses in the West Java towns of Cirebon and Indramayu.

"Rivers can no longer accommodate rainwater, inundating paddy field and residential areas," Yoyon Suharyono of the Foundation for Workers and the Environment said Tuesday.

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has come to the defense of opposition legislators after the police monitored parties probing the government's policy on rice imports.

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Bending to pressure, the governor of East Java recently revised the monthly minimum wage, but the move failed to please either workers or businesspeople in the province.

With both sides unhappy, it is almost inevitable that more protests will be held in a province that has seen a number of violent labor actions in recent months.

Jakarta – Although most of the nation's political parties declare their opposition to the enforcement of sharia, inconsistencies in what is said and done seem to rule in regions where Islamic law has been adopted into bylaws.

Abdul Khalik and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A police decision to investigate members of two political parties opposed to the government's policy of importing rice from Vietnam was slammed by lawmakers Tuesday.

Jakarta – Foreign companies will soon receive guidelines on seeking military protection for their operations in Indonesia, the defense minister said Monday.

All payments to the military should be voluntary and made through a civilian agency, not directly to soldiers or police, Juwono Sudarsono said, citing regulations that could be complete "as early as next week."

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The prospect of a strike by tourist industry workers could not come at a worse time for the country, an Indonesian Tourism Council official says.

"This is not the right time. Bali's occupancy rates are less than 30 percent," deputy chairwoman of the tourism council Meity Robot said Tuesday.

What the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten did in September was absurd. It failed to exercise self-restraint or consider what is fit to print. Publishing 12 cartoons degrading the Prophet Muhammad was certain to enrage Muslims, most of whom believe any visual depiction of the Prophet is forbidden.

Hugh White – In Jakarta, they fear that one of their worst nightmares may be coming to life. For years, Indonesians who know Australia have worried about what happens if the simmering independence movement in West Papua starts to catch the attention and sympathy of the wider Australian community. They fear a repetition of East Timor.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Despite the police crackdown on what they term "porn", prospective buyers of erotica, be it cheesecake magazines and tabloids or hard-core VCDs, can still find what they are looking for if they know where to look.

Jakarta – Indonesia's foreign debt has many people seriously worried. Most fear the country may never be able to escape the debt trap it has fallen into, which they say prevents it from using its resources for promoting development and better public welfare.

Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya – Despite calls for restraint, protests intensified in the country's main cities Monday over the publication in European media of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Protesters in most of the cities decried what they considered the use of freedom of the press to justify insulting Islam.

Robin McDowell, Jakarta – Soon after scientists landed by helicopter in the mist-shrouded mountains of one of Indonesia's most remote provinces, they stumbled on a primitive egg-laying mammal that simply allowed itself to be picked up and brought to their field camp.

Jakarta – Activists and economists are outraged at Indonesian plans to cut a swathe through one of the world's largest remaining areas of pristine rain forest to create a massive Chinese-funded palm oil plantation.

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) entered into a collaborative arrangement Monday to eliminate corruption and unfair competition in government and state-enterprise procurements.

Jakarta – Police officers involved in the crackdown on obscene materials in the capital are not second guessing themselves on whether covers of local adult magazines and tabloids qualify as smut or art. It only takes the showing of skin for a publication to fall foul of the law.

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta – Both the Helsinki Accord and the BRR (Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency) are failing to include women, says Samsidar, Nobel Prize candidate, special rapporteur on Violence against Women, and chair of the Aceh Women Volunteers for Humanity (RPuK).

Jakarta – Despite record 2005 export earnings, a closer look at the trade statistics suggests the country's manufacturers are having a tough time competing overseas, particularly against more efficient manufacturers from other countries in the region.

Jakarta – Former Army chief of staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu says there is a global plot to weaken the TNI (Indonesian military). This has been proven by the growing estrangement between the TNI and the people.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Water is the great equalizer for Jakartans, whether they live in a swank neighborhood of the city or a crowded kampong only a stone's throw away. For everybody has to pay extra to get a drop that is fit to drink.

Jakarta – Activists from several NGOs dealing with women's issues on Saturday came out against the much-debated pornography bill, which they claimed would repress women.

The bill, which was drafted in part to protect women from exploitation, would have the opposite effect of placing limits on women's expression and freedoms, the activists said.

Tony Hotland and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government has been criticized for the slow process in the selection of members of the long-awaited Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) tasked with resolving past gross human rights violations.

The selection process has been stalled at the presidential office for almost six months.

Jakarta – The government has been called upon to take action against those responsible for Saturday's attack on houses owned by members of the Jamaah Ahmadiyah congregation in West Lombok regency, West Nusa Tenggara.

Jakarta – Indonesian Muslims staged noisy but peaceful protests in four cities on Monday demanding Denmark apologize over controversial cartoons that Muslims say insult Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.

About 200 protesters from a leading Islamist party rallied near a building housing the Danish embassy in Jakarta.

Eko Nopiansyah, Jakarta – Edwin Partogi, the operational head of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), has said that retired Major General Muchdi Purwoprandjono's request to the Muslim Defender Team to assist him in the case of the murder of human rights activist Munir proves that the TNI (Indonesian military) does not support him.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – At least 200 officials at state-owned companies (BUMNs) are being investigated for their alleged involvement in graft and abuse of authority, State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto said Saturday.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reassured the public Saturday that Chinese-Indonesians were legally recognized and their constitutional rights guaranteed by the state, therefore, any acts of discrimination against them must be stopped.

Pramono, Jakarta – General Ryamizard Ryacudu says that the TNI (Indonesian military) is being ruined and weakened. According to Ryacudu, the military has been estranged from the people while in fact the TNI is a people's military that must unite with the people to build the strength [of the nation].