Jakarta – Indonesia could be forced to cut back on a state funded compensation scheme for the poor which was supposed to compensate for a reduction in fuel subsidies planned for October.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – People are losing confidence in the government's economic team, who they see as responsible for the current financial crisis – the worst in this country in over four years, a survey revealed.

Theresia Sufa, Bogor – To support the government's forest protection program, the participation of local people living in the vicinity of forests is crucial to sustaining ecosystems and biological diversity.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has joined the chorus in condemning the much-criticized forced closure of dozens of neighborhood churches in West Java, saying that such acts were intolerable. But the MUI has no plans to issue an edict against the violence.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono remains popular after 10 months in office despite some disappointment over the performance of his economic team, a poll showed.

Jakarta – Out of so many companies, foundations and cooperative enterprises managed by the Indonesian Military (TNI), only a few meet the requirements for being taken over by the government.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said that seen from current assumptions, no more than 10 companies within TNI businesses meet corporate standards.

[Dita Sari, president of the Indonesian People's Democratic Party (PRD), and a leader of the militant Indonesian National Front for Workers' Struggle (FNPBI) union federation, was a special guest speaker at the fourth Brisbane Social Forum on July 29-31. She spoke to Green Left Weekly's Mel Barnes and Jim McIlroy.]

What is the current state of Indonesian politics?

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Future terror attacks in Indonesia may be less professional and even less well-executed than in the past, with Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) facing dissension over how to achieve its objectives, says Sidney Jones, a leading authority on the terror group.

Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday turned down a request by a key suspect in the murder of rights activist Munir for the case to be dismissed.

The panel of judges said the indictment against Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was clear and convincing and in accordance with the law.

ID Nugroho, Surabaya – The Malang District Court handed down a two-year prison sentence for a Muslim cleric who was charged with despoiling Islam, by leading prayers both in Bahasa Indonesia and Arabic.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono installed former justice minister Muladi as the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) Governor on Tuesday, replacing Ermaya Suradinata who had been critical of the government's decision to hold peace talks with Aceh rebels.

Jakarta – The government must work hard to provide legal certainty – particularly in the area of tax regulations – if it wants investment in the country's oil and gas sector, which has lately been on a declining trend, to pick up, an industry player says.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) and the United States Pacific Command are holding a joint military training operation in the waters off Tanjung Priok.

The training will last for 16 days, from August 29 until September 12, and is the sixth such joint training operation between the TNI and the US Pacific Command.

Jakarta – The rupiah's recent slide was attributed in part to declining market confidence in the prospects for the economy, with persistent conflicting signals from the government exacerbating uncertainty, a minister said on Monday.

Harry Bhaskara, Jakarta – One of life's ironies is the incongruity between what a man works for and what he gets. Munir fought for justice throughout his life, yet, almost a year after his death, his killers have not been found.

The attacks and forced closures of churches throughout the country in the last four years have reached an alarming level for Indonesian Christians, both Protestant and Catholic.

Fitraya Ramadhanny, Jakarta – After recent calls that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reshuffle his economic ministers, these calls are now being directed towards the chief of the TNI (armed forces).

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Another big terrorist attack is imminent in Indonesia, its President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has warned. The bombing was likely to happen in Jakarta over the next two months, Dr Yudhoyono told a conference of newspaper editors yesterday.

Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta – Fighting corruption remains the government's top priority, although it is now realizing that it might not be able to completely eradicate it, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says.

Jakarta – Contradicting earlier comments by a Cabinet minister, the Vice President promised on Monday that firm action would be taken against Muslim hard-liners who forcibly closed down Christian places of worship as they were damaging religious harmony and taking the law into their own hands.

Simon Montlake, Jakarta – Nearly six years after its troops and civilian militia laid waste to tiny East Timor, triggering worldwide outrage, Indonesia has begun to repair its military ties with the US.

After years of slumping, foreign direct investment in Indonesia has started to gain ground amid an improved confidence in doing business in the country.

Business activities have begun to increase, as seen in the sharp increase in the amount of money spent to set up new businesses during the first seven months of the year.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Shopping malls are booming. Developers vie to build new malls on optimism that consumption, which has become the main driver of the economy over the past several years, will remain strong. But, how many malls do Jakartans really need? This week's cover story highlights the issue.

Jakarta – A leading human rights group on Sunday condemned as "insane" an Islamic court's caning of two unmarried couples in Aceh province for drinking alcohol and being alone together after dark.

They were the latest Aceh residents to fall foul of new regulations that give the staunchly Muslim province the right to impose a version of Islamic Shariah law.

Kalinga Seneviratne, Jakarta – Ever since Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), issued 11 fatwas or edicts against liberal Islam, a fierce debate has begun raging in the world's most populous Muslim nation on what constitutes an Islamic society.

Syaiful Amin, Jakarta – Former army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu says the potential for Aceh and Papua to succeed from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) is significant. At the moment he says, the two regions already have a number of prerequisites for them to become independent states.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – A week after investors were promised a better deal, including lower taxes, surging world oil prices are dealing Indonesia's economy a double whammy, battering the currency and blowing out the domestic budget.

M. Aziz Tunny and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Ambon/Jakarta – Nine people were injured on Thursday when a home-made bomb exploded at a market in Ambon, Maluku, the scene of widespread Christian-Muslim violence between 1999 and 2002.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Despite laws banning people from taking the law into their own hands and recognizing freedom of religion, police in West Java have admitted to helping Muslim hard-liners close dozens of churches in Bandung.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Independent legislative watchdog Teliti said the House of Representatives continued to disappoint despite being filled with younger and better educated members.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – While at first it was attributed mainly to a run-of-the-mill supply and demand imbalance, the rupiah's continued slump has now been blamed on another factor that is much tougher to handle – eroding market confidence.

Remember early January 1998 when the rupiah crashed through the 10,000-to-the-dollar barrier two days after then president Soeharto unveiled his draft 1998-1999 budget? The four-fold fall of the rupiah was then precipitated by what the market perceived to be unrealistic budget proposals, which defied the urgent imperatives for drastic reform and belt-tightening measures.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – The outbreak of polio in Indonesia could spread to other countries in the region, but a plan to vaccinate 24 million children next week should halt its progress, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A working group of military, legal and political analysts has completed the draft of a new bill on intelligence aimed at restoring the badly tarnished image of state intelligence agencies.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – With the primary aim of boosting investment in the private sector, the government has drafted a fairly sound and competitive value-added tax (VAT) and income tax system in its recently completed draft revision of the tax laws, according to an official.

Jakarta – Indonesia has made scant progress in changing the outlook of government officials who remain indifferent to providing public service and continue to engage in corruption, the president says.

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – A young East Timorese once inquired, "Do you people also experience atrocities?" I said, "What? Of course not." Where did she get such an idea? Youngsters in Indonesia's big cities were not only free of "atrocities", they were out blissfully shopping and loitering in malls, and moaning about the traffic.

Ambon – More troops were withdrawn from Maluku in response to the prevailing peace in the formerly riot-torn province.

Jakarta – The government should immediately issue a regulation requiring occupational safety and health (OSH) programs in small enterprises and home industries to avoid unnecessary accidents at work and a reduction in employee productivity, according to an expert with the International Labor Organization.

Protests colored the closing day of the West Java Infrastructure Summit on Friday when about 500 people from Jatigede, Sumedang regency, staged a rally outside the venue at the Savoy Homann hotel in Bandung.

The protesters were objecting to the ongoing dam project in their area, claiming that they had been cheated in the land acquisition compensation payment.

Evi Mariani, Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara – While people in big cities begin to take up food combining, complete with the complicated calculations of daily consumed nutrition, most people in villages in Sumba still lag far behind in diet knowledge, regarding eating merely as a way to fill their stomachs.

Jakarta – The granting of sentence remissions to some 103,000 prisoners in observance of Independence Day has come under fire, with observers noting the recipients included high-profile inmates convicted of terrorism, murder and corruption.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – Thirty-one alleged corruption cases involving more than Rp 3 trillion (US$303 million) in state losses have been investigated since last year, but there has been little progress in taking these cases to court.

The financial market has reason to be uneasy about the 2006 state budget proposal President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unveiled to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

It seems the key assumptions used for revenue and spending estimates deviate far from what most market players expected.

Jakarta – The massive blackouts that swept parts of Java and Bali have caused industries to suffer billions of rupiah in financial losses due to disruptions in their operations.

The Indonesian Textile Association estimated that more than 100 spinning, weaving and garment industries in Greater Jakarta suffered losses of about Rp 55 billion (US$5.53 million).

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Labor activists and observers predict that more state enterprises will be threatened with massive strikes since most of their staff are underpaid.

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – The Aceh peace accord signed in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Aug. 15, 2005 was indeed a gift and sweet prelude for the Indonesian people and government prior to celebrating the country's 60th anniversary of independence.

Indra Harsaputra, Malang – Tied to an iron pole, the red-and-white flag waves in front of a house on Jl. Piranha Atas Selatan II/5, Malang, East Java.

Jakarta/Tangerang/Bogor – Blackouts that affected much of Java and Bali on Thursday resulted in massive traffic jams, stalled trains and delayed flights in the capital and neighboring towns.

It was arguably the most important scheduled political speech since the President took office in October. It was not bad, but it was certainly far from inspiring.

Economists may by poring over the numbers and statistical data presented by the President during his first State of the Nation address, but to the average layman it was uninspiringly average.