Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – The socially disadvantaged of this city will bear the brunt of corruption occurring in this year's budget as most of the money alleged to have been misappropriated was earmarked for the destitute, a state agency has said.

Leo Wahyudi S – With the New Year approaching, people are full of hope that better things will come. However, despite their hope, many Jakartans remain pessimistic about life in the city. The Jakarta Post talked to some residents about their expectations for 2003.

Jakarta – Indonesia's president said on Tuesday that stabilising the world's most populous Muslim nation, rocked by devastating bomb attacks on Bali island last October, would be a top priority for her in 2003.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – After clinging to the shadows for much of her 18-month presidency, Megawati Sukarnoputri flies to bomb-hit Bali on Monday to mark the New Year, hot on the heels of visits to Indonesia's two separatist hotspots.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) will continue with its plan to question President Megawati Soekarnoputri about the controversial divestment of publicly listed telecommunication company PT Indosat, a spokesman said.

Jakarta – An Indonesian Islamic magazine has named detained terror suspect Abu Bakar Bashir as "Man of the Year" for, what it calls, his steadfast struggle to uphold Islamic law in Indonesia.

Jakarta – Dozens of employees from telecommunications company Indosat clashed with police while they attempted to prevent Indosat director Widya Purnama from entering a building for a general shareholders meeting, which was scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said yesterday that he was ready to run for the top seat in the next election if asked to by Muslim clerics.

"In 2004, if asked by Muslim clerics to run for president, I will," he was quoted by the Detikcom news portal as saying.

Debbie A. Lubis, Jakarta – The gloomy reality for Indonesian women in 2002 should be addressed by women themselves through their active participation in social, political, economical and cultural aspects of life, a noted activist has said.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – No improvement was made this year with the country's poor human rights record, which was marked by almost no progress of legal action against suspected perpetrators of crimes against humanity and, most lamentably, several acquittals, rights activists said.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – A series of bizarre revelations and rulings last week has raised serious questions once again about Indonesia's legal system.

Behind the walls of the prison on the remote island of Nusakambangan, influential prisoners are receiving special treatment.

Jakarta – Employees of PT Indosat, a state-owned overseas call operator, threatened here on Monday to stage a strike later this week if the government does not cancel the recent sale of its stake in the company.

Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – A number of local publications have recently rejected or become overly wary of articles critical of Islam after an opinion piece by a moderate Muslim drew condemnation and a death threats from Islamic hardliners, two Muslim intellectuals said on Monday.

Debbie A. Lubis, Jakarta – Those involved in the May 1998 riots may not run free much longer as the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and a group of non-governmental organizations have established separate teams to investigate the riots.

Both aim to create pressure for the holding of ad-hoc trials for those responsible for the riots.

Jakarta – A long-time golfing partner of former Indonesian dictator Suharto has been frequently absent from the island prison where he is serving time for corruption.

Former forestry magnate Bob Hasan is serving six years for corruption at Batu prison on Nusa Kambangan island, off the south coast of Central Java.

Jakarta – The draft budget proposal for regular perks for high-profile Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who was recently in the public eye over allegations of corruption, is raising eyebrows.

Jakarta – The Supreme Court has ruled to favor of Shangri-La Hotel in its termination of 75 former hotel employees who were involved in a strike, illegal demonstrations and occupation of the hotel in December 2000.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – US President George Bush has told Indonesia's President Megawati Soekarnoputri that Indonesia must find and punish those responsible for shooting dead two American schoolteachers at the Freeport mine in Papua and has proposed a joint FBI-police investigation.

Jakarta – The family of missing poet Wiji Thukul rejected the Yap Thiam Hien human rights award mainly because a foreign-based mining company is allegedly involved in several human rights violations partially sponsors to the award.

Craig Skehan – Australia's Foreign Minister has cautioned Vanuatu that any change to Indonesia's boundaries to provide for independence for the province of Papua would result in bloodshed.

Sidney Jones, Jakarta – Since President Soeharto resigned in May 1998, violence and conflict seem to have become part of Indonesian life.

Tony Sitathan, Jakarta – When Indonesia's national monument to independence, the Monas, underwent a major renovation project recently, another national hallmark – bureaucratic corruption – had no such overhaul.

Jakarta – Indigenous youth and migrants clashedin Kalimantan on Monday leaving at least one person dead, AP reported.

More than 20 houses were torched in the fighting between migrants from Madura island and local Malays in West Kalimantan province, about 800 kilometer north of Jakarta, said a military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[Inside Indonesia's Special Forces, By Ken Conboy, Equinox Publishing (Asia), 2002, 320pp.]

Jakarta – The country's green organization Walhi said on Friday they plan to sue state-owned forestry company Perhutani for alleged illegal logging above a hotspring resort in Mojokerto, East Java that was flattened by a massive landslide, AP reported.

Walhi would file a lawsuit against Perhutani on behalf of the victims of the accident.

Sidney Jones – The war on terror is well under way in Southeast Asia, leading to concern among many civil rights leaders. Over the last two decades, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia have removed authoritarian leaders, curbed the power of the politicised military and expanded civil liberties.

The Indonesian army has ordered an inventory of its TNT stocks after quantities of the explosive were found in two of six plastic pipes buried close to the East Java home of a key suspect in the October 12 Bali bomb attacks.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesia's failure to uphold human rights this year was due to simultaneous policies of the executive, legislative and judicial institutions, the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) disclosed on Tuesday.

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Tim Shorrock, Washington – The killings last August of two Americans, allegedly at the hands of Indonesian soldiers with the apparent consent of the high command, haven't dampened enthusiasm within the Bush administration and the US business community for closer US ties with the Indonesian military.

Jennifer Hewett – One of Indonesia's most influential moderate Muslim leaders has criticised the Australian Government's flirtation with the idea of working with the Indonesian special forces unit, Kopassus, to combat terrorism.

By Richard C. Paddock, Binjai – It was the kind of rescue the Indonesian army was trained to carry out. Hundreds of soldiers from the 100th Airborne Battalion, wearing war paint and armed with bazookas, grenade launchers, mortars, tanks and a mobile antiaircraft gun, attacked in the dead of night.

[While the Indonesian government seems to be making progress in Aceh, moderate Muslims say President Megawati's denying them a role in determining the place of Islam in the country's political life.

Bill Guerin – In the past three years Japanese electronics giant Sony has shut down 16 plants across the globe and laid off thousands of its workers. Sony said last month it would stop making audio-visual products at its Indonesian subsidiary, PT Sony Electronics Indonesia, as part of its "overall, global restructuring effort".

Jakarta – Timber tycoon Mohammad "Bob" Hassan and Hutomo Mandala Putra, the son of former president Soeharto, received a one month cut in their jail terms as Idul Fitri from the state.

Jakarta – Two home-made bombs were detonated at a vacated behind a hotal in Ambon, Maluku, on Thursday night as Muslims in the area were preparing to celebrate Idul Fitri, the end of the Ramadhan fasting month. There were no fatalities as the area, near the Batumerah-Mardika bridge behind Hotel Wijaya II, happened to be empty at the time.

The explosion which killed three people at a McDonald's restaurant in the Indonesian city of Makassar was caused by a bomb, according to national police chief Da'i Bachtiar.

He told reporters a bomb was also the cause of a second explosion Thursday evening in the city in South Sulawesi province.

Prime Minister John Howard's comments on November 29, December 1 and since then about the validity of Australia launching a pre-emptive strike against anyone from another country planning a terrorist strike on Australia have understandably angered many.

Mark Egan, Washington – The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved a $365 million loan payment to Indonesia under the nation's $4.8 billion loan and urged the nation to undertake further economic reforms.

Devi Asmarani, Yogyakarta – The authorities in this cultural hub of Indonesia have declared war on militant Muslim groups whose presence in the city has given rise to a negative image of it being a "breeding ground for religious radicals".

The sectarian bloodshed in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi is the direct result of Jakarta's failure to punish violence when it broke out four years ago, Human Rights Watch said.

An estimated 1,000 people have died and more than 100,000 have been displaced since violence between Christians and Muslims erupted in the province's Poso region in December 1998.

Hundreds of Amarek village residents in Cikupa district, Tangerang, ran amok on Monday afternoon and damaged the office of PT Bintang Abadi at Jl. Raya Serang km.18.

Max Lane, Jakarta – Any analysis of Indonesian politics during the last year three years, especially since the downfall of President Abdurrahman Wahid, has to take account of the steady rise in the masses' alienation from the Indonesian political elite.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Rising wages, coupled with a hyperactive labour force, are turning off foreign investors, some of whom are packing up and abandoning the country.

To bring back investors, Jakarta needs to better control workers and the rate of pay hikes. Indonesia has simply gotten too expensive.

We are of the view that Prime Minister Howard's statement that [Australia] will carry out pre-emptive strikes against terrorist threats in South-East Asia is clearly an arrogant statement from an imperialist country which wishes to show its fangs to the poor people of South-East Asia.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Observers have said the US-led war against terrorism had caused a setback in the promotion of human rights, which was demonstrated in the continuing impunity among security officers charged with atrocities in East Timor.

An explosion shook a government building in the main town of Indonesia's restive Poso district on Sulawesi island, but police say no one was hurt.

Local police say the blast, believed to have been caused by a home-made bomb, slightly damaged the office of a state social welfare group in Poso town.

They say the blast shattered several windows and part of the ceiling.

Jane Perlez, Denpasar – His fingers clasp a long brush and with the finest of strokes, Nyoman Kantor paints the figures of a Balinese myth onto eggshell. Luscious reds, greens and yellows sparkle on the egg, a memento popular with tourists who come to Mr. Kantor's outdoor studio and salesroom.

Robert Go, Jakarta – After the private bank that Ms Sri Astuti worked for folded in 1998, she sought a clerical job at other offices. When no suitable offer came after three months, the mother of two used most of her savings to open a warung, or foodstall, near her home.

Indonesia's West Kalimantan province has lost an estimated 300,000 hectares to illegal logging over the past two years and will become a desert by 2040, reports said today.

Research recently compiled by the University of Tanjungpura, in West Kalimantan, shows that the province has lost 165,631 hectares of forest per year in 2000 and 2001, said The Jakarta Post.