Friday, September 09, 2011
My Studio apartment Menara Antapani C4 No 8
Pertanyaan:
Bagaimana Cara Penerbitan Sertifikat Hak Milik Strata Title?
Bagaimana cara dan syarat penerbitan Sertifikat Hak Milik atas Satuan Rumah Susun (SHMSRS) oleh BPN? Apakah harus ada Peraturan Daerah tentang Rumah Susun terlebih dahulu? Mohon penjelasan.
LA.BAGASKARA
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Jawaban:
JECKY TENGENS, S.H.
Sebelumnya, saya akan menjelaskan sedikit mengenai kepemilikan atas satuan rumah susun terlebih dahulu. Sertifikat Hak Milik atas Rumah Susun (“SHMRS) adalah bentuk kepemilikan yang diberikan terhadap pemegang hak atas Rumah Susun. Bentuk Hak milik atas rumah susun ini harus dibedakan dengan jenis hak milik terhadap rumah dan tanah pada umumnya. SHMRS dalam dunia properti sering juga disebut strata title. Strata title sebenarnya tidak dikenal dalam hukum Indonesia. Strata title berasal dari negara Barat dan dikenal dalam konsep hunian vertikal maupun horisontal di mana hak kepemilikan atas suatu ruang dalam gedung bertingkat dibagi-bagi untuk beberapa pihak. Lebih jauh, simak jawaban Klinik Hukum sebelumnya: Strata Title. Dalam uraian selanjutnya saya akan jelaskan cara dan syarat penerbitan SHMRS.
Pihak developer/pengembang rumah susun wajib untuk menyelesaikan pemisahan terlebih dahulu atas satuan-satuan rumah susun yang meliputi bagian bersama, benda bersama dan tanah bersama (lihat Pasal 7 ayat [3] UU No. 16 Tahun 1985 tentang Rumah Susun/UURS jo Pasal 39 PP No. 4 Tahun 1988 tetang Rumah Susun/PP No. 4 Tahun 1988).
Pemisahan tersebut dilakukan dengan Akta Pemisahan, untuk lebih jelasnya dapat dilihat ketentuan Pasal 2, Pasal 3 dan Pasal 4 Peraturan Kepala Badan Pertanahan Nasional No. 2 Tahun 1989 tentang Bentuk dan Tata Cara Pengisian serta Pendaftaran Akta Pemisahan Rumah Susun (“PKBPN No. 2 Tahun 1989”):
“Pasal 2
(1) Akta pemisahan dilengkapi dengan pertelaan yang jelas dalam bentuk gambar, uraian dan batas-batas pemilikan satuan rumah susun yang mengandung nilai perbandingan proporsional.
(2) Pertelaan sebagaimana dimaksud dalam ayat (1) pasal ini ditetapkan oleh penyelenggara pembangunan rumah susun.
Pasal 3
(1) Akta pemisahan dibuat dan diisi sendiri oleh penyelenggara pembangunan rumah susun.
(2) Tata cara pengisian akta pemisahan sesuai dengan pedoman terlampir.
Pasal 4
(1) Penyelenggara pembangunan wajib meminta pengesahan isi akta pemisahan yang bersangkutan kepada Pemerintah Daerah Tingkat II Kabupaten/Kotamadya setempat atau kepada Pemerintah Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, apabila pembangunan rumah susun terletak di wilayah Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta.
(2) Akta pemisahan setelah disahkan sebagaimana dimaksud dalam ayat (1) pasal ini harus didaftarkan oleh penyelenggara pembangunan pada Kantor Pertanahan setempat, dengan melampirkan:
a. Sertipikat hak atas tanah;
b. Izin Layak Huni;
c. Warkah-warkah lainnya yang diperlukan”
Hak milik atas satuan rumah susun terjadi sejak didaftarkannya akta pemisahan dengan dibuatnya Buku Tanah untuk setiap satuan rumah susun yang bersangkutan (Pasal 39 ayat [5] PP No. 4 Tahun 1988).
Terhadap buku tanah tersebut kemudian dapat diterbitkan Sertifikat Hak Milik Atas Rumah Susun(Pasal 7 ayat [1] Peraturan Kepala Badan Pertanahan Nasional No. 4 Tahun 1989 tentang Bentuk dan Tata Cara Pembuatan Buku Tanah serta Penerbitan Hak Milik Atas Satuan Rumah Susun/PKBPN No. 4 Tahun 1989).
SHMRS dibuat dengan cara:
a. membuat salinan dari buku tanah yang bersangkutan.
b. membuat salinan surat ukur atas tanah bersama.
c. membuat gambar daerah satuan rumah susun yang bersangkutan
Salinan-salinan tersebut kemudian dijilid menjadi sebuah dokumen yang disebut dengan Sertifikat (lihat Pasal 7 ayat [2] dan ayat [3] PKBN No. 4 Tahun 1989).
Jadi, secara singkat dapat dilihat bahwa dasar dari diterbitkannya SHMRS ini didapat dari akta pemisahan yang telah disahkan dan didaftar, kemudian dari akta pemisahan tersebut dibuatlah buku tanah sebagai dasar penerbitan SHMRS.
SHMRS yang diterbitkan tersebut merupakan tanda bukti hak milik terhadap satuan rumah susun yang dimiliki(Pasal 9 ayat (1) UURS jo. Pasal 7 ayat (4) PKBN No. 4 Tahun 1989).
Demikian yang bisa saya jelaskan, semoga dapat memberi pencerahan. Terima kasih.
Dasar hukum:
1. Undang-Undang No. 16 Tahun 1985 tentang Rumah Susun
2. Peraturan Pemerintah No. 40 Tahun 1996 tentang Hak Guna Usaha, Hak Guna Bangunan, dan Hak Pakai Atas Tanah
3. Peraturan Pemerintah No. 4 Tahun 1988 tentang Rumah Susun
4. Peraturan Kepala Badan Pertanahan Nasional No. 2 Tahun 1989 tentang Bentuk dan Tata Cara Pengisian serta Pendaftaran Akta Pemisahan Rumah Susun
5. Peraturan Kepala Badan Pertanahan Nasional No. 4 Tahun 1989 tentang Bentuk dan Tata Cara Pembuatan Buku Tanah serta Penerbitan Hak Milik Atas Satuan Rumah Sus
Thursday, September 08, 2011
American-Style Islamophobia
American-Style Islamophobia | Crossroads Arabia
The progressive American political group Center for American Progress has published an extensive report on Islamophobia Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America. The 140-page report (70 double PDF pages at the link) takes a look at what Islamophobia is, who is funding it, who is serving as the ideologues and message carriers. It makes for interesting reading.
The report points to how noted American Islamophobes like Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes selectively (and often inaccurately) pick information about Islam and Shariah Law, take them out of context, and create frightful scenarios in order to drive anti-Muslim public policy. This is true. The report, however, does its own share of cherry-picking data and ad hominem attacks. Thus, the report needs to be taken with a grain of salt itself.
Robert Spencer retorts with his own heated defense here, finding the report the result of an ‘Islamic Propaganda Machine’. Spencer’s response is full of his own name-calling and casting of aspersions, but he gets his point across.
A more accurate portrayal of Islamic law in America can be found in a The New York Times commentary by Eliyahu Stern:
Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America
Eliyahu Stern
MORE than a dozen American states are considering outlawing aspects of Shariah law. Some of these efforts would curtail Muslims from settling disputes over dietary laws and marriage through religious arbitration, while others would go even further in stigmatizing Islamic life: a bill recently passed by the Tennessee General Assembly equates Shariah with a set of rules that promote “the destruction of the national existence of the United States.”
Supporters of these bills contend that such measures are needed to protect the country against homegrown terrorism and safeguard its Judeo-Christian values. The Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has said that “Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.”
This is exactly wrong. The crusade against Shariah undermines American democracy, ignores our country’s successful history of religious tolerance and assimilation, and creates a dangerous divide between America and its fastest-growing religious minority.
…
Over the past years, I’ve been writing about the intersection of American secular laws and religious establishments. While the Church and State are separate in the US, American law has always ##en since the time of the writing of the Constitution ##en made room for religious law in certain corners of jurisprudence. This has generally involved matters of arbitration, with the parties being able to decide beforehand which entities would adjudicate contracts of various sorts. It has also involved ‘choice of law‘ provisions in contracts. This is not new; it is not dangerous; it is not some camel’s nose being thrust under the tent of American values.
Fear-mongering can be an effective political tool. It can be used to motivate masses and raise massive funds. It is also despicable. As we come to the 10th anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11, when Muslim extremists – including 15 Saudis – attacked targets in the US, we can expect to see more and sharper criticism of Muslims. That’s unfortunate, but perhaps to be expected. It can be ignored for its political import, but should be condemned for the way it demeans and smears the reputation of the millions of American Muslims who oppose extremism and the billion-plus Muslims around the world.
Diyyah (blood money)
Blood Money or diyya is an Shariah principle that arose to avoid feuds and independent application of lex talionis or retribution. In the case of accidental death, it may be covered by insurance, but for intentional killings, it falls upon the miscreant and his family. The value of blood money has remained static in Saudi Arabia for the past 29 years. It is now being raised to three or four times the old value to keep in line with the changes in its baseline figure: the price of a camel.
The Saudi system still values women’s lives at half that of men and of non-Muslims at only a quarter.
Proposal to raise blood money limit gets royal consent
ARAB NEWS
RIYADH: Royal consent has been given to raise the diyyah (blood money) limit for murder to SR400,000 and accidental killings to SR300,000, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper said the adjustments were requested by the Supreme Court in light of the hikes in the price of camels.
According to Shariah rules, the heirs of a murdered person should be compensated with 100 camels. The new blood money values are expected to be circulated soon.
Blood money values, currently set at SR110,000 for murder and SR100,000 for accidental killings, have been static for the last 29 years. Murdered women are paid half of the amount. The Supreme Council of Scholars had called for reviewing diyyah in light of the increasing prices of camels.In a meeting held about 40 years ago the Judicial Council set diyyah for murder at SR27,000, which was increased to 45,000 six years later before it was raised to the current level.
Judge Yasser Al-Balawi said he expected the changes in blood money levels to reduce crime in the Kingdom. It is also predicted that car insurance companies will increase their premiums in response.
Fawwaz Al-Hijji, director of business development at Tawuniya, said the company would conduct a study to decide the price of new insurance policies.
Palestinian full member status at UN
The Palestinian people have officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they will stage a series of peaceful events in the runup to the annual gathering of the UN general assembly this month.
Some 100 Palestinian officials and activists gathered at the UN offices in Ramallah for a short ceremony, where they announced their plans in a letter addressed to the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. The letter urges Ban to add his "moral voice in support of the Palestinian people".
"Families of the tens of thousands of victims of Israeli occupation, including those martyred, wounded and imprisoned, and countless others who were expelled from their homes or lost their homes and their property, hope that you will exert all possible efforts toward the achievement of the Palestinian people's just demands," it says.
The letter was handed over by Latifa abu Hmeid, a 70-year-old woman who lost one son in fighting with Israel and has seven other sons in Israeli prisons because of alleged militant activities.
Officials said Abu Hmeid was selected to deliver the document because her personal story reflected the plight of the Palestinians. A resident of a West Bank refugee camp, her house has twice been demolished by Israeli authorities as punishment for her sons' activities, they said.
The Palestinians have decided to turn to the UN to recognise their independence after two decades of unsuccessful peace efforts with Israel. The latest round of talks broke down a year ago.
The campaign seeks recognition of an independent Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 six-day war. Israel rejects a return to its 1967 lines.
While any UN vote will be largely symbolic, the Palestinians believe a strong international endorsement will boost their position and put pressure on Israel should negotiations resume. Israel has been lobbying the international community to oppose the vote, saying peace can only be achieved through negotiations.
The letter says the campaign will include a series of peaceful events "in various international cities and capitals" leading up to the 21 September opening of the general assembly. Two days later, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will address the gathering in New York and ask for admission to the United Nations.
It remains unclear whether the Palestinians will turn to the security council or the general assembly. The council needs nine votes out of 15 and no veto from any of its permanent members to pass a decision. However, the US, which opposes the Palestinian bid, is expected to veto any request in the council.
The Palestinians could then seek admission as a "non-member state" of the general assembly, like the Vatican. Approval in the assembly, which is dominated by developing nations sympathetic to the Palestinians, is assured. But the vote would not be legally binding. The Palestinians say they will continue their campaign until they gain full UN membership.
Although the Palestinians say their campaign will be peaceful, Israeli military officials fear that mass demonstrations in the West Bank could turn violent. Security forces have been preparing for the possibility of violence, conducting exercises and stockpiling what they say is "non-lethal" riot-control equipment such as teargas, water cannon and stun grenades.
Snaptu: As he hits a new approval rating low, do you think President Obama can win re-election in 2012? |…
Snaptu: Palestinian statehood must come about by the democratic will of the people
The international community has a legal and political interest in who effectively represents the Palestinian people in the UN
In August 2011, I drafted an opinion on certain legal questions regarding the issue of "popular representation", so far as…
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Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Everything that NATO has done in Libya has been illegal
WAGING A WAR OF AGGRESSION
Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928, Art. I. The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another. Art. II. The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.
HELPING REBELS IN A CIVIL WAR
Convention on Duties and Rights of States in the Event of Civil Strife, 1928, Art. 1. To forbid the traffic in arms and war material, except when intended for the Government, while the belligerency of the rebels has not been recognized, in which latter case the rules of neutrality shall be applied.
CONSPIRACY TO WAGE WAR
Nuremberg Charter, 1945. Crimes against peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing . . .
PROPAGANDA FOR WAR
Civil & Political Rights Covenant, 1966, Art. 20. (1). Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.
SECRET CONTRACT AWARDSHague II, 1899, Art. 48. If, in the territory occupied, the occupant collects the taxes, dues, and tolls imposed for the benefit of the State, he shall do it, as far as possible, in accordance with the rules in existence and the assessment in force, and will in consequence be bound to defray the expenses of the administration of the occupied territory on the same scale as that by which the legitimate Government was bound.
FUNDING MERCENARIES
Mercenaries Convention, 1993, Art. 5. (1). States Parties shall not recruit, use, finance or train mercenaries and shall prohibit such activities.
By Global Research
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
TwitTerrorist : Gilberto Martinez Vera and Maruchi
Think before you tweet.
A former teacher turned radio commentator and a math tutor who lives with his mother sit in a prison in southern Mexico, facing possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage in what may be the most serious charges ever brought against anyone using a Twitter social network account.
Prosecutors say the defendants helped cause a chaos of car crashes and panic as parents in the Gulf Coast city of Veracruz rushed to save their children because of false reports that gunmen were attacking schools.
Gerardo Buganza, interior secretary for Veracruz state, compared the panic to that caused by Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." But he said the fear roused by that account of a Martian invasion of New Jersey "was small compared to what happened here."
"Here, there were 26 car accidents, or people left their cars in the middle of the streets to run and pick up their children, because they thought these things were occurring at their kids' schools," Buganza told local reporters.
The charges say the messages caused such panic that emergency numbers "totally collapsed because people were terrified," damaging service for real emergencies.
Veracruz, the state's largest city, and the neighboring suburb of Boca del Rio were already on edge after weeks of gunbattles involving drug traffickers. One attack occurred on a major boulevard. In another, gunmen tossed a grenade outside the city aquarium, killing an tourist and seriously wounding his wife and their two young children.
On Aug. 25, nerves were further frayed when residents saw armed convoys of marines circulating on the streets, making some think a confrontation with gangs was imminent.
That is when Gilberto Martinez Vera, who works as a low-paid tutor at several private schools, allegedly opened the floodgates of fear with repeated messages that gunmen were taking children from schools.
"My sister-in-law just called me all upset, they just kidnapped five children from the school," Martinez tweeted.
In fact, no such kidnappings occurred that day. Defense lawyer Claribel Guevara said the rumors already had started and that Martinez Vera was just relaying what others told him. She said he never claimed to have firsthand knowledge of the incident.
But in a subsequent tweet about the kidnap rumor, he said, "I don't know what time it happened, but it's true." He also tweeted that three days earlier, "they mowed down six kids between 13 and 15 in the Hidalgo neighborhood." While a similar attack occurred, it didn't involve children.
Prosecutors say the rumors were also sent by Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola, who has worked as a teacher, a state arts official and a radio commentator. She says she was just relaying such messages to her own Twitter followers.
"How can they possibly do this to me, for re-tweeting a message? I mean, it's 140 characters. It's not logical,'" said Guevara, quoting her client.
Better known on the radio and social networks as "Maruchi," her Facebook site now features the Twitter logo, a little bluebird, blindfolded and standing in front of the scales of justice, with the slogan "I too am a TwitTerrorist."
Online petitions are circulating to demand her release, and the pair's cause has been taken up by human rights groups that call the charges exaggerated. Amnesty International says officials are violating freedom of expression and it blames the panic on the uncertainty many Mexicans feel amid a drug war in which more than 35,000 people have died over the past five years.
"The lack of safety creates an atmosphere of mistrust in which rumors that circulate on social networks are part of people's efforts to protect themselves, since there is very little trustworthy information," Amnesty wrote in a statement on the case.
In violence-wracked cities in the northern state of Tamaulipas, citizens and even authorities have used Twitter and Facebook to warn one another about shootouts.
Anita Vera, Martinez Vera's 71-year-old mother, said her 48-year-old son still lives at her house with his girlfriend. She said he told her that had posted his messages after the panic had already started.
"He told me "Mom, I didn't start any of this, I just transmitted what I was told,'" Vera Martellis said after visiting her son in prison.
"He used the computer, but I swear that my son never wanted to do anybody harm, or start a revolution, like they say he did," said Vera, who ekes out a living selling flowers.
Raul Trejo, an expert on media and violence at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the terrorism charge is unwarranted, but described the case as "a very incautious use of Twitter."
He noted that in Mexico, "Twitter has been used by drug traffickers to create panic with false warnings." In one case, a wave of messages about impending violence shut down schools, bars and restaurants in the central city of Cuernavaca last year.
Trejo said Twitter users must learn "not to believe everything, and simply take the Twitter messages as an indication that some (report) is making the rounds."
But the real problem appears to be that governments cannot prevent drug cartel violence or even accurately inform citizens about it. Local news media are often so battered by kidnappings and killings of reporters that, in many states, they are loath to report about it.
"These Twitter users had accounts with a few hundred followers," Trejo noted. "If these lies grew, it is not so much because they propagated them, but because in Veracruz as in most of the rest of the country, there is such a lack of public safety that the public is inclined to believe unconfirmed acts of violence ... The government doesn't make clear what is happening."
Defense attorneys also say their clients were held incommunicado for almost three days, unable to see a lawyer.
It appears one of the most serious sets of charges ever brought for sending or resending Twitter messages.
Tweeter Paul Chambers was fined 385 pounds and ordered to pay 2,000 pounds ($3,225) in prosecution costs last year for tweeting that if northern England's Robin Hood Airport didn't reopen in time for his flight, "I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"
Venezuelan authorities last year charged two people with spreading false information about the country's banking system using Twitter and urging people to pull money out of banks. They could serve nine to 11 years in prison if convicted.
In 2009, a Chinese woman was sentenced to a year in a labor camp for posting a satirical Twitter message about the Japan pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.
165 million Europeans suffer brain disorder
Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.
With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden -- measured in the hundreds of billions of euros -- as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.
"Mental disorders have become Europe's largest health challenge of the 21st century," the study's authors said.
At the same time, some big drug companies are backing away from investment in research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.
"The immense treatment gap ... for mental disorders has to be closed," said Hans Ulrich Wittchen, director of the institute of clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Germany's Dresden University and the lead investigator on the European study.
"Those few receiving treatment do so with considerable delays of an average of several years and rarely with the appropriate, state-of-the-art therapies."
Wittchen led a three-year study covering 30 European countries -- the 27 European Union member states plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway -- and a population of 514 million people.
A direct comparison of the prevalence of mental illnesses in other parts of the world was not available because different studies adopt varying parameters.
Wittchen's team looked at about 100 illnesses covering all major brain disorders from anxiety and depression to addiction to schizophrenia, as well as major neurological disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.
The results, published by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ENCP) on Monday, show an "exceedingly high burden" of mental health disorders and brain illnesses, he told reporters at a briefing in London.
Mental illnesses are a major cause of death, disability, and economic burden worldwide and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease across all ages.
Wittchen said that in Europe, that grim future had arrived early, with diseases of the brain already the single largest contributor to the EU's burden of ill health.
The four most disabling conditions -- measured in terms of disability-adjusted life years or DALYs, a standard measure used to compare the impact of various diseases -- are depression, dementias such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, alcohol dependence and stroke.
The last major European study of brain disorders, which was published in 2005 and covered a smaller population of about 301 million people, found 27 percent of the EU adult population was suffering from mental illnesses.
Although the 2005 study cannot be compared directly with the latest finding -- the scope and population was different -- it found the cost burden of these and neurological disorders amounted to about 386 billion euros ($555 billion) a year at that time. Wittchen's team has yet to finalize the economic impact data from this latest work, but he said the costs would be "considerably more" than estimated in 2005.
The researchers said it was crucial for health policy makers to recognize the enormous burden and devise ways to identify potential patients early -- possibly through screening -- and make treating them quickly a high priority.
"Because mental disorders frequently start early in life, they have a strong malignant impact on later life," Wittchen said. "Only early targeted treatment in the young will effectively prevent the risk of increasingly largely proportions of severely ill...patients in the future."
David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacology expert at Imperial College London who was not involved in this study, agreed.
"If you can get in early you may be able to change the trajectory of the illness so that it isn't inevitable that people go into disability," he said. "If we really want not to be left with this huge reservoir of mental and brain illness for the next few centuries, then we ought to be investing more now."
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Matthew Jones)
SBY Gives WikiLeaks Silent Treatment
SBY Gives WikiLeaks Silent Treatment
Camelia Pasandaran | September 05, 2011
The government announced on Monday that it would not respond to any information found in US diplomatic cables presented by whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks, saying that the information is far from credible.
"We won't give any response," presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told the Jakarta Globe. "It is difficult to complain about things like this because the information WikiLeaks reveals is from secondary sources."
Julian also questioned the reliability of the latest release about President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It talked of efforts to repay the financiers that facilitated his 2004 bid for the presidency by offering them jobs in his administration.
"Too much information is presented without clear sources," he said. "It's just the issue of the day, without clear information on sources. Therefore we're not enthusiastic about responding to WikiLeaks news. The primary sources don't understand how such rumors could spread."
WikiLeaks cited remarks from Democratic Party official Silo Marbun saying that Yudhoyono reportedly offered Vence Rumangkang — the party's deputy general chairman — a position in the administration as well as a check for Rp 5 billion ($585,000) to repay Vence's substantial contribution to the party.
Vence reportedly declined to accept both the check and the offer of a political position. He did allegedly say that he hoped to have Yudhoyono's support as he continued his business endeavors.
Marbun also claimed that Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie's contributions to Yudhoyono's presidential campaign totaled Rp 200 billion. Aburizal would subsequently become Yudhoyono's Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and later his Coordinating Minister for Social Affairs during the president's first term.
Julian said the president was at first shocked after WikiLeaks revealed diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Jakarta that generated considerable attention from international media. But he said that Yudhoyono had stopped caring about the leaked cables "after learning about the methodology used."
"We believe the public will later know and realize just how credible [the information leaked by WikiLeaks is]," he said.
Here is another one ...
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/leaked-us-cables-slam-megawati-pdi-p/463418
Leaked US Cables Slam Megawati, PDI-P
September 05, 2011
Leaked US diplomatic cables paint a negative picture of Megawati Sukarnoputri's presidency and predict the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) would do poorly in the 2009 elections due to its "dysfunctional leadership."
The cables also claim that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono went to "great lengths" but ultimately failed to restore his relationship with Megawati, who remains bitter that Yudhoyono ran against her in 2004.
The cables quote former PDI-P legislator Amris Hassan as saying there was a "growing sense of disillusionment within the PDI-P ranks over Megawati's stewardship of the party."
"Hassan bemoaned Megawati's inability to chart a coherent opposition strategy for PDI-P and said that he expected a growing number of high profile defections from the party unless changes were forthcoming," the cable from late 2006 said.
"Hassan told us that Megawati's obsequious inner circle contributed to her leadership struggles as she was rarely challenged or prompted to consider alternative viewpoints from her own."
The former legislator said party members were becoming more and more aware that the party was viewed as little more than a "Megawati cult of personality, and that most party members understood this would not translate into electoral success in 2009."
The source told the embassy that his decision to accept an ambassadorial posting to New Zealand would help "distance himself from the party's dysfunctional leadership."
The party gained just 14 percent of the vote in the 2009 legislative elections to finish in third place, well behind Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, which secured 20 percent of the vote. PDI-P secured almost 20 percent of the vote in the 2004 elections.
Another cable labels Megawati as the only serious threat to Yudhoyono in the 2009 presidential elections but said she had "stumbled in the opposition and failed to articulate a competing vision for the country."
"Having already beaten back one challenge to her authority in PDI-P, several of our contacts in the party report growing disenchantment with her policy of 'opposition for the sake of opposition,' and openly admit they believe she could never be re-elected as president," the cable reads.
"Though it is hard to imagine a PDI-P ticket without her at the top, Megawati would have to overcome lingering questions about her first presidency, and very low favorability numbers (28% in the most recent credible polling), to beat SBY in 2009.
Wikileaks : Indonesian Police Used FPI as ‘Attack Dog,’
Indonesian Police Used FPI as 'Attack Dog,' Leaked US Cable Alleges
Jakarta Globe | September 03, 2011
Unredacted US diplomatic cables published by antisecrecy Web site WikiLeaks on Friday allege collusion between Indonesian security forces and the radical Islamic Defenders Front.
Though the claims are not new, the leaked cables go into far greater detail than before and name the sources providing the US Embassy in Jakarta with information on a number of recent controversies, each of which has the potential to embarrass the Indonesian government.
One of the cables states that a contact within the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Yahya Asagaf, had "sufficiently close contacts within" the Front, known as the FPI, to warn the embassy that it would be attacked by the vigilante group on Feb. 19, 2006, during protests against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The cable says the contact alleged that then National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto, the current head of BIN, had provided the FPI with funds prior to the attack, but cut off the funding after the incident.
"When we questioned [the contact's] allegation that Sutanto funded FPI, Yahya said the police chief found it useful to have FPI available to him as an 'attack dog,'" the cable says.
"When pressed further on the usefulness of FPI playing this role, noting that the police should be sufficiently capable of intimidation, Yahya characterized FPI as a tool that could spare the security forces from criticism for human rights violations, and he said funding FPI was a 'tradition' of the Police and BIN."
The contact said the FPI had obtained the "majority of its funds from the security forces" but faced a "budget crunch" after the attack.
Another cable also alleges the FPI had close contacts with former Jakarta Police Chief Nugroho Djayusman, who admitted the connections to embassy officials.
"He then explained defensively that it was natural for him, as the Jakarta Police Chief, to have contacts with all sorts of organizations," the cable continues. "This was necessary because the sudden release of energy from the Islamists, who had been repressed under [former dictator] Suharto, could have posed a security risk.
"'But it doesn't mean I was involved,' he said, distancing himself from responsibility for any violent activities."
The cable said that Nugroho illustrated his point by claiming that Sutanto lacked useful connections, "and when the violent FPI demonstration took place, Sutanto had to call Nugroho to request assistance."
"Nugroho told us that he then called FPI Chairman Habib Rizieq and arranged the surrender of three men who had arranged the violence outside of the US Embassy. "
Nugroho, a controversial figure also blamed for failing to prevent the deadly anti-Chinese riots after the downfall of Suharto in 1998, also took a swipe at the FPI's Islamic credentials.
Though he acknowledged the FPI had a "clear track record of violence" he labeled the group a "small, relatively insignificant group" that was "not ideological, except insofar as it opposed gambling, prostitution and pornography."
"By contrast, he noted that 'Ngruki' (shorthand for [Abu Bakar] Bashir's pesantren and, one can assume, the Jemaah Islamiyah organization) was a much more serious ideological group."
In a later cable in the second quarter of 2006, Yenny Wahid, the daughter of former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, said the retired group of security officers who had helped form and finance the FPI — including Nugroho — had lost control of the group, saying they had "'created a monster' that now functioned independently of its former sponsors and did not feel beholden to them."
"Although anyone with money could hire FPI for political purposes, no one outside of the group could control FPI head Habib Rizieq, who functions as his own boss," the cable said.
Monday, September 05, 2011
A movie you need to watch
A thunderstorm rolled into Venice overnight, flash-bulbing the sky and lancing the boil of heat that has enveloped the city these past six days. One could have sworn that the temperature dropped still further, to practically Baltic levels, during the morning screening of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a marvellously chill and acrid cold war thriller from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. Right here, right now, it's the film to beat at this year's festival.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Production year: 2011
Country: UK
Directors: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Simon McBurney, Tom Hardy
Nimbly navigating the labyrinthine source novel by John Le Carré, Alfredson eases us through a run-down 70s London, all the way to a municipal MI6 bunker, out by the train yards. This, it transpires, is "the Circus", a warren of narrow corridors and smoke-filled offices, patrolled by jumpy, ulcerous men with loose flesh and thinning hair, peering into the shadows in search of a spy. There's a mole at the top of the Circus, a "deep-penetration agent" leaking secrets to the Soviets. Control (John Hurt) has narrowed the hunt to five likely suspects. Now all that remains is for diffident George Smiley (Gary Oldman), working off the books and under the radar, to steal in and identify the culprit.
Oldman gives a deliciously delicate, shaded performance, flitting in and out of the wings like some darting grey lizard. We have the sense that Smiley has seen too much and done too much, and that a lifetime's experience has bled him of colour. His eyes are tired, his collar too tight, his necktie a noose. Yet still he keeps coming, quietly infiltrating a first-rate supporting cast that includes Mark Strong, Kathy Burke and Colin Firth. Away in Istanbul, Tom Hardy raises the roof as Ricki Tarr, the tale's bullish rogue element, while Benedict Cumberbatch is mesmerising as the well-groomed gentleman conspirator coming slowly apart at the seams.
If there is any flaw to the film, it's that the whistle is blown too soon and that some eagle-eyed George Smiley types are liable to identity the bad apple before Smiley does himself. But possibly even that doesn't matter as much as it might, because Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is finally more about the journey than the destination; more fascinated with the detail than the denouement. The Circus, after all, is precisely that: an outmoded sideshow of clowns, strong-men and acrobats, founded on dodgy principles and banging the drum for a war that may not be a real war anyway. Who cares who is responsible? All these men are guilty of something; all of them drinking from the same dirty water fountain. Tinker, Tailor … treads a shifting, dangerous world where 70s London looks a lot like 70s Moscow and where Santa Claus wears a Lenin mask. It invites us to look from our spy to their spy and treat those two impostors just the same.
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Snaptu: Is the Arab world now ready to invest in ideas?
For years, Arabs have struggled to define their identity because their regimes have stifled open debate and critical thinking
The Arab Spring is tearing down barriers; no longer are citizens afraid of repression. Many Arab streets are imagining new…
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Sunday, September 04, 2011
Snaptu: The failure of Australia's 'Malaysia Solution' is a positive step for refugees| Fergal Davis
The ruling that Australia can no longer send 'boat people' back to Malaysia shows countries cannot dodge their refugee obligations
This week, Australian immigration policy was dealt a significant blow by a judgment of the high court of Australia on…
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Saturday, September 03, 2011
Snaptu: Our demand for metals could cost us the Earth | Melody Kemp
For too long mining companies have used the mantra of growth to excuse environmental destruction
Have you noticed that mining is increasingly getting up people's noses? Globally, more communities are fighting it. Gaggles of poor villagers are taking…
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Cheap House ..Price starts from $99
For those who are too broke to get on the housing ladder, an American firm is here to help.
Jay Shafer's Tumbleweed Tiny House Company makes cute little homes that start from the bargain price of $99.
The
cheapest home is a flat-pack to be built by the owner but, if you're
not very handy, there are ready-made versions for $38,997.
Let us clean the space junk!
Space junk has made such a mess of Earth's orbit that experts say we may need to finally think about cleaning it up.
That may mean vacuuming up debris with weird space technology — cosmic versions of nets, magnets and giant umbrellas, according to the chairman of an expert panel that issued a new report on the problem Thursday.
There are 22,000 objects in orbit that are big enough for officials on the ground to track and countless more smaller ones that could do damage to human-carrying spaceships and valuable satellites. The International Space Station has to move out of the way of debris from time to time.
"We've lost control of the environment," said retired NASA senior scientist Donald Kessler, who headed the National Academy of Sciences report.
Since the space age began 54 years ago, civilization has littered the area just above Earth's atmosphere with leftover boosters and other parts that come off during launches, as well as old satellites. When scientists noticed that this could be a problem, they came up with agreements to limit new space junk and those plans had been working.
Those agreements are intended to make sure what is sent into orbit eventually falls back to Earth and burns up.
But two events in the past four years — a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite weapon test and a 2009 crash-in-orbit of two satellites — put so much new junk in space that everything changed, the report said. The widely criticized Chinese test used a missile to smash an aging weather satellite into 150,000 pieces of debris larger than four-tenths of an inch (1 centimeter) and 3,118 pieces can be tracked by radar on the ground, the report said.
"Those two single events doubled the amount of fragments in Earth orbit and completely wiped out what we had done in the last 25 years," Kessler said.
All that junk that means something has to be done, "which means you have to look at cleaning space," said Kessler.
The study only briefly mentions the cleanup possibility, raising technical, legal and diplomatic hurdles. But it refers to a report earlier this year by a Defense Department science think-tank that outlines all sorts of unusual techniques. The report by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is called "Catcher's Mitt" and it mentions harpoons, nets, tethers, magnets and even a giant dish or umbrella-shaped device that would sweep up tiny pieces of debris.
While the new report does not recommend using the technology, Kessler said it is needed. He likes one company's idea of a satellite that is armed with nets that could be sprung on wayward junk. Attached to the net is an electromagnetic tether that could either pull the junk down to a point where it would burn up harmlessly or boost it to safer orbit.
NASA officials said they are examining the study.
The report is from the National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, which is an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on science.
Funny vacation with Chris Jeon
It's the wildest summer vacation story I've ever heard. Chris Jeon, a 21-year-old American UCLA student, said he "thought it would be cool" to spend his summer joining rebels in Libya in their fight against ruler Moammar Gadhafi. The Los Angeles native bought a one-way ticket to Cairo for $800, and then he hopped on a train to Alexandria, Egypt. After riding a bus to Benghazi, he hitchhiked with rebels to Tripoli. When the Christian Science Monitor's Kristen Chick came across Jeon in Libya she tweeted, "The American kid at front lines today came to see 'a real revolution,' said he was helping rebels but clearly didn't know how to fire a gun." She then tweeted, "He speaks no Arabic, no one knows he is there, he is staying with families/fighters. He is from LA, wearing a lakers jersey. Nuts." The photo of Jeon in a vintage Lakers jersey standing in the middle of a group of war-ravaged fighters says it all. Jeon told the National that when a rebel handed him an AK-47, he asked "How do you fire this thing?" Jeon told the Christian Science Monitor that he lied to his parents about where he was going and planned to return to California at the end of September for the first day of school. But his trip might end a bit early. Al-Jazeera English's Evan Hill tweeted, "Our team in east #Libya said rebels fed up with Chris Jeon, US kid who tried to join, told him 2 go, last seen on pick-up going 2 Benghazi." What do you think of Jeon's summer vacation trip? Tell us on Facebook.com/TrendingNow and Twitter @YahooTrending.
I know it's out of character, but Donald Trump is ranting! He took to his YouTube soapbox Wednesday to tell the world what he thinks of Dick Cheney's new book, and it's not pretty. In the video taken in the Donald's office he doesn't mince his words. He says, "I didn't like Cheney as vice president. I don't like him now. And I don't like people who rat out everybody like he's doing in the book." "The Apprentice" star has been using YouTube to voice his opinions on a number of issues. It seems none of his previous bashings have received the amount of social media attention this one has. One tweeter said, "Happy to see that Trump has found his calling as a YouTube ranter."
And finally, you won't believe one of the ways FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) measures the severity of disasters. It goes to the Waffle House! The 24-hour restaurant prides itself on being open all day every day no matter what. After a disaster, FEMA checks out the affected area's Waffle Houses. It even created a complex color-coded system. Green, or a full Waffle House menu, means minimal damage. Yellow, or a limited menu, means Waffle House is using a generator and the damage is serious. And red means Waffle House is closed and the damage is close to catastrophic. Waffle House kept it humble, tweeting "We're so proud of our disaster response team!"
Melbourne: The best city in the world to live!
So far, I agree with that title. For me, indeed, Melbourne has been the best city in the world to live.