blog @abdulmanan

ACCORDING to State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister, Sofyan Djalil, there is nothing wrong in placing former members of the SBY-JK campaign team as commissioners of state-owned enterprises. What is important, he said, is that they have the capacity to do the job. “There are thousands of members of the campaign team. If we pick one or two among them [to be commissioners], it is because of their competence,” Sofyan told Tempo’s Abdul Manan, who spoke to the Minister last week. A number of board members and commissioners of SOEs you recently swore in are former members of SBY’s campaign team during the 2004 elections. Anyone has the right to be a member of the board or a commissioner if they have the competence. We pick candidates from the market. The directors of most SOEs come from banking or securities circles. Among the commissioners, maybe one or two are former members of the campaign team. But they are not there because they are members of the campaign team, but because of their co...

MENURUT Menteri Negara Badan Usaha Milik Negara Sofyan Djalil, tak ada yang salah dengan menempatkan bekas anggota tim sukses SBY-JK di posisi komisaris BUMN. Yang penting, katanya, mereka punya kapasitas dalam mengemban tugas. ”Anggota tim sukses itu jumlahnya ribuan. Kalau ada satu atau dua kami pertimbangkan (menjadi komisaris), itu karena kompetensinya,” kata Sofyan kepada wartawan Tempo, Abdul Manan, yang menghubunginya pekan lalu.Sejumlah anggota direksi dan komisaris BUMN yang Anda lantik adalah bekas anggota tim sukses Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dalam Pemilu 2004. Komentar Anda? Semua orang berhak menjadi anggota dewan direksi atau komisaris kalau punya kompetensi. Semua calon kami tarik dari pasar. Anda tahu direksi keuangan BUMN itu sebagian besar dari kalangan perbankan atau kalangan sekuritas. Di komisaris ada satu atau dua yang barangkali bekas anggota tim sukses. Namun bukan karena tim sukses dia masuk, tapi karena kompetensinya. Aam Sapulete masuk ke PTPN VII dan Andi Arif...

Public approval for the work done by radical Islamic organizations is on the wane, even though significant numbers still approve. THERE is some bad news for those who identify with hardline Islam. The results of a survey done by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) indicate that public approval of radical Islamic organizations has tended to decrease over the past three years. “There is a significant decrease in this tendency,” said Saiful Mujani, LSI Executive Director, when conveying his institute’s findings last Friday. This survey polled 1,200 respondents from all of Indonesia’s provinces. For Saiful, the results of the poll are not surprising. The survey, which has been conducted annually since 2005, also indicates a decreased tendency in Islamically-oriented political values compared to secular political values. A total of 57 percent of respondents said they held secular political values, 33 percent held Islamic political values, and 10 percent had no preference. The organization...

Dukungan terhadap apa yang diperjuangkan organisasi Islam radikal cenderung turun. Tapi yang setuju masih signifikan. INI berita buruk bagi mereka yang mengidolakan Islam garis keras. Hasil jajak pendapat Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI) menunjukkan dukungan terhadap organisasi Islam radikal dalam tiga tahun belakangan ini cenderung menurun. ”Kecenderungan turunnya signifikan,” kata Direktur Eksekutif LSI Saiful Mujani, ketika menyampaikan temuan lembaganya pada Jumat pekan lalu. Survei ini melibatkan 1.200 responden di semua provinsi di Indonesia. Bagi Saiful, hasil jajak pendapat ini tak mengejutkan. Survei yang dilakukan secara konsisten sejak 2005 ini juga menemukan kecenderungan menurunnya orientasi nilai politik Islamis dibanding nilai politik sekuler. Sebanyak 57 persen responden mengaku memegang nilai politik sekuler, 33 Islamis, dan 10 tak bersikap. Lembaga yang dikategorikan sebagai organisasi gerakan Islam di sini adalah organisasi yang dibangun atas dasar nilai-nilai Islamis,...

Two Acehnese businessmen were arrested for attempting to cash a phony check. They could be victims of Internet fraud. A SHOCKING news item appeared in the local media this past fortnight: two businessmen, members of the Aceh Governor’s delegation in the United States, were arrested by the New York Police Department. “I received confirmation about the news from the Governor’s group,” said Muhammad Nazar, Deputy Governor of Aceh, last Thursday. This is not exactly a pleasant report of Governor Irwandi Yusuf’s trip to the US, which he began on September 9, along with 20 officials and businessmen. The group had planned to return to Indonesia this week. According to Nazar, the trip was aimed at exploring cooperation with American businessmen and state governments. The group had been in the US two days when the incident occurred. One morning, Salahuddin Alfata and Lukman Cut Mansur disengaged themselves from the group and headed towards Citibank in Manhattan. Salahuddin is CEO of PT Seulawah...

THE Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative was a hot story in the Indonesian media last week. An initiative of the World Bank together with the United Nations Office of Drugs & Crime (UNODC), this program was launched on September 17 at the UN headquarters in New York. Its objective is to assist developing countries to recover assets stolen by corrupt leaders, and to help invest them in effective development programs and thwart safe havens internationally. The message of this initiative is clear. “There should be no safe haven for those who steal from the poor…and put corrupt leaders on notice that they will not escape the law,” said World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick. Executive Director of the UNODC Antonio Maria Costa added: “From now on it should be harder for kleptocrats to steal the public’s money.” There is a good reason for forming this initiative. According to World Bank chief governance advisor Joel Hellman in Jakarta, this initiative is a follow-up effort of the UN ...

Pengusaha Aceh ditangkap karena mencairkan cek palsu. Korban penipuan di Internet. DALAM dua pekan ini kabar heboh itu beredar: dua saudagar yang ikut rombongan Gubernur Aceh ditangkap polisi New York, Amerika Serikat. ”Saya mendapat konfirmasi kebenaran berita itu dari rombongan Gubernur,” kata Muhammad Nazar, Wakil Gubernur Aceh, Kamis pekan lalu. Inilah cerita sampingan tak sedap dari perjalanan Gubernur Irwandi Yusuf bersama sekitar 20 pejabat dan pengusaha ke Amerika, sejak 9 September lalu. Menurut rencana, rombongan muhibah dagang itu akan kembali ke Tanah Air pekan ini. Menurut Nazar, misi lawatan ini adalah menjajaki kerja sama dengan pengusaha dan pemerintah negara bagian di Amerika Serikat. Baru dua hari rombongan di sana, terjadilah ”musibah” itu. Bermula pada suatu pagi, ketika Salahuddin Alfata dan Lukman Cut Mansur berpisah dari rombongan dan menuju Citibank Manhattan di 666 50th Avenue, Manhattan. Salahuddin adalah Presiden Direktur PT Seulawah Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam ...