Special Envoy

Former Minister for For–eign Affairs Ali Alatas appar–ently still has some “teeth to show”. He is now appointed as President Megawati’s spe–cial envoy to Myanmar. Indo–nesia and other ASEAN coun–tries would like the Myanmar Government to soon release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. During the Asia-Eu–rope Ministerial (ASEM) con–ference, Indonesia and other members of ASEAN urged Myanmar to immediately release Suu Kyi.

However, the Indonesian delegation is still waiting for the Government of Myanmar to accept them. “We are still waiting for the right time,” said Alatas to Dedy Sinaga from TEMPO News Room, on Wednesday. He hopes that he could visit Myanmar before the ASEAN summit, which will be held in Bali on Octo–ber 7-8, so that the Suu Kyi issue will not dominate the summit’s agenda.

Hambali’s Access

The effort of the Coordi–nating Minister for Political & Security Affairs, S.B. Yudhoyono to gain access to Hambali, alias Riduan Isamuddin, is still facing a dead end. Last week, he went to Washington to persuade the US Government to allow the Indonesian Police to examine Hambali. But since the “world’s police” still needs convictions from the Jamaah Islamiyah prominent figure, they are still keeping him for themselves.

Even the recent storm that swept the country almost ru–ined Yudhoyono’s itinerary. His meeting with Senator Ri–chard Lugar, the Foreign Re–lations Committee, and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Gordon England were already cancelled. Whereas, the meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell is still being scheduled. However, SBY is already set to meet the Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

Yudhoyono has set his hopes high. At Indonesia’s embassy in Washington DC, Yudhoyono was hoping that the government could bring Hambali back to Indonesia to face trial. “Hambali is our product. No other country, but Indonesia and the Indonesian Police [have the right] to conduct the inves–tigations, not America or other countries,” he said.

State Bloopers

STATE Minister for Administrative Reforms, Feisal Tamin, estimated that around 161,000 civil servants have double identification cards. And some 32,000 officers even have their gender wrong. “We will re–input the names, positions, genders, and so forth,” he said at the opening of the National Officials Work Session in Batam, Friday two weeks ago.

For the reason that admin–istration errors would very much effect the state budg–eting, Feisal hoped that the session could agree on wel–fare improvement. Ideally, civil servants’ salaries should be increased up to 80 percent more than private employ–ees’. He said: “How can we create qualified civil serv–ants if we can’t support their welfare?” But he was quick to add that those who also served as members of a political party would be im–mediately fired, “Regardless of who it is, you have to choose one.”

Down Memory Lane

PresidenT Megawati Sukarnoputri appears to be walking down memory lane. While on September 30, 1960, Indonesia’s first president Sukarno made a speech addressing the UN General Assembly, Megawati will also follow in kind, at the same place, on September 23. While her father delivered a speech entitled “To Build the World Anew”, she will call for the importance of multilate–ralism and reform within the UN, including the Security Council. Indonesia’s efforts to uphold peace and security in Southeast Asia will be also mentioned.

“Indonesia firmly ex–presses the importance of promoting multilateralism and doing away with the principal of unilateralism,” said Foreign Affairs Department spokesman, Marty Natalegawa.

In New York, Megawati is scheduled to meet United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe; a meeting with US President George W. Bush is yet to be scheduled. But there is always a possibility to have a meeting outside the UN General Assembly, said Marty, “It could be an unscheduled meeting.”

GAM Cornered

ACCORDING to Indonesian Military (TNI) chief General Endriartono Sutarto, within four months of integrated operations in Aceh, TNI has managed to sap the strength of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM). By forcing them into remote forested areas, TNI is able to guarantee the security of the civilians. “We have signifi–cantly reduced GAM’s strength,” he said in a confer–ence on the fourth month evaluation of the integrated operation at TNI HQ in Cilangkap, Jakarta, on Friday. But he also admitted that TNI still could not totally wipe out the separatists.

It is said that TNI has man–aged to encircle Ishak Daud, GAM Commander for Peureulak Area. All of his be–longings, including his cell phone, were confiscated by TNI. But although pursued by TNI, “They really have dominated and made use of the critical area,” said Aceh Operation Commander Lt. Col. CAJ Ahmad Yani Basuki, two days later.

Meanwhile, Peureulak Area GAM spokesman, Teungku Mansur, admitted that right now he is cornered by TNI. But they will keep fighting, there are even hundreds of GAM troops ready to assist Ishak and co. Also, “We will soon deploy other troops,” he added.

Hanibal W. Y. Wijayanta, Dini Jalal, Jobpie Sugiharto, and TNR