Nature Alert: Anti-graft body questions minister, lawmakers

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Anti-graft body questions minister, lawmakers

Anti-graft body questions minister, lawmakers

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Mon, 06/09/2008

Four former Commission IX members, including current Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Ka'ban, were questioned Monday in relation to the embezzlement of Bank Indonesia funds.

Ka'ban said that he was questioned by the Corruption Eradication Commission as a witness for Hamka Yandhu and Anthony Zeidra Abidin, who are both former members of the commission. Both Yandhu and Abidin are suspects the case involving the illegal disbursement Rp 100 billion (US$10.8 million) from the central bank in 2003-2004.

"I don't know anything about the money disbursement to members of the commission. I wasn't actively involved in the commission," he said after being questioned for more than three hours.

The three other former members of the House of Representatives Commission IX, which oversaw financial affairs, Burhanuddin Aritonang, Emir Muis and Habil Matari had similar claims to Ka'ban. Muis and Matari are current members of the House's Commission XI.

In 2006, the Supreme Audit Agency said it discovered the misappropriation of funds, alleging that some Rp 31.5 billion was given to more than 10 members of Commission IX during the amendment of the central bank law.

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.