Nature Alert: 'Bribes were my money': Azirwan

Saturday, 18 October 2008

'Bribes were my money': Azirwan

Saturday, October 18, 2008 The Jakarta Post

'Bribes were my money': Azirwan

JAKARTA: Suspended Bintan administration secretary Azirwan has claimed that the Rp 2.25 billion (US$230,000) he distributed to various lawmakers was his own money.

"The total amount that was disbursed to the House of Representatives members (to smooth the way for conversion of protected forest) was Rp 2.25 billion. That came from my personal savings that I got from my business (before serving as the Bintan secretary)," Azirwan told the Corruption Court on Friday in his testimony at the bribery trial of dismissed legislator Al Amin Nasution.

Azirwan said that before serving as Bintan secretary, he did some work as a mediator between foreign companies that needed fishing licenses from local companies.

"I decided to use my own money because I did not see any other way to get the House's permission for the forest conversion because the Bintan administration did not have any budget for that," he said.

Azirwan has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for bribing members of the House Commission IV on forestry and agriculture, including Al Amin.

The Bintan administration was planning to convert 8,300 hectares of a protected forest into a commercial area. --JP

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/18/039bribes-were-my-money039-azirwan.html

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.