Nature Alert: KPK to grill two ministers in BI bribery case

Tuesday, 8 September 2009

KPK to grill two ministers in BI bribery case

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 09/08/2009

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is scheduled to question Forestry Minister, MS Kaban, and State Minister for National Development Planning, Paskah Suzetta, in relation to a bribery case involving the election of former Bank Indonesia deputy governor on Tuesday.

“Both will be questioned as witnesses for Hamka Yandhu (who is a suspect in the case),” said KPK spokesman Johan Budi on Tuesday.

At the time of writing, both ministers have yet to arrive at the KPK headquarters.

The case emerged after legislator Agus Tjondro admitted that he had received Rp 500 million (US$50,000) in traveler's checks from Miranda Goeltom after she won the BI deputy governor post in 2004.

The KPK later announced that four legislators that sat in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2004, Hamka Yandhu of the Golkar Party, Endin J. Soefihara from the United Development Party, Dudhie Makmun Murod from the PDI-P, and a Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) member, Udju Juhaeri, had been named as suspects in the case.

KPK also said it had 10 traveler's checks worth Rp 500 million each and other checks worth Rp 24 billion as evidence.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/08/kpk-grill-two-ministers-bi-bribery-case.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.