International
Indonesia Today
Friday, November 11, 2011
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Workers at Indonesia’s 7HONRPVHO VWULNH RYHU EHQHۋWV Reuters JAKARTA - About 2,500 workers at Indonesia’s largest mobilephone carrier, Telkomsel, went on strike on Thursday demanding better pay and pensions, the latest dispute over labour in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The work stoppage at PT Telekomunikasi Selular follows a surge in the mobile-phone customer base in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country with 240 million people, and a growing clamour by unions for a greater slice of the country’s wealth in the wake of rapid economic growth. On Wednesday, workers at Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc’s Grasberg mine in remote Papua province extended their strike into a third month, part of a broader push by workers for a greater share of profits in Indonesia. Pilots and supermarket staff have also recently gone on strike. About 1,000 Telkomsel workers, in their bright red uniforms and red headbands, marched on a busy Jakarta street, waving
placards and demanding better health pensions, compensation and their own cellular phones. Telkomsel workers in several other cities also went on strike. “If our demands are granted, we will not continue the strike tomorrow,” said union spokesman Yogi Rizkian Bahar. He vowed there would be no disruption to telecommunication services or damaged equipment in the strike, which is scheduled to continue until Dec. 30. The striking workers, out of the company’s total workforce of 4,000, refuse to work or to touch production tools. Those who showed up at work simply sat around the office, Bahar said. Telkomsel is partly owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd and is also a unit of Indonesia’s biggest telecoms firm, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia . PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia’s share price fell 1.3 percent on Thursday. Bahar said the union was summoned by government officials to try find a solution to the strike.
President chairs limited meeting on main weaponry system Antara
JAKARTA - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono chaired a limited meeting to discuss the procurement of main weaponry system (Alutsista) at his office on Thursday. Present at the meeting were among others National Defense Forces (TNI) Chief Admiral Agus Suhartono, National Police Chief Gen Timur Proadop, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Army Chief of Staff Gen Pramono Edhie Wibowo, Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Soeparno, and Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal Imam Sufaat. At the meeting the president asserted that the business makers who participated in the process of procurement and modernization of Alutsista should follow the existing procedures to encourage selfsufficiency of national strategic industry. “I remind the business makers in this field to follow the government policy, and then to develop the independence of our own defense industry without any irregularities, conspiracy, and marked up that have happened in the past,” President Yudhoyono said. The head of state also reminded the TNI and Polri leaders to take heed to that matter.\“This is what I am asking TNI-Police leaders to do in the procurement of defense equipment, and I hope the ranks of Finance Ministry, National Development Planning Board, and Defense Ministry will do the same,” the president said. With all the policies taken by the government, the president said he was optimistic that the modernization and fulfillment of weaponry system for TNI and Polri would be made. “We hope in this period the modernization of our defense weaponry system can be made because in the last 20 years we could not make it in an all out manner because of economic crisis and the absence of our ability to do so,” the president said. But following improvement of national economy, the president said that the government`s effort to modernize the defense weaponry system could be realized.
AP Photo/Irwin Fedriansyah
An Indonesian Muslim woman wears a Palestinian flag face mask during a solidarity protest for the Palestinian people in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011.
Indonesia central bank lowering interest rate Reuters
JAKARTA - Indonesia’s central bank on Thursday made a surprise 50 basis points cut to its benchmark overnight rate, taking it to a record low 6 percent, as it aims to boost growth in the face of a weakening global economy. A Reuters poll of economists had predicted a 25 basis points cut to 6.25 percent, following such a cut in October. In the third quarter, Indonesia
posted steady annual growth of 6.5 percent on buoyant domestic spending and investment, and October inflation slowed to 4.42 percent, the lowest this year, nearing the floor of
Bank Indonesia’s 4 to 6 percent target range. Some emerging economies have begun loosening policy as they aim to counter a global slowdown weighing on their economies.
Mt Merapi eruptions buried hundreds of springs Antara
YOGYAKARTA - Hundreds of springs in the Mount Merapi area have disappeared after being exposed to materials from the mountain`s recent eruptions and as a result , people there were now suffering water shortages, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X said. “The clean water sources of many people in Sleman and Bantul districts have diminished because the springs are now covered in materials from Mt Merapi eruptions,” he said after opening the 10th Asia
Pacific Round Table for Sustainable Consumption and Production (APRSP) here on Wednesday. He said Yogyakarta needed to find new water sources to meet its people`s needs and this had to be done immediately as a reforestation program in the Mt Merapi area could only be carried out after the solution of disputes over land rights.“If the people have to wait for the implementation of the reforestation program, they will suffer and therefore alternatives water sources must be found soon,” he said.
Reforestation was one of the efforts to rehabilitate the environment in the Mt Merapi area but it had been put on hold pending collection of the necessary data and certification of people`s lands. “Collecting and registering data on people`s land ownership limits is a long process,” he said. The dean of the agriculture faculty of the Yogyakarta-based state Gajahmada University, Triwibowo Yuwono meanwhile said the government must start thinking of re-vegetation with regard to water supply in Mount Merapi area.