httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL3mvkZ6mVk
Sit back, take a load off and listen to Johnny A‘s stellar instrumental version of Witchita Lineman.
Change has come to Washington in many ways in recent weeks, including this latest bid by Obama to reverse more bad Bush environmental policy:
The Obama administration on Tuesday agreed to review whether it should regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, portending a major reversal of the Bush administration’s policy on global warming.
The Environmental Protection Agency granted a petition from environmental groups seeking to overturn a Bush-era EPA memo that prohibited controls of those emissions.
Some background for Sec. Clinton’s important visit to Jakarta:
The Jakarta Globe February 18, 2009
Clinton¹s Chance to Push Beyond Cliches
By Andreas Harsono
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to use
her visit to Jakarta this week as a platform to speak to Muslims
in many countries. But she should be careful not to say that
Muslims in Indonesia are ³moderate,² as most diplomatic visitors
like to say. For members of persecuted religious groups in
Indonesia, it is a useless and inaccurate cliché.
It is true that Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of
any single country in the world, but this large population lives
mostly on the island of Java. Other islands in the archipelago
have mixed religious character Muslim, Christian, Hindu,
Buddhist and Confusianist, among others. Some are even
predominantly Christian, such as the sparsely populated islands
like Flores, Rote, Timor, Papua, the Malukus, central and north
Sulawesi and smaller islands like Tanimbar, Kei and Dobo. ³The
Christians,² said Frans Anggal of the Flores Pos daily, ³live
and dominate in the eastern islands.²
In recent years, the Indonesian state, dominated mostly by
Javanese Muslims, has become less tolerant towards minority
religions. Last June, for example, the Yudhoyono government
passed a decree ordering the Ahmadiyah community to ³stop
spreading interpretations and activities that deviate from the
principal teachings of Islam.²
The Ahmadiyah identify themselves as Muslims but differ with
other Muslims as to whether Muhammad was the ³final² monotheist
prophet; consequently, many Muslims perceive the Ahmadiyah as
³heretics.² Violations of the decree are punishable by up to
five years in prison.
In 1969, the Indonesian government issued a decree that requires
anyone building ³a house of worship² to receive prior approval
from other religious leaders. In practice, it means Christian
leaders must get a permit from Muslim clerics when they want to
build a new church. The rule is still in effect, and makes it
extremely difficult to build churches in Java and Sumatra.
Attacks against churches in Java and Sumatra increased after the
1969 regulation. Christian groups say that mobs forcibly closed
or burned down more than 480 churches between 1969 and 2007. In
January 2008, a mob burned down the Sangkareang Hindu temple in
West Lombok and in July, Muslim hardliners attacked students at
a Christian theology school in East Jakarta, wounding 18 and
forcing the school to shut its 20-year-old campus.
Concern over rising religious intolerance is not the only human
rights issue Clinton should raise with President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono. Freedom of expression is also a huge problem on
islands where ethnic minorities show their resistance toward the
Indonesian state. But in Indonesia, even peaceful acts like
flag-raising can land you in jail for a long time. In April
2008, in Ambon, a court sentenced Johan Teterisa, a
schoolteacher, to life in prison for the crime of rebellion
(makar) for raising the South Maluku Republic (Benang Raja)
flag. In Papua, more than two dozens political activists are in
prison for raising the Morning Star flag.
Indonesia has made little progress in reining in the military
since President Suharto stepped down from power in May 1998.
There is still no accountability for serious rights violations.
A key litmus test has been the case of Munir, a highly regarded
human rights campaigner who was fatally poisoned on a Garuda
flight four years ago. On December 31, 2008, a Jakarta court
acquitted Major General Muchdi Purwopranjono, a former deputy in
Badan Intelijen Negara, or the State Intelligence Agency, of
Munir¹s murder in a trial marred by witness coercion and
intimidation.
Indonesian military officers have yet to be brought to justice
for the massacres they helped command in East Timor, Papua,
Aceh, the Malukus, Borneo, and elsewhere. Without any
expectation of punishment, human rights abuses continue in these
islands.
Clinton should also remind Jakarta to respect the Helsinki
agreement signed between the Indonesian government and the Free
Aceh Movement. The 2005 agreement stipulates that Jakarta must
set up a tribunal for Indonesian soldiers and Aceh guerrillas
involved in extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses
during the conflict from 1976 to 2005. The tribunal was supposed
to be in operation by August 31, 2007, but Jakarta has made no
serious effort to establish it.
Clinton may be tempted to gloss over issues like religious
freedom, impunity, and military reform, in favor of closer
Indonesian-US ties. But if she does, she¹ll miss a golden
opportunity to transform the lives of many people in Indonesia
who need pressure on the government to recognize their rights.
Andreas Harsono is Indonesia and East Timor consultant for Human
Rights Watch. He is finishing his book, “From Sabang to Merauke:
Debunking the Myth of Indonesian Nationalism.”
battle of the bands:
Eight Miles High The Byrds 1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCT9naHt2oo&feature=related
fumiste Says:
February 18th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Let’s hope Hillary did her homework on this as she usually is well prepared. Hopefully, she won’t gloss over these issues – she may not focus heavily on them on her first visit but that doesn’t mean she isn’t aware.