Dutch Historian Seeking Answer to Tan Malaka Grave Mystery

A Dutch historian and researcher is waiting for the result of a DNA test on the remains of a man buried on a hill in Selopanggung village in Kediri district, East Java, to ascertain whether they really belonged to Tan Malaka, a legendary figure in Indonesia’s struggle for independence.

Although officially listed as a national hero, the location of Tan Malaka’s grave has remained a mystery and Harry A Poeze, a Dutch academic who has been studying the Indonesian revolutionary’s role in the country’s pre-independence history, is hoping the DNA test being conducted in a laboratory in Korea will finally solve the riddle.

The DNA test result would be available in January 2012, Poeze told reporters in Jember on Thursday after giving a general lecture titled "Tan Malaka, a Case Study" at Jember University’s Faculty of Letters.

"The DNA test outcome will hopefully answer the decades-old question of where Tan Malaka was buried after his execution and thereby provide further proof of my research findings."

Poeze, who is director of the Royal Dutch Institute for Caribbean and Southeast Asian Studies, had spent 20 years searching for Tan Malaka’s grave and finally come to a spot on a hill in Selopanggung village, Semen subdistrict, Kediri district, East Java, strongly believed to be the grave of the author of the epic literary work titled Madilog (Materialism, Dialectics, Logic).

"According to Zulfikar Kamarudin, one of Tan Malaka’s relatives, the result of the second DNA test at the laboratory in Korea will be announced next January and I am looking forward to it." He said the DNA test result could be either negative,positive or inconclusive.

In case it was negative or inconclusive, he would have to continue his search, he said. But if the DNA test reslt was positive, the Indonesian government would have to decide whether the remains on the hill in Selopanggung village would be moved to the Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery in Jakarta or a monument be built at Selopanggung, Poeze said.

He said an Indonesian team had previously examined the remains at Selopanggung and in a report issued in March 2010 described them as those of a male of the Minang Mongoloid tribe who was 160-155 cm tall and was buried according to the Islamic faith.

An interesting thing the team had found, he said, was that the man’s two arms were in cross-wise position behind his back, an indication he was shot to death as a prisoner. This jibed with one of the conlusions of his research, Poeze said.

The Dutch academic is also the writer of a book titled "Tan Malaka, the Leftist Movement and Indonesian Revolution."

Inside World's Largest Blood Store

The rows of blood bags - of all different blood types - will save countless lives over the festive period 

Shops across the country will have been stocking up for Christmas in the past few weeks to ensure they don't run out of anything.

But at the world’s largest blood bank the requirement for supply to match demand over the festive period is that little bit more crucial - as it could mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people.

The NHS Blood and Transplant centre in Filton, Bristol, - which is stocked with more than 1,000 gallons of blood - is preparing for a spike in demand as alcohol-related accidents and car crashes rise over the next couple of weeks.

It handles 11,500 blood donations - averaging around a pint each - every week (850,000 donations a year), making it the largest processing centre on earth.

The unit provides life-saving blood to 100 hospitals across the south west of England with an emergency ‘blue-light’ service when stocks run out. It holds vast reserves of blood types A, O, B and AB while donors are needed for rarer types O negative and B negative.

Blood donations are processed through the centre almost immediately as red cells last only 35 days. The centre is currently in the middle of a seasonal drive to increase stocks and has rows of blood bags lined up ready to save lives.

A grateful recipient yesterday recalled how the blood bank saved her life after she lost a staggering eight pints of blood during a routine operation.

Mother-of-one Laura Evans, 33, said: 'I was in hospital having a gynaecological operation in August last year when I ran into a bit of difficulty.

'I initially lost a pint of blood and was put into recovery for two hours.

'But the bleeding started again after I was sick, and within half an hour I’d lost eight out of my nine pints of blood from my pelvic area.

'I was in and out of consciousness and literally minutes from death. I have vague flashbacks of medical staff frantically running around, trying to save my life.'

Doctors hooked Laura up to a machine which delivered a ‘fast infusion’ of 12 pints of blood in a bid to offset the rapid bleeding. After two days in hospital, she was then topped up with two more pints of blood.

Laura, a legal executive from Bristol, added: 'When I was given the second lot, I must admit the idea of other people’s blood going into my body freaked me out a little.

'But now I’m just so grateful to them all - I owe my survival to them and this blood bank. Their selfless generosity saved my life and allowed me to watch my five-year-old daughter grow up. I would encourage anyone to give blood - it is one of the best things you can do.'

Blood bank spokesman Fay Simcox said: 'We process huge amounts of blood which comes to use from donations and goes out almost immediately.

'We try and have a push for donations at this time of year because it is more difficult for people to come out and give blood. We need more blood over the festive period for a range of reasons.'

Toyota's Plan to Build A New Factory in Indonesia

Japan’s biggest carmaker Toyota said Thursday it would aim to boost global sales by a fifth next year, seeking growth in emerging markets to counter sluggish demand in the crisis-hit developed world.

A dismal 2011, which saw sales shrink six percent, means the Japanese giant is unlikely to retain its spot as global top dog and will be overtaken by General Motors and Volkswagen. The forecasts come weeks after Toyota more than halved its full-year net profit outlook as it grapples with a strong yen, the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and flooding in Thailand which hit supply chains.

But the company is hoping for a bumper 2012 both at home and abroad, setting ambitious sales and production targets. The automaker expects to sell 8.48 million Toyota and Lexus units worldwide in 2012, up from 7.05 million in 2011, and plans to boost their global production by almost a quarter to a record 8.65 million vehicles, rising to 8.98 million in 2013.

A turbulent 2011, when the global economic slowdown also hit the firm, is expected to show group domestic sales — including subsidiaries Daihatsu and Hino — slumped 19 percent, with a 24 percent fall in Toyota brand sales. Worldwide group sales are expected to show a six percent fall for the year, the company said, down to 7.9 million units.

Toyota spokeswoman Amiko Tomita admitted the 2012 global production target was an ambitious one, and would beat its current record of 8.53 million units for the Toyota brand, which includes Lexus, set in 2007 before the onset of the financial crisis. The 2012 global sales target of 8.48 million would also be a new record, beating the current largest sales of 8.43 million in 2007, she said.

“But what we are envisioning behind these figures is different from the time of 2007,” Tomita said. “We will have more focus on emerging markets.” “We have a global vision to build more balanced business operations in different regions, compared with 2007 when the company focused more on Japan, North America and Europe.”

Toyota said it wanted to further boost its sales in 2013, with a target of 8.95 million units in the year. The car giant has been at the top of the global automakers’ tree by sales for three years after overtaking GM, but looks set to be knocked off its perch.

GM sold 6.79 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year, up 9.2 percent on the year earlier and on target for more than nine million for the full year if it can maintain the pace, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Volkswagen saw its sales jump 14 percent to 7.51 million for the first 11 months of the year and is eyeing a year-end figure in excess of eight million units.

Toyota’s 2011 production was hampered when supply chains were shattered in the wake of the huge tsunami that swamped northeast Japan, while massive flooding in Thailand added to the production gloom. Earlier this month the firm cut its profit outlook to 180 billion yen ($2.3 billion), 54 percent down from its August estimate after the Thai floods forced plant closures and caused supply-chain problems.

It also said that the strong yen, which is sitting near post-war record highs against the dollar, had hit it hard as repatriated earnings were severely reduced. Toyota is seen as particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the yen.

A mood of austerity among Japanese consumers affected appetite for all manner of consumer goods during the year. In March, just days before the natural disaster struck and claimed 20,000 lives, Toyota unveiled its “Global Vision” business plans, aiming to make half its global sales in emerging markets by 2015.

It is looking to increase production abroad to be closer to demand, reduce logistics costs and limit exposure to the Japanese yen. Toyota has strengthened annual production capacity in Argentina by more than 40 percent to 92,000 units, most of which are exported to Brazil and nine other Latin American countries.

It has also announced plans to build a new factory in Indonesia, where it wants to boost annual production to 180,000 units by 2013, and in India a subsidiary based on the outskirts of Bangalore plans to almost double annual production to 310,000 in 2013.

Korean-made Submarine to be Built on Indonesian Soil

South Korea clinched a $1.1 billion deal to supply three submarines to Indonesia, beating tenders from France, Germany and Russia, because its offer included technology transfer, authorities said Thursday.

“South Korea has advanced technology and they are open to a technology transfer, while the other countries in the tender were only focused on selling the submarines,” defence ministry spokesman Hartind Asrin told AFP.

South Korea won the tender Tuesday over France, Germany and Russia, according to the ministry, in its largest-ever weapons export deal. It will allow Indonesian company Penataran Angkatan Laut (PAL) to observe how the vessels are built and to assemble the third in Indonesia.

“Under the contract, two submarines will be built in South Korea and the third one will be built at PAL’s facilities in Surabaya in East Java,” Asrin said.
It is the second major defence deal between the two countries. In May, the state-run Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) agreed to export 16 supersonic T-50 Golden Eagle trainer jets worth $400 million to Jakarta.

The 1,400-tonne submarines will have a capacity of 40 personnel and come equipped with eight weapons tubes for torpedoes and guided missiles. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering will build the vessels, with the first expected to arrive in 2015 and the last built by 2018.

Daewoo has the second-biggest shipyard in the world after South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries. The deal brings the volume of South Korea’s defence exports this year to an all-time record $2.4 billion, more than double the amount from a year ago, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said.

The two nations agreed to boost defence industry trade at a bilateral meeting last month, despite a hiccup in bilateral weapons trade earlier this year. South Korea’s spy agency came in for criticism in February following reports that its agents tried to steal commercial secrets from the hotel room of a visiting Indonesian trade delegation.

Newspapers said three agents from the National Intelligence Service entered the room on February 16 in an attempt to steal information on possible Indonesian arms purchases, but were caught by a delegate as they copied files from a laptop computer.

Crime in Public Transport Vehicles Surges in 2011

The rape of a 35-year-old woman in a public transport vehicle on December 14 was the latest in a spate of acts of violence against women that marred the public order and security situation in urban areas in Indonesia in 2011.

In the December 14 incident, the victim was a vegetable vendor who boarded a public M26 minivan at 4 in the morning to go home after selling her goods in a marketplace. But not long thereafter she ended up being raped by four men in the car.

The woman shouted for help but nobody came to her help. The rapists then struck her left shoulder with a machete and dumped her on a roadside in the Cikeas area in Bogor, West Java. Haryadi Santoso, the husband of the woman, later urged the police to immediately arrest the perpetrators who have so far remained at large.

"The police must not fail to catch the bastards," Haryadi said with bitter anger in his voice at his home in Depok, West Java, on Tuesday

He said his wife’s physical condition was gradually improving but she was still traumatized. It is to be hoped the criminal outrage that befell the mother of two on December 14, 2011 will be the last to happen this year.

Early in January 2011, a female employee, working in a company in the Sudirman business district in Jakarta, was sexually harassed by 10 men in a commuter train from Pancasila University to Tanah Abang station. One of the train passengers said that although the poor woman shouted for help, nobody dared to come to her rescue.

Since then the government and law enforcing authorities made efforts to prevent the similar incident from happening again but that was shattered by the rape and killing of Livia Pavita Soelistyo, a female student of Bina Nusantara University in West Jakarta, who was on her way home from campus on a public transport in August 2011.

Before being raped by several men including the driver and some other passengers of that public transport, Livia had gone missing since August 16, 2011, and her body was eventually found dumped in a field in Casauk, Tangerang, Banten, five days after. Efforts to avert the crime in public transport were in vain when a month later on September 1, a 27-year old woman was gang-raped by four men on a city transport in South Jakarta.

South Jakarta police have caught two of the rapists but the other two were still at large. Evy, another university student was also sexually abused in a Transjakarta bus from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Harmony, Central Jakarta in September.

Then on October 8, 2011 a 38-year-old babysitter was also raped in a secluded park in East Jakarta by a city transport driver. According to Jakarta police data, 40 rape cases have been taking place in Jakarta and its buffer cities of Depok, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi and more than 3700 reported incidents across Indonesia in 2011.

But it is commonly known that more incidents go unreported, and from day to day the number is increasing. Rape incidents this year have prompted authorities to crack down on public transport drivers without uniforms or identity cards.

Crime in public transport has been increasing rapidly in 2011 that it becomes dangerous to go from one place to another in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek). In doubt and fear, people get on public transport as though some sinister, supernatural force were let loose.

Public transport in Jabodetabek seems to have turned into a jungle of terror, robbery with violence, sexual harassment, rape, anesthetization, hypnotism, and even death. Meanwhile, criminologist from state University of Indonesia Adrianus Meliala said sexual harassment and rapes had occurred in public transports with weak control.

And according to National Commission for Women’s Affairs, there have been more than 100,000 cases of violence against women so far this year in Indonesia, 4 percent of which were rape cases. Again, Adrianus said, "Rapes are the peak of smaller incidents in public transport such as sexual harassment, pickpocketing, cheating and others."

In view of that, he said the government had to increase its supervision on public transport. Therefore Jakarta police would gather public transport operators following recent cases of sexual harassment, robbery, and rape in the public transport vehicles.

"We will counsel them so that they will not entrust their vehicles to illegal drivers," Jakarta Metropolitan Police Command director for community supervision Senior Commissioner Erwin Usman said in September. He said operators of public transport vehicles must have responsibility and monitor their drivers.

He said the police would give them counseling and directives so that they would no longer hire drivers who are not competent such as not possessing a driving license as an example. Erwin added that he would also instruct police officers at resort and sector police commands to conduct counseling for women who use public transport from work at night due to potential crimes that may happen to them.

"Women who return from work by public transport should better not go alone."

He said the women also need to memorize the characteristics or identities of the public transport they used and when crimes occurred on them, they could report immediately to the nearest police stations. Meanwhile, Woman’s Affairs and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar has called on the law enforcers to take the firmest possible action against rapists for a deterrent effect.

"I hope for the firmest possible law enforcement against perpetrators of rape in order to create a deterrent effect," Linda said recently.

The minister expressed hope that there should be the best possible solution to the case by among others prohibiting public transport from using dark glass in addition for the authority to provide security on public transport.

"But for the public transport to use dark glass is not the primary solution to rape case because it is the matter of moral character of the individuals," Linda said.

The woman’s affairs minister also expressed a tremendous deep concern from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and urged the National Police to immediately complete the investigation into the crime of rape and sexual harassment in public transport to prevent them from recurring now and in the years to come.

Indonesian Organizations Invited to Help Improve World Literacy

"All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development" invites businesses, social enterprises, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations and academic institutions in Indonesia to take part in a global competition to improve world literacy through innovative ideas.

The $20 million program aims to support sustainable and cost-effective innovations that will improve children’s literacy in low-income countries, the Australian Embassy here said in its official website on Wednesday.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID), Australia Agency for International Development (AusAID) in partnership with World Vision, and the US Department of Education launched this initiative on November 18, 2011 in Washington, DC.

While national literacy rates are high in Indonesia, there are pockets of disparity. The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS-RI) 2010 Report places country-wide literacy rates around 93%, but there is substantial variation among provinces, including only 69% literacy in Papua and 88% in South Sulawesi, for example.

Such communities could benefit greatly from the innovative ideas and approaches that are just waiting to be developed. Therefore, these four partners strongly encourage Indonesian organizations to submit proposals. USAID Mission Director Glenn Anders commented, "As part of the US - Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership, we are helping Indonesia improve reading, math and science skills which will lead to better futures for millions of children."

"Indonesia has a strong record on achieving literacy. This is an opportunity to share successes with other countries and trial innovative new approaches," said Jacqui De Lacy, AusAID Senior Representative in Indonesia. "Australia is pleased to be part of an innovative global effort to help children worldwide read and write."

"Our goal is to help children, especially girls, gain access to excellent early childhood and primary education by strengthening community involvement and fostering an effective environment for learning," said Kent Hill, Senior Vice President of International Programs at World Vision.

He said they were hopeful that All Children Reading would not only improve reading instruction, but would instill a passion for reading and a lifelong desire for learning among millions of children in developing nations.
The competition encourages organizations from around the world to submit their ideas on innovations in teaching and learning materials, and better education data to improve decision-making, transparency and accountability.

If Indonesian applicants are successful, pilot programs may be implemented in Indonesia or in other developing countries. The submission period will close on January 31, 2012 at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard time in the US interested applicants can visit www.allchildrenreading.org for additional information.

Steve Jobs Statue Unveiled

 A visitor takes a picture of the statue with an iPad.

A Hungarian software company has unveiled what it said was the world's first bronze statue of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, calling him one of the greatest personalities of the modern age.

Jobs died on October 5 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. The bronze work by sculptor Erno Toth stands in the Budapest campus of architectural software maker Graphisoft.

"He was one of the greatest (personalities) in our era, that's what we wanted to express with this sculpture here," Graphisoft Chairman Gabor Bojar told Reuters.

Bojar said Jobs gave cash and computers to Graphisoft, helping it to become a global leader in architecture software from humble roots as a tiny firm in the 1980s in then-communist Hungary.

"In some ways, Apple was a religion," Bojar said at the unveiling ceremony, comparing the experts from Cupertino-based Apple who helped educate Graphisoft's engineers to evangelists.

Steve Jobs represented a technological revolution which can be compared only to the discovery of writing, Bojar said.

"We have felt his spirit every day and now it is embodied," he said. "We hope that we can deserve with our entrepreneurial culture in Hungary what this sculpture expresses as a message."