Friday 20 November 2009

Kaban skips KPK summons

Personal note: Although no longer Forestry Minister, Kaban presided over logging of forests on a massive scale.

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Kaban skips KPK summons

Sat, 11/21/2009 5:40 AM | National

Former forestry minister Malam Sambat Kaban did not meet the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) summons for questioning Friday.

The questioning is in connection with the alleged bribery to help Miranda S. Goeltom win the senior Bank Indonesia deputy governor post in 2004.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said the questioning date clashed with Kaban’s meeting with his Crescent Star Party (PBB). Kaban will be ready for questioning Monday, Johan added.

KPK investigators had grilled Kaban several times in relation to the case. He was a member of the House of Representatives’ Commission IX on finance who held a vote to select the senior BI deputy governor five years ago.

The case revolved around the confession of former House Commission III member Agus Tjondro last year that he had received Rp 500 million (US$53,000) in traveler’s checks to vote for Miranda.

KPK has named four suspects in the case. Three are former House Commission III members Dudhie Makmun Murod, Endin Soefihara and Hamka Yandhu. The fourth is currently serving a jail term for his role in the misappropriation of BI funds.

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.