Friday, 08 December 2006 @ 8:05pm.

Tasty Treats:
Speculaas (spiced biscuits/cookies) - Verkade brand
Tim Tam chocolate mint cookies - Arnott’s brand
Rambutan
Salak (snake-skinned fruit)

Quote of the Day:
“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.” — Henry A. Kissinger
(Another variation is “Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.”)

Recent Controversies Topping Indonesian News:

“Golkar will decide fate of lawmaker in sex scandal”

The Jakarta Post (online) - 08 December 2006

The leadership of the Golkar party will convene Friday to decide whether it will recall legislator Yahya Zaini, who was caught on a sex video, from the House of Representatives. “A decision will be made after the investigating team holds its meeting Friday,” a member of Golkar’s central board, Agung Laksono, was quoted by Antara as saying Thursday. Agung is also the head of an investigating team tasked with probing the sex video that shows Yahya in a compromising pose with dangdut singer Maria Eva. He also said that it would be easier for the central board to make its decision as Yahya had indirectly admitted his wrongdoing. “He has resigned from his post with Golkar central board. We view that as an admission of guilt,” he said. Yahya, through senior Golkar member Andi Matalatta, tendered his resignation to party chairman Jusuf Kalla earlier this week. Yahya, former chairman of the Muslim Students Association (HMI), is currently head of the Golkar party religious affairs department. The investigating team, however, had recommended to Golkar central board that Yahya be dismissed, without the knowledge of the resignation letter. The plot in the sex scandal thickened when both parties told their own version of the story. The family of Yahya said he was a victim of extortion and the 42-second video shot using a phone camera, was deliberately distributed as a means to blackmail him. The sex video was reportedly shot sometime in 2004. Maria, first in a press conference and later in almost all television celebrity gossip programs, confessed to being Yahya’s lover but said she had refused to marry him as she was against polygamy. The dangdut singer also said that Yahya forced her to have an abortion. In a related development, the House disciplinary committee has started to falter in its investigation into the sex scandal. A meeting of the council Wednesday failed to set a timeframe for when it will summon Yahya. Council chairman Slamet Effendy Yusuf said that it would first consult those who filed reports against Yahya and experts in telematics. “We can assure you that the lawmaker in question will be made to appear before us when the House sits,” Slamet said. The House will be in a recess starting Dec. 9 and will convene again in early January.

“SBY defends plan on polygamy, calls for sensible debate”

The Jakarta Post (online), 08 December 2006

The government’s plan to extend the ban on polygamy is being blown out of proportion by those who oppose it, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says. Yudhoyono said the public debate that has raged since the government floated the idea last week had been derailed by critics using religious arguments. He maintained the original purpose of revising the law was to protect women. “Let us think clearly. We shouldn’t exert too much energy on this issue because there are many other problems that have to be addressed. I don’t want this issue to develop into an unhealthy public discourse,” he said when addressing a Civil Servants Wives Association gathering. The controversy was sparked Tuesday when the State Minister for Women’s Empowerment Meutia Farida Hatta Swasono announced the government was considering extending ban on polygamy for civil servants to cover all officials working for the state, including legislators and soldiers. The plan has received strong backing from progressive Muslims and many women but has met strong opposition from religious conservatives, especially men, who argue that polygamy is allowed in Islam and should not be banned by secular laws. The polygamy issue resurfaced last week when television cleric Abdullah “A’a Gym” Gymnastiar, who was popular with women and promoted harmonious family values, announced he had taken a younger second wife. Under the 1974 Marriage Law, men are only legally allowed to take a second wife if their first wives are invalids, terminally ill or infertile. The law, however, is rarely enforced and polygamy is becoming more common among Muslims. President Susilo said people should not use religion to justify polygamy, as Islam required men to meet many strict conditions before they could take more than one wife. “If people want to refer to religion (to justify polygamy), please understand the religion properly,” Yudhoyono said. Marriage laws were made by taking religious values into consideration, he said. The President said he was also concerned that women here were often victims of domestic violence and street crime, he said. There was an urgent need to protect women from violence, crime, poverty and other forms of misery, he said. The next step would be to empower women by fulfilling their basic right to enjoy adequate public services like health and education. Minister Meutia said Thursday the revision of the law would depend on an analysis done by women’s organizations, human rights groups and universities, which support a revision to the law. “It is wrong to assume that polygamy would minimize cases of adultery and prostitution,” she told The Jakarta Post. Earlier this week, some legislators argued banning polygamy would only encourage more men to visit prostitutes. “What we believe is that polygamy can lead to injustice and the psychological abuse of women,” Meutia said.