Old Dogs

I've been spendng time learning new tricks over the past few days, thus disproving the adage or belying my age.

The same can be said of Indonesia in a couple of respects.

According to Reporters Without Borders, press freedom here is improving.

Peace accords in Indonesia have opened up the former rebel province of Aceh to journalists. Despite occasional violence, the media works in good conditions and online media are prolific.

Indonesia is now 102nd out of 167 countries listed and ranked only behind Cambodia in South-East Asia; last year it was 117th and ranked 4th.

Indonesia is also not quite as corrupt this year according to the Transparency International 2005 Report. It's now 137th out of 158 countries. This downloadable extract comments that an anti-corruption movement has taken root with the growth of democracy and as business and religious organisations joined the campaign for more transparency and accountability.

Hopefully there'll be more bite to go with the barking, starting with former police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar and ex-chief detective Comr. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng over a bribery case linked to the investigation into a Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) lending scam.

And continuing with ......

Sorry, lack of space and time prevents me from listing all the ongoing cases.
 

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¶ 5:59 pm