Human Rights Alert

Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister during Mahathir Muhammad era, remind Malaysian, especially the government and politician to respect Indonesian. After Malaysian awarded Independence by the British Empire in 1957, Indonesia helps to build Malaysia. Indonesia sent a lot of teacher, engineer, and other expertise to Malaysia. Many young Malaysian also study in Indonesia universities. After they graduated they became successful persons in politics and other activities such as in business. Anwar Ibrahim also mentioned that there are not big leaders like Indonesian leader Soekarno and Hatta. As we know, Soekarno inspired Asian and African countries woke up to fight and earned their independence from western colonialism. Anwar Ibrahim reminds all Malaysian that there is no great poet artist in Malaysia like Indonesians, Chairil Anwar and WS Rendra.

Hot news from Malaysia: Big protest on Saturday, November 10, 2007. Malaysian police have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of protesters who were marching in Kuala Lumpur to demand electoral reform. The event was organized by a group called Bersih (Clean) which is made up of opposition parties and dozens of non-governmental organizations. The marchers were prevented from entering central Merdeka Square because police said they did not have a permit. Police estimated the crowd at between 10-30,000 people. More than 300 people arrested by Malaysian police. If you read Malaysian newspapers, you’ll never see those pictures as appear in this blog. You can see these pictures in Indonesia media, and other democratic countries. Malaysian media are afraid if the government will ban their media. Malaysian newspaper only reports the traffic jam because of some road closed by the authority. Indonesian people must be very proud because media already earn their freedom since

Indonesia is having problems. And again, it’s with Malaysia. This time, it’s about the borders in Kalimantan (Borneo). If you look at Borneo in the map, you can see it’s divided in two. The larger area belongs to Indonesia, and the rest is Malaysian territory. The problem is, some Malaysians are accused of moving the poles used as border marks. Some of them are moved 100 kilometers away into Indonesian territory! With the borders moved, and the Malaysian territory “expand”, the Malaysian wood companies have larger space to cut wood. And they’re cutting Indonesian trees! It is an illegal act, and now some of the marks have been moved to their original positions. The Indonesian government has also done meetings with the Malaysian government, and these meetings include protests from the Indonesian government. Another problem is the forest fires in Indonesia. Forest fires can’t happen without a cause. The Indonesian government accuses the local farmers in Kalimantan and Riau, who burns

Since 1998 Indonesia enjoys a wide space for democracy , freedom of speech, freedom of press and media, etc, also first multy party general election in 1999. It happened because of Indonesian student movements and other activists. In 2004, Indonesian people truly elect their president directly for the first time. Indonesian student movements were a really main player when they announced the reformation movement in 1998. Indonesia becomes the 3rd largest democratic country in the world after USA and India in terms of population. Student in Indonesia are very dynamic in Asia. Malaysia and Singapore never enjoyed this privilege. Most government in Asia, especially in Malaysia has strong control to every democracy movements. No freedom for news papers, television and other media in Malaysia, especially when it comes to criticizing and giving advice to the government. We still remember what the Malaysian police did to the former deputy prime minister, Mr. Anwar Ibrahim when Mahathir Mu