Jakarta – Earlier this month on May 3, mass media workers throughout the world commemorated World Press Freedom Day. Three Indonesian journalist organisations however, in a joint statement last week, said that press freedom in Indonesia is to this day still under threat.

Kid: After the reality shows on TV, the gang fights, the Century uproar, then terrorism, what’s next dad?

Man: Why do you care so much? What’s important is scratching out a living! Get it?

1st Man: Wow, the drama of an assault on terrorist suspects... can now become a TV show.

2nd Man: When will it be able to show guidance as well?

From left: Yudhoyono, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Jusuf Kalla.

Kid: It’s a festival of democracy, right dad? So how come they smile at each other on TV but criticise each other behind their backs?

Father: It’s a masquerade party, don’t you know!

Clowns on TV: Neoliberalism! People’s economics?

Man: The success team’s job? To campaign for the candidates’ respective programs... not...

Zely Ariane – In July 2008, Barrack Obama, now the United State’s new president elect said: “If someone launches a rocket at my home while my two sons are sleeping, then I would make every effort to put an end to them, and I hope that the Israeli people would also do the same” (www.Solidarity-US.org).

Jakarta – Human rights violations perpetrated in 2003 cannot be separated from military control, particularly the army. The government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri has not worked as hard as its predecessors, like [former presidents] B.J. Habibie and Abdurrahman Wahid to control the TNI [Indonesian armed forces].

Getting rid of a bad image which has long been planted in the minds of society is not an easy matter. The polemic over the issue of the revoking of MPRS Decree Number XXV/1996 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings has yet to end.