[Kabar-indonesia] Jakarta News: Pertamina turns blind eye to fuel theft; Roy walks free

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

8 JP Jakarta News Reports:

- Pertamina turns blind eye to fuel 
  theft in North Jakarta
- Collecting fuel a slippery business 
  for Jakarta kids
- Village head accused of certificate 
  forgery
- Roy walks free after nine months 
  in jail
- Foot massage new trick for thieves
- Station now center for fun and games
- Down's children shine at annual 
  sports day
- 'Murder, rape and graft deserve death'

The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

Pertamina turns blind eye to fuel theft in North Jakarta

Anissa S. Febrina , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It was a quiet "business day" for 20-year-old Basuki as there were
very few trucks returning to the depot that carried enough fuel for
him to siphon off.

Impatiently, he jumped onto a Pertamina truck as it slowed to a halt
on a street in North Jakarta's Plumpang Semper.

He was carefully preparing to draw off some fuel when he realized he
had the wrong truck: The tank was still full.

A number of older men approached, armed with plastic containers. The
one leading the way carried a hose and started filling the containers.

The group left with five plastic containers holding 100 liters of
diesel fuel in total. An old woman, who watched from afar, seemed
satisfied with the outcome and nodded to the driver.

"They are not draining. They are sucking out fuel illegally," Basuki
whispered, slowly walking away.

While children as young as 10 chase after speeding trucks for a
trickle of fuel, the adults collect fuel the easy way and sell it at
street-side stalls.

It is a practice that has been going on for decades.

The authorities, it seems, would rather pretend that things that are
out of their control, like fuel theft, are not happening.

"No one can stop them because the company itself does not have the
staff to monitor the practice," Toharso, a division head at state oil
company Pertamina, said last week.

The company has acknowledged both the dangerous draining business as
well as the illegal extracting of fuel.

Toharso said that if a tank had not been drained properly, there would
be an "insignificant amount" left over.

"The draining business, which involves children, is very dangerous,
but we can't do anything about it because it happens outside our
depot."

Last Saturday, a group of children chased after a fuel truck before
the very eyes of officers at Pertamina's Plumpang depot.

The older ones collected the drained fuel in cans, once again, in
front of the officers and a number of police officers.

"We are short of people and have to think of it as part of our
operational losses. The figure is very small, only up to 2 percent of
the total load," Toharso said.

A small fuel truck carries 100 liters, while the largest one has the
capacity to carry 5,000 l.

He said he did not have the overall annual figure from such losses.

Toharso urged the public to note down the plate numbers of trucks
involved in fuel theft and inform the company.

"We can't handle this ourselves. We need the public to be our eyes."

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The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

Collecting fuel a slippery business for Jakarta kids

Anissa S. Febrina , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It was not yet afternoon, but North Jakarta's sun had already
exhausted 11-year-old Syaiful last Saturday.

Beads of perspiration ran down his forehead, soaked his worn-out
T-shirt and trickled down his right arm that gripped a black bucket
with a yellowish plastic bottle in it.

His bare feet were black and dusty.

While other children his age might still be sitting in front of the
television watching their favorite cartoons, Ipul -- as the second
grade dropout is called by his friends -- had his own playground.

"Another truck! Another truck! This one is mine," shouted Ipul to his
friends as a fuel container truck approached.

The five children squatting along an alley beside a fuel depot in
North Jakarta's Plumpang merely shrugged while Ipul chased the truck
driving at around 15 kilometers an hour. The driver did not stop.

Several years of "training" has made Ipul quick enough to open the
tank's cap with his left hand and push the nozzle of the plastic
bottle inside with his right.

In less than five minutes, he ran back to his friends as a tenth of
his bottle had been filled with kerosene drained from the truck.

Ipul does this 12 hours a day -- seven days a week -- to bring home up
to Rp 600,000 a month.

"My father used to do this, my brother, too. Now, I am big enough to
join them," he smiled proudly, half raising his plastic bucket and
bottle as if they were the trophies.

Dozens of children his age carry the label anak-anak tetesan (drip
kids), a term derived from what they do for a living: chasing
returning fuel trucks to steal a liter or two that is left inside.

"In five years, I will be allowed to do that and I will become a boss
when I grow up," said Ipul pointing to several older boys lifting cans
of collected fuel into a cart.

According to locals, the "profession" has existed since state oil
company Pertamina opened its fuel depot in Plumpang in the 1960s, the
second after its first depot in Tanjung Priok.

Lower-class Jakartans residing in the area saw a business opportunity
as they watched tanks being emptied, leftover fuel dripping from their
tanks.

After delivering orders to gasoline stations or factories, the insides
of the trucks' tanks are usually not really empty. Improper draining
during delivery leaves up to two liters of gasoline, diesel fuel or
kerosene in the tanks.

Armed with plastic bottles and nozzles attached to them, a boy can
siphon off the leftover fuel, collect it until the bottle is full and
sell it to local oil bosses.

"A boss like me used to be able to collect up to 20 drums of diesel a
day. Now, it is only three as many people have copied this business in
Kebon Jeruk (West Jakarta) and other spots," said 72-year-old Wasiyem.

It is fuel bosses like Wasiyem that recruit children as "field
workers" for their business. The boys' nerve and speed are the only
things that can beat fast-moving fuel trucks.

And so for generations, Plumpang has seen reckless youths willing to
risk their lives for a few drops of fuel and a small sum of money to
support their families.

"There was a 10-year old drip kid, Satria, who was run over by a fuel
truck two years ago. Since then, children below 14 are only assigned
inside the depot," said 20-year-old Basuki who has been in the
business since he was 12.

After several decades, the community of fuel thieves in Plumpang has
established its own rules of the game.

As Basuki said, smaller children can only be found working inside the
depot while older ones who were mature enough to assess the risk chase
after fuel trucks on the streets.

Meanwhile, adults take care of the marketing, and of course the money.

This is an world turned upside down.

Parents letting their children loose on the streets in the hope that
they will bring home some money and adults consciously allowing
adolescents to risk their lives for the sake of their business.

Now, where is the sense in that?

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The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

Village head accused of certificate forgery

Prodita Sabarini , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Defeated candidates running for election as head of Setiamekar Village
in Tambun, Bekasi, reported the newly elected village head to the
police Friday for alleged school certificate forgery.

The candidates: Sudarjat, Inarsih and Jamil, alleged that Sebih H.S.,
who was elected for a second term on Sept. 17, submitted a fake high
school certificate in his curriculum vitae to the village election
committee.

Committee secretary Agus, who also reported to the police station to
give a statement, said that the committee checked the authenticity of
the diploma only after the election.

"We received reports from residents that the certificate may be fake," he 
said.

Agus said that the committee then brought Sebih's certificate to the
Education Ministry Directorate for Elementary and High School
Education for verification.

"The office stated that based on the number of the certificate it
belonged to someone named Zailani," he said.

A lawyer representing the defeated candidates, Panbers Sihombing, said
that regulations also required the candidates to submit a junior high
school diploma.

"Sebih faked his high school diploma and failed to submit his junior
high school diploma as well," the secretary-general of
non-governmental organization Pijar Keadilan (Flame of Justice Legal
Aid Institution) said.

Sebih could not be reached for comment.

Panbers said that his clients wanted Sebih's election victory as
village head declared invalid.

"The other candidates want the runner-up to take office. Another
election would be too costly."

The runner-up was Sudarjat.

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The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

Roy walks free after nine months in jail

JAKARTA: Film actor Roy Marten, sentenced to nine months jail for
possesion of 2.6 grams of crystal methamphetamine or " shabu-shabu ",
was released a month early Sunday.

The fifty-four-year-old actor meet family members after leavign
Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta at 8 a.m..

"I am grateful because I didn't have to serve my full sentence," he
said as quoted by Tempointeraktif .

Roy's sentence was reduced by a month on Independence Day.

The actor, famous for his role in the classic movie, " Cintaku di
Kampus Biru " (My Love in the Blue Campus), said he would undergo drug
rehabilitation treatment.

"Psychotropic (drug use) is a complicated matter," he said.

Police arrested Roy in February at a friend's house in Ulujami, South
Jakarta. Officers confiscated two small packages of crystal meth
weighing 2.2 grams and 0.4 grams.

Roy admitted in court the crystal meth was his.

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The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

Foot massage new trick for thieves

JAKARTA: Wily theives are offering to massage people's feet and then
stealing their cell phones, the Tangerang Police say.

"This is the new modus operandi for cell-phone theft in public
minivans," precinct chief Adj. Comr. Sunardi said Sunday as quoted by
Antara.

Police arrested two men, aged 29 and 31, for the theft of a cellphone
Sunday. Passengers from the minivan brought them to the police station
after they were beaten up by an angry mob.

Witnesses said one of the men offered to give a foot massage to a
woman riding in a R-01 public minivan, on the Pasar Anyar-Jatake
route.

While one man was massaging the victim's foot and talking to her,
witnesses allege the other took the woman's cell phone from inside her
bag.

After they alighted, the woman realized her phone had gone. Passengers
and the crowd chased the men, who were assaulted before being taken to
the police station.

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The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

Station now center for fun and games

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Photo: Art center: Children buy pictures and crayons to color them,
play games or just chat with friends until they go home to break the
fast. JP/Theresia Sufa

Fifth-grader Dadan has fasted during Ramadhan for several years, but
it was only this year he found an enjoyable place to play with his
friends until dinnertime.

>From Pamoyanan subdistrict, Dadan spends all afternoon -- and his
daily pocket money -- at the former Batu Tulis railway station, now a
recreation center for children.

"I usually bring Rp 2,000 every day to play the four kinds of
(hand-held computer) games offered at the station. If I run out of
money, I just watch my friends playing," he said.

Batu Tulis station, which was closed six months ago as part of a
restructuring move, was previously a stop between Bogor and Sukabumi.

The location is also an historical site -- it bears a centuries-old
Sanscrit message from West Java King Purnawarna, as well as the
imprints of the king's and his elephant's feet.

The inscription found in the area reads: "Here are the footprints of
King Purnawarna, the heroic conqueror of the world".

Romli, a resident of Batu Tulis, said the station was the only
recreational place for children in the area.

"We don't have parks here. Batu Tulis station is the only and the
nearest place for children to play," he said.

As children made the station their after-school base, toy vendors also moved 
in.

The area is especially lively during the fasting month.

"It is promising business for us during Ramadhan," said Budi, a vendor
who sells crayons and coloring-in designs to the children.

"In the last three days, my income was about Rp 600,000 from selling
crayons and pictures. It is far higher than my daily turnover of Rp
300,000 when I was still selling the goods in front of schools," he
said.

Rohmat, who offers game watch sets for rent, said he earned around Rp
50,000 a day. Children are charged Rp 500 for every 15 minutes of
play.

"Children have to line up for their turns as I only have 12 sets. I
think these games are the main attraction here," he said.

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The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

Down's children shine at annual sports day

The British International School in Tangerang and the Indonesian Down
Syndrome Association (ISDI) held their fourth annual biathlon
competition Sunday to raise awareness about Down syndrome and support
the organization.

About 170 students from Greater Jakarta and 31 children with Down
syndrome participated on the event held in the BIS school grounds.

"We have raised Rp 10 million for ISDI through registration fees from
participants and sponsors. Students outside our school also came to
attend," said the head of academic affairs and event promoter, Paul
Starkie.

"It's also a family event where everybody can come," he said. Paul
told The Jakarta Post that Down syndrome should not be a hindrance to
being active in sports.

BIS has been holding sporting events such as this for 10 years.

The activity that morning consisted of swimming and running. The
competition was divided into individual and team categories. This year
the organizers still separated the competition for children with Down
syndrome and the other students.

However, next year they might try combining both groups of
participants in the biathlon, said Aryanti Yacub, the director of
ISDI.

"This time everybody in ISDI who came won a medal just for
participating. Next year we are trying to be more competitive by
giving medals only to those who win and make our best athlete compete
with ordinary students," Aryanti said.

Aryanti said that the age of Down's children who participated ranged
from 8 to 20, of which the majority were teenagers.

"Our best athletes are eligible to attend the special Olympics. We are
joining the selection process for the special Olympics in China next
year. In 2003 we sent three athletes to Dublin, Ireland for the
event," she said.

ISDI, which was established on April 21, 1999, has about 200 members
from many provinces in Indonesia.

A volunteer from BIS, Melissa Whyte, who is from Aberdeen, Scotland,
said that the event was a good opportunity for the Down's children to
use BIS facilities.

"I helped participants in the pool by directing them where to go after
the swimming. This activity is also a part of my International
Baccalaureate (IB) program," Melissa said.

The school IB Creative Action Service (CAS) coordinator, Adrian
Thirkell, said that community service for IB students was required in
order for them to graduate.

"If it weren't for this program BIS students wouldn't have known
people like the Down's children," he said, adding that the students
also regularly helped orphans and scavengers.

Adrian, who has worked as an English teacher for two years at BIS,
said that the challenge was to encourage students to break out of
their familiar environment and to genuinely realize that their choices
could have an impact on other people.

There are 1,200 students enrolled at the school representing over 40
nationalities. Twenty percent of the students at the school, which is
located in Bintaro Jaya Sector 9, Pondok Aren in Tangerang, are
Indonesian.

"Some things have to be learned through experience and not just in the
classroom," he said.

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The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 2, 2006

'Murder, rape and graft deserve death'

The recent execution of three death row inmates convicted for leading
a series of attacks in which dozens of people were killed has raised
debate over the pros and cons of capital punishment. The Jakarta Post
asked people which crimes they thought deserved the death penalty.

Sumardani , 33, is a producer at a private television station. He
lives in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, with his family:

I agree with capital punishment. However, it depends on the crime committed.

If the convict had committed murder then he should be sentenced to death.

The same punishment should be given to drug dealers. Drugs are very
dangerous. Drug trafficking only poisons society.

I think that the criminal investigations conducted by the police and
prosecutors are thorough enough for the courts to decide whether
someone deserves the death sentence.

Haphazard investigations only happen in graft cases in this country. A
lot of graft suspects escape punishment. Even those who are convicted
sometimes receive a very light sentence.

In corruption cases, though, I do not think that someone should be
sentenced to death. They should be put in prison for a long time and
they should return the money they have embezzled.

Ahmad Zaki Zulkarnain , 25, works for a technology-business magazine.
He lives in Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta:

I agree with capital punishment, if the crime committed deserves that
kind of punishment.

I think crimes that deserves capital punishment are premeditated
murder, rape, and big-time graft cases, that involve a huge amount of
the people's money.

All we can do as a citizen is to obey the law, because we cannot avoid
serving a sentence that has been handed down if we are convicted.

I believe the best way to carry out capital punishment is by firing
squad. It is more humane, because death would be swift and hopefully
less painful.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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