Crazy Asians

[mattd]

Subject: MegaStupidity
Security comes before rights, Megawati tells military
Jakarta: The military may act "without any doubts" against separatists 
which threaten national unity and, as long as its members respect the law, 
they need not worry about violating human rights, the President, Megawati 
Sukarnoputri, said.
"Suddenly we are aware ... of the need of a force to protect our beloved 
nation and motherland from breaking up," the nationalist, who rose to power 
in July with the backing of the military, said on Saturday. She told top 
commanders and thousands of troops at a military parade in Jakarta to 
respect the law in the course of their duties.
"With that as your guide, you can do your duty without worrying about being 
involved in human rights abuses," she said. "Do everything without any 
doubts."
Despite accusations that the army has staged political killings and run 
death squads, military chiefs say fear of violating human rights has 
prevented soldiers from cracking down on troublemakers in Indonesia's many 
conflict zones.
Bloodshed in 1999 in East Timor, blamed on the Indonesian army, prompted 
the United States to sever its relationship with Indonesia's armed forces. 
The US Congress outlawed the resumption of ties until those responsible for 
the violence that followed East Timor's vote for independence were brought 
to justice.
Ms Megawati, however, backed the US's war against terrorism and was one of 
the first foreign leaders to visit Washington after the September 11 attacks.
Last week, Washington partly sidestepped its ban by including Indonesia on 
a list of South-East Asian countries to take part in US-sponsored 
counterterrorism training programs.
Indonesia's army was one of the pillars of the former dictator Soeharto's 
32-year reign and he used it to crush any opposition to his regime.
Since he was forced from office in 1998, commanders have acknowledged on 
numerous occasions that members of the army committed human rights abuses.
But activists say little has changed in the past three years. The army is 
accused of committing widespread abuses in the provinces of Irian Jaya and 
Aceh, where separatists are fighting to break away from Indonesia.
On Thursday, the army commander General Endriartono Sutarto said his men's 
morale was low because of media attention on their alleged abuses.
Subject: Singapore Milgram experiment
Singapore's PM promotes real world
Correspondents in Singapore
DECEMBER 31, 2001
INTERNET-obsessed Singaporeans have been told to spend more time taking 
stock of the real world around them and not drift off as "disembodied" 
entities in cyberspace.
Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in a message to the national youth 
movement, said young Singaporeans needed to be aware of the republic's 
fight to survive as a prosperous society in a turbulent region.
"Youths are spending more time sitting in front of computers, surfing the 
net and communicating through emails, ICQ and SMS," Mr Lee said.
"You must also grow up sharing common formative experiences in the real 
world, and bond together as a people. You can only do this through 
face-to-face interaction," he said.
"As a nation we cannot afford to let ourselves drift off individually, to 
become disembodied, faceless entities in remote corners of cyberspace."
Singapore has undergone a meteoric rise in its brief history, being 
transformed from a tropical backwater with no resources into one of the 
world's wealthiest nations per head of capita in three decades.
Telling the nation's youth that "the internet is not the only reality in 
your lives", Mr Lee said they needed to understand the backdrop against 
which Singapore "has to fight to survive including how we made it to where 
we are today".
"They should be exposed to the cultural and society diversity in and 
outside Singapore, so that they acquire the instincts and knowledge they 
need to live in a multi-racial society that is located in a turbulent 
region within a globalised world."
Affluent Singapore has been actively promoting an electronic lifestyle 
among its four million residents, with a mid-year survey showing 60 per 
cent of homes have at least one computer and most have internet access.
A poll of 4000 teenagers showed they spent on average more than 13 hours on 
line per month.
Wonder when they'll discover APster?