Archive for September, 2005
Indonesian President Urges Calm As Fuel Protests Turn Violent
JAKARTA - Indonesia’s president appealed for calm as police fired tear-gas to disperse rock-throwing students protesting against a controversial fuel-price rise to be announced later Friday.
At least three policemen were injured in clashes as students burned tyres in front of the Indonesian Christian University’s central Jakarta campus in an attempt to block traffic.
The second increase of the year, which will take effect Saturday, comes after the government decided to cut fuel subsidies that were devouring one-fifth of Indonesia’s annual budget.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, speaking at the opening of a Honda motorcycle factory east of Jakarta, urged protesters to express their opposition peacefully, saying violence would deter foreign investors.
“Don’t act destructively. Don’t create an image that our country is not safe. Never create a situation as if there were upheavals or riots,” Yudhoyono was quoted by Detikcom news website.
Former president Suharto was brought down in 1998 after raising fuel prices amid a crippling economic crisis. The first rise this year also brought mass protests.
The president has said he was considering a hike of between 30 and 50 percent, and his spokesman said the rise would go ahead despite the demonstrations.
The amount of the increase will be announced at 10:00 pm (1500 GMT).
With world oil prices near record highs, Indonesia has been forced to slash the budget-busting fuel subsidies, which parliament this week capped at 89.2 trillion rupiah (8.7 billion dollars) for the year.
Indonesia has had to snap up dollars to buy more expensive fuel, putting the rupiah under pressure, while also supporting increased subsidies to keep domestic fuel prices artificially low.
Demonstrators took to the streets of many Indonesian cities and bus drivers in Jakarta went on strike on Thursday to express opposition to the price hike, although a pledged massive protest in the capital failed to materialize.
On Friday, students in the resort island of Bali hijacked a truck carrying fuel while protestors in the Central Java city of Semarang forced four legislators to join their march to the governor’s office.
Meanwhile, students in Makassar on Sulawesi island blocked the streets and held Muslim Friday prayers there, causing massive traffic jams, Detikcom news website reported.
Police have deployed thousands of personnel to guard government buildings and fuel sites but analysts said they did not expect the kind of uprising that helped bring down Suharto.
In March, the government raised prices by an average of 29 percent, and the current cost of a litre (0.2 gallons) of premium petrol is 2,400 rupiah (23 US cents).
Kerosene, widely used in poor households for cooking and lighting, was left unchanged at 700 rupiah per litre, and it was not known if the government would exempt it again.
To cushion the impact on the poor, the government said it would accompany Saturday’s hike with a short-term subsidy of 300,000 rupiah to more than 15 million poor households, as well as incentives for the industry.
On Thursday, Yudhoyono said the government was “doing its best to overcome problems faced by the nation and the state.” - AFP/ir
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Students Learn 3D Animation Through Virtual Paper Napkin Initiative
SINGAPORE : Singapore’s talent pool for 3D animation has just grown younger.
Secondary school students have had the opportunity to get such skills through a programme called Virtual Paper Napkin.
The partnership between Temasek Polytechnic and IM Innovations may well lead to the production of a future animated blockbuster right here in Singapore.
3D animation is usually offered to second or third year polytechnic students at Temasek Polytechnic, but lower secondary students like Law Wei Yen and Shahrul Nurhafiedz show that it is never too young to learn.
They started a programme on 3D graphics and animation as part of their Co-Curricular Activities last April, and after just 30 hours, they have become quite proficient.
Said Wei Yen, a student at Admiralty Secondary School, “It’s so interesting I wish I could do more. Recently I did a sword so I want to make more and maybe make a movie out of it.”
Shahrul, also of Admiralty Secondary, said, “With this knowledge (I hope) I can join a production and create wonderful effects like a starship.”
Admiralty Secondary is one of three secondary school which have taken up this programme, with ACS (I) and Canberra Secondary School being the other two.
Temasek Polytechnic, which offers the programme through its 3D Media Studio, says that with Singapore’s push towards becoming a digital media hub, the programme will help support the industry.
Said Dr Tan Hock Soon, of the Temasek Engineering School at Temasek Polytechnic, “With the push towards the digital media hub, students are exposed to these kinds of media at a young age, they will grow up with it because these kinds of software need experience.
“Working on this kind of programme needs some sort of creativity, some sort of thinking, going through practise, hard work. So through this process, when they are starting this young and they grow up with the technology, we feel this will help us towards this kind of push to produce more content.”
The software used, called “Cinema 4D” and “BodyPaint 3D”, are the leading programmes used by animators worldwide.
And the 3D Media Studio now has a leg up as it has been appointed the exclusive Authorised Training Centre for the software in the region.
Said Vincent Ong, managing director of IM Innovations, “One of the next things we are going to do is to reach out to the industries, not just in Singapore but also in the region, so together we want to be seen as the lighthouse for 3D technologies and applications.”
He added, “If you look at where 3D is being used, innovative companies around the world for example BMW uses virtual reality. They save a lot of money, they save a lot of time to design their products, costs are saved. What’s going to happen is that if we were to build our capabilities and to be recognised, be branded to be the place and the hub where international companies which have such a need will go towards, then we are going to attract those companies, their type of project into Singapore.”
The software used by these students is the same one used in the production of animated movies such as the “Polar Express” and “Spiderman”.
The next animated Hollywood blockbuster might well be done by these budding animators. - CNA /ct
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Sentencing Of Former MD Of Performance Motors Postponed
SINGAPORE : Sentencing against the former managing director of Performance Motors Marc Singleton has been postponed to October 17.
Singleton was convicted of corruption last week.
He was found to have received a bribe of $78,000 from car dealer Jeslin Teo Kian Hong three years ago.
Ms Teo testified in court that this was in return for the appointment of her firm, Teo Tian Seng Motor Credit, as a BMW dealer.
Teo Tian Seng Motor Credit had been a BMW dealer since 1995 but Performance Motors dropped the company in June last year.
Its dealership was terminated after senior management at BMW’s Munich headquarters proposed to either upgrade the Singapore dealerships to full service or to terminate their agreements with the dealers entirely.
- CNA /ls
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