Surat dari Redaksi


	Edisi 52/02 - 28/Feb/1998

Letter from the Editor

Without being realizedTEMPO Interaktif is entering its third year in the next week edition. It is like a coincidence that our first edition of the third year marks the beginning of general session. Unfortunately, the struggle in the more than Rp. 44 billion-cost general session cannot be closely observed. The general session that has made Jakarta having been guarded with batallion of troops, will only make a "yes decision", for important decisions that have been determined before. The duo is clear, the President: HM Soeharto and the Vice-president: BJ Habibie. Only a small space is left for candidates other than those two names.
A group of people that support Emil Salim may have a wish for "a magic", if there is a faction that mentions Emil's name for vice-president candidate. So far the indications are not seen. However, support for former Minister of Population and Environment is getting bigger.
If you see new site www.pdat.com/madani, the site is really "made of" Pusat Data dan Analisa TEMPO. Gema Madani trusted PDAT to create its site. The site was prepared in only a short time, less than one week, to fulfill the demand from Madani, which is outnumber to recieve support for Prof. Dr. Emil Salim.
It doesn't mean that PDAT plays politics, in fact we sympathize to the good repute and clean figure like Emil Salim.
***
PDAT doesn't only publish TEMPO Interaktif and other sites. We also publish some books. On Thursday last week (Feb 25, 1998), we submitted the PDAT published book- as a mark for circulating-to Great General Abdul Haris Nasution. The book entitled Jenderal Tanpa Pasukan, Politisi Tanpa Partai. The 400 page book covers the biography of the important Indonesian military figure, AH Nasution.
When the 80-year old AH Nasutionrecieved the book, he gladly said, "Hopefully this book will be useful for our history." The Huta-Pungkut, North Sumatera born-man, looked thicker. It is not because of the Volvo car that takes him back and forth to attend various events. In fact, the Volvo car which was rumored as a present from the President, is actually only a "picking up and driving home car". After bringing home Pak Nas-his nick name-the car goes back. It is not a present for Pak Nas," explained Mrs Nasution.
Jenderal Tanpa Pasukan, Politisi Tanpa Partai (General Without Troops, Politician Without Party) is perhaps the nth book about AH Nasution. If other books about Nasution are written from Nasution points of view, the PDAT book is a somewhat different. We arranged the questions and interviewed Nasution. His answers are enriched with researches from many sources, the others are presented completely in question and answer form. In the book, Nasution also quoted what Great Commander General Sudirman said, "For the sake of honesty, truth, and fairness". We are also grateful that Nasution wanted to answer all questions, no matter how critical they were.
In fact, the book was prepared before TEMPO magazine was banned. We started the project five years ago. By the time TEMPO was defuncted, our spirit to publish a book was unfortunately faded away. With a new team in PDAT new office, the project was finally followed up. Then the interviews were completed by new reporters. As we wrote above, the book is now ready for you to read.
Happy reading.