Israeli Aircraft
Oct 12th, 2006, in News, by PatungThe FPI, Islam Defenders’ Front, are protesting apparent plans by the Defence department to buy Israeli aircraft.
On the 9th dozens of FPI men protested outside the Defence department office in Jakarta over reports that the ministry of defence plans to buy drone aircraft (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAV) from Israel.
We reject it if the Defence department really are going to buy planes from Israel because Israel is a colonialist nation. Our constitution forbids colonialism in any form.
(Kita menolak jika Dephan benar-benar ingin membeli pesawat dari Israel. Sebab Israel adalah bangsa penjajah. UUD kita melarang penjajahan di dunia dalam bentuk apa pun.)
The FPI claims that a ministerial letter, No. Skep/723/m/iX/2006, dealing with the planned purchase of the aircraft, says that the planes will be bought from a Philippino company, called “Kital Philippines Corp.”, for a price of US$6 million each. However FPI investigations into the matter have shown that the company in question sells food and drink, not weaponry or planes. Therefore they accused the Defence department of attempting to fool the public and conceal the fact that the aircraft were in fact being bought from Israel.
If this is true it means the minister (Juwono Sudarsono) is trying to deceive the public. This could be reported to the police, but we’ll wait for an answer from the minister.
(Kalau ini benar, berarti Menhan telah melakukan penipuan terhadap publik. Ini bisa dilaporkan ke kepolisian. Tapi kita akan tunggu dulu jawaban dari Menhan.)
said a Front Pembela Islam man, Awid.
Three FPI men were received by ministry staff and they delivered a letter of their complaints. After that they dispersed.
18th October
The Jakarta Post has picked up on the story and reports that members of the House of Representatives defence commission are urging the government to be clear and open in its procurement of the drones. Djoko Susilo of the National Mandate Party (PAN), who first spoke out about the irregularities, said the Defense Ministry had acted unprofessionally by trying to get the drones from the wrong source, the Philippines.
We have carried out an investigation and found out that the company from which we will get the UAV’s is in fact a food and beverage company based in Manila.
Djoko then distributed information on the company, Kital Philippines, which described the firm as a vendor of food and beverages, juice concentrate, salt, toiletries and skin care products. The company has annual sales ranging from $1 million to $2.5 million.
Minister of Defence Juwono had earlier said that the Defence Ministry planned to purchase the drones from an Israeli company, saying that the UAVs would then be assembled in a workshop in the Philippines.
A recent media report said that a team of Indonesian military (TNI) officers had gone to Israel to negotiate a price for the drones.
Suripto of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) also criticized the government for not consulting the House defence commission about buying the planes. He accused the Defense Ministry of trying to conceal the fact that it aimed to get the drones from Israel. He said:
Such cover-ups are common practice when Israeli companies are involved.
Continued…..
Juwono Sudarsono says the airplanes were bought without taking into account where they originated from. In any case, he says, Israel was a country whose people follow an Abrahamic religion, like Islam, so there was no problem.
He added that the drones had been bought according to tendering procedures. Forty-two companies had taken part in the bidding and Kital Philippines Corp, the food vendor, had managed to beat out ESL Ventures from the Netherlands and IRKUT of Russia, among others. The planes are said to be intended for patrol of the Straits of Malacca, an area prone to pirate attacks.
22nd October
It has been announced formally that Indonesia has purchased “Searcher MK.II UAVs from Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. (IAI). Somewhat contrary to the report above the latest news, from Globes business news in Israel, says that Indonesia published an international tender for the supply of the UAVs and received offers from 42 companies from all parts of the world. IAI, ESL Ventures, and Airkot of Russia went forward to the final bidding stage. Indonesian teams visited Israel several times last year to assess the capabilities of UAVs built by IAI. They appear to have been impressed.
Searcher MK.II UAV.
27th October
Four drones will be bought from Bina Putra Sejati, a subsidiary of Kital Philippines Corp. Indonesian armed forces chief Joko Suyanto defended the purchase, saying:
We are just buying planes that are licensed by Israel, not dealing directly with them. So I think what we are doing is fine.
45 Comments on “Israeli Aircraft”
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Molisan Tono says:
Hassan my friend… do you also aware that Christian, no matter cath or Christian is also brother? do you aware what we all think about recent killing againts a pastor in palu? do you know what we felt about it?
we are minor, and yet we are being kill easily… and no suitable law yet to drag all those killers and criminal and terrorist for their crime against humanity and maybe religion and God.
have you figure that out my friend? what are you trying to prove to us anyway? how truthful you are?
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O. Bule says:
Indonesia has been buying defense equipment from Israel for ages. They just camoflage it. Take the case of the ex Israeli A-4 Skyhawks.
While Pak Harto was still boss, back in the ’80s, it was necessary for the AU to replace its old, worn out MIGs for ground attack, and the most cost effective ground attack plane was the Isreli modified, Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. The Israeli’s (who got them originally from the U.S.A.) were replacing them in service with the F-16, and were selling them off at great prices, considering how outstandingly maintained and upgraded they were. However, the issue of Indonesia dealing directly with Israel was touchy.
So, the Office of the Military Attaché for Defense Programs (OMADP) in the U.S. Embassy was enlisted to facilitate things. With OMADP’s help, the deal went like this: First, Israel “sold” the planes to Singapore (who had no use for them and were only in the deal to provide a cover for the Indonesian government’s purchase from Israel; payment was made with Indonesian money). Then, the Singaporeans did a little polishing and so forth on the planes and flew them around a little (less than a year). Once a decent interval had elapsed, Indonesia “bought” the planes from Singapore (actually they only gave them a relatively tiny sum, to compensate the Singaporeans for their help in the matter). Many such deals as this transpired over the years.
So, as you see, the Indonesian government has been dealing with Israel for years.
O. Bule
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Mohammed Khafi says:
Hassan,
You said:
you do know that once india, pakistan, and Bangladesh are one nation, india. pakistan then decides to claim independence from india, and the nation of pakistan is then further split into two when Bangladesh wanted their own independence.
Pakistan was partitioned by the British prior to the Independence of India as the population was predominantly Muslim, Bangladesh was formed due to social inequalities between West and East Pakistan and cultural problems between the Bengali’s of Bangladesh and the Punjabi’s of West Pakistan.
Considering the religious differences, social inequalities and cultural differences between us and West Papua, don’t you think that we should consider giving West Papua back to the Papuans, just in case the same sort of violent upheaval takes place between them and us as took place between the Hindu and Muslim Indians and between the Muslim West Pakistani’s and the Bangladeshi’s.
We seem to have the same problems learning from others history as we do from our own.
Peace
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Anonymous_aloy says:
Oigal, Murdoch may actually be a closet liberal, surprisingly enough (see last week’s New Yorker). He recently appeared in a number of fund-raisings for the Clintons to the dismay of the conservatives. I think he’s just hedging against the possible defeat of the Republicans in the coming mid-term election.
Fox News is as close as you can get to a propaganda channel in a democratic country. Bill ‘loofah’ O’Reilly’s softball interview with GWB a few nights ago was a joke. John ‘five in the noggin’ Gibson is the worst and possibly the dumbest, Hannity close second. And they’re complaining about MSM having a liberal slant.
But I digress. What was I going to say? Oh yes. It’s clear that anti-Semitism among Indonesian Muslims is on the rise in past decades. It was not always the case. One turning point was when Hamas succesfully hijacked the Palestinian cause and painted it as an Islamic cause. Before that it was a Pan Arab cause and Indonesians had nothing to do with it. Now we have many Indonesians reading “The Protocols..” and foolishly believed it.
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Hassan says:
Mohammed Khafi: oh sure, we should give West Papua back to the Papuans, Aceh to Aceh people, and release Riau too. Problem solved. no more demonstrations by those people to deal with. Khafi, my stance is firm on this: Indonesia should never be balkanised. Timor is enough.
mahmood: no, I don’t want to be an Arab. specially with how things are going in the world today, you know, with the war on terror thingy and all. I was just expressing my sympathy for them.
Molisan Tono: agreed. i can imagine how hard it is to be a minority. not just in Indonesia but anywhere in the world. and I also agree that this nation should tighten up it’s law-enforcement so that no crime towards humanity and religion will go unpunished. the killing of rev. irianto kongkolI had just added more to the list of unsolved murders that occured in our country.
I am also worried that the failure to find munir’s murderers (and the release of the operative, polycarpus) will set a bad presedence for this kind of tragedies in the future. tono, these acts of savagery knows no boundary or religion, as munir was a Muslim.
lastly, I’m not trying to proove anything about myself, I was just stating my oppinions on current issues here, on our lovely channel called “Indonesia matters”. I’m not here to impress anybody, there is no good in that. and hey, we don’t personally know each other here..
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Oigal says:
Hassan,
Thanks for the response and I don’t necessarily disagree with you in that post, However, it had nothing to bo with the point I raised which was to challenge your comment and one so oft heard the a JEW owned Fox which is simply false in every way.
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TheWrathOfGrapes says:
Hassan, if Indonesia insists on “ethical” dealings, then she will have no countries in the world to do business with, even with Indonesia itself. But specifically, you have a special hatred for Jews, Israel and Israelis. Just to ease you mind, I have no dealings with them and I am not an apologist for them. But my question to you is: “what has Israel done to Indonesia in general and you in particular to warrant such hatred?”
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TheWrathOfGrapes:
Hassan is just putting his religious practices into everyday use, he seems generally to follow what others tell him rather than have any self reasoned ideals.
Peace
Hassan said:
we should give West Papua back to the Papuans, Aceh to Aceh people, and release Riau too. Problem solved. no more demonstations by those people to deal with.
What are you doing now Hassan? trying to use peoples fear of national disintegration in an attempt to defend our unlawful occupation of West Papua. Shame on you.
Aceh, and Riau are a completely different case from West Papua, both ethnically, geographically, and historically, if you cannot see that you must be blind. . . you’re not a politician by any chance are you?
Peace
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Bradlymail says:
Hassan did Islam teach us to hate or kill the Jews? for me this is between the Arab and the Jew personal problem. For us, Indonesian, there is nothing to against the Jew.
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Bas says:
They try to keep it “secret” but Israelians are doing the maintenance of Garuda’s planes and other Indonesian companies airplanes for years! Go to Yogjakarta airport and have a look. A Muslim friend of mine even marry an Israelian mechanics in Yogja lol…
I am not sure but if I remember well, it’s the Israelian airline state company who do the job. Not a private one.
Business is business…
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Mohammed Khafi: if (hypothetically) west papua is colonialised. i reckon that the real colonializer is the country that had benefited the most from papua’s rich natural resources, that country is not Indonesia. you’re barking on the wrong tree.
you do like to stereotype others, don’t you?
“Hassan is just putting his religious practices into everyday use, he seems generally to follow what others tell him rather than have any self reasoned ideals.”
no, did not, what I have said was actually my own ideals. there is the notion that people tend to be like their surroundings, maybe my statements seemed “conservative” because I lived around people of the same type. and yours seemed “liberal” because you lived around those kind of people. that doesn’t necessarily meant that we followed what others told us, but maybe just a simple environmental bias.
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TheWrathOfGrapes: i don’t personally hate the Jews, i don’t like them killing my Muslims brothers daily, that’s for sure. how would you feel if you’re brethren were slain every single day by a bunch of people?
i don’t hate the Jews as an ethnic, I only hated Israel the terrorist country. why did i advocate that we should not do dealings with Israel, or even the US for that matter? not simply because i hated their guts, but because those countries will use the income they gathered from trades to strengthen their economy and ultimately their military. and they will use their military to further oppress and kill more Muslims worldwide.get the picture?
i don’t want money from our country be used by the Israeli to kill Palestinian Muslims.
as mohammed khafI said: we must break the evil cycle somewhere. i wondered why he didn’t advocate that (to not deal with isreael)? maybe because he somehow developed a pro western attitude (with their blame Muslims tendencies) somewhere in his heart.
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Andrew says:
what happens in vegas, errr… the middle east, stays in the middle east.
I have a Palestinian and a Jew in my team of 10, i can tell you how great i feel to see them work together and befriend each other like nothing happens back home.
off topic, but you know what i mean.
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Hassan Said:
if (hypothetically) west papua is colonialised. i reckon that the real colonializer is the country that had benefited the most from papua’s rich natural resources, that country is not Indonesia. you’re barking on the wrong tree.
Who’s soldiers went into West Papua Hassan? Who’s corrupt government officials and business men are profiting?
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John says:
Why is does foxnews love the british too much. The British still occupies a tiny section of Ireland and they call it Ulster. Down with the British give up all your overseas Territorial regions including your colony of North region of Ireland and tell Rupert to go to hell.
Comment on “Israeli Aircraft”.
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One thing I notice is that (some) people use the word “Jews” when referring to the Israeli (government).
Whether it means good or bad is irrelevant, but this is just not right.