-Ing Form

House heading toward paralysis

The House of Representatives has once again been thrown into paralysis as the Red-and-White Coalition struggled to maintain control of the legislative body, following the breakdown of a peace deal on Wednesday.On Thursday, the House canceled a hearing in which it expected to summon Health Minister Nila Moeloek and called off a meeting to discuss whether or not the legislative body should hold another selection process to find a replacement for retiring Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)commissioner Busyro Muqoddas.

The two meetings were canceled after only a handful of lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)-led Great Indonesia Coalition showed up.Though Nila was ready to attend, the meeting room of House Commission IX overseeing health and welfare was deserted. Meanwhile, Commission III overseeing law and human rights, which was scheduled to meet on the selection process, was forced to postpone the meeting after no lawmakers from the Great Indonesia Coalition were present.Only a small number of lawmakers from the United Development Party (PPP) and the Hanura Party could be seen in the meeting room.“We will attend any meetings, as well as hearings only if we’ve completed amending the MD3 Law, as per the peace pact,” lawmaker Abdul Kadir Karding of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said.

Abdul, secretary-general of the PKB, was referring to Law No. 17/2014 regulating Legislative Institutions, known as the MD3 Law, which is to be amended to tap lawmakers from the Great Indonesia Coalition for chairmanship posts within the House’s internal bodies, including its 11 commissions. An amendment to the law is included in the peace deal sealed by the two rival coalitions earlier this month after a month-long dispute over control of the House.However, a House plenary meeting unexpectedly ditched the amendment on Tuesday due to technicalities; a decision made only one day after the government interfered with an escalating internal conflict within the Golkar Party — one of five members of the opposition Red-and-White Coalition — in the run up to its national congress to select a new chairman, slated to take place in Bali this weekend.

Besides Golkar, other members of the Red-and-White Coalition are the Gerindra Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party has also recently joined the group, although it repeatedly claims to be a “balancing power” between the two competing coalitions.Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, a NasDem politician, was accused of meddling in the Golkar Party internal conflict for calling on the police not to issue a permit for the party’s national congress in Bali.
Several lawmakers confirmed that the Golkar faction in the Legislation Body (Baleg), which is tasked with deliberating the MD3 Law amendment, declined to support the amendment only hours after Tedjo’s statement went public. A number of Golkar politicians said that the party would not change its position regarding the amendment, in spite of Jokowi’s overture to install Golkar politician Nusron Wahid as the new head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI).In October, Jokowi made a similar move by appointing PPP politician Lukman Hakim Saifuddin as Religious Affairs Minister, although the Muslim-based party had yet to officially join the PDI-P-led coalition. “I don’t believe that what happened with PPP will take place in Golkar. Nusron’s appointment has nothing to do with the party’s future,” Golkar lawmaker Azis Syamsuddin said.

Baleg itself has decided that the discussion over the fate of the MD3 amendment will take place after Golkar’s national congress, scheduled for next week. “[…] We have made an agreement. We’ll see what happens. But Baleg is determined to make a decision by Dec. 5, before we take a one month recess,” Baleg deputy chairman Saan Mustofa of the Democratic Party said.

Newspaper reading can promote
virtues, new book says

Reading newspapers may seem like a novelty for some, but a new book launched on Thursday argues that the habit of reading the news, whether in print or online, could be a powerful tool for schools to promote character development.Newsworthy Characters — A Practical Guide to Character Building (Karakter & Informasi) was jointly published by The Jakarta Post and Kompas newspapers as a practical guide on ways to teach virtues that help form good characters, particularly if taught at an early age.

The bilingual book was launched at a seminar in Denpasar and was used immediately for a workshop involving more than 350 English teachers. The seminar opened after keynote addresses by Kacung Marijan, the Director-General for culture at the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry, IB Rai Dharmawijaya Mantra, the mayor of Denpasar and Abdul Hamid Batubara, the president commissioner of PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia, which funded the book project. Kacung recalled how he grew up, finished school and got a scholarship to study in Australia thanks to motivation from his teacher and his mother, who never attended school, but who told him bedtime stories that imparted the values he grew up with. He also recalled how his reading of newspapers at an early age led him to dream of becoming a foreign minister, “so that I could travel around the world for free”.

He is not a foreign minister, but he said he had nevertheless traveled overseas for free after he grew up and became a government official. The project was developed under the auspices of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) as member newspapers around the world struggle to keep readership or revive reading habits among people. Internet technology is changing the way people access news and information globally, but newspapers have yet to discover how to sway young audience their way. Education could give the answer, or so hoped Kompas and The Jakarta Post, through the new book. The government has incorporated the teaching of character into the school curriculum. Many private institutions have also launched schools that put the emphasis on character development. The book picks 12 virtues plus one, providing Internet links to clippings of news stories that illustrate how these virtues are very much alive in people’s daily lives. Children learn better about these virtues, their benefits and also how to develop them, by looking at or reading about living examples. Newspaper reading has never been more important and relevant, the book argues. The 12 virtues are love, responsibility, discipline, honesty, self-confidence, compassion, cooperation, tolerance, creativity, respect, humility and leadership.

The book suggests that users, meaning schools, dedicate each month of the year to one virtue and create activities that promote that virtue. A 13th virtue, freedom of expression, was added to reflect the importance of this particular virtue for children’s learning and developing their creativity.

-ing form	Sentences	Explanation
1.      Adjective	the meeting room	From the example, show that ing form as adjective because –ing form explain as noun. And the as (article), meeting as (head) and room as (noun).
2.      Noun (Gerund)	Reading newspapers may seem like a novelty for some	-Ing form as gerund or noun, and reading as subject in the sentence.
3.       Verb	Internet technology is changing the way people access news and information globally,	the tenses that is used in the sentence is simple continuous tense, because internet technology as subject and is as auxiliary and changing as verb in the content.

Source:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/28/house-heading-toward-paralysis.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/28/newspaper-reading-can-promote-virtues-new-book-says.html