An Indonesian embassy official has sought political asylum in South Africa, claiming to have classified documents detailing official corruption in his country and evidence of human rights violations in Indonesian-ruled East Timor.

The official, Stany Aji, said he had been assisting the pro-democracy movement in Indonesia and had been in contact with Guruh Sukarnoputra, former opposition parliamentarian and brother of pro-democracy leader Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Marco Boni, a spokesman for South Africa’s Foreign Ministry, confirmed yesterday that an application for asylum had been received from Aji, who had been working in the trade section of the Indonesian embassy. “Our Home Affairs Department is considering the case at the moment,” he told ‘The Sunday Age’.

Aji, who has been in hiding since his activities were discovered, appealed last week for urgent help via the Internet, sending a message to US academic Professor Noam Chomsky of Boston. Chomsky is known as a strong critic of the Indonesian regime and has intervened in previous bids for political asylum by East European and Latin American dissidents.

“(South Africa) has so far not given me any guarantee of granting asylum due to the fact that South Africa wants to hold on to good relations with Indonesia,” Aji said in his plea to Chomsky. “The information that I hold would most definitely break this illusory and temporary state of good relations with the Indonesian Government.”

Chomsky later sought help from a number of colleagues around the world, including Deakin University academic Scott Burchill. “He said the fellow seemed to be in a bit of trouble,” said Burchill, a lecturer in international relations. “The official also wanted to contact Jose Ramos Horta, who Chomsky thought was still in Australia.”

Ramos Horta, who lives in Sydney but spends much of the year travelling, is an exiled East Timorese resistance leader who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with the territory’s Catholic bishop, Carlos Belo. He was in Australia until last week.

Holbrooke backed Indonesian genocide in East Timor, killing of journos in Serbia and supported 2003 Iraq invasion.

Johann Hari:

I’m more inclined to grieve for victims of Indonesian genocide in East Timor than Richard Holbrooke, who armed & supported that genocide.

Read this.

Sheridan is back at it today (thanks to Scott Burchill):

For nearly 20 years, good hearted Indonesians have been telling the Burmese to study the New Order regime that prevailed in Indonesia under Suharto, especially in the early years after he took power in the mid-60s. The Indonesian army, like the Burmese, believed it was the only institution that could possibly keep the country together. It developed the doctrine of dwifungsi or dual function, to allow the military a direct role in politics as well as security.

But at the same time, especially in the early years, Suharto was extremely consultative. He tried to co-opt as many social forces into the New Order as he could and he took expert economic advice from the famous Berkely mafia.

Burchill: This is precisely the period when Suharto’s slaughter of his political opponents, and anyone associated with them, reached its peak. Hundreds of thousands were murdered in one of Asia’s worst bloodbaths. Seems the Burmese junta did just that. Good hearted advice indeed.

Take a look here, here and here.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of the events in Bali is the involvement of local writers and participants. If the West and East melded a little more, the world would be in a much better shape.

I’m honoured to be here.

More very soon.

So this news, under the headline, “Tight Pants Ban Takes Effect in Indonesia’s Aceh“, is a little sad:

Authorities in a devoutly Islamic district of Indonesia’s Aceh province have distributed 20,000 long skirts and prohibited shops from selling tight dresses as a regulation banning Muslim women from wearing revealing clothing took effect Thursday.

The long skirts are to be given to Muslim women caught violating the dress code during a two-month campaign to enforce the regulation, said Ramli Mansur, head of West Aceh district.

Islamic police will determine whether a woman’s clothing violates the dress code, he said.

During raids Thursday, Islamic police caught 18 women traveling on motorbikes who were wearing traditional headscarves but were also dressed in jeans. Each woman was given a long skirt and her pants were confiscated. They were released from police custody after giving their identities and receiving advice from Islamic preachers.

”I am not wearing sexy outfits, but they caught me like a terrorist only because of my jeans,” said Imma, a 40-year-old housewife who uses only one name. She argued that wearing jeans is more comfortable when she travels by motorbike.

Motorbikes are commonly used by both men and women in Indonesia.

”The rule applies only to Muslim residents in West Aceh,” Mansur told The Associated Press. ”We don’t enforce it for non-Muslims, but are asking them to respect us.”

He said any shopkeepers caught violating restrictions on selling short skirts and jeans would face a revocation of their business licenses.

No merchants have been seen displaying jeans or tight clothing in stores in West Aceh district in recent weeks.

The regulation is the latest effort to promote strict moral values in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, where most of the roughly 200 million Muslims practice a moderate form of the faith.

It does not set out a specific punishment for violators, but says ”moral sanctions” will be imposed by local leaders.

Mansur said women caught violating the ban more than three times could face two weeks in detention.

Rights groups say the regulation violates international treaties and the Indonesian constitution.