In our last business lunch we got an assessment from Mr. Alick H. Longhurst (Assessments Group Indonesia) on the current security situation in Indonesia as well as a brief on what action can be taken against terrorist threats. What he had to say was to use common sense and don't listen to much to rumors.

Even if it has been relatively calm here in Indonesia, the WTC tragedy has been on everyone's mind during the month. I am sure that you all got more than enough of information on this and therefore I will only keep my self to Indonesia. Tommy's case as well as the Gus Dur case are of course large domestic news. The actual consequences of these legal overturns are not very large.

The Rupiah has dropped like a rock since the American attacks on Afghanistan. I think that in the long run the Rupiah will be back to just under 10.000 since most of the "WTC" effect is already discounted. The war against terrorism has been announced for a long time and nobody is very surprised. The importance of the government reaction to any fundamentalistic Islamic actions are of course of highest importance to the Rupiah rate, but Megawati seems rather determined about what to do.

I will here give some facts and views on what jihad and the Islamic fanaticism actually is about. The article I have made on salary levels will have to wait until next month, but I am sure that you all need to know as much as possible what is going on in the minds of the people on the streets. ....

Note that I am trying to give you a picture on why fanatic Muslims are as they are and why Bin Laden do what he is doing. It's long so only read it if you are interested.

The Rupiah has been on 11,500 to the dollar, but important to note is the fact that it is rather stabile against the Swedish crown..... On April 1 there are several new luxury taxes coming. Computer hardware will have a 20% luxury tax so be fast to order next week.