JAKARTA — Lines of people from women holding babies to school age children, with a hand held up to show they're for hire, are a ubiquitous sight on the Indonesian capital's busiest roads during rush hour.

But not this week. Traffic-clogged Jakarta plans to suspend its peak-time rule of three people to one car from Tuesday. And the passengers for hire, known as jockeys, who helped drivers cheat the traffic controls, will be out of a job.

By lifting the 3-in-1 rule, city authorities will be testing what happens to congestion. If there's no difference to the number of cars on the road, they'll know that a system in place for more than a decade is broken.

Abandoning the policy will be bad news for the poor in a city where maddening traffic produces numerous novel ways to eke out a living. Apart from jockeys, there are self-appointed U-turn police and parking wardens who are tipped by drivers despite sometimes hindering more than helping.

"I want the authorities to extend the 3-in-1," said Muhammad Asmin, a 27-year-old who dropped out of school to become a jockey more than a decade ago to earn money for his family. "It is good for us, the poor, even if it's not working," said Asmin, who earns up to USD$15 (527 baht) a day by hopping in and out of cars.

 In this Friday, April 1, 2016, photo, a man signals to show that he's for hire as a "jockey" to help drivers cheat a peak time traffic rule of three people to one car during rush hour, at the main business district in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Achmad Ibrahim / Associated Press

Jakarta is the world's most congested city, according to a study of how often vehicles brake during a commute. Officials estimate Jakarta's traffic jams cause economic losses of about USD$3 billion a year.

The 3-in-1 rule was introduced in 2003 and the jockeys appeared soon after. Since then, the traffic has only gotten worse, mainly because more Indonesians can afford cars, which has overwhelmed a road network that has hardly grown. The car-pooling policy has a particularly bad image since it's widely regarded as ineffective and also involves children, who take huge risks by getting into the vehicles of strangers.

"We have been blamed for worsening the gridlock but the government didn't provide sufficient jobs for us," said Alfa Wahyudi, a 21-year-old who came to Jakarta from Borneo six months ago. "Don't blame our presence if the government is unable to provide us jobs."

The convenience of traveling on a 3-in-1 road is such that some drivers have arrangements with two or three regular jockeys.

Repeated crackdowns on the jockeys, who quickly scatter into side streets at the sight of police, failed to wipe out the profession. If caught, they are taken to a detention center for a couple of weeks and asked to sign a letter promising not to work as a jockey again. But many say they return to the roadside as soon as they can.

Wulandri, who was twice caught and sent to a detention center, said it was no deterrent compared with the $10 she could easily make in a day.

As the mother of a one-year old boy, she was popular with drivers because it meant they could get two passengers for the price of one.

"I purposely brought my child because usually a single driver does not have to pay for two jockeys and they are often sorry for the woman who was carrying a baby," said Wulandari, who goes by one name.

Story: Niniek Karmini and Stephen Wright / Associated Press

BERLIN — An international coalition of media outlets on Sunday published what it said was an extensive investigation into the offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous, based on a vast trove of documents provided by an anonymous source.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, said the cache of 11.5 million records detailed the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars.

The Associated Press wasn't immediately able to verify the allegations made in articles that were published by the more than 100 news organizations around the world involved in the investigation.

However, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which first received the data more than a year ago, said it was confident the material was genuine.

The Munich-based daily was offered the data through an encrypted channel by an anonymous source who requested no monetary compensation and asked only for unspecified security measures, said Bastian Obermayer, a reporter for the paper.

The data concerned internal documents from a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca. Founded by German-born Juergen Mossack, the firm has offices across the globe and is among the world's biggest creators of shell companies, the newspaper said.

Ramon Fonseca, a co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, said the firm had no control of how its clients might use offshore vehicles created for them.

"We are not responsible for the actions of a corporation that we set up," he told Panama's Channel 2.

Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela issued a statement saying his government would cooperate "vigorously" with any judicial investigation arising from the leak of the law firm's documents. He said that the revelations shouldn't detract from his government's "zero tolerance" for any illicit activities in Panama's finance industry.

ICIJ said the law firm's leaked internal files contain information on 214,488 offshore entities connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories. It said it would release the full list of companies and people linked to them early next month.

Obermayer said that over the course of several months Sueddeutsche Zeitung received about 2.6 terabytes of data — more than would fit on 600 DVDs. The newspaper said the amount of data it obtained is several times larger than a previous cache of offshore data published by WikiLeaks in 2013 that exposed the financial dealings of prominent individuals.

"To our knowledge this is the biggest leak that journalists have ever worked on," Obermayer said.

The newspaper and its partners verified the authenticity of the data by comparing it to public registers, witness testimony and court rulings, he told the AP. A previous cache of Mossack Fonseca documents obtained by German authorities was also used to verify the new material, Obermayer added.

Among the countries with past or present political figures named in the reports are Iceland, Ukraine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Argentina.

The Guardian newspaper, which took part in the investigation, published a video on its website late Sunday showing an interview with Iceland's prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson. During the interview with Sweden's SVT television, the prime minister is asked about a company called Wintris. He responds by insisting that its affairs are above board and calling the question "completely inappropriate," before breaking off the interview.

In Russia, the Kremlin last week said it was anticipating what it called an upcoming "information attack."

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the Kremlin had received "a series of questions in a rude manner" from an organization that he said was trying to smear Putin.

"Journalists and members of other organizations have been actively trying to discredit Putin and this country's leadership," Peskov said.

The office of Argentina's president, Mauricio Macri, confirmed on Sunday that the business group owned by his family set up Fleg Trading Ltd., an offshore company based in the Bahamas. But it said Macri himself had no shares in Fleg and never received income from it.

Macri's office commented after La Nacion, an Argentine national newspaper, reported that he and his family had links to Fleg.

The ICIJ said the documents included emails, financial spreadsheets, passports and corporate records detailing how powerful figures used banks, law firms and offshore shell companies to hide their assets. The data spanned a time frame of nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015, it said.

"It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues," the ICIJ said.

According to the media group's website, global banks including HSBC, UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and others have worked with Mossack Fonseca to create offshore accounts.

"The allegations are historical, in some cases dating back 20 years, predating our significant, well-publicized reforms implemented over the last few years," HSBC spokesman Rob Sherman said in an emailed response to an AP request for comment.

"We work closely with the authorities to fight financial crime and implement sanctions," he said.

UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Story: Frank Jordans / Associated Press

By Swe Win
Myanmar Now

YANGON — Shortly after newly elected President Htin Kyaw completed a swearing-in ceremony in Myanmar’s parliament on Wednesday morning, the country’s new leader, a ‘proxy’ of National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, headed to the Presidential Residence in Naypyitaw.

In its stately diplomatic hall, Htin Kyaw met outgoing President Thein Sein. An aired video recording of the hand-over ceremony shows Thein Sein, silent and emotionless, give his presidential sash to his successor and quickly exit the building.

It was a quiet event that marked the end of a historic and tumultuous five-year presidential term of Thein Sein. He was believed to have been handpicked by former military supremo Than Swe to carry out Myanmar’s democratic transition under quasi-civilian rule.

Thein Sein’s presidency has drawn mixed reviews, with most observers acknowledging its dramatic democratic reforms, while many criticise its continued repression, outbreaks of communal violence and conflict, and limited socio-economic progress.

‘Myanmar Spring’

“This was ‘Myanmar Spring, Burma Spring’,” Zaw Htay, the director of the President’s Office, said in a recent interview, favourably comparing Thein Sein’s reforms and smooth handover of power with the violence that followed the ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions in the Middle East.

 “The president had to accommodate (the interests of) the old (military) era and also create a new era. He was the leader during this very difficult transitional period,” Zaw Htay said. Without elaboration, he added that Thein Sein was able to carry out reforms for only two of his five years in office.

The remarks raise questions about whether the retired Than Swe or current army chief Sen-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing put the brakes on further reforms by the Thein Sein government.

Thein Sein will continue to function as chairman of the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which he represented as president following the party’s win in a rigged 2010 election.

When he took office, he declared in his inaugural public speech in 2011, that he would fight corruption, reform the judiciary, introduce democratic reforms and boost the economy to raise livings standards of Myanmar’s people. He subsequently freed thousands of political prisoners and initiated a nationwide ceasefire process to end long-running civil conflict.

Conflict and Violence

Yet, his term also saw the break-down of a long-standing ceasefire with the ethnic Kachin rebels, continued clashes with other rebel groups in northern Shan State, and outbreaks of inter-communal between Buddhists and the Muslims in western Rakhine State and in central Myanmar. Tens of thousands of civilians were displaced during the violence and conflict that occurred during his term.

No sooner had the number of political prisoners dipped than a new class of them emerged, this time mostly activist students calling for education reform and farmers resisting a rise in land confiscations, another hallmark of Thein Sein’s term. Early on, in November 2012, a violent crackdown on a protest against an unpopular, China-backed copper mine in Sagaing Region had already raised doubts about his government’s commitment to freedom of expression.

“If we have to distinguish between the bad things and the good things of President Thein Sein’s term, then we would have to say that all the good things he did in the first two years were overshadowed by the bad things that followed later,” said Mya Aye, a former political prisoner and member of the influential 88 Generation Peace and Open Society activists. 

Matthew Bugher, a human rights lawyer , said, “It’s undeniable that Myanmar is a freer and more open country and its citizens now have great hope for the future. Thein Sein's name will forever be associated with this period of dramatic reform.”

But he said, “Thein Sein's legacy will be permanently tarnished by his government's active undermining of fundamental rights and freedoms. In particular, the continued crackdown on activists, which accelerated at the end of his term, and the systematic persecution of Rohingya” Muslims in Rakhine.

Economic Progress

On the economic front, Thein Sein successfully reengaged with international financial institutions such as the World Bank and IMF. With it came access to aid and loans, and a slashing of Myanmar’s massive debts. Other reforms saw him open up some sectors of the economy for international investors, most notably oil and gas, and telecoms. GDP growth and foreign investment figures jumped.

In terms of achieving his publicly stated goals of raising living standards of Myanmar’s population, however, there were few achievements, according to Sean Turnell, an Australian economist specialised in Myanmar who advises the NLD.

“Indeed, given rising prices, land insecurity and a society more aggressive in its pursuit of material gain, considerable numbers of people in Myanmar are worse off at this conclusion of the Thein Sein government than they were at its commencement,” he told Myanmar Now in an email.

“Overall, the Thein Sein government laid down some good foundations, but these have not been sufficient to build the structure of change needed to improve the lives of the Burmese people. Accordingly, his legacy is a mixed one, and has left the new government a heavy burden,” Turnell said.'

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