Acts Of Espionage Against Indonesia by Akiko Makino and Others From Kobe University "Secret" Lab
Monday, March 05, 2012
These e-mails outline and confirm acts of espionage against Indonesia and Indonesians committed by Akiko Makino and others involved both in Kobe University and in AI Lab at University of Airlangga, Surabaya; Bahasa Indonesia original follows English translation
Robert S. Finnegan (03/03/2012)
Background e-mails from Teridah Ernala Ginting to Robert S. Finnegan:
After the incident, my professor became very nice at me. Of course, because they know that I know what's going on exactly. Few days later, they asked me to sign a document, mentioning that I'm a researcher belonging to my supervisor, and every matters between my supervisor and I should be kept confidential. I didn't have any reason not to sign it.
If you want to, I will forward the conversation between Dr Nidom and I. It's in Bahasa Indonesia, but that's the actual story. It's a very long mail, maybe it's pretty difficult for you to understand the whole story but just keep it for your reference.
PS: you better read the mail from the bottom. You will see how they're desperately want samples.
For your information:
Yoshi sensei - Yoshihiro Kawaoka, my professor. The authority. Everything done by these following two names are for his sake.
Shinya - Kyoko Shinya, my associate professor also my boss in this project. She's always using me and telling lot of lies.
Makino - Akiko Makino, new assistant professor from Tokyo Univ. She carried the illegal samples from Indonesia.
Yamaoka - Masaoki Yamaoka, a Japanese researcher assigned in Indonesia.
Dr Hatta - Shinya got the human samples from dr Hatta, but claimed it as dr Nidom's samples at Surabaya airport."
My personal research themes are: the study of circulating oseltamivir resistant H1N1 virus (I mentioned before); the internalization of highly pathogenic H5N1 virus into cells; the study of PA gene of Indonesia human H5N1 virus in relation to its virulency; neuraminidase protein characteristic of horse influenza H3N8 which jumped and transferred its whole genome into dogs; and the pathogenicity of avian H5N1 virus to several local chicken breeds.
Too many subjects for a student, actually. Other students only have one subject, it's enough for graduation. Some may have two if one is not good enough. That's why I almost have no time for my self.
I'm working in BSL-2 laboratory, that's the requirement from the government because the original virus was only common H1N1. For H5N1 virus, I'm working in BSL-3 laboratory.
My experiment is confidential (please keep this only for you), noone except my professor and I know this (even we keep it secret from other lab members). Especially after the H1N1 emerged, my work will cause lot of trouble. We will go to the public after everything is set up.
Ida
 |
|
Kobe University virologists Yoshihiro Kawaoka, Teridah Ernala, Makino, Shinya have endangered the world |
From: "Ida - Teridah Ernala"
To: C. A. Nidom
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 2:59 AM
Subject: Re: Apa kabar?
Dear Pak Nidom,
Thanks for your email. Your explanation has helped me to understand what was going on. As for me, there’s no big deal, but honestly I actually felt being used and cheated working on this project all this time.
Let me try to tell you what I knew and heard:
1. It all started from complains received from Shinya sensei about the samples. According to her, Pak Nidom didn’t do surveillance for Kobe-Unair project anymore. Pak Nidom was always busy doing something else and Pak Nidom told Shinya sensei that Pak Nidom wouldn’t send any more samples to be analyzed. Shinya sensei felt cornered because she had to be responsible to making reports to Kobe University and to Yoshi sensei. Most of the information Shinya received was from Yamaoka sensei. Shinya sensei felt that Yamaoka sensei had worked more than Pak Nidom. Especially because Yamaoka sensei gave data and also worked with dr. Pailingan. He’s been complaining about that since a few months ago. From I saw, Shinya sensei also communicated a lot with Yamaoka sensei, I never knew what they communicated about. But since they were close, it seemed that Shinya sensei received a lot information, Yamaoka’s version, of course. For instance: in Surabaya there was no more surveillance, and even though there were a lot of samples, they were not processed any further.
 |
| Dr. CA Nidom |
- In June, Shinya sensei had planned to meet with Pak Hatta in Makassar. I didn’t care much about the meeting was about. But suddenly Shinya asked me to come along, she said we were going to see farms in South Sulawesi for around one month and it just happened I was the committee so more or less I knew about South Sulawesi. I called keswan in Pinrang and Polewali that we were going to see the farms. Then Shinya sensei asked if we could do the sampling too. Keswan allowed us to do so but we had to make a letter of request to Dinas, Propinsi and Kabupaten. I have prepared all those letters required.
Samples we took were from healthy pigs and chickens (not outbreak samples). What I regretted here was that Shinya sensei actually wanted to meet Pak Hatta by using “surveillance” as the reason. By taking me, she could use the budget from Kobe University, because as far I’m concerned, her work with Pak Hatta was personal business (whether or not this was true, I had no idea).
The truth was, all of sudden Shinya sensei asked me to come along whereas her wish to meet with Pak Hatta had been planned for so long.
I had asked Shinya sensei over and over again to inform Pak Nidom about this plan. Even right before the departure, I asked her again. She always said she would.
I also said that we couldn’t take home the samples, we had to give them to Unair (because that was what I told Dinas). I also said to take only the swab and let Vivin and Mas Ucup take the samples in Sulawesi later, when all collected. But at that time Shinya sensei said she was busy and didn’t have time, so let’s just take them and give them to Yamaoka sensei while in transit in Bali.
So there, the samples were then given to Yamaoka sensei in Bali (samples in PBS + antibiotics). While samples in Trizol were taken to Japan because according Shinya sensei the samples in Trizol had been inactive and all the import papers have been prepred by Makino sensei, so there should be no problem. The PBS samples were taken by Yamaoka to Surabaya.
3. Shinya sensei and Pak Hatta met at the Hasanuddin Airport. When they met, I was not brought in, I was waiting somewhere else. So I had no idea what they talked about. After that Pak Hatta told me that if I wanted outbreak samples, he could get in touch with Vet. Muflihanah in Maros. I said that was impossible because I have had asked about DIC samples to Dirjen (General Director). There was no way the samples would be given away by DIC without permission from Dirjen. But Pak Hatta convinced Shinya sensei that Vet. Muflihanah was his student and would definitely give the samples with permission from Dirjen. That was when I had bad feeling about it, I told Shinya sensei that was a law-breaking act. After that, Pak Hatta might have ‘entertained’ Vet. Muflihanah or something, I don’t know, and I don’t want know about it.
4. 2 days upon returning from Sulawesi in the end of July, Shinya sensei left for Surabaya with Makino sensei. She said [the] purpose at that time was to check on the presentation by friends at AI Lab. When he was about to leave, I once again asked about Pak Nidom’s opinion about the samples taken by Yamaoka to Surabaya. Shinya sensei said that she hasn’t told Pak Nidom about it but would do so when he arrived in Surabaya. I was disappointed and ashamed because I have sent a letter to Dinas and Province that samples would be brought to Unair. I don’t want Pak Nidom hear this from someone else. I just wish that Shinya sensei could explain this nicely to Pak Nidom. Shinya sensei said that she had talked about his visit to Sulawesi and that Pak Nidom has collected samples from Dnas. I felt relieved hearing that, because that meant there was no problem.
Whether or not Shinya sensei brought the samples in to Japan during his visit to Surabaya, I really had no idea about it.
5. About Makino sensei getting caught taking samples out of Indonesia in Juanda, at that time I was on vacation in Surabaya. Makino sensei returned to Japan at the very same day I returned to Japan. I had no idea at all about Makino sensei’s visit to Surabaya, I only learned about it the night before, when Motoko called me. I never tried to contact Makino sensei because I was not ‘invited’, so I left her alone.
I learned about this when I returned to the lab (on Monday) from Shinya sensei. I was shocked because I thought Makino sensei brought in the samples from Sulawesi that we gave to Yamaoka.
6. According to Shinya sensei, airport officers held the samples of Human RNA from Pak Hatta. According to Shinya’s ‘version’, Makino was trapped by someone. Because at that time Makino had gone through the boarding gate, but suddenly chased by an officer who then searched through the contents of her bag in public. The officer was looking for “bottle” but couldn’t find it. The officer also searched through the contents of her baggage in where they found the boxes filled with tubes without proper documentations. Makino sensei told the officer that she received the samples from Unair but when the officer called Unair, it was not true.
The sudden search through by airport officer has made Shinya sensei think that there must have been someone reported it to the Karantina (quarantine) in Surabaya. Shinya sensei said the only persons that knew about it were Yoshi sensei, Pak Nidom and Yamaoka. It seemed that even Kobe University (just like Pak Hatta) knew nothing about this sample. So, in other words, he believed that it was Pak Nidom who reported it. Whether or not it was true, it was not my problem. But what I saw here was the illegal act (smuggling) done by foreigner. So, by law, Indonesian authority did the right thing.
7. After the incident, Pak Hatta received a letter from the Head of Unair. Then Pak Hatta faxed it to Shinya sensei. Because it was written in bahasa Indonesi, Shinya sensei asked me to translate it:
1. The material you handed to Dr Masaoki Yamaoka on August 5th 2009, and then kept in ITD, should have been reported previously to us (at least to the head of ITD). In particular, if the material preceded using ITD’s material and equipment.
2. The materials been brought by Ms. Makino without any supporting document from you, so that Ms Makino and materials could not depart to Japan. Because Ms Makino declared that the materials derived from Airlangga University, she was not arrested and allowed to embark. However the materials are still kept in Juanda airport.
3. We regret the statement of Ms Makino mentioned that the materials came from Airlangga University, and described as zoonotic material. In fact, written statement from Dr Shinya and you mentioned that they were human samples.
4. Regarding to the points above, we require you to come to Surabaya as soon as possible to solve this problem. This is a serious illegal practice related to MTA
From the above letter, I understood that there had been a deception. Material mentioned on the paper was zoonotic material while in fact it was Human RNA.
8. A few days ago, I was suddenly asked to sign an agreement letter by Shinya sensei. According to her, the letter signed by all parties involved in Kobe project. The letter contained confidential agreement between me, as a researcher, and Shinya sensei as my boss. The signatories were only me and Shinya sensei. I had doubts at that time, but Shinya sensei said it was required by the office and everybody signed the same letter, not only me. So I just signed it.
The following day I asked Nakagawa san if he ever signed the similar letter? He said he never did. I began to worry because one of the clauses said that I had to obey Shinya sensei and all researches I did or would be doing were for Shinya sensei. After re-reading the agreement letter, I just realized that there was no Indonesian project mentioned on that paper. Everything there was all about the binding work relationship between me and Shinya sensei. And why the letter was issued now whereas I had been in the project since March 2008? And why nobody else signed the similar letter? And why it was signed only by me and Shinya sensei? Why not by The Head / Dean of Kobe University or Pak Hotta or Pak Hayashi? I had no idea or I might have overreacted about this. I will ask Didik if he ever signed the similar letter or not.
9. Personally, I wanted to have this collaboration working well. I think what happened here is lack of communications between each other. I wanted all to be normal as it used to be. Shinya sensei had actually a strong desire to develop the lab in Surabaya, but as Pak Nidom might also be aware of, there had been many problems occurred here and there. When I and Shinya sensei visited Pinrang, we also entrusted medium transport. But after this incident, I don’t see how it’s going to be continued. My wish is to get the samples processed at Unair, but it seems very difficult to do so.
I hope everything written here has given you the positive feedback and not causing the bad impacts to everyone. To me, open up is very important thing in the teamwork. I believe Pak Nidom has the same idea.
I'm fine so far, thanks for your concerns.I hope Pak Nidom could be more patient and fighting.I understand it is hard to be in this situation.
Thanks for the email. Don't hesitate to write me, I will help as best as I can.
GBU.
From: "Ida - Teridah Ernala"
To: CA Nidom
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 2:59 AM
Subject: Re: How are you?
Dear Pak Nidom,
Thanks for the email. Pak Nidom's explanation really helped me to understand what was going on. Actually, from my point of view, there are no big problems, just frankly, I feel a lot of use and lied to while working on this project.
I try to tell you what I know and have heard so far.
1. It started with Shinya sensei's complaints about the samples. According to him, Pak Nidom is no longer conducting surveillance for the Kobe-Unair project. So far, Mr. Nidom has been busy doing other activities, and Mr. Nidom has also told Shinya sensei that Mr. Nidom will not send any more samples for analysis. Shinya sensei felt cornered because he had to be responsible for preparing reports to Kobe univ and Yoshi sensei. This information Shinya sensei received a lot from Yamaoka sensei. Shinya sensei feels Yamaoka sensei is more 'working' than Mr Nidom. Especially because Yamaoka sensei provided a lot of data and also collaborated with Dr. Pailingan. He complained about that since months ago. What I noticed too, Shinya sensei communicated a lot with Yamaoka sensei, I don't know what. But since they ' close ', it seems that Shinya sensei received a lot of things from the Yamaoka version. For example, in Surabaya there are no surveillance activities, and although many samples do exist, they are not processed.
2. Around June, Shinya sensei had planned to meet Pak Hatta in Makassar. About what it was then I didn't care much. But suddenly Shinya sensei asked me to come along with the excuse that he wanted to see farms in Sulawesi. Incidentally, in the past, my college class was serving the community in South Sulawesi for 1 month, and I happened to be the committee. So I know a little bit about South Sulawesi. I contacted the Keswan in Pinrang and Polewali if we wanted to see the farm. Then Shinya sensei asked if we can sample too. It turned out that the Keswan party allowed us to write letters to the offices, provinces and districts. I have prepared all the letters. The samples we took were healthy pigs and chickens (not an outbreak sample). What I regret here is, in my opinion, Shinya sensei actually wanted to meet Pak Hatta but used 'surveillance' as an excuse. By inviting me, he could use the budget from Kobe Univ, because as long as I collaborated with Pak Hatta, it was a private matter for Shinya sensei (whether that was true or not, I don't know).
What is clear, suddenly Shinya sensei invited me even though the plan to visit Pak Hatta had been there for a long time.
Because I feel uncomfortable with Mr. Nidom and the service, I have repeatedly warned Shinya sensei, please inform Mr. Nidom about this plan. Until the time I left, I was sure again. He always says yes, I will say.
I also said that we couldn't take this sample home, we had to hand it over to Unair (because that's what I told the agency). I even had time to say, let us take the swabs, and later Vivin or Mas Ucup will take the samples to Sulawesi when they are collected. But at that time Shinya sensei said, they were busy and maybe didn't have time, so we just took it and handed it over to Yamaoka sensei while transiting in Bali.
So, finally we submitted the sample to Yamaoka sensei in Bali (sample in PBS + antibiotics). Meanwhile the sample in Trizol was brought to Japan because according to Shinya sensei the Trizol sample was inactive and the imported letters had been prepared by Makino Sensei, so there was no problem. Then the PBS sample was brought by Yamaoka to Surabaya.
3. Shinya sensei and Pak Hatta met at hasanuddin airport. When they met me not included, I waited elsewhere. So what they are talking about I do not know. After that, Mr. Hatta told me, if he wants a sample outbreak, he can contact Muflihanah in Maros. I say that is not possible, because I have already asked the director general about the DIC sample. And it is not possible for the sample to be given by the DIC without the director's permission. But Pak Hatta convinced Shinya sensei that drh Muflihanah was his student and would definitely give without the director's permission. There I no longer like, I told Shinya sensei if it violates the law. After that, whether Pak Hatta lobbied drh Muflihanah or not I do not know, and I do not want to interfere if he does that.
4. On his return from Sulawesi at the end of July, Shinya sensei left for Surabaya again 2 days later with Makino sensei. The goal at that time he said to check the presentation of the AI lab friends. When he was leaving, I again asked him what Mr. Nidom had said about the sample Yamaoka had brought to Surabaya. There, Shinya sensei admitted he had not said Mr. Nidom but would say it when he was in Surabaya. I was very disappointed and embarrassed. Because I have written a letter to the provincial and office offices that the samples will be brought to Unair. I really don't want Mr. Nidom to hear this from other people. I am ashamed of Mr. Nidom too. I can only hope that Shinya sensei can explain well to Mr. Nidom during his visit to Surabaya. After he returned to Japan, I asked him what Mr. Nidom thought. Shinya sensei said he had talked about the visit to Sulawesi, and Mr. Nidom was also collecting samples from the agency. I was relieved to hear that, meaning that there was no problem.
Whether Shinya sensei brought samples to Japan during his visit to Surabaya in early August, I don't know.
5. About Makino sensei's problem when he was caught carrying samples at Juanda, I was in Surabaya during a vacation. Makino sensei returned to Japan the same day I returned to Japan. I don't know anything about Makino sensei's visit to Surabaya, I heard that the night before I left when Motoko called me. But I didn't try to contact Makino sensei, because I felt like I wasn't involved so didn't interfere.
I found out about that matter after returning to the lab (Monday) from Shinya sensei. To my surprise, I thought Makino sensei brought the Sulawesi sample which we handed over to Yamaoka.
6. According to Shinya sensei, airport officials detained samples of human RNA from Pak Hatta. Shinya sensei's version is Makino sensei being 'framed' by someone. Because, at that time Makino sensei had passed the boarding, suddenly chased by officers, and his bag was unloaded in public. The officers looked for the 'bottle', but because it was not found, they were also checked and found a box containing the tubes without letters. Makino sensei said that the sample was from Unair, and when the officer contacted Unair, it turned out not to be true.
Shinya sensei said someone must have reported to the Surabaya quarantine, because of the sudden search. Shinya sensei's confession is, he only told Yoshi sensei, Mr. Nidom and Yamaoka about the sample. It seems that even the Kobe Univ (like Mr. Hotta) did not know about this sample. So indirectly he assumed it was Pak Nidom who reported it. Whether that's true or not doesn't matter to me. I only see here that illegal acts (smuggling) have been committed by foreigners. All the actions of the Indonesian side here have not been legally wrong.
7. After this incident, Pak Hatta received a summons from the Unair rector. Then the letter Mr. Hatta faxed to Shinya sensei. Because it was written in Indonesian, Shinya sensei told me to translate:
Regarding to your fax, dated 7 September 2009 to the President of Airlangga University, about your materials for cytokine profiling in healthy people study:
1. The material you handed to Dr Masaoki Yamaoka on August 5th 2009, and then kept in ITD, should have been reported previously to us (at least to the head of ITD). In particular, if the material preceded using ITD’s material and equipment.
2. The materials been brought by Ms. Makino without any supporting document from you, so that Ms Makino and materials could not depart to Japan. Because Ms Makino declared that the materials derived from Airlangga University, she was not arrested and allowed to embark. However the materials are still kept in Juanda airport.
3. We regret the statement of Ms Makino mentioned that the materials came from Airlangga University, and described as zoonotic material. In fact, written statement from Dr Shinya and you mentioned that they were human samples.
4. Regarding to the points above, we require you to come to Surabaya as soon as possible to solve this problem. This is a serious illegal practice related to MTA
Dari surat di atas, saya mengerti kalau telah terjadi usaha penipuan. Material ditulis berupa bahan zoonosis, padahal kenyataanya adalah human RNA.
8. A few days ago, suddenly I was told to sign a letter of agreement by Shinya sensei. According to him, the letter was signed by all parties involved in the Kobe project. It contains a confidential agreement between me as a researcher and Shinya sensei as my boss. The signature is only between me and Shinya sensei. At that time I had doubts, but Shinya sensei said this is from the office for all parties not only me. So please sign it.
The next day I asked Nakagawa-san if he had also signed a similar letter? He said never. I got worried, because it said I had to obey Shinya sensei, and all my research work was for Shinya sensei. After I read it again, the letter did not mention the Indonesian project at all. Anyway for any kind of relationship between me and Shinya sensei. Also why did the letter appear now, even though I've been in the project since March 2008? Then why have other people never signed a similar letter? Also why was the letter only signed by me and Shinya sensei? Why not the chancellor / dean of Kobe or Mr. Hotta or Mr. Hayashi? At the moment I don't know whether I am overly suspicious or not.
9. Personally, I really want this collaboration to go well. I think all of this is due to the lack of communication between us on personal means, I really want this collaboration to go well. I think all of this is due to a lack of communication between us. I want everything to return to normal as before. Actually Shinya sensei from the beginning had a very strong desire to develop the Surabaya lab, but Mr. Nidom also understands the many problems that occur here and there. If this relationship can still be improved I am very happy. When Shinya sensei and I visited Pinrang, we also entrusted medium transport. But after this matter, it could somehow continue. My wish is that the samples could be processed at Unair, but it seems that it is very difficult.
Everything I say here I hope can give positive feedback and not have a bad impact on everyone. Openness is important for me as a team. I think Pak Nidom has the same opinion.
I'm fine so far, thank you sir for your attention. I hope Mr. Nidom can remain patient and fight. It is very difficult to face this problem, I really understand.
Thank you very much sir for the email. Don't hesitate to post news, I'll help my best.
GBU.
Saved from: - https://www.the5thestate.asia/2012/03/breaking-more-smoking-gun-e-mails-from.html
Robert S. Finnegan is a retired investigative journalist and professor and was the lead investigator for the Bali bombings of 2002 for The Jakarta Post. He resides in Jakarta and Garut, Java with his spouse, photographer Imas Kurniawati-Finnegan and may be reached at rsfinnegan@gmail.com
