Jakartass
Friday, July 17, 2009
Bombs in Jakarta
As I type this, SBY is visiting the site of two bomb explosions at 7.45 this morning at luxury hotels, the Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott in the business district of Mega Kuningan, central Jakarta.
Four Eight (but maybe 9) people, including foreigners have been killed, one of whom reportedly (and coincidentally?) worked for Freeport.
As for who and why, this will probably take time as it is rare for perpetrators of these outrages to claim responsibility.
I'm going to conjecture that it isn't the work of the fanatic Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah but connected with domestic issues - Freeport in Papua, the election, a corruption case .....
This page of 'tweets' is being continuously updated.
(A bomb explosion in 2003 killed at least 13 people at the Marriott, many of them taxi drivers parked outside.)
..........................
Update midday
Apparently there were 3 suicide bombers, which indicates that Islamic fanatics were responsible.
However, Manchester United were due to arrive tomorrow for a match against an Indonesian Select team on Monday. They'll have to change their hotel reservations as obviously the Ritz-Carlton is now out of commission.
Indonesian football fans can be fanatic, but surely no-one hates M.U. that much.
..........................
Update 2.30pm
M.U. aren't coming.
An unnamed komisaris (company commissioner) of PT Freeport is hospitalised, along with 18 foreigners and 22 other Indonesians.
SBY has ordered the state intelligence community to speedily find out who did it. He's also hinting that there is a group trying to 'hijack' the election, a coup d'etat in the making?
(He looked close to tears and I thought I heard him say "goblok" (stupidly crazy) as he walked away from his just ended press conference.)
.........................
Footnotes
The internet traffic means that it's nigh on impossible to get online.
Pics from Straits Times.
As I type this, SBY is visiting the site of two bomb explosions at 7.45 this morning at luxury hotels, the Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott in the business district of Mega Kuningan, central Jakarta.
As for who and why, this will probably take time as it is rare for perpetrators of these outrages to claim responsibility.
I'm going to conjecture that it isn't the work of the fanatic Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah but connected with domestic issues - Freeport in Papua, the election, a corruption case .....
This page of 'tweets' is being continuously updated.
(A bomb explosion in 2003 killed at least 13 people at the Marriott, many of them taxi drivers parked outside.)
..........................
Update midday
Apparently there were 3 suicide bombers, which indicates that Islamic fanatics were responsible.
However, Manchester United were due to arrive tomorrow for a match against an Indonesian Select team on Monday. They'll have to change their hotel reservations as obviously the Ritz-Carlton is now out of commission.
Indonesian football fans can be fanatic, but surely no-one hates M.U. that much.
..........................
Update 2.30pm
M.U. aren't coming.
An unnamed komisaris (company commissioner) of PT Freeport is hospitalised, along with 18 foreigners and 22 other Indonesians.
SBY has ordered the state intelligence community to speedily find out who did it. He's also hinting that there is a group trying to 'hijack' the election, a coup d'etat in the making?(He looked close to tears and I thought I heard him say "goblok" (stupidly crazy) as he walked away from his just ended press conference.)
.........................
Footnotes
The internet traffic means that it's nigh on impossible to get online.
Pics from Straits Times.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Putting My Oar In
Some small news items, or excerpts from large ones or large excerpts from small ones, make me blink. Here are three I've gathered recently.
Police bust counterfeit money syndicate in Bandung.
fr. today's Jakarta Post
Bandung Police chief, Adj, Comr. Irfan Nugraha said that the Rp.100,000 notes, which were printed with simple reproduction machines including photocopiers, "seem almost the same when touched and observed through light. They can pass an infrared scan because they also have security threads like real banknotes issued by Bank Indonesia."
"They may have used very sophisticated technology by just using ordinary printing machines."
If it's that easy, I must fix my scanner and refill my colour cartridge.
The politics of pragmatism
fr. today's Jakarta Post
With the defeat of Jusuf Kalla, chairman of Golkar, in the recent presidential election, Suharto's former party is in some disarray. There is unseemly jostling to take over the helm, with the current Minister of Family Welfare - especially his family's but definitely not the Sidoarjo mudflow refugees' - Abdurizal Bakrie and media tycoon Suryo Paloh the front runners.
However, a 41 year old party executive, Yuddy Chrisnandi, has put his name forward.
Institute of Sciences political expert Lili Romli said,"Yuddy has the capacity but not the funding. He has to face the reality that most of the party's regional elite (who have the votes in internal party elections) are pragmatic people."
fr. Websters: pragmatic (adj) concerned with actual practice, everyday affairs, etc.
ergo: money talks.
Scull Hunting
fr. Pravda
A new term - 'dark tourism' - has appeared in the tourist industry recently. More and more tourists are eager to visit places of catastrophes and disasters which killed plenty of people.
Vladislav Anikeev, a man from the Russian city of Tula, has always dreamt to visit a cannibal tribe. And one day his dream came true. He went to Kalimantan, Indonesia, to the place where scull (sic) hunters live. The group of tourists finally found themselves in the village inhabited by cannibals who willingly told the details of their inhumane craft and shared their secrets and technology of scull processing and showed how to do it.
However, how surprised Vladislav was when at the end of their tour he entered the chief’s house and saw the chief of the tribe putting on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
It turned out that everything the tribe showed to the tourists was nothing but a performance. Scull hunting has been strictly forbidden since 1861. Since that time the tribe has become quite civilized and has taught themselves how to get money from the habits and customs of their predecessors.
Some small news items, or excerpts from large ones or large excerpts from small ones, make me blink. Here are three I've gathered recently.
Police bust counterfeit money syndicate in Bandung.
fr. today's Jakarta Post
Bandung Police chief, Adj, Comr. Irfan Nugraha said that the Rp.100,000 notes, which were printed with simple reproduction machines including photocopiers, "seem almost the same when touched and observed through light. They can pass an infrared scan because they also have security threads like real banknotes issued by Bank Indonesia."
"They may have used very sophisticated technology by just using ordinary printing machines."
If it's that easy, I must fix my scanner and refill my colour cartridge.
The politics of pragmatism
fr. today's Jakarta Post
With the defeat of Jusuf Kalla, chairman of Golkar, in the recent presidential election, Suharto's former party is in some disarray. There is unseemly jostling to take over the helm, with the current Minister of Family Welfare - especially his family's but definitely not the Sidoarjo mudflow refugees' - Abdurizal Bakrie and media tycoon Suryo Paloh the front runners.
However, a 41 year old party executive, Yuddy Chrisnandi, has put his name forward.
Institute of Sciences political expert Lili Romli said,"Yuddy has the capacity but not the funding. He has to face the reality that most of the party's regional elite (who have the votes in internal party elections) are pragmatic people."
fr. Websters: pragmatic (adj) concerned with actual practice, everyday affairs, etc.
ergo: money talks.
Scull Hunting
fr. Pravda
A new term - 'dark tourism' - has appeared in the tourist industry recently. More and more tourists are eager to visit places of catastrophes and disasters which killed plenty of people.
Vladislav Anikeev, a man from the Russian city of Tula, has always dreamt to visit a cannibal tribe. And one day his dream came true. He went to Kalimantan, Indonesia, to the place where scull (sic) hunters live. The group of tourists finally found themselves in the village inhabited by cannibals who willingly told the details of their inhumane craft and shared their secrets and technology of scull processing and showed how to do it.
However, how surprised Vladislav was when at the end of their tour he entered the chief’s house and saw the chief of the tribe putting on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
It turned out that everything the tribe showed to the tourists was nothing but a performance. Scull hunting has been strictly forbidden since 1861. Since that time the tribe has become quite civilized and has taught themselves how to get money from the habits and customs of their predecessors.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Moonchildren
It's forty years since we sat on our sofas eyes glued to our black and white TVs and watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take the first bouncy giant steps on the moon. I say 'we', but to be honest I can't recall if I watched the seemingly slo-mo live or whether my memory is of one or many of the endless repeats.
It seemed to be important at the time, athough few seem to recall that this was part of the so-called space race between the USA and Russia, a matter of 'cold' war. Its peacetime value was in technological advances such as non-stick frying pans, which are a waste of time in Jakartass Towers as I can't convince 'Er Indoors or sundry other domestic helpers to throw out the scourers.
Still, anniversaries are all about mortality and the meaning of life, so I thought I'd play Apollo by Brian Eno which he wrote because when he watched the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 he felt that the strangeness of that event was compromised by the low quality of the television transmission and an excess of journalistic discussion, and that he wished to avoid the melodramatic and uptempo way it was presented.
It turns out that Apollo isn't among the eighteen Eno albums (plus sundry collaborations and productions) I do have so I've stuck with Another Day On Earth.
Brits have an opportunity "to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing" on 20th and 21st July at London's Science Museum when they present the premiere of a new live arrangement of Apollo. There will also be performances of new material based on recordings from space.
The moon has a profound influence on us all. Bearing in mind that it's its gravitational pull which largely dictates the tides and that we humans are composed of c.70% water, then it's hardly surprising that werewolves howl and lunatics go extra loony at the time of full moons. The moon also rules those born between 22nd June - 21st July (which is now!) under the astrological sign of Cancer, symbolized by the crab.
Cancerians tend to be emotional, intuitive, imaginative, shrewd, cautious, protective, and sympathetic, changeable, moody, overemotional, touchy, clinging, protective, sensitive, moody and unable to let go and go with their instinct, because they know it can be trusted.
Amongst Eno's musical collaborations were a trilogy of albums by David Bowie, which provides a very neat segue because among the pirated DVDs available here is The Prestige in which Bowie portrays Nikola Tesla who was born on 10th July 1856. All the adjectives in the last paragraph apply to Tesla, a very crabby person.
You may not know it, but if you are reading this on a computer connected to mains electricity, it's Tesla you have to thank, rather than Thomas Edison, because alternating current (AC), rather than Edison's batteries (DC) was Tesla's creation. He was also a pioneer in radio, x-rays, lasers, atomic physics, electric vehicles, vertical take off aircraft and much more.
One's mind boggles at his genius. Although he converted to vegetarianism late in life - good man - arguing that it is wrong to eat uneconomic meat when large numbers of people are starving and that plant food (was) superior to meat in regard to both mechanical and mental performance, his mind got boggled too and he died alone in a New York hotel room on 7th January 1943, penniless and a virtual lunatic.
There is a crater named Tesla on the far side of the Moon.
I'm pleased to say that there's also one named Collins.
It's forty years since we sat on our sofas eyes glued to our black and white TVs and watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take the first bouncy giant steps on the moon. I say 'we', but to be honest I can't recall if I watched the seemingly slo-mo live or whether my memory is of one or many of the endless repeats.
It seemed to be important at the time, athough few seem to recall that this was part of the so-called space race between the USA and Russia, a matter of 'cold' war. Its peacetime value was in technological advances such as non-stick frying pans, which are a waste of time in Jakartass Towers as I can't convince 'Er Indoors or sundry other domestic helpers to throw out the scourers.
Still, anniversaries are all about mortality and the meaning of life, so I thought I'd play Apollo by Brian Eno which he wrote because when he watched the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 he felt that the strangeness of that event was compromised by the low quality of the television transmission and an excess of journalistic discussion, and that he wished to avoid the melodramatic and uptempo way it was presented.
It turns out that Apollo isn't among the eighteen Eno albums (plus sundry collaborations and productions) I do have so I've stuck with Another Day On Earth.
Brits have an opportunity "to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing" on 20th and 21st July at London's Science Museum when they present the premiere of a new live arrangement of Apollo. There will also be performances of new material based on recordings from space.
The moon has a profound influence on us all. Bearing in mind that it's its gravitational pull which largely dictates the tides and that we humans are composed of c.70% water, then it's hardly surprising that werewolves howl and lunatics go extra loony at the time of full moons. The moon also rules those born between 22nd June - 21st July (which is now!) under the astrological sign of Cancer, symbolized by the crab.Cancerians tend to be emotional, intuitive, imaginative, shrewd, cautious, protective, and sympathetic, changeable, moody, overemotional, touchy, clinging, protective, sensitive, moody and unable to let go and go with their instinct, because they know it can be trusted.
Amongst Eno's musical collaborations were a trilogy of albums by David Bowie, which provides a very neat segue because among the pirated DVDs available here is The Prestige in which Bowie portrays Nikola Tesla who was born on 10th July 1856. All the adjectives in the last paragraph apply to Tesla, a very crabby person.
You may not know it, but if you are reading this on a computer connected to mains electricity, it's Tesla you have to thank, rather than Thomas Edison, because alternating current (AC), rather than Edison's batteries (DC) was Tesla's creation. He was also a pioneer in radio, x-rays, lasers, atomic physics, electric vehicles, vertical take off aircraft and much more.
One's mind boggles at his genius. Although he converted to vegetarianism late in life - good man - arguing that it is wrong to eat uneconomic meat when large numbers of people are starving and that plant food (was) superior to meat in regard to both mechanical and mental performance, his mind got boggled too and he died alone in a New York hotel room on 7th January 1943, penniless and a virtual lunatic.
There is a crater named Tesla on the far side of the Moon.
I'm pleased to say that there's also one named Collins.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Spreading The Words
The English-language division of the Indonesian blogosphere has been fairly unanimous in its appraisal of the just concluded presidential election. It would seem that in this we are largely in sync with the print media, the Post and the Globe. (Or are they in sync with us?)
This is a selection of blog posts with comments.
Rob Baiton
Treespotter - pre-election
Indonesia Matters
Indonesia Anonymus
Other blog related news
Harry Nizam H. is a Legal Practitioner whose interests are Indonesian legal matters, the environment and toastmasters. Presumably he's a friend/colleague of former expat Rob Baiton as they cover some of the same issues.
Harry writes well and is very informative.
Another Indonesian, Yosef Ardi, once a valuable resource in discovering who owns what, has returned with his business news after a gap of a couple of years.
There's another expat in town, who calls himself Bah-Well, who has recently started "a somewhat cynical blog", calling it Jakarta Grind, about life in Jakarta. He has written to me and asks for any insight on how to increase his exposure. Have a look and you can email him too.
Indonesisch-Blog has given some of our 'presidential posts' a link ~ Die Präsidentschaftswahlen in Indonesien… . However it is primarily a blog to help Germans to learn Indonesian.
Finally, I'll be posting a lengthier piece later about Rujak.org, which is a public space for everyone to share ideas, actions, questions, know-how, challenges and solutions to transform Jakarta into a sustainable metropolis.
What I like about Rujak is that it is further evidence that true reformasi is at last taking hold of the Indonesian mindset. That the political élite and bureaucracy, with a few, very few, notable exceptions, have, aside from the current elections, generally failed to enable the democratic aspirations of the rakyat (citizenry) may in fact be a good thing because the rakyat are now learning how to work collaboratively in order to effect required changes.
The English-language division of the Indonesian blogosphere has been fairly unanimous in its appraisal of the just concluded presidential election. It would seem that in this we are largely in sync with the print media, the Post and the Globe. (Or are they in sync with us?)
This is a selection of blog posts with comments.
Rob Baiton
Treespotter - pre-election
Indonesia Matters
Indonesia Anonymus
Other blog related news
Harry Nizam H. is a Legal Practitioner whose interests are Indonesian legal matters, the environment and toastmasters. Presumably he's a friend/colleague of former expat Rob Baiton as they cover some of the same issues.
Harry writes well and is very informative.
Another Indonesian, Yosef Ardi, once a valuable resource in discovering who owns what, has returned with his business news after a gap of a couple of years.
There's another expat in town, who calls himself Bah-Well, who has recently started "a somewhat cynical blog", calling it Jakarta Grind, about life in Jakarta. He has written to me and asks for any insight on how to increase his exposure. Have a look and you can email him too.
Indonesisch-Blog has given some of our 'presidential posts' a link ~ Die Präsidentschaftswahlen in Indonesien… . However it is primarily a blog to help Germans to learn Indonesian.
Finally, I'll be posting a lengthier piece later about Rujak.org, which is a public space for everyone to share ideas, actions, questions, know-how, challenges and solutions to transform Jakarta into a sustainable metropolis.
What I like about Rujak is that it is further evidence that true reformasi is at last taking hold of the Indonesian mindset. That the political élite and bureaucracy, with a few, very few, notable exceptions, have, aside from the current elections, generally failed to enable the democratic aspirations of the rakyat (citizenry) may in fact be a good thing because the rakyat are now learning how to work collaboratively in order to effect required changes.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Five Years Hence
It's not official yet and won't be until August 14th - barring judicial reviews, cock-ups, machinations or other unanticipated impediments - but it's already clear that the Indonesian electorate has abandoned the tired old faces from the past and stuck with SBY who, with Boediono as his Vice President, will be reinaugurated as President on October 20th.
The transition to free and direct elections can only be a good thing for a transforming country but there is no room for complacency.
SBY will not be able to stand the next time round, so another 'trustworthy' stateman-like figure needs to be found, whether groomed by the incumbent or emerging from parliament or the grassroots of community activism only time will tell. One thing is fairly obvious, though, and that is that the long entrenched political forces are not wanted by the population at large.
Three of the losing four will not be around in 2014
Golkar, chaired by current VP Jusuf Kalla, came in a distant third with, according to current projections, a mere 10% of the vote. He may well, as he earlier said, pulang kampung, and go back to being the most prominent businessman in his home turf of South Sulawesi, the only territory where he gained a majority of the votes.
His pick for VP, Gen (ret) Wiranto, was Golkar's front man in 2004 when he came in a fairly distant third. His time is now, thankfully, past.
Kalla was a Johnny-come-lately who only came by his chairmanship by virtue of being SBY's no.2, so we can expect the remnants of the old ruling regime - Golkar was Suharto's facade of political legitimacy - to reassert themslves. If, as projected, Abdurizal Bakrie, of Lapindo/Sidoarjo mudflow infamy, takes over the helm, then I would expect Golkar to lose all legitimacy and be a totally spent force within five years.
As for Megawati, she has now been humiliated twice in the presidential polls, and her attempt to perpetuate a dynasty, one founded on her perceived popularity of her late father, first president Sukarno, shows that it is time for her to step aside.
The fourth member of the losing pairs is Gen.(ret) Prabowo. He has already appeared on TV snarling that the quick counts should not have been allowed. There can only be one riposte to that: the publically displayed local counts, one of which I posted yesterday, although not official, enable the electorate to have forewarning of any discrepancies or later manipulations. Coup d'etats are now virtually impossible in Indonesia.
The losing pairs played the religion card - the wives of SBY and Boediono didn't wear Muslim headscarves on the campaign trail therefore .... . It could be said, therefore, that the electorate recognises that religion and politics should be separate. This ignores the coalition formed by SBY's party, Parti Demokrat, with various Islamic parties in order to nominate him for yesterday's election. That many of these parties are not represented in the next parliament could be a problem in that his government needs a parliamentary majority in order to ensure that his programmes are put in place.
A parliament also needs an opposition. That Megawati appears to be a sore loser is an indication that her PDI-P will continue in that role. We may also expect Prabowo's Gerinda to join, mainly because he still, unfortunately, harbours presidential pretentions and must therefore show that he supports the "little people" against the forces arraigned against them. He will probably also need PDI-P to support his aspirations for 2014.
Because of their personal differences, I would expect Hanura, the party of Prabowo's nemesis in 1998, Wiranto, to join SBY's alliance. This leaves the conumdrum of Golkar. As a party used to having an element of government within their purview, they may well join the government. It may prove difficult to demonstrate administrative competence to the populace if they are perceived to be politically impotent.
We have until October to see how the political map unfolds. Whatever, what we do expect over the next five years is a continued commitment to remove corruption from the mindset of the bureaucracies. This will take further institutional reform and the empowerment of NGO's who are best able to provide community input and the monitoring of programmes which are put in place by directly elected representatives, Indonesia's public servants.
The next elections, in five years time, could and should be an accounting of how far true democracy - government by the people for the people - has evolved here.
It's not official yet and won't be until August 14th - barring judicial reviews, cock-ups, machinations or other unanticipated impediments - but it's already clear that the Indonesian electorate has abandoned the tired old faces from the past and stuck with SBY who, with Boediono as his Vice President, will be reinaugurated as President on October 20th.The transition to free and direct elections can only be a good thing for a transforming country but there is no room for complacency.
SBY will not be able to stand the next time round, so another 'trustworthy' stateman-like figure needs to be found, whether groomed by the incumbent or emerging from parliament or the grassroots of community activism only time will tell. One thing is fairly obvious, though, and that is that the long entrenched political forces are not wanted by the population at large.
Three of the losing four will not be around in 2014
Golkar, chaired by current VP Jusuf Kalla, came in a distant third with, according to current projections, a mere 10% of the vote. He may well, as he earlier said, pulang kampung, and go back to being the most prominent businessman in his home turf of South Sulawesi, the only territory where he gained a majority of the votes.
His pick for VP, Gen (ret) Wiranto, was Golkar's front man in 2004 when he came in a fairly distant third. His time is now, thankfully, past.
Kalla was a Johnny-come-lately who only came by his chairmanship by virtue of being SBY's no.2, so we can expect the remnants of the old ruling regime - Golkar was Suharto's facade of political legitimacy - to reassert themslves. If, as projected, Abdurizal Bakrie, of Lapindo/Sidoarjo mudflow infamy, takes over the helm, then I would expect Golkar to lose all legitimacy and be a totally spent force within five years.
As for Megawati, she has now been humiliated twice in the presidential polls, and her attempt to perpetuate a dynasty, one founded on her perceived popularity of her late father, first president Sukarno, shows that it is time for her to step aside.
The fourth member of the losing pairs is Gen.(ret) Prabowo. He has already appeared on TV snarling that the quick counts should not have been allowed. There can only be one riposte to that: the publically displayed local counts, one of which I posted yesterday, although not official, enable the electorate to have forewarning of any discrepancies or later manipulations. Coup d'etats are now virtually impossible in Indonesia.
The losing pairs played the religion card - the wives of SBY and Boediono didn't wear Muslim headscarves on the campaign trail therefore .... . It could be said, therefore, that the electorate recognises that religion and politics should be separate. This ignores the coalition formed by SBY's party, Parti Demokrat, with various Islamic parties in order to nominate him for yesterday's election. That many of these parties are not represented in the next parliament could be a problem in that his government needs a parliamentary majority in order to ensure that his programmes are put in place.
A parliament also needs an opposition. That Megawati appears to be a sore loser is an indication that her PDI-P will continue in that role. We may also expect Prabowo's Gerinda to join, mainly because he still, unfortunately, harbours presidential pretentions and must therefore show that he supports the "little people" against the forces arraigned against them. He will probably also need PDI-P to support his aspirations for 2014.
Because of their personal differences, I would expect Hanura, the party of Prabowo's nemesis in 1998, Wiranto, to join SBY's alliance. This leaves the conumdrum of Golkar. As a party used to having an element of government within their purview, they may well join the government. It may prove difficult to demonstrate administrative competence to the populace if they are perceived to be politically impotent.
We have until October to see how the political map unfolds. Whatever, what we do expect over the next five years is a continued commitment to remove corruption from the mindset of the bureaucracies. This will take further institutional reform and the empowerment of NGO's who are best able to provide community input and the monitoring of programmes which are put in place by directly elected representatives, Indonesia's public servants.
The next elections, in five years time, could and should be an accounting of how far true democracy - government by the people for the people - has evolved here.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Quick Exit Poll
Loud cheers could be heard from residents as SBY-Boediono garnered c.78% of the local votes.
It would have been a few more, but Our Kid and I are fending for ourselves - quite capably I must add - because 'Er Indoors and the rest of our tribe had to rush off to Medan due to a family bereavement.
(SBY-Boediono were the number 2 pairing and you can just make out the middle section recording the votes cast for them. Megawati-Prabowo are in the section above and Kalla-Wiranto in the slightly obscured section below.)
Loud cheers could be heard from residents as SBY-Boediono garnered c.78% of the local votes.It would have been a few more, but Our Kid and I are fending for ourselves - quite capably I must add - because 'Er Indoors and the rest of our tribe had to rush off to Medan due to a family bereavement.
(SBY-Boediono were the number 2 pairing and you can just make out the middle section recording the votes cast for them. Megawati-Prabowo are in the section above and Kalla-Wiranto in the slightly obscured section below.)Tuesday, July 07, 2009
We Can't Let Bygones Be Bygones.
I am ambivalent about the result of Indonesia's Presidential Election this week, and not just because I don't have the vote here.
That the Constitutional Court has belatedly, but not too late, ruled that Indonesians left off the electoral register can use their ID cards to cast their vote is evidence of change. That it was necessary for the judicial ruling to be made is an indication that some changes are still deemed necessary. The positive to be taken is that this is an institution with the strength of purpose and power to effect change for the benefit of the citizenry.
Another institution which has won widespread praise is the Corruption Eradication Commission. However that is now embroiled in a number of controversies which are perceived as an attempt by those threatened by its powers to emasculate it. Treespotter has an excellent summary here.
For most of my life I have been an advocate and activist for social justice, for the empowerment of individuals so that society is not one of 'them and us'. I believe in partnerships and a commonwealth of communities, government by the people for the people. Electors should have the freedom to bring public servants and politicians to account, and not merely once every so often in a polling booth..
Indonesia is gradually moving out of its colonial past, a past that 'officially' ended with Suharto's abdication in 1998. We know problems lie ahead, but many of these - environmental degradation, economic downturns, corporate injustices, poverty et al - have their roots in relatively recent human history.
The only way forward is to learn from the past and we cannot afford to say "let bygones be bygones" and move on blithely. There are issues that need to be resolved first, several of which have left thousands of Indonesians bereft of the social equity which we should all strive for.
Usman Hamid and Suciwati are members of the Committee of Action and Solidarity for Munir (KASUM) founded in 2004 in response to the assassination of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib on Sept. 7, 2004. Suciwati is his widow.
In today's Jakarta Post they have an opinion piece which needs to be read by all voting in the election and, especially, by those who wish to lead Indonesia for the next five years.
I am posting it in its entirety.
The past is not forgotten and will never be forgotten
Listening to the presidential candidates in the last debate, it was clear that their concerted appeal was that it was time for Indonesia to move on from the past.
Megawati presented herself as an example of forgiveness, while Jusuf Kalla and SBY focused more on reconciliation than accountability.
Their commercials show prosperous farmers, educated children and Indonesians climbing bright green hills. But there are some images you won’t see in the commercials. In the last few days the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has toured Java with a remarkable group of people affected by past crimes and has met with local communities affected by the continuing violation of their rights.
The writer William Faulkner once said that the past is not forgotten, and, in fact, it is not even the past. For those of us on the Kontras tour - a daughter whose father disappeared during the 1984 Tanjung Priok riot, a mother whose son disappeared one day in 1997/1998, another whose son was killed by sniper fire at a protest, a young mother whose husband was poisoned on an airline trip abroad - the past is something we live with everyday.
And so it is for the rest of Indonesia as well, for two reasons. On our trip, we met communities whose health and livelihood may be threatened by cement factories and mines, and others made homeless by a disastrous mudflow.
They are victims of the same fundamental problems as the victims of past abuses: Weak institutions that cannot protect people’s rights and a resulting impunity for those responsible for negligence, arbitrary actions, or even serious crimes. And many future policies such as poverty reduction, agrarian reform, environmental protection, and economic development as a whole, are likely to be affected by the same patterns of abuse and impunity.
There is a second reason that these crimes should be a concern for all candidates, and for all voters. When people and governments are not held accountable for their actions, it changes the relationship between citizens and their leaders. Such a condition creates a climate of fear, exposes government critics to intimidation, and undermines confidence in the state to provide justice and protection.
For all these reasons we need leaders willing to address the past head on. We need policies to strengthen the capacity and independence of the courts, the Attorney General’s Office, and the National Human Rights Commission.
We need leaders with the political will to see that justice is done, through an appropriate combination of prosecutions and extra judicial mechanisms of truth, reconciliation and redress. These measures must include military and other institutional reform.
As a non-partisan organization, Kontras does not endorse any candidate. Unfortunately, this is all too easy, as all three candidates haven’t shown a clear commitment to justice for past crimes. And as important as these policies are, the current election is about more than policies.
Even a non-partisan organization cannot ignore the fact that among the vice-presidential candidates are two men credibly linked to major human rights abuses.
The fact that they are candidates says as much about Indonesian society as it does about the individuals or the parties that put them forward as candidates.
It is unlikely that such figures would be credible candidates for a national office in a country that had made full and accurate accounting of the past.
Elections provide citizens with an opportunity to reassert their aspirations for the future and their relationship with their leaders. It is where ordinary citizens can hold those in power accountable by awarding them a vote or choosing not to.
Whatever the outcome of the elections, our elected leaders, including those in parliament, have a lot of work to do. And so do the rest of us: if the nation is to move forward, we must address, and learn from, the past that all Indonesians still live with today.
I am ambivalent about the result of Indonesia's Presidential Election this week, and not just because I don't have the vote here.
That the Constitutional Court has belatedly, but not too late, ruled that Indonesians left off the electoral register can use their ID cards to cast their vote is evidence of change. That it was necessary for the judicial ruling to be made is an indication that some changes are still deemed necessary. The positive to be taken is that this is an institution with the strength of purpose and power to effect change for the benefit of the citizenry.
Another institution which has won widespread praise is the Corruption Eradication Commission. However that is now embroiled in a number of controversies which are perceived as an attempt by those threatened by its powers to emasculate it. Treespotter has an excellent summary here.
For most of my life I have been an advocate and activist for social justice, for the empowerment of individuals so that society is not one of 'them and us'. I believe in partnerships and a commonwealth of communities, government by the people for the people. Electors should have the freedom to bring public servants and politicians to account, and not merely once every so often in a polling booth..
Indonesia is gradually moving out of its colonial past, a past that 'officially' ended with Suharto's abdication in 1998. We know problems lie ahead, but many of these - environmental degradation, economic downturns, corporate injustices, poverty et al - have their roots in relatively recent human history.
The only way forward is to learn from the past and we cannot afford to say "let bygones be bygones" and move on blithely. There are issues that need to be resolved first, several of which have left thousands of Indonesians bereft of the social equity which we should all strive for.
Usman Hamid and Suciwati are members of the Committee of Action and Solidarity for Munir (KASUM) founded in 2004 in response to the assassination of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib on Sept. 7, 2004. Suciwati is his widow.
In today's Jakarta Post they have an opinion piece which needs to be read by all voting in the election and, especially, by those who wish to lead Indonesia for the next five years.
I am posting it in its entirety.
The past is not forgotten and will never be forgottenListening to the presidential candidates in the last debate, it was clear that their concerted appeal was that it was time for Indonesia to move on from the past.
Megawati presented herself as an example of forgiveness, while Jusuf Kalla and SBY focused more on reconciliation than accountability.
Their commercials show prosperous farmers, educated children and Indonesians climbing bright green hills. But there are some images you won’t see in the commercials. In the last few days the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has toured Java with a remarkable group of people affected by past crimes and has met with local communities affected by the continuing violation of their rights.
The writer William Faulkner once said that the past is not forgotten, and, in fact, it is not even the past. For those of us on the Kontras tour - a daughter whose father disappeared during the 1984 Tanjung Priok riot, a mother whose son disappeared one day in 1997/1998, another whose son was killed by sniper fire at a protest, a young mother whose husband was poisoned on an airline trip abroad - the past is something we live with everyday.
And so it is for the rest of Indonesia as well, for two reasons. On our trip, we met communities whose health and livelihood may be threatened by cement factories and mines, and others made homeless by a disastrous mudflow.
They are victims of the same fundamental problems as the victims of past abuses: Weak institutions that cannot protect people’s rights and a resulting impunity for those responsible for negligence, arbitrary actions, or even serious crimes. And many future policies such as poverty reduction, agrarian reform, environmental protection, and economic development as a whole, are likely to be affected by the same patterns of abuse and impunity.
There is a second reason that these crimes should be a concern for all candidates, and for all voters. When people and governments are not held accountable for their actions, it changes the relationship between citizens and their leaders. Such a condition creates a climate of fear, exposes government critics to intimidation, and undermines confidence in the state to provide justice and protection.
For all these reasons we need leaders willing to address the past head on. We need policies to strengthen the capacity and independence of the courts, the Attorney General’s Office, and the National Human Rights Commission.
We need leaders with the political will to see that justice is done, through an appropriate combination of prosecutions and extra judicial mechanisms of truth, reconciliation and redress. These measures must include military and other institutional reform.
As a non-partisan organization, Kontras does not endorse any candidate. Unfortunately, this is all too easy, as all three candidates haven’t shown a clear commitment to justice for past crimes. And as important as these policies are, the current election is about more than policies.
Even a non-partisan organization cannot ignore the fact that among the vice-presidential candidates are two men credibly linked to major human rights abuses.
The fact that they are candidates says as much about Indonesian society as it does about the individuals or the parties that put them forward as candidates.
It is unlikely that such figures would be credible candidates for a national office in a country that had made full and accurate accounting of the past.
Elections provide citizens with an opportunity to reassert their aspirations for the future and their relationship with their leaders. It is where ordinary citizens can hold those in power accountable by awarding them a vote or choosing not to.
Whatever the outcome of the elections, our elected leaders, including those in parliament, have a lot of work to do. And so do the rest of us: if the nation is to move forward, we must address, and learn from, the past that all Indonesians still live with today.
