Grumpy Old SodApparently, that is how some view me. Why else would they send me
this link?
But, old or not, I think I have every right to bt grumpy. Not because England are
not the world's best exponents of what Pele called 'the beautiful game'. Not at all because of that, oh no. In fact, all Charlton supporters are very happy because none of our players, who've recently shown tremendous commitment to our cause, were involved, even, in the case of Luke Young and Scott Carson, as
unused substitutes.
Nope, it's nothing personal. If you live in Indonesia you have every right to be grumpy, grouchy, peevish, irritable and bad-tempered for any number of reasons.
For example, no sooner do we hear that the legislators in the national parliament have decided to not buy a laptop
dancer computer for each legislator, than news emerges from West Sumatra that each Padang city councillor is being allocated one, albeit at a cost of Rp.20 million each, a full $200 cheaper than the ones originally intended for the greedy bastards in Jakarta.
The idea is that in having computers, there will be less paper needed, fewer erasers for typing errors and, according to local councillor Zulherman, "
would speed discussions".
Really? There is no mention of technical assistance in the Jakarta Post report so presumably all the councillors are computer and internet literate. Presumably too, none of the e-documents sent to each councillor (and the bureaucrats responsible?) will be erased, unlike those in the Jakarta Post which remain current for only one day. (This is why I now rarely link to my main local news source.)
West Sumatra has a sad
history of corrupt politicians. In 2004,
the Padang District Court found 43 members of the West Sumatra provincial legislative council guilty of corruption involving the 2002 provincial budget. Not only did this verdict mark an important page in the country's history, but it could also encourage efforts to follow up corruption cases involving lawmakers in other regions.
Councillors know this and have
organised meetings to discuss how to avoid the fate of their predecessors. In West Sumatra alone,
hundreds of local legislators at both the district and city level have been accused of corruption, 43 of whom have been brought to court and found guilty and
sentenced to average prison terms of 4½ years.
The prosecution of those 43 councillors came about thanks to the
efforts of the local populace. I trust that they remain sufficiently grumpy to continue their search for clean governance and will question the need for yet another perk for their elected representatives.
Just because a decision has been made does not validate it and giving laptop computers to politicians, even as a loan, is not a good idea. There is too much scope here for access to pornography and computer games, none of which would be of benefit to the tax payers of Padang whose city government has introduced rules which are
supposedly based on sharia law.
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