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?)
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.
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.