Showing posts with label Indonesia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indonesia. Show all posts

Oct 22, 2014

Oct 8, 2014

Sep 17, 2014

Aug 28, 2014

Aug 8, 2014

Aug 4, 2014

Jul 22, 2014

Jul 10, 2014

Quick review on Indonesia's president election by Vedi Hadiz and Richard Robison

New Mandala have a very good post-election review about two president candidates in Indonesia.

This is why the key question is how the new President will deal with the powerful interests that shape Indonesian politics and its economy as well as tackling entrenched corruption and political dysfunction. At a time of broad disillusionment across Indonesia society with the way democracy has evolved, both candidates are seen by their supporters to offer a way out.

However, neither Prabowo nor Jokowi represent a fundamental break with the past and neither possesses the resources to fully deliver on their rhetoric. Both have to operate within a powerful and complex system of oligarchy that enmeshes political authority and private wealth.

….

This means that his very alliance with the PDI-P may become an important liability. Although he is the candidate of that party, its support has been only grudgingly given by the grandees of the Sukarno family. One probable consequence of this is that Jokowi will find himself besieged by the demands of a family eager to maintain their authority over the party and to secure their share of the spoils, including key Ministries in the new government for their acolytes.

In these sorts of struggles, his only real bargaining chip is his popularity. So we can expect a continuation of his strategies in Solo and Jakarta to broaden access to social services, overcome bureaucratic inertia and build public infrastructure.

Jul 8, 2014

Jun 19, 2014

Jun 8, 2014

May 29, 2014

May 28, 2014

Apr 16, 2014

Prof Holliday's comments on Sunday's SEARC 2nd screening of The Act of Killing

Prof Holliday had attended SEARC second screening of the Act of Killing on last Sunday.
Here is his comment of the file:
 

The Act of Killing

April 15, 2014

On Sunday afternoon I attended a screening of The Act of Killing at City University of Hong Kong – the second time in a month that the Southeast Asia Research Centre had shown the movie and hosted a follow-up discussion forum. Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and anonymous collaborators, this two-hour documentary was released in 2012, and picked up a slew of awards in 2013 and 2014. Undeniably it is an important film. Whether it merits broad acclaim is not so clear to me.

The film focuses…..

Plx visit his blog for more:

Apr 8, 2014

Second post on Indonesia's presidential lack of policy platform, this time is @reuters

Remember last week, there was a opinion in the Straits Times about the lack of policy of Jokowi?

Today, in the Reuters, similar reports shows up:

Indonesia's presidential favorite lacks only one thing - a policy platform

http://reut.rs/1qeV1rf

"Jokowi's a blank page right now: inexperienced at national politics and with populist tendencies," said one executive at a foreign business lobby group who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"What is Jokowi going to do for Indonesia, do we know?" said one senior Gerindra official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.

Mar 29, 2014

Problem of Jokowi's Charisma‎ ? see this @STForeignDesk #Indonesia elections:# Jokowi's policy stance a mystery

In an electoral environment where personality triumphs over policy, it is probably not surprising that the Indonesia media spends an inordinate amount of time dwelling on process instead of platforms.
Before Joko came along and spoiled the party, the former special forces commander was ahead in public opinion surveys and enjoyed the support of younger voters who either did not know or were not interested in his controversial past.
Why not? Surfing in on a wave of populism smacks of lazy politics and does not do anything to prepare the candidate or the party for the rigours of governing a country of 250 million people. Simply maintaining poll numbers is not enough.
Since the breakdown of president Suharto's New Order structure, the influence of authority figures, such as village heads and religious leaders, has either diminished significantly or become so diluted there is no guarantee largesse will be rewarded. In the absence of state funding, money may boost a candidate's capacity to advertise and hire mini-skirted singers. But while there are few political rock stars like him, Joko only campaigned on weekends - and still won the 2012 gubernatorial race by a landslide.
oko has said he believes there is little difference between managing Jakarta and managing Indonesia. But, really, there is a whole lot of difference. And the sooner he understands that, the better. Remember, Javanese decorum took Dr Yudhoyono a long way too, until cracks appeared in his increasingly pompous and inept leadership, and he was eventually found out.

Mar 28, 2014

If you are interested in corruption in Indonesia, you should read this article @Diplomat_APAC

 
The Diplomat Magazine has published an article about the chief anti-corruption body in Indonesia, Corruption Eradication Commission (the KPK).
It is quite informative on how the KPK works and how it become the target of corrupted MPs in Indonesia:
 
Indonesia: A Legal Plot to Thwart Corruption Fight | The Diplomat
http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/indonesia-a-legal-plot-to-thwart-corruption-fight/
Last month, Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (the KPK) was, as usual, on the offensive. It began prosecuting the former chief justice of the country’s highest court, who is alleged to have accrued at least $5 million in bribes by fixing rulings; it confiscated a Bentley, Rolls Royce and 40 other cars allegedly purchased with embezzled state funds by the younger brother of a provincial governor; and it launched an investigation into the Religious Affairs Ministry over $20 million in irregular transactions in the deposit fund for hajj pilgrims it manages.

Mar 21, 2014

This week Economist on Southeast Asia: Indonesia’s elections; Indonesia’s haze; A census in Myanmar

This week Economist has three articles on Southeast Asia worth to check:
Indonesia's elections
The chosen one
 
IT WAS what many Indonesians had waited months to hear. On March 14th Megawati Sukarnoputri, a former president and head of Indonesia’s main opposition party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), at last anointed Jakarta’s popular governor, Joko Widodo, as her candidate for president. This appears to make Mr Joko, known to all as Jokowi, a shoo-in to succeed Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is coming to the end of his second and final term as president.Most opinion polls put support for the 52-year-old Jokowi at about 40%, twice that of his closest rival, Prabowo Subianto, a former special-forces commander, who is now patron of the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra). Barring an unforeseeable disaster, Jokowi seems unbeatable. He may even secure the 50% of votes he needs on July 9th to win the election in the first round, and avoid a run-off in September. After what is widely perceived as years of drift under the likeable but ineffective Mr Yudhoyono, many believe Jokowi is the man to galvanise a sluggish bureaucracy, clean out corruption and boost the economy. That includes the markets: on news of his nomination, Indonesia’s stockmarket and...
 
Indonesia's haze
Leaders fiddle as Sumatra burns
 
PEKANBARU, the capital of Riau province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, has been shrouded in an acrid white cloud of smoke so dense that visibility is down to 50 metres (about 160 feet). The air quality is officially described as “dangerous”, and most people are wearing face masks, even indoors. Nearly 50,000 people in Riau have already been treated for respiratory, eye or skin problems. All flights last week were cancelled, and only a few have got through since. The provincial governor has declared a state of emergency. The haze is back, and has arrived earlier this year than usual.Drive to Pekanbaru from the ferries that dock at a north Sumatran port, and you can see what the cause of the problem is: mile upon mile of smouldering or charred land. Much of it is peat-bog, where fires can burn up to two metres underground and take weeks to end. A few minutes in, the inferno stings the eyes and sets off a hacking cough. These fires have been burning for nearly two months. According to Greenpeace, a pressure group, more than 1,000 fires covering at least 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of forest and peatland are burning in Riau. And that is just one province...
 

IT seemed like a good idea at the time. Among the many things Myanmar lacks after half a century of military dictatorship are data, of any sort. For a new government managing the transition to democracy, basic facts about the country are essential. Hence, a census. There has not been one in Myanmar since 1983, and it is a normal step in the economic development of any poverty-stricken country.But however well-intentioned, the census has provoked a political crisis at a time when the country can ill afford one. The questions stray beyond the collection of run-of-the-mill data—household incomes and the like—into the minefields of race and religion. These are extremely sensitive issues in a diverse country with a long history of ethnic conflict. Sensitivities are particularly acute at a time when relations between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority have been scarred by serious violence.Among the 41 questions that the 100,000 or so census-takers, mostly young school-teachers, have to ask every household in Myanmar is one on race. But respondents can only choose from an anachronistic, inaccurate and divisive list of 135 ethnic groups. The...

Mar 19, 2014

@Reuters on political dynasties in Indonesia

Despite scandal, Indonesia election could entrench political dynasties
http://reut.rs/1kXZrmF via @reuters

"Indonesia right now is flooded with money and there are many so-called little kingdoms around the country where nobody's checking how local officials spend their budgets," said an official at an international development agency who asked not to be named because he works closely with the Indonesian government.

In the Philippines, political dynasties have held sway for 70 years or more and are "prevalent in areas with more severe poverty", said a July 2013 study by the Asian Institute of Management in Manila.

Poverty entrenched those dynasties, said the study, although there was "less evidence" that dynasties caused poverty.

In Indonesia, dynasties are a relatively new phenomenon and it's too soon to conclude that they impede development, said Michael Buehler, an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University who has studied Indonesian elites in depth.

"But the Philippines basically shows us that dynasties are bad news. Overall, the economic development of places where dynasties have been for decades has been worse than places where there is more competition."