Kiwi response to Jakarta killings restrained Duncan Graham
When the first news of the Jakarta hotel bombings reached New Zealand the Prime Minister John Key said the outrage was a tragedy for Indonesia.
After the body of businessman Tim David Mackay, the Kiwi victim of the explosions, was returned home it was taken on Thursday to Wellington’s magnificent Old St Paul’s church. The casket was draped with NZ maritime insignia (Mr Mackay was a former captain in the merchant marine) and Indonesia’s Merah-Putih.
Hundreds, including ten Indonesians from the Embassy, attended the service.
Tom Clough, an executive of the Swiss company Holcim Cement where Mr Mackay, 62, was president-director told the mourners: “It’s easy to blame Indonesia … but that is not what Tim would have wanted. He loved Indonesia and its people.”
Tributes to Mr Mackay mentioned his good relationships with Indonesians and the charities he helped establish. His family thanked the Indonesian people for their support. The Indonesian Embassy condemned the ‘cruel and inhumane’ bombing, and offered sympathy to the victims. Diplomats visited the family privately.
The suicide bombing of the two hotels that claimed the lives of nine people and injured more than 50 is no longer page one in NZ. Media comment has been limited and muted.
That’s not the situation in Australia where updates following the police inquiry continue to dominate the news.
Three Australians died in the blasts. The activities and views of Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir have been widely reported, including hate statements directed at Australia and its people.
There have been regular media reminders of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202. The Australian toll was 88; three Kiwis died. Then there was the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that killed nine and injured 150.
Other sad, bad histories continue to grate in Australia, including the killing by Indonesian troops of five journalists working for Australian TV at Balibo in East Timor. That was in 1975, but a new film has revived the story. In fact one of the men, camera operator Gary Cunningham, was a Kiwi, but that’s often overlooked.
Understandably the rest of the world tends to bundle Australia and NZ together. Both countries were ‘discovered’ by English navigator James Cook in the 18th century and soon settled by the British.
Today they share a common heritage. Their flags are confusingly almost identical. They have a similar outlook on many things – but not towards Indonesia.
Australia has set up a taskforce to help Indonesia deal with the Jakarta bombings. But NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said his country wasn’t going to be part of the response. He said the reason was because Australia has a closer relationship with Indonesia than NZ.
However two NZ police liaison officers in Jakarta are reportedly helping the Indonesian police and NZ has followed Australia and put out a travel warning against visiting Indonesia.
Australians are acutely conscious of Indonesia and sadly a large number, according to many surveys, still harbor suspicion towards their over-populated northern neighbor. The fearful know that any attack on Australia would have to pass through the Indonesian archipelago, even if it didn’t originate there.
There’s no such paranoia in NZ, where an armed threat to the South Pacific country would first have to seize and occupy 7.7 million square kilometers of Australia, much of it desert.
Having such a huge barrier between NZ and Asia helps most Kiwis take a benign view of Indonesia.
More than 50,000 Indonesian-born people live in Australia, but only 4,000 in NZ. Indonesians in NZ are frequently confused with Filipinos, and at street level there’s widespread ignorance of the nation with the largest number of Muslims in the world.
Bahasa Indonesia is widely taught in Australia, but not in NZ.
Although Kiwis are great overseas travellers they usually overfly South East Asia on their way to Europe. Australians have long seen Bali as their back-yard holiday home, while Kiwis favor the Pacific Islands.
Overall the response to the bombings in NZ has been sober and balanced. There’s been much condemnation of terrorism, but no hatred directed to Indonesia and its people, despite fanatics killing a Kiwi who only wanted to help Indonesians.
(First published in The SundayPost 26 July 2009)
##
FAITH IN INDONESIA
The shape of the world a generation from now will be influenced far more by how we communicate the values of our society to others than by military or diplomatic superiority. William Fulbright, 1964
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
MATURE RESPONSE TO JAKARTA BOMBS
Responses to Indonesian bombing mature Duncan Graham
‘Where, after all, is the Muslim outrage at these events, as their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies? Why are they not screaming?’
That outburst came from British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. It followed the 2001 World Trade Centre destruction and the 2002 Bali bombing which destroyed the lives of 202 people, including 88 Australians.
His words were appropriate then, but not in 2009 with the Jakarta hotel bombs which killed nine. That’s because the genuine fury and concern that followed the latest blasts came from within Indonesia and across the religious landscape.
The conservative Muslim organisation Muhammadiyah did not qualify its anger. The Indonesian media even reported that cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the fundamentalist group Jemaah Islamiyah, disapproved of the bombings.
Past reaction tended to follow the ‘wayward lad’ excuse: ‘Well of course this is wrong and shouldn’t happen, but we can understand their anger and after all they are Brother Muslims …’
In 2002 the president was Megawati Soekarnoputri. She took a floppy position fearing firmness might alienate Muslim support. She also rejected US requests to interdict Bashir.
Her vice president Hamzah Haz refused to accept that radical Islam was linked to terrorism until the evidence became overwhelming. At the time Indonesia wanted no part in George Bush’s ‘war on terror’; many believed the JI was a phantom invoked by the CIA, which was why the organization was never proscribed.
But this time president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) pulled no punches, vowing to pursue and prosecute.
Sure, it’s good hairy-chested stuff, but the Indonesian security forces haven’t found the JI hardliner and master bomb-maker Noordin Mohammed Top who was probably behind the Bali and Jakarta bombings. This despite his photo being widely posted in public buildings around the country for the past five years.
He and other fundamentalists yearning for an Islamic republic may not be getting support from the public outside the extremist pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), but plenty have been prepared to turn a blind eye to their activities.
Indonesia is a country with few secrets. There’s an extensive community watch system introduced during the Japanese occupation, and which reaches right into the smallest street. Coupled with people’s natural nosiness means that no one escapes the neighbours’ scrutiny.
Unfortunately there’s little trust in the police, so unusual comings and goings may arouse comment, but are unlikely to get formally reported. Although reform continues since the police force was split from the military after Soeharto lost power, the public still believes the men in khaki are corrupt and untrustworthy, more interested in pocketing traffic fines than investigating crime.
Western culture has long included a respectable print and screen tradition of clever cops solving complex crimes. It is totally absent in Indonesia.
SBY’s instant and unequivocal response does indicate a welcome rejection of past equivocation. That included tolerating outlandish theories to brush away the idea of homegrown Islamic terrorism.
The looniest explanation had a micro nuclear weapon being fired by a US warship into the Bali nightclubs in 2002 to provoke hatred against Muslims.
The world has moved on. A new man with links to Islam and Indonesia is in the White House. The US is pulling out of Iraq. There are still plenty of reasons for disliking Western imperialism, but the easiest excuses have gone.
The JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta has been marketing itself as a safe venue following the 2003 bombing and a major upgrade in security. It has just been tested and failed dreadfully.
Security in Indonesia has always been porous and reports that this year’s bombers got into the hotel despite triggering screening alarms sounds right.
Like most Westerners I can rattle off a list of examples at many venues where security guards (known as satpam) have gone off duty leaving doors open, guards being posted on one entrance but not another, and bored officials waving through people in a hurry without making baggage checks.
Security gets tightened after every bombing so expect to see heavily armed soldiers in the streets. These will vanish as time passes, creating the opportunities for anyone with evil intent. They just need to bide their time.
Satpam are badly paid – few get more than AUD 100 a month – and many are understandably open to bribes. Some embassies reportedly replace their guards after six months in the belief that by then they’re likely to have been corrupted.
Satpam are also employed in the suburbs, closing streets between 11pm and 5 am, but if your house gets burgled, they’re the first people under suspicion.
Travel warnings may help the Australian government avoid litigation should wounded travelers who don’t read, watch or listen to the news claim they should have been told of the risks. However the alerts tend to do more harm than good. They certainly damage neighbourly relations.
Academics, students, businesspeople and others genuinely interested in Indonesia will be denied the opportunity to visit by nervous bosses and restrictive insurance polices.
Bad things and evil people exist everywhere; wise travelers will not go to the obvious targets like the up-market hotels (where you’ll never experience the real Indonesia) and maintain a low profile.
Most Indonesians are tolerant pluralists, genuinely friendly, proud of their country, and keen to meet and help visitors. Proportionally there are probably no more fanatics in Indonesia than Australia and the chance of meeting one ready to do serious harm is rare – there and here.
(First published in On Line Opinion 20 July; a similar version was also published on Scoop (NZ) the same day.)
##
‘Where, after all, is the Muslim outrage at these events, as their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies? Why are they not screaming?’
That outburst came from British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. It followed the 2001 World Trade Centre destruction and the 2002 Bali bombing which destroyed the lives of 202 people, including 88 Australians.
His words were appropriate then, but not in 2009 with the Jakarta hotel bombs which killed nine. That’s because the genuine fury and concern that followed the latest blasts came from within Indonesia and across the religious landscape.
The conservative Muslim organisation Muhammadiyah did not qualify its anger. The Indonesian media even reported that cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the fundamentalist group Jemaah Islamiyah, disapproved of the bombings.
Past reaction tended to follow the ‘wayward lad’ excuse: ‘Well of course this is wrong and shouldn’t happen, but we can understand their anger and after all they are Brother Muslims …’
In 2002 the president was Megawati Soekarnoputri. She took a floppy position fearing firmness might alienate Muslim support. She also rejected US requests to interdict Bashir.
Her vice president Hamzah Haz refused to accept that radical Islam was linked to terrorism until the evidence became overwhelming. At the time Indonesia wanted no part in George Bush’s ‘war on terror’; many believed the JI was a phantom invoked by the CIA, which was why the organization was never proscribed.
But this time president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) pulled no punches, vowing to pursue and prosecute.
Sure, it’s good hairy-chested stuff, but the Indonesian security forces haven’t found the JI hardliner and master bomb-maker Noordin Mohammed Top who was probably behind the Bali and Jakarta bombings. This despite his photo being widely posted in public buildings around the country for the past five years.
He and other fundamentalists yearning for an Islamic republic may not be getting support from the public outside the extremist pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), but plenty have been prepared to turn a blind eye to their activities.
Indonesia is a country with few secrets. There’s an extensive community watch system introduced during the Japanese occupation, and which reaches right into the smallest street. Coupled with people’s natural nosiness means that no one escapes the neighbours’ scrutiny.
Unfortunately there’s little trust in the police, so unusual comings and goings may arouse comment, but are unlikely to get formally reported. Although reform continues since the police force was split from the military after Soeharto lost power, the public still believes the men in khaki are corrupt and untrustworthy, more interested in pocketing traffic fines than investigating crime.
Western culture has long included a respectable print and screen tradition of clever cops solving complex crimes. It is totally absent in Indonesia.
SBY’s instant and unequivocal response does indicate a welcome rejection of past equivocation. That included tolerating outlandish theories to brush away the idea of homegrown Islamic terrorism.
The looniest explanation had a micro nuclear weapon being fired by a US warship into the Bali nightclubs in 2002 to provoke hatred against Muslims.
The world has moved on. A new man with links to Islam and Indonesia is in the White House. The US is pulling out of Iraq. There are still plenty of reasons for disliking Western imperialism, but the easiest excuses have gone.
The JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta has been marketing itself as a safe venue following the 2003 bombing and a major upgrade in security. It has just been tested and failed dreadfully.
Security in Indonesia has always been porous and reports that this year’s bombers got into the hotel despite triggering screening alarms sounds right.
Like most Westerners I can rattle off a list of examples at many venues where security guards (known as satpam) have gone off duty leaving doors open, guards being posted on one entrance but not another, and bored officials waving through people in a hurry without making baggage checks.
Security gets tightened after every bombing so expect to see heavily armed soldiers in the streets. These will vanish as time passes, creating the opportunities for anyone with evil intent. They just need to bide their time.
Satpam are badly paid – few get more than AUD 100 a month – and many are understandably open to bribes. Some embassies reportedly replace their guards after six months in the belief that by then they’re likely to have been corrupted.
Satpam are also employed in the suburbs, closing streets between 11pm and 5 am, but if your house gets burgled, they’re the first people under suspicion.
Travel warnings may help the Australian government avoid litigation should wounded travelers who don’t read, watch or listen to the news claim they should have been told of the risks. However the alerts tend to do more harm than good. They certainly damage neighbourly relations.
Academics, students, businesspeople and others genuinely interested in Indonesia will be denied the opportunity to visit by nervous bosses and restrictive insurance polices.
Bad things and evil people exist everywhere; wise travelers will not go to the obvious targets like the up-market hotels (where you’ll never experience the real Indonesia) and maintain a low profile.
Most Indonesians are tolerant pluralists, genuinely friendly, proud of their country, and keen to meet and help visitors. Proportionally there are probably no more fanatics in Indonesia than Australia and the chance of meeting one ready to do serious harm is rare – there and here.
(First published in On Line Opinion 20 July; a similar version was also published on Scoop (NZ) the same day.)
##
Thursday, July 16, 2009
RI ELECTION REDUCES BALKANISATION RISK
Indonesians reject race and religious politics Duncan Graham
Next week the Indonesian presidential election results will be officially announced. Counts so far show the present incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be back in power for a further five years with a whacking 62 per cent of the popular vote.
His main rival in the three-way tussle was Megawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s charismatic first president and so-called father of the nation. So far her score is 29 per cent. Jusuf Kalla, the vice president for the past five years, has mustered under 10 per cent despite having the backing of Golkar, the most powerful party in the country.
This is good news for the West that’s long feared the republic would suffer Balkanisation, fragmenting into warring groups fighting over sectarian issues and creating turmoil in South East Asia.
Indonesia is an archipelago nation straddling the Equator, a heady mix of about 300 ethnic groups dominated by the Javanese. It’s the fourth largest nation in the world with about 240 million people.
SBY, as he’s widely known, seems to have been re-elected because he’s stabilised the economy, tackled corruption and combated terrorism in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Up-beat commentators in Indonesia claim his win marks the end of politics based on race, faith and ethnicity as voters in the direct presidential election plumped for secular pragmatism.
Cynics, noting a drop in the number of electors bothering to vote, claimed SBY won not on his merits but because his rivals were long on slogans and short on policies. Either way it seems democracy is taking root
SBY is a US-educated former army general with a PhD in agricultural economics. Despite his military background his first term was marked by indecisiveness, though he was hampered by having to work with a coalition.
Indonesian scholar Professor Jeffrey Winters from Chicago’s Northwestern University said the lack of violence in the transition to democracy was “no small achievement.”
In adjacent Philippines, a country with a far longer democratic record, between 80 and 100 candidates get assassinated every election.
“The number one election issue was poverty and economic performance,” said Winters, in Wellington last week to address the Institute of International Affairs at Victoria University,
“Issues of human rights were not in the forefront of the debate. People are tired of the old politics known as KKN – Korupsi, Kolusi and Nepotisme – no translation required.
“It seems that the power of the generals left over from the Soeharto period has peaked.”
Indonesia only returned to democracy in the past decade after 32 years of military rule under General Soeharto.
Winters said the election campaign was lacklustre and the electorate apathetic with up to 30 per cent no longer participating in the political process.
Some tried to play the religious card claiming the wives of SBY and his running mate, Australian-trained economist Boediono, were not proper Muslims because they don’t wear headscarves.
Smear campaigns were run against ‘neo-liberals’. “Few defined the term though it generally meant being too reliant on foreign investments, not being sufficiently nationalistic and getting a bad shake internationally,” Winters said
Voters rejected candidates running on religious issues. However the rapidly expanding PKS (Prosperous Justice Party), which won almost nine per cent of the parliamentary vote on an anti-corruption, more piety ticket, is alleged to have another agenda.
The PKS has been linked to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the fundamentalist Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia, and is alleged to be working in a sophisticated way to slowly impose Islamic Sharia law on Indonesia. The party’s development is concerning moderate Muslims and the ten per cent of the population registered as followers of other faiths, mainly Christian.
As in the US, presidents are restricted to two terms. The next test for Indonesian democracy will come when SBY has to quit politics in 2014. He’ll then be 65.
“There’s already talk in Jakarta that he might want to hold onto power by trying to amend the constitution or getting his wife Ani to stand for office,” said Winters.
“The problems of succession remain.”
(First published in Scoop 15 July)
##
Next week the Indonesian presidential election results will be officially announced. Counts so far show the present incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be back in power for a further five years with a whacking 62 per cent of the popular vote.
His main rival in the three-way tussle was Megawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s charismatic first president and so-called father of the nation. So far her score is 29 per cent. Jusuf Kalla, the vice president for the past five years, has mustered under 10 per cent despite having the backing of Golkar, the most powerful party in the country.
This is good news for the West that’s long feared the republic would suffer Balkanisation, fragmenting into warring groups fighting over sectarian issues and creating turmoil in South East Asia.
Indonesia is an archipelago nation straddling the Equator, a heady mix of about 300 ethnic groups dominated by the Javanese. It’s the fourth largest nation in the world with about 240 million people.
SBY, as he’s widely known, seems to have been re-elected because he’s stabilised the economy, tackled corruption and combated terrorism in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Up-beat commentators in Indonesia claim his win marks the end of politics based on race, faith and ethnicity as voters in the direct presidential election plumped for secular pragmatism.
Cynics, noting a drop in the number of electors bothering to vote, claimed SBY won not on his merits but because his rivals were long on slogans and short on policies. Either way it seems democracy is taking root
SBY is a US-educated former army general with a PhD in agricultural economics. Despite his military background his first term was marked by indecisiveness, though he was hampered by having to work with a coalition.
Indonesian scholar Professor Jeffrey Winters from Chicago’s Northwestern University said the lack of violence in the transition to democracy was “no small achievement.”
In adjacent Philippines, a country with a far longer democratic record, between 80 and 100 candidates get assassinated every election.
“The number one election issue was poverty and economic performance,” said Winters, in Wellington last week to address the Institute of International Affairs at Victoria University,
“Issues of human rights were not in the forefront of the debate. People are tired of the old politics known as KKN – Korupsi, Kolusi and Nepotisme – no translation required.
“It seems that the power of the generals left over from the Soeharto period has peaked.”
Indonesia only returned to democracy in the past decade after 32 years of military rule under General Soeharto.
Winters said the election campaign was lacklustre and the electorate apathetic with up to 30 per cent no longer participating in the political process.
Some tried to play the religious card claiming the wives of SBY and his running mate, Australian-trained economist Boediono, were not proper Muslims because they don’t wear headscarves.
Smear campaigns were run against ‘neo-liberals’. “Few defined the term though it generally meant being too reliant on foreign investments, not being sufficiently nationalistic and getting a bad shake internationally,” Winters said
Voters rejected candidates running on religious issues. However the rapidly expanding PKS (Prosperous Justice Party), which won almost nine per cent of the parliamentary vote on an anti-corruption, more piety ticket, is alleged to have another agenda.
The PKS has been linked to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the fundamentalist Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia, and is alleged to be working in a sophisticated way to slowly impose Islamic Sharia law on Indonesia. The party’s development is concerning moderate Muslims and the ten per cent of the population registered as followers of other faiths, mainly Christian.
As in the US, presidents are restricted to two terms. The next test for Indonesian democracy will come when SBY has to quit politics in 2014. He’ll then be 65.
“There’s already talk in Jakarta that he might want to hold onto power by trying to amend the constitution or getting his wife Ani to stand for office,” said Winters.
“The problems of succession remain.”
(First published in Scoop 15 July)
##
Thursday, July 02, 2009
SURYA DHARMA RE-EDUCATES INDONESIA
Loving to learn: Mr Change Agent’s dream © Duncan Graham 2009
If job descriptions were written honestly, Dr Surya Dharma’s would read like this:
· Change Indonesian culture, with particular relevance to Java, so formal education is embraced as a life-long journey of learning, not something to be endured just to get a certificate for a job.
· Lift the status of teachers so the best and most incandescent school leavers compete to study education rather than business management.
· Turn Indonesian schools into humming, pulsing places where students clamor for entrance and thrive in a knowledge-rich, welcoming environment.
“I suppose I am a social engineer, and yes, it is a big task,” said Surya, catching breath during an international tour seeking the help of foreign governments, universities and schools to upgrade Indonesian education.
“I don’t know if it can be achieved in my lifetime (he’s 55 and looks robust enough) – but I hope so. We started this ten-year program in 2005 and so far it’s going well.”
Surya, the director of human resources in the Indonesian Education Ministry and chair of the ASEAN Leaders’ Roundtable Discussions, has the task of overseeing what amounts to an education revolution of massive proportions.
His qualifications make him ideal for the job of Mr Change Agent. He has a Masters degree in public policy and management from Pittsburgh University in the US, and a PhD in education policy and management from the same campus.
He has also had books published on academic achievement and performance management.
A career public servant he was handpicked for his present job after years in administration, policy and teaching.
Among Surya’s many responsibilities is doubling the salaries of the nation’s 2.7 million teachers to an average of Rp 5 million (US $500) a month, provided they upgrade their skills and attitudes.
This means they should then be able to concentrate on their day jobs without having to sizzle sate at roadside food stalls or sell mobile phone subs once classes are dismissed, just to put rice on the family table.
His task has been made easier by the truckloads of cash now being tipped into education. Under the Indonesian Constitution this is supposed to be 20 per cent of the national expenditure, a figure only reached in this year’s budget. Now there’s Rp 224 trillion (US $ 22 billion) available.
Surya and his colleagues have already been to China, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia gleaning ideas and garnering support, and were heading to Korea after a brief stop in New Zealand.
On the Antipodean leg of his travels Surya was accompanied by two Jakarta State high school principals - Pono Fadlullah (School 70), and Harapan Situmorang (School 71).
They were invited to the NZ capital Wellington by the Indonesian ambassador Amris Hassan who has been pushing for better education ties between the two countries and particularly a memorandum of understanding. He’s also offered to pay for two top Kiwi teachers to visit Indonesia and pass on their skills.
“We have to improve the methodologies used by Indonesian teachers,” Surya said. “We want to create a new system that inspires all students so they really love to learn. We don’t want them to become bored and laze away their time in school.
“Many teachers will resist. These are the people who think that students are empty glasses into which they just pour some knowledge, little caring about the quality. Some even resort to corporal punishment. That cannot be tolerated
“Society is changing and so are standards. Teachers who meet the new expectations also have to be entrepreneurial.”
One of these new breed principals is the effervescent Pono who now gets Rp 10 million (US $1,000) a month for leading a school with 1,320 students. While in NZ he proved his worth by teaching two classes of Kiwi high school girls with skill and style, and was chuffed to learn his name in Maori translates as being true, valid and honest.
Despite his high status position in Indonesian society he had no worries about mixing it with the students at their level, singing Indonesian songs in a rich baritone and abandoning the traditional authoritarian teachers’ position behind a desk.
A major goal of the new Indonesian education policy is to have at least one high quality international school in every one of the nation’s 550 districts. Getting one computer in front of every 20 kids (the ratio is now one to 3,200) is another hope that can’t be done just by sending Bill Gates a handsome cheque.
What’s the point in having lots of laptops if there’s no electricity or Internet access, when classes are so big the teachers can’t recall names, and the first priority is to install enough toilets?
Another ambition is to have 30 per cent of school staff holding a masters degree from a certified university, and upgrade about 250,000 teachers a year. So far 600,000 have become super chalkies, and Surya is looking for international help to reach his goals by 2015.
“My message to other countries is this: Give us the opportunity to learn from your education systems and experience,” said Surya.
“The changes we’re trying to introduce have to start in the home with different attitudes towards education.
“Now we have decentralisation its up to parents to take a leading role in school management, and local government to select good principals and spend their budgets wisely. This carries some problems if regents, mayors and others appoint people for political reasons.”
Surya said that the standard parents’ complaints about education being too expensive had to be put into perspective. While primary schooling was free, costs like uniforms and transport had to be handled by local government, which should be working to eliminate disadvantage.
“In Indonesia there’s been a strong culture of authority in schools, as though the teacher knows everything. The students won’t challenge or ask questions for fear they might be considered ignorant.
“In western schools when the teacher asks for questions all the kids raise their hands.
“When I was studying in the US my daughter hated Fridays because that meant the weekend was approaching and she couldn’t attend school and see her teacher for two days.
“She looked forward to Mondays so she could get back to class. That’s a feeling I’d like all Indonesian students to enjoy.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post, 1 July 2009)
##
If job descriptions were written honestly, Dr Surya Dharma’s would read like this:
· Change Indonesian culture, with particular relevance to Java, so formal education is embraced as a life-long journey of learning, not something to be endured just to get a certificate for a job.
· Lift the status of teachers so the best and most incandescent school leavers compete to study education rather than business management.
· Turn Indonesian schools into humming, pulsing places where students clamor for entrance and thrive in a knowledge-rich, welcoming environment.
“I suppose I am a social engineer, and yes, it is a big task,” said Surya, catching breath during an international tour seeking the help of foreign governments, universities and schools to upgrade Indonesian education.
“I don’t know if it can be achieved in my lifetime (he’s 55 and looks robust enough) – but I hope so. We started this ten-year program in 2005 and so far it’s going well.”
Surya, the director of human resources in the Indonesian Education Ministry and chair of the ASEAN Leaders’ Roundtable Discussions, has the task of overseeing what amounts to an education revolution of massive proportions.
His qualifications make him ideal for the job of Mr Change Agent. He has a Masters degree in public policy and management from Pittsburgh University in the US, and a PhD in education policy and management from the same campus.
He has also had books published on academic achievement and performance management.
A career public servant he was handpicked for his present job after years in administration, policy and teaching.
Among Surya’s many responsibilities is doubling the salaries of the nation’s 2.7 million teachers to an average of Rp 5 million (US $500) a month, provided they upgrade their skills and attitudes.
This means they should then be able to concentrate on their day jobs without having to sizzle sate at roadside food stalls or sell mobile phone subs once classes are dismissed, just to put rice on the family table.
His task has been made easier by the truckloads of cash now being tipped into education. Under the Indonesian Constitution this is supposed to be 20 per cent of the national expenditure, a figure only reached in this year’s budget. Now there’s Rp 224 trillion (US $ 22 billion) available.
Surya and his colleagues have already been to China, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia gleaning ideas and garnering support, and were heading to Korea after a brief stop in New Zealand.
On the Antipodean leg of his travels Surya was accompanied by two Jakarta State high school principals - Pono Fadlullah (School 70), and Harapan Situmorang (School 71).
They were invited to the NZ capital Wellington by the Indonesian ambassador Amris Hassan who has been pushing for better education ties between the two countries and particularly a memorandum of understanding. He’s also offered to pay for two top Kiwi teachers to visit Indonesia and pass on their skills.
“We have to improve the methodologies used by Indonesian teachers,” Surya said. “We want to create a new system that inspires all students so they really love to learn. We don’t want them to become bored and laze away their time in school.
“Many teachers will resist. These are the people who think that students are empty glasses into which they just pour some knowledge, little caring about the quality. Some even resort to corporal punishment. That cannot be tolerated
“Society is changing and so are standards. Teachers who meet the new expectations also have to be entrepreneurial.”
One of these new breed principals is the effervescent Pono who now gets Rp 10 million (US $1,000) a month for leading a school with 1,320 students. While in NZ he proved his worth by teaching two classes of Kiwi high school girls with skill and style, and was chuffed to learn his name in Maori translates as being true, valid and honest.
Despite his high status position in Indonesian society he had no worries about mixing it with the students at their level, singing Indonesian songs in a rich baritone and abandoning the traditional authoritarian teachers’ position behind a desk.
A major goal of the new Indonesian education policy is to have at least one high quality international school in every one of the nation’s 550 districts. Getting one computer in front of every 20 kids (the ratio is now one to 3,200) is another hope that can’t be done just by sending Bill Gates a handsome cheque.
What’s the point in having lots of laptops if there’s no electricity or Internet access, when classes are so big the teachers can’t recall names, and the first priority is to install enough toilets?
Another ambition is to have 30 per cent of school staff holding a masters degree from a certified university, and upgrade about 250,000 teachers a year. So far 600,000 have become super chalkies, and Surya is looking for international help to reach his goals by 2015.
“My message to other countries is this: Give us the opportunity to learn from your education systems and experience,” said Surya.
“The changes we’re trying to introduce have to start in the home with different attitudes towards education.
“Now we have decentralisation its up to parents to take a leading role in school management, and local government to select good principals and spend their budgets wisely. This carries some problems if regents, mayors and others appoint people for political reasons.”
Surya said that the standard parents’ complaints about education being too expensive had to be put into perspective. While primary schooling was free, costs like uniforms and transport had to be handled by local government, which should be working to eliminate disadvantage.
“In Indonesia there’s been a strong culture of authority in schools, as though the teacher knows everything. The students won’t challenge or ask questions for fear they might be considered ignorant.
“In western schools when the teacher asks for questions all the kids raise their hands.
“When I was studying in the US my daughter hated Fridays because that meant the weekend was approaching and she couldn’t attend school and see her teacher for two days.
“She looked forward to Mondays so she could get back to class. That’s a feeling I’d like all Indonesian students to enjoy.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post, 1 July 2009)
##
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
BEEFING ABOUT INDONESIA
Beefing about Indonesia Duncan Graham
In the slightly less polluted suburbs of Jakarta and other big Indonesian cities, restaurants specialising in beef dishes are doing well, particularly those serving steaks from New Zealand and Australia.
It’s another sign of the growing prosperity of the middle classes, their discriminatory palates and smart marketing; the flashing signs outside the eateries are usually in English (for snob value) and often stress the breed of beast customers will allegedly consume. Black Angus is a favourite.
It’s also an indicator that the Indonesian economy is managing to fend off the global recession. While Westerners suffer negative or minimal growth keeping us housebound, Indonesians are enjoying a four per cent growth rate allowing the well heeled to continue dining out.
Beef has long been out of reach of poor Indonesians who get their protein from chicken, fish and soybeans. Feedlot local beef tends to be tough and apart from a speciality called rujak cingur made from the cow’s snout, few know how to cook it well.
Free-range steaks from NZ and Australia have a reputation for being tender and tasty, and NZ’s clean-green image resonates with educated and health-conscious diners, mainly ethnic Chinese. Trendy restaurants give their customers a flat pre-heated stone and a slab of raw meat. The stone retains its heat long enough for diners to sizzle their own steak.
The growing popularity of Kiwi and Ozzie beef over the local product was one of the reasons put forward for this week’s sudden ban on Antipodean beef imports by Indonesian authorities, allegedly because the meat did not meet the halal (permitted) standards demanded by Muslims.
The ban was triggered by a letter from the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI – Indonesian Islamic Scholars’ Council). This advisory body issues fatwa, or religious edicts. Apart from rejecting Kiwi T-bones it has passed fatwa on men and women exchanging texts, chanting during yoga and, more importantly, smoking in public places.
In brief the MUI implied Kiwi cattle were not having their throats slit while facing Mecca by an approved Muslim butcher chanting the name of Allah as the knife goes for the jugular.
There are 60 meatworks in NZ licensed to supply halal meat to the Indonesian market and they’ve been operating smoothly for decades. The trade is worth almost $100 million a year.
But suddenly the abattoirs’ halal licences were found to have expired, just as more than 70 containers landed on Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok wharf. A similar surprise ban occurred last July when Kiwi export labelling was deemed defective.
That problem was quickly and effectively handled by Amris Hassan, the Indonesian Ambassador and his Wellington staff, but this time the task has been tougher, involving Trade Minister Tim Groser who was in Bali for trade talks.
Groser is no naïve newcomer to dirty trade wars. He’s a former ambassador to Jakarta and the World Trade Organisation, a trade negotiator before entering politics and an Indonesian speaker. So when he told National Radio that he “didn’t quite know what went wrong” - the sub-text suggested devious doings.
After three days of confusion the containers started rolling off the wharves. The face-saving explanation was that an MUI letter warning the halal licences had to be renewed before October had been misinterpreted by government authorities.
During the 2008 labelling crisis there were dark hints that Indonesian importers of Brazilian beef had used their political clout to engineer the ban on NZ beef. Since then NZ and Indonesia have signed a free trade agreement (FTA) which progressively reduces tariffs on Kiwi exports to the republic.
During the negotiations the Indonesians lobbied for a deal similar to the FTA signed in April 2008 with China. This involved work visas for a swag of Chinese professions and trades, including chefs, tour guides and teaching aides.
But by February this year unemployment was rising in NZ and the jobs vanished from the negotiations. Jakarta trade officials publicly accused NZ of giving too little and demanding too much, but the agreement was signed despite the posturing.
Then the local meat trade demanded protection, with Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono promising to impose quotas to protect the nation’s four million beef farmers who supply about 70 per cent of the local market.
Indonesia’s leading and conservative English-language newspaper The Jakarta Post commented: ‘Beef importing business practices have been rather murky with numerous vested interests backed by top government officials reportedly working together to maintain their advantage in the huge Indonesian market of 230 million people.’
The fourth most populous nation in the world presents great trade opportunities, but it’s a market where exporters need to tread warily.
(First published in Scoop, 10 June 2009)
In the slightly less polluted suburbs of Jakarta and other big Indonesian cities, restaurants specialising in beef dishes are doing well, particularly those serving steaks from New Zealand and Australia.
It’s another sign of the growing prosperity of the middle classes, their discriminatory palates and smart marketing; the flashing signs outside the eateries are usually in English (for snob value) and often stress the breed of beast customers will allegedly consume. Black Angus is a favourite.
It’s also an indicator that the Indonesian economy is managing to fend off the global recession. While Westerners suffer negative or minimal growth keeping us housebound, Indonesians are enjoying a four per cent growth rate allowing the well heeled to continue dining out.
Beef has long been out of reach of poor Indonesians who get their protein from chicken, fish and soybeans. Feedlot local beef tends to be tough and apart from a speciality called rujak cingur made from the cow’s snout, few know how to cook it well.
Free-range steaks from NZ and Australia have a reputation for being tender and tasty, and NZ’s clean-green image resonates with educated and health-conscious diners, mainly ethnic Chinese. Trendy restaurants give their customers a flat pre-heated stone and a slab of raw meat. The stone retains its heat long enough for diners to sizzle their own steak.
The growing popularity of Kiwi and Ozzie beef over the local product was one of the reasons put forward for this week’s sudden ban on Antipodean beef imports by Indonesian authorities, allegedly because the meat did not meet the halal (permitted) standards demanded by Muslims.
The ban was triggered by a letter from the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI – Indonesian Islamic Scholars’ Council). This advisory body issues fatwa, or religious edicts. Apart from rejecting Kiwi T-bones it has passed fatwa on men and women exchanging texts, chanting during yoga and, more importantly, smoking in public places.
In brief the MUI implied Kiwi cattle were not having their throats slit while facing Mecca by an approved Muslim butcher chanting the name of Allah as the knife goes for the jugular.
There are 60 meatworks in NZ licensed to supply halal meat to the Indonesian market and they’ve been operating smoothly for decades. The trade is worth almost $100 million a year.
But suddenly the abattoirs’ halal licences were found to have expired, just as more than 70 containers landed on Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok wharf. A similar surprise ban occurred last July when Kiwi export labelling was deemed defective.
That problem was quickly and effectively handled by Amris Hassan, the Indonesian Ambassador and his Wellington staff, but this time the task has been tougher, involving Trade Minister Tim Groser who was in Bali for trade talks.
Groser is no naïve newcomer to dirty trade wars. He’s a former ambassador to Jakarta and the World Trade Organisation, a trade negotiator before entering politics and an Indonesian speaker. So when he told National Radio that he “didn’t quite know what went wrong” - the sub-text suggested devious doings.
After three days of confusion the containers started rolling off the wharves. The face-saving explanation was that an MUI letter warning the halal licences had to be renewed before October had been misinterpreted by government authorities.
During the 2008 labelling crisis there were dark hints that Indonesian importers of Brazilian beef had used their political clout to engineer the ban on NZ beef. Since then NZ and Indonesia have signed a free trade agreement (FTA) which progressively reduces tariffs on Kiwi exports to the republic.
During the negotiations the Indonesians lobbied for a deal similar to the FTA signed in April 2008 with China. This involved work visas for a swag of Chinese professions and trades, including chefs, tour guides and teaching aides.
But by February this year unemployment was rising in NZ and the jobs vanished from the negotiations. Jakarta trade officials publicly accused NZ of giving too little and demanding too much, but the agreement was signed despite the posturing.
Then the local meat trade demanded protection, with Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono promising to impose quotas to protect the nation’s four million beef farmers who supply about 70 per cent of the local market.
Indonesia’s leading and conservative English-language newspaper The Jakarta Post commented: ‘Beef importing business practices have been rather murky with numerous vested interests backed by top government officials reportedly working together to maintain their advantage in the huge Indonesian market of 230 million people.’
The fourth most populous nation in the world presents great trade opportunities, but it’s a market where exporters need to tread warily.
(First published in Scoop, 10 June 2009)
Saturday, June 06, 2009
ONLY THE NAIVE PREDICT INDONESIAN POLITICS
Is the Indonesian election result a fait accompli? Duncan Graham
Among the many problems in the complex Indonesian electoral system are its cumbersome procedures. The general election was held on 9 April. There were 38 parties contesting and the big ballot paper confused many.
The results came within a month confirming early counts, but the presidential election will not be held till 8 July.
If no candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the vote there’ll be a run off on 8 September.
Under Indonesian law the people directly elect the president and vice president for a five-year term. In the 2004 election the Democratic Party was a tiny player with less than eight per cent of the vote. But the electorate wanted the DP leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (best known as SBY), not his principal rival Megawati Soekarnoputri, by a margin of three to two.
On the surface it looks as though the ballot in July will be decisive, but only the naïve make confident predictions about Indonesian politics. Although the present president is scoring a whopping 70 per cent in popularity polls against Megawati at 15 per cent, a lot can happen in the next six weeks.
Take, for example, the arrest this month of the Corruption Commission boss Antasari Azhar on charges of being involved in the murder of a businessman. Although no one has been convicted, the scandal, which also involves a female golf caddy, has damaged SBY’s clean-up campaign.
Apart from more similar weird happenings the main problem is elector fatigue. If all the pundits are saying SBY will win, why bother to go through the boring and complex process of exercising the democratic process yet again, particularly when it’s not compulsory?
SBY’s Democratic Party doesn’t have the industrial strength machinery to get the voters mobilised when compared to Megawati’s Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) and Golkar.
This is the party created by the late authoritarian president Soeharto and ensured he was elected for 32 years by crushing dissent. Golkar’s candidate for the presidency is Jusuf Kalla, the present vice-president who’s standing against his boss.
Kalla has selected Wiranto, a former general, as his VP candidate. Megawati has also gone to the army for her running mate, picking Prabowo Subianto, another retired general with a questionable human rights record and Soeharto’s former son-in-law.
Curious couplings indeed, but offering a glimpse of the residual influence of the military in Indonesian affairs and the complex undercurrents of ethnicity, religion, history and money that swirl through Indonesian politics.
Westerners dealing with Indonesia have been barracking for SBY, not because he’s been an outstanding leader but because the alternatives look so scary.
During the corrupt rule of General Soeharto that ended in 1998 with the Asian economic crisis, the men with the guns ran the country and just about everything else. The army had seats in Parliament, controlled many businesses, had a major internal security role, oversaw the police and were considered untouchable.
Although the military’s influence is no longer so blatant it’s still a force behind the scenes. Boosters for SBY highlight his academic qualifications (he has a doctorate in agriculture), his urbanity and English skills learned while studying in the US, and his middle ground, ultra-cautious politics. He appears to genuinely believe in democracy and has gravitas on the international stage.
Supporters play down his past as a four-star general before entering politics and his military family. His father, father-in-law and a son are, or were, soldiers.
The 9 April election results closely followed informal exit polls. The Democratic Party ran ahead of all in the crowded pack seeking power, winning 21.04 per cent of the vote.
Second was Megawati’s PDIP with 14.52 per cent, a whisker ahead of Golkar mustering 14.23 per cent.
With these results a coalition will have to run the 560-seat Parliament, known as the DPR. How that’s going to be engineered is the critical question, though this time round SBY can bargain from a position of strength.
Optimists say all this shows Indonesians have embraced democracy and are making it work. Those who don’t use rose-coloured glasses note only 61 per cent of the nation’s 171 million eligible electors bothered to vote and millions were disenfranchised through registration stuff-ups.
Fourth in the April election with 8.16 per cent was the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which kept its Islamic credentials in the background while campaigning hard against corruption. Liberals suspect the party has other agendas and were concerned SBY might pick his running mate from a party that’s against pluralism and women’s rights, and for Sharia law.
Instead SBY cannily selected economist and Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, who studied at the University of Western Australia and Monash, and later in the US. He was Minister of Finance during Megawati’s 2001 – 2004 presidency.
When introducing Boediono to the miffed PKS the president stressed his partner’s dedication to Islam ahead of his impressive financial skills.
Some PKS members reacted by shifting support to Kalla because SBY’s wife Kristiani, and Boediono’s wife Herawati don’t wear headscarves; the sub-text was that the men are poor Muslims unfit to run the country because they can’t control their wives.
Critics of SBY’s administration during the past five years often overlook the huge problems he faced and give insufficient weight to his skills in keeping the political system intact, the economy on course and the nation relatively safe.
In 2004 SBY campaigned for the nation’s top job with businessman Jusuf Kalla, thereby binding Golkar into the government. Golkar gave SBY the numbers on the floor of Parliament, but the compromises required eroded much of his authority.
Megawati, 62, is a lacklustre candidate famous for being aloof and believing she deserves to have the job again just because her dad was the country’s first president. She is widely regarded as being a tool of the military.
Kalla, 67, has been an effective vice-president in the past five years and was instrumental in settling the long-running civil war in Aceh. As a prominent businessman he gave the administration credibility with the big corporations. However he’s not a Javanese, and that’s a major handicap to winning the presidency. He’s also not trusted by the non-Muslims.
SBY, 60, has been unable to stop the imposition of some aspects of Islamic Sharia law in the provinces. These include forcing female bureaucrats and students to wear headscarves, banning alcohol, enforcing prayers and setting up community patrols to sniff out sexual naughtiness, though the Constitution appears to prohibit such local initiatives.
By contrast, and after decades of oppression, the media in Indonesia is now the freest in South-East Asia, robustly pushing the old barriers on a wide range of social and political issues.
Despite doomsayers claiming Indonesia would become another Pakistan as fundamentalism flourished, that hasn’t happened. The battle against terrorism, with significant help from the Australian Federal Police, has notched up many wins against the bombers.
SBY’s push against corruption has had limited success; pulling out the wallet remains the standard way to bypass stalling bureaucrats at all levels.
The judiciary is still a mess, continuing to use colonial Dutch law from early last century. The over-staffed public service remains a dinosaur sturdily resisting attempts to force change. Decentralisation has compounded the confusion. Outsiders trying to do business need to tread warily.
The economy has slumped, though not as much as expected and less than other Asian nations. Poverty and poor quality education remain major concerns, although there have been patchwork successes in improving the lives of those on Kampong Bleak.
The consensus, both inside and outside the Republic seems to be that SBY has made a reasonable fist of handling one of the world’s toughest tasks – and given the line-up against him is clearly the best bloke around.
There are two standout dangers: If he wants to divorce Golkar and get a workable majority in the Parliament, SBY may be forced to cohabit with the PKS and other minor Islamic parties. This could let the extremist tail wag the reformist dog.
The other concern is that the opposition parties frustrated at their inability to find candidates with popular appeal may combine to spoil SBY’s legislative program out of spite. Success here seems less likely; though the emotion is real they’ll find it hard to work together because so many are single-issue or policy-free parties that have yet to learn the arts of compromise.
(First published in On Line Opinion, Friday 5 June 09)
##
Among the many problems in the complex Indonesian electoral system are its cumbersome procedures. The general election was held on 9 April. There were 38 parties contesting and the big ballot paper confused many.
The results came within a month confirming early counts, but the presidential election will not be held till 8 July.
If no candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the vote there’ll be a run off on 8 September.
Under Indonesian law the people directly elect the president and vice president for a five-year term. In the 2004 election the Democratic Party was a tiny player with less than eight per cent of the vote. But the electorate wanted the DP leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (best known as SBY), not his principal rival Megawati Soekarnoputri, by a margin of three to two.
On the surface it looks as though the ballot in July will be decisive, but only the naïve make confident predictions about Indonesian politics. Although the present president is scoring a whopping 70 per cent in popularity polls against Megawati at 15 per cent, a lot can happen in the next six weeks.
Take, for example, the arrest this month of the Corruption Commission boss Antasari Azhar on charges of being involved in the murder of a businessman. Although no one has been convicted, the scandal, which also involves a female golf caddy, has damaged SBY’s clean-up campaign.
Apart from more similar weird happenings the main problem is elector fatigue. If all the pundits are saying SBY will win, why bother to go through the boring and complex process of exercising the democratic process yet again, particularly when it’s not compulsory?
SBY’s Democratic Party doesn’t have the industrial strength machinery to get the voters mobilised when compared to Megawati’s Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) and Golkar.
This is the party created by the late authoritarian president Soeharto and ensured he was elected for 32 years by crushing dissent. Golkar’s candidate for the presidency is Jusuf Kalla, the present vice-president who’s standing against his boss.
Kalla has selected Wiranto, a former general, as his VP candidate. Megawati has also gone to the army for her running mate, picking Prabowo Subianto, another retired general with a questionable human rights record and Soeharto’s former son-in-law.
Curious couplings indeed, but offering a glimpse of the residual influence of the military in Indonesian affairs and the complex undercurrents of ethnicity, religion, history and money that swirl through Indonesian politics.
Westerners dealing with Indonesia have been barracking for SBY, not because he’s been an outstanding leader but because the alternatives look so scary.
During the corrupt rule of General Soeharto that ended in 1998 with the Asian economic crisis, the men with the guns ran the country and just about everything else. The army had seats in Parliament, controlled many businesses, had a major internal security role, oversaw the police and were considered untouchable.
Although the military’s influence is no longer so blatant it’s still a force behind the scenes. Boosters for SBY highlight his academic qualifications (he has a doctorate in agriculture), his urbanity and English skills learned while studying in the US, and his middle ground, ultra-cautious politics. He appears to genuinely believe in democracy and has gravitas on the international stage.
Supporters play down his past as a four-star general before entering politics and his military family. His father, father-in-law and a son are, or were, soldiers.
The 9 April election results closely followed informal exit polls. The Democratic Party ran ahead of all in the crowded pack seeking power, winning 21.04 per cent of the vote.
Second was Megawati’s PDIP with 14.52 per cent, a whisker ahead of Golkar mustering 14.23 per cent.
With these results a coalition will have to run the 560-seat Parliament, known as the DPR. How that’s going to be engineered is the critical question, though this time round SBY can bargain from a position of strength.
Optimists say all this shows Indonesians have embraced democracy and are making it work. Those who don’t use rose-coloured glasses note only 61 per cent of the nation’s 171 million eligible electors bothered to vote and millions were disenfranchised through registration stuff-ups.
Fourth in the April election with 8.16 per cent was the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which kept its Islamic credentials in the background while campaigning hard against corruption. Liberals suspect the party has other agendas and were concerned SBY might pick his running mate from a party that’s against pluralism and women’s rights, and for Sharia law.
Instead SBY cannily selected economist and Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, who studied at the University of Western Australia and Monash, and later in the US. He was Minister of Finance during Megawati’s 2001 – 2004 presidency.
When introducing Boediono to the miffed PKS the president stressed his partner’s dedication to Islam ahead of his impressive financial skills.
Some PKS members reacted by shifting support to Kalla because SBY’s wife Kristiani, and Boediono’s wife Herawati don’t wear headscarves; the sub-text was that the men are poor Muslims unfit to run the country because they can’t control their wives.
Critics of SBY’s administration during the past five years often overlook the huge problems he faced and give insufficient weight to his skills in keeping the political system intact, the economy on course and the nation relatively safe.
In 2004 SBY campaigned for the nation’s top job with businessman Jusuf Kalla, thereby binding Golkar into the government. Golkar gave SBY the numbers on the floor of Parliament, but the compromises required eroded much of his authority.
Megawati, 62, is a lacklustre candidate famous for being aloof and believing she deserves to have the job again just because her dad was the country’s first president. She is widely regarded as being a tool of the military.
Kalla, 67, has been an effective vice-president in the past five years and was instrumental in settling the long-running civil war in Aceh. As a prominent businessman he gave the administration credibility with the big corporations. However he’s not a Javanese, and that’s a major handicap to winning the presidency. He’s also not trusted by the non-Muslims.
SBY, 60, has been unable to stop the imposition of some aspects of Islamic Sharia law in the provinces. These include forcing female bureaucrats and students to wear headscarves, banning alcohol, enforcing prayers and setting up community patrols to sniff out sexual naughtiness, though the Constitution appears to prohibit such local initiatives.
By contrast, and after decades of oppression, the media in Indonesia is now the freest in South-East Asia, robustly pushing the old barriers on a wide range of social and political issues.
Despite doomsayers claiming Indonesia would become another Pakistan as fundamentalism flourished, that hasn’t happened. The battle against terrorism, with significant help from the Australian Federal Police, has notched up many wins against the bombers.
SBY’s push against corruption has had limited success; pulling out the wallet remains the standard way to bypass stalling bureaucrats at all levels.
The judiciary is still a mess, continuing to use colonial Dutch law from early last century. The over-staffed public service remains a dinosaur sturdily resisting attempts to force change. Decentralisation has compounded the confusion. Outsiders trying to do business need to tread warily.
The economy has slumped, though not as much as expected and less than other Asian nations. Poverty and poor quality education remain major concerns, although there have been patchwork successes in improving the lives of those on Kampong Bleak.
The consensus, both inside and outside the Republic seems to be that SBY has made a reasonable fist of handling one of the world’s toughest tasks – and given the line-up against him is clearly the best bloke around.
There are two standout dangers: If he wants to divorce Golkar and get a workable majority in the Parliament, SBY may be forced to cohabit with the PKS and other minor Islamic parties. This could let the extremist tail wag the reformist dog.
The other concern is that the opposition parties frustrated at their inability to find candidates with popular appeal may combine to spoil SBY’s legislative program out of spite. Success here seems less likely; though the emotion is real they’ll find it hard to work together because so many are single-issue or policy-free parties that have yet to learn the arts of compromise.
(First published in On Line Opinion, Friday 5 June 09)
##
Sunday, May 31, 2009
CATS: NOT THE MUSICAL
Love me, love my feline © Duncan Graham 2009
Memo Indonesian women: So you think it would be cool to hook a Westerner? Make sure you first check his passion for pets, or your catch could turn into a catastrophe,
Successful inter-cultural relationships demand understanding, tolerance and patience in spades. These factors feature in mono-cultural marriages, though by comparison they have a walk-on role, they’re not the starring characters in the daily dramas of domesticity.
All the clutter of culture, from washing the dishes (Indonesians do this plate-by-plate in cold running water, Westerners in a sink of hot water), to the way the WC is used (no details required), can quickly eclipse the honeymoon.
But these are all hiccups compared to his and her attitudes to pets. Particularly cats.
Unless these issues are resolved early in the mating game the results can be cataclysmic. Sharing your partner with a puss can be the catalyst for a critical marriage moment. When he says: ‘Love you, pet’, who’s he addressing?
Cats have no status in Indonesia. There’s a score or more of scrawny crinkle-tail strays in our street in Malang and none seem to have a home, though some kind folk put out their scraps to keep the animals alive.
Others put out poison to try and get some peace from the caterwauling while unsterilized toms cruise for queens. One Tom Cruise, seeking sanctuary in a house with a foreigner, perished in the roof. It took weeks to get the stench out of the house, and several layers of paint to cover the ceiling stains.
In the West cats are pampered pussies. Harm a cat and the law gets its claws out. Catricide is an imprisoning offence.
If your neighbor buys a Mercedes you can be sure he or she is a veterinary surgeon, not a property developer or merchant banker. You can even get acupuncture for your pet.
Cats’ culinary needs are promoted on TV commercials with the hype and style of shampoo ads in Indonesia: ‘Added vitamins and factor X19 keep fur bright.”
Large sections of Western supermarket aisles (catwalks?), equal to the amount of space given to rice in an Indonesian shop, are dedicated to pussy products. These come in colored packaging with prices to match, and include hygienic kitty litter, collars with bells (so you can bell the cat despite Aesop’s fable), medication to cure every known condition, bedding and baskets, even jewellery.
These goods are all listed in a catalogue.
The latest gizmo is an electronic door that can only be opened by a cat with an implanted microchip. This restricts all but the owner getting access to the house and prevents strays coming in to watch an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical on TV or reading T S Eliot. The cat, of course, owns the house; the humans are only the occupiers.
The religious in Indonesia display holy book verses on their walls, little catechisms encouraging the Almighty to bless the building. Australians favor epigrams like: ‘A house is not a home without a cat.’ The Portuguese put it more bluntly: ‘A person who doesn’t have a cat is a scoundrel’.
Indonesian women who like to think they are the real ibu rumah tangga (boss of the household) seem to have problems with this arrangement beloved by bule (foreigners). Some wives get so worked up they turn catatonic. Others just become catty.
They imagine cats (the cleanest of God’s creatures) bring awful diseases into the house. Like cataracts and catarrh.
It’s true some breeds tend to shed hairs, claw carpets, clamber up curtains, vomit hair balls, steal the fillet steak while you’re answering the phone during dinner and bring headless rodents into the lounge as trophies to impress guests. However these are minor matters when compared to the benefits from being owned by a cat with charisma.
These include keeping the bed warm (better than an electric blanket, just purrfect), having someone to share your meal when you’re missing the missus, and playing with the mouse and pawing the keyboard when you’re lost for words.
In fact this By The Way should also include the catchline: ‘Additional reporting by Meow’.
(First published in The Sunday Post 31 May 09)
##
Memo Indonesian women: So you think it would be cool to hook a Westerner? Make sure you first check his passion for pets, or your catch could turn into a catastrophe,
Successful inter-cultural relationships demand understanding, tolerance and patience in spades. These factors feature in mono-cultural marriages, though by comparison they have a walk-on role, they’re not the starring characters in the daily dramas of domesticity.
All the clutter of culture, from washing the dishes (Indonesians do this plate-by-plate in cold running water, Westerners in a sink of hot water), to the way the WC is used (no details required), can quickly eclipse the honeymoon.
But these are all hiccups compared to his and her attitudes to pets. Particularly cats.
Unless these issues are resolved early in the mating game the results can be cataclysmic. Sharing your partner with a puss can be the catalyst for a critical marriage moment. When he says: ‘Love you, pet’, who’s he addressing?
Cats have no status in Indonesia. There’s a score or more of scrawny crinkle-tail strays in our street in Malang and none seem to have a home, though some kind folk put out their scraps to keep the animals alive.
Others put out poison to try and get some peace from the caterwauling while unsterilized toms cruise for queens. One Tom Cruise, seeking sanctuary in a house with a foreigner, perished in the roof. It took weeks to get the stench out of the house, and several layers of paint to cover the ceiling stains.
In the West cats are pampered pussies. Harm a cat and the law gets its claws out. Catricide is an imprisoning offence.
If your neighbor buys a Mercedes you can be sure he or she is a veterinary surgeon, not a property developer or merchant banker. You can even get acupuncture for your pet.
Cats’ culinary needs are promoted on TV commercials with the hype and style of shampoo ads in Indonesia: ‘Added vitamins and factor X19 keep fur bright.”
Large sections of Western supermarket aisles (catwalks?), equal to the amount of space given to rice in an Indonesian shop, are dedicated to pussy products. These come in colored packaging with prices to match, and include hygienic kitty litter, collars with bells (so you can bell the cat despite Aesop’s fable), medication to cure every known condition, bedding and baskets, even jewellery.
These goods are all listed in a catalogue.
The latest gizmo is an electronic door that can only be opened by a cat with an implanted microchip. This restricts all but the owner getting access to the house and prevents strays coming in to watch an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical on TV or reading T S Eliot. The cat, of course, owns the house; the humans are only the occupiers.
The religious in Indonesia display holy book verses on their walls, little catechisms encouraging the Almighty to bless the building. Australians favor epigrams like: ‘A house is not a home without a cat.’ The Portuguese put it more bluntly: ‘A person who doesn’t have a cat is a scoundrel’.
Indonesian women who like to think they are the real ibu rumah tangga (boss of the household) seem to have problems with this arrangement beloved by bule (foreigners). Some wives get so worked up they turn catatonic. Others just become catty.
They imagine cats (the cleanest of God’s creatures) bring awful diseases into the house. Like cataracts and catarrh.
It’s true some breeds tend to shed hairs, claw carpets, clamber up curtains, vomit hair balls, steal the fillet steak while you’re answering the phone during dinner and bring headless rodents into the lounge as trophies to impress guests. However these are minor matters when compared to the benefits from being owned by a cat with charisma.
These include keeping the bed warm (better than an electric blanket, just purrfect), having someone to share your meal when you’re missing the missus, and playing with the mouse and pawing the keyboard when you’re lost for words.
In fact this By The Way should also include the catchline: ‘Additional reporting by Meow’.
(First published in The Sunday Post 31 May 09)
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