The Thinker: Notes on a Downfall
One of the most important chapters in Indonesia’s history was written in May 1998, when nationwide protests demanded President Suharto step down from office. Students and intellectuals overran the parliament building. Elsewhere in Jakarta, there were violent riots, rampant looting and clashes between security forces and students. At some places, angry mobs attacked military and more »
The Thinker: A Questionable Prize for SBY
Many an accolade has been bestowed by foreign governments on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for his achievements creating a democratic Indonesia with robust growth, amid economic downturn in Europe and the United States. Millions of Indonesians are proud to have a leader widely respected by the international community, as attested by Yudhoyono’s receipt last month more »
The Thinker: Worrisome Voting
In less than a decade, Indonesia seems to have experienced a downfall in democracy. The alarmingly low voter turnouts in the recent two gubernatorial elections — under 50 percent in North Sumatra and 63 percent in West Java — may be an indication of something worse in next year’s general elections. This should come as more »
Karim Raslan: PKS Must Renew or Wither
Power corrupts. Just look at what it’s done to the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Founded in 1998 as the Justice Party (PK), it assumed its current moniker in 2003 and made a splash in 2004 when it won 45 seats in the House of Representatives. It bettered this in 2009, winning 57 seats in more »
Karim Raslan: Split Decision
Lining up patiently outside polling stations in their hundreds of thousands, they swamped the country’s Elections Commission’s preparations. All in all, 84 percent of those eligible to vote participated — or some 11,257,147 voters, by far the highest number ever recorded in Malaysia’s history. This was proof of the supreme importance with which the electorate more »
El Indio: Ballots and Bullets
One of the fundamental realities of life has been written in a religious book: that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Nor bread to the wise, nor wealth to the skilled. In other words, it often happens that those who deserve much get little. Or they get more »
Writer’s Block: Hypocrisy Rules
Looking at the endless shenanigans involving our leaders, politicians and those who are supposed to be our society’s role models, particularly in matters of power, money and sex, I’m inclined to add hypocrisy as part of our national culture, along with our other traits such as friendliness, being quick to smile and the inability to more »
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Anton Punkq: 
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Writer’s Block: Living the Good Life
To get a taste of the real Indonesia, sometimes one needs to get out of the concrete jungle and gridlock of the big cities and explore the less well trodden areas, not only to places where tourists venture to sample the local culture and tradition, but where the ordinary people live, trying to make a more »
11:59 am May 18, 2013No CommentRead More