Media Indonesia today has Hillary and Barack Obama on the front page. This is one of Indonesia’s largest national daily. The Rolling Stones, on the other hand, is making a case for Al Gore. Apparently, his favourability rating is still higher than Hillary. Personally, I like Hillary, but that’s because I had a major crush on her a while ago.
I’d still do Hillary, and I know I’m not the only one. Steve Young from Huffingtonpost said the same thing so i know i'm not really that strange.
The news around here this week is plastered with the mess in Poso. The police finally had enough of it and raided the small militant village, killing 11 people or so. Most of the international media coverage are busy highlighting the sectarian aspect of the conflict. While valid, that’s not necessarily true. The area have been ripe with violence for a few years now. These days, they were carrying M16 and semiautomatics, supposedly coming from Southern Philippines and other foreign lands. The successive governments have been neglecting the conflict for many years and in occasions, it almost looks like they’re letting it happen: armed conflicts between the various security personnel are just as common as those among the sectarian gang. Soldiers regularly got involved in spats (with panzers and machine guns) against the police, anti terror squads against special forces and other strange stuff.
Hendropriyono – head of BIN, the Intelligence agency – said on Wimar show last week that the militant groups are getting support and protection from politicians and other powerful people. He should know, this man put out a similar sounding uprising in Lampung during his days in uniform. It was pretty clear, the entire village was wiped out and we never heard from them again. Blah.
The other big item of the week is the constitutional riff raff. Gus Dur and other notable has beens were busy campaigning against the constitutionality of the 1945 Constitution Amendments. From what I gather so far, their case is pretty meek: most of it are on technicalities like the fact that the amendments weren’t registered with the State Gazette back then. I’m not a legal scholar, so I am not sure if really a constitutional amendment could be rendered invalid just because it wasn’t registered, but on the surface of it, it sounds like a lot of rubbish.
Of course, the main issue here is the fact that the Amendments established a direct presidential election: if the Amendments were invalid, then – according to them – the elections were invalid (parliament, president, regionals, the whole thing). This opposition (old generals, old ladies, old presidents, etc) is getting louder and louder, especially since the palace is really being impressively stupid in the handling. They seriously need some spinning help.
On the other front, the Prez just declared we no longer need the CGI and people are busy getting pissed off at the IMF once again. I’m not sure why that is even interesting anymore.
That’s it for now, I need to get back to work.
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Friday, December 8, 2006
SBY Takut Istri?
So he announced that he just took on another wife. I don’t watch much terrestrial channel but apparently it was all over the place, the two wives going on rounds of press conferences and all.
Now the President is considering a revision to the polygamy law.
Frankly, at first, this was all a non-starter for me. A religious figure decided to remarry, so what? If anything, I feel it was totally irresponsible of him to be so publicly apologetic. He admitted that it was a hard decision to make and he probably wasn’t setting the best of examples and the public – all several hundred millions of them who listens to what he says every day – are free to choose another, better example.
I failed to comprehend that. It’s silly.
If you don’t think it’s wrong, why apologise? And if you sincerely think you’re an unsuitable leader, then for the love of God, vacate the news space already! Dismiss yourself. Have some dignity. You can’t suggest that your followers follow someone else and at the same time arrange for massive media coverage over the whole thing. It’s bizarre.
But back to the President, his reaction was even more mind boggling. According to several very verifiable sources inside the Presidential household, Mrs. President has been giving her husband a hard time for this stuff. The First Lady sympathises with first wives everywhere and quite simply, light a dynamite in the presidential bottom. Figuratively speaking, of course.
Within the last week, the President and his staff have been very busy investigating and holding important meetings with various lobbies to see how he could possibly advance this issue. All sorts of smart people turned up at the palace to contribute and what was a cheapish tabloid gossip is quickly taking shape as an entirely different animal.
This is now the green Moslem lobby against the liberal-secular lobby (and their wives). Prominent figures are quick to frame the polygamy question as yet another attack into religious freedom and the secular group are touting the virtues of the modern world.
The President moves quickly and rides the momentum with little hesitation. Fully anticipating a resistance in the parliament, he’s getting a Presidential Decree (not requiring parliamentary approval) to ban all public servants from polygamy.
For a President with little legislative support, he sure knows how to the quick votes.
Well, what do I have to say about all this?
Not much really, except that it is sad that the President is finding this sort of stuff to be more important than actually trying to run the country.
But I’m currently single and I don’t have an irksome wife in the kitchen, so who am I to speak?
Now the President is considering a revision to the polygamy law.
Frankly, at first, this was all a non-starter for me. A religious figure decided to remarry, so what? If anything, I feel it was totally irresponsible of him to be so publicly apologetic. He admitted that it was a hard decision to make and he probably wasn’t setting the best of examples and the public – all several hundred millions of them who listens to what he says every day – are free to choose another, better example.
I failed to comprehend that. It’s silly.
If you don’t think it’s wrong, why apologise? And if you sincerely think you’re an unsuitable leader, then for the love of God, vacate the news space already! Dismiss yourself. Have some dignity. You can’t suggest that your followers follow someone else and at the same time arrange for massive media coverage over the whole thing. It’s bizarre.
But back to the President, his reaction was even more mind boggling. According to several very verifiable sources inside the Presidential household, Mrs. President has been giving her husband a hard time for this stuff. The First Lady sympathises with first wives everywhere and quite simply, light a dynamite in the presidential bottom. Figuratively speaking, of course.
Within the last week, the President and his staff have been very busy investigating and holding important meetings with various lobbies to see how he could possibly advance this issue. All sorts of smart people turned up at the palace to contribute and what was a cheapish tabloid gossip is quickly taking shape as an entirely different animal.
This is now the green Moslem lobby against the liberal-secular lobby (and their wives). Prominent figures are quick to frame the polygamy question as yet another attack into religious freedom and the secular group are touting the virtues of the modern world.
The President moves quickly and rides the momentum with little hesitation. Fully anticipating a resistance in the parliament, he’s getting a Presidential Decree (not requiring parliamentary approval) to ban all public servants from polygamy.
For a President with little legislative support, he sure knows how to the quick votes.
Well, what do I have to say about all this?
Not much really, except that it is sad that the President is finding this sort of stuff to be more important than actually trying to run the country.
But I’m currently single and I don’t have an irksome wife in the kitchen, so who am I to speak?
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Open Letter to Mr. SBY
Andi Malarangeng – the presidential spokesperson - wrote in this week’s Tempo about the merit of direct voting for parliament members. The President is campaigning to change the law so that in the next election we will be voting for individuals directly as opposed to a party-assigned rank of priority.
The campaign starts early. It’s embarrassing that the President even has the time for this stuff. This is the world’s third largest democracy, the first directly elected President after 60 years of independence (include 40 odd years of ruthless tyrants and abundance of chaos to fill in the gaps). For the very first time in its history, this country – all 280m people of it – has the chance to choose their own leader. For the first time in its history, too, these people can say whatever they want, almost wherever they want. The first time in almost ten years, that the unruly mob keeps to their senses and participated in the politics of it.
For the first time, the President wields some political capital and credibility to spare and convince that he was there to lead.
And he spends his time to woo the National Female Caucus for female votes. Direct votes for individuals will get him more votes from the female candidates (female nominees tend to be assigned to lower priority by the parties) and likely to help his party by the occasional celebrity-cum-politician allies. The Party holds too few seats in the Parliament and he’s forever humbled by the seemingly all powerful Vice Presidents. With all due respect Mr. President, he stands barely to your shoulder.
Dear Mr. President,
You’ve a cabinet member, a Social Welfare Minister (also one of Forbes richest men) who is currently displacing some 20,000 people in the largest man-made national disaster ever. Social Welfare. Is that an inside joke?
Your shorter Vice President is ordering tax free choppers for fun.
You’ve a judicial reform that couldn’t manage to pick 12 honest judges for Supreme Court.
You’ve a Justice murdering tycoon granted with the largest sentence reduction in the judicial history of the country. And you gave him $1.5bn right out prison.
You’ve a human rights activist killed in a national carrier eating airplane food. Qantas wasn’t that bad.
You’ve entire forests burn in flames, world’s largest ecological disaster happening in your very own backyard. Do you even smell that?
You’ve a food crisis in the world’s fifth largest nation. You’ve the poorest farmer in all farming nations. Do you know that?
You’ve coalition partners shagging B-list celebs on regular basis and this is the good news.
Sure enough, inflations are in single digits and we’ve new huge malls and fewer people are murdering each other and I actually have a regular income, but to float the boat is hardly a promise that we will ever get anywhere at all.
Dear Mr. President,
You’ve 280m people that already voted for you and election is still quite a while away.
You’ve an illiterate ex-president grandma and blind men for your nearest competition.
You’ve a country full of people that wait.
You’ve a Presidential spokesperson with the ugliest grin and cheap tie to do your cheap campaign for the cheap votes.
You’ve a country full of people that are very tired of waiting.
Dear Mr. President,
You were elected by the people, in the largest direct democratic election in the history of all democracies.
You promised them a future.
In return, they get the rude assurance not to ever fall backward.
That was the best that they could ever hope for.
Democracy at its best, institutionalised mass delusion.
The very best trick the devil ever pulled.
I’ll be damned if I were to give you my vote.
Ever.
Please, at the very least, do tell Mr. Malarangeng to stop grinning and get a better tie.
The campaign starts early. It’s embarrassing that the President even has the time for this stuff. This is the world’s third largest democracy, the first directly elected President after 60 years of independence (include 40 odd years of ruthless tyrants and abundance of chaos to fill in the gaps). For the very first time in its history, this country – all 280m people of it – has the chance to choose their own leader. For the first time in its history, too, these people can say whatever they want, almost wherever they want. The first time in almost ten years, that the unruly mob keeps to their senses and participated in the politics of it.
For the first time, the President wields some political capital and credibility to spare and convince that he was there to lead.
And he spends his time to woo the National Female Caucus for female votes. Direct votes for individuals will get him more votes from the female candidates (female nominees tend to be assigned to lower priority by the parties) and likely to help his party by the occasional celebrity-cum-politician allies. The Party holds too few seats in the Parliament and he’s forever humbled by the seemingly all powerful Vice Presidents. With all due respect Mr. President, he stands barely to your shoulder.
Dear Mr. President,
You’ve a cabinet member, a Social Welfare Minister (also one of Forbes richest men) who is currently displacing some 20,000 people in the largest man-made national disaster ever. Social Welfare. Is that an inside joke?
Your shorter Vice President is ordering tax free choppers for fun.
You’ve a judicial reform that couldn’t manage to pick 12 honest judges for Supreme Court.
You’ve a Justice murdering tycoon granted with the largest sentence reduction in the judicial history of the country. And you gave him $1.5bn right out prison.
You’ve a human rights activist killed in a national carrier eating airplane food. Qantas wasn’t that bad.
You’ve entire forests burn in flames, world’s largest ecological disaster happening in your very own backyard. Do you even smell that?
You’ve a food crisis in the world’s fifth largest nation. You’ve the poorest farmer in all farming nations. Do you know that?
You’ve coalition partners shagging B-list celebs on regular basis and this is the good news.
Sure enough, inflations are in single digits and we’ve new huge malls and fewer people are murdering each other and I actually have a regular income, but to float the boat is hardly a promise that we will ever get anywhere at all.
Dear Mr. President,
You’ve 280m people that already voted for you and election is still quite a while away.
You’ve an illiterate ex-president grandma and blind men for your nearest competition.
You’ve a country full of people that wait.
You’ve a Presidential spokesperson with the ugliest grin and cheap tie to do your cheap campaign for the cheap votes.
You’ve a country full of people that are very tired of waiting.
Dear Mr. President,
You were elected by the people, in the largest direct democratic election in the history of all democracies.
You promised them a future.
In return, they get the rude assurance not to ever fall backward.
That was the best that they could ever hope for.
Democracy at its best, institutionalised mass delusion.
The very best trick the devil ever pulled.
I’ll be damned if I were to give you my vote.
Ever.
Please, at the very least, do tell Mr. Malarangeng to stop grinning and get a better tie.
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