A Lesson in Contrasts

There is a weird backstory behind this article. I sent this thing during Idul Fitri and didn't hear anything about this. Then I found out that the article was actually published under Jamil Maidan Flores and later wrongly corrected to Oei Eng Goan.

Mr. Jamil Maidan Flores himself was kind enough to send this email to the editor:

I just noticed (just a minute ago) that on the internet edition of the Jakarta Globe, there is an article that appeared under my name that is titled "A Lesson in Contrasts" and datelined 04 September. It's a great article, I agree with its contents and I wish I had written it, but I did not. That means that the real author has been inadvertently done an injustice and I am depending on you and the Jakarta Globe organization to make the proper rectification and amends. Warmest regards.

Well, I would chalk this out under the "things you accidentally did when you were in a hangover after gorging yourself silly during Ramadhan."

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A Lesson in Contrasts
Yohanes Sulaiman | September 04, 2012

Among many Indonesians, Jews and Israel are seen as public enemy number one. Many discussions on the rapacity of capitalism end up with blaming Jews. They are seen as the masters of capitalism, the hands behind the United States’ policy on Indonesia and the source of all evils currently besetting Indonesia. 

This idea gained support during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad declared George Soros and other speculators to be the culprits of the currency crisis and financial turmoil of 1997. When the crisis ended up toppling Suharto in 1998, many Indonesians bought the idea: There was a global conspiracy, paid for by the Jews, to undermine Indonesia, which, not incidentally, was and is the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. 

Jews and Israel are the ultimate bogeymen, for those who buy the conspiracy. They occupy Palestine, treat the Arabs and the Palestinians inhumanely, and thus should be the enemy of all Muslims, the theory goes. 

A recent incident would seem to confirm that belief. Last month, Jamal Julani, an Israeli Arab from East Jerusalem, was on his way to meet a friend when he was savagely beaten by a bunch of Jewish teens. The police said about 10 to 15 youngsters were involved in the beating. 

What happened after that, however, should give pause. The Israeli police did not beat around the bush, bluntly stating that it was a hate crime. In the next few days, the police arrested seven teens suspected of involvement in the beating. Within a few days, an Israeli court indicted nine teens for their involvement in the beating. 

In the meantime, Israeli politicians rushed to condemn the beating. President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly condemned it, with the latter stating that: “In the state of Israel, we are not prepared to tolerate racism. … This is not our way. … We will quickly bring to justice those responsible for this reprehensible incident.” Israeli schools engaged in soul searching, trying to figure out what had gone wrong within the education system. 

No excuse, no justification for the youths’ despicable act. It was considered a crime, plain and simple. 

The handling of the Sampang incident in Madura, however, is a study in contrasts. The police failed to protect the Shia community, even though there had already been two attacks on it. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Alie, while condemning the attack, also played down the seriousness of the incident, calling it a “family conflict.” 

He also publicly proclaimed Shia to be a deviant sect, bringing into question his seriousness and impartiality in handling the incident. Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, having visited Sampang to investigate, also decided there wasn’t much going on. 

In the meantime, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) declared the Sampang incident to be a communal conflict. 

Arguably the only bright spot in the entire incident was President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s expression of regret over the violence, berating the intelligence services for their failure to detect the attack and calling for stern punishment against the perpetrators. 

At least the president was acknowledging the fact that there was something bad going on in Indonesia, unlike his usual silence on attacks against minorities, such as the ongoing persecution of the Ahmadiyah and church closures such as those of GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia. 

Indonesia has claimed to be the most tolerant nation in the world and has fought for Palestinian rights against Israeli imperialism. However, its handling of the Sampang incident is pathetic compared with how Israel, which Indonesia has always seen as the biggest violator of human rights, handled the Jamal Julani incident. 

Indonesian lawmakers should consider paying a visit to Israel to learn how to handle communal conflicts. It would be money well spent.

Want to Stop the Annual Mudik Road Carnage? Push Development in Areas Outside Jakarta

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Want to Stop the Annual Mudik Road Carnage? Push Development in Areas Outside Jakarta
Yohanes Sulaiman | August 28, 2012

The Transportation Ministry stated last week that there were 4,333 traffic accidents during this year’s mudik season, leaving 760 people dead and 5,308 injured, while causing Rp 8.33 billion in damages. By Monday the death toll had risen to 820. 

The police blamed the high number of accidents and casualties on many motorists’ disregard for traffic regulations, which is not surprising considering that it is also estimated that 1,548 of those people who were involved in the accidents did not have a driver’s license. At the same time, the government is blamed for not providing adequate alternative modes of transportation. 

All of this ignored one big problem: the inequality of economic growth throughout Indonesia. 

This year it is estimated that 8.3 million people left Jakarta to return to their hometowns in Central and East Java. While officials in Jakarta have consistently tried to prevent more people from moving to the already overburdened city, they are fighting a losing battle. 

Like it or not, people will keep coming to Jakarta as long as Jakarta remains the center of our national economy. 

In 2010, for instance, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Jakarta contributed roughly 16.31 percent of the national gross domestic product. That means that the GDP of Jakarta alone was slightly larger than the GDP of entire province of East Java and twice as big as the GDP of Central Java. 

With such an economic concentration in a very small region, it should come as no surprise to anyone that people will flock to Jakarta in the hopes of improving their lives. They then will return to their hometowns during mudik season. With so many people on the road, it should not be any wonder that traffic accidents will increase, especially considering the poor condition of the roads and the ignorance of many people when it comes to proper road etiquette and basic knowledge of the law. 

While better transportation infrastructure and driver education would help decrease the number of accidents, a much better policy is needed to bolster economic growth in the other parts of Java that are the destinations of the annual exodus. In order to do that, the government has to improve the transportation infrastructure. 

Because of massive traffic jams, horrible road conditions, the lack of deep-water harbors to ship products, red tape and what is perceived as a lack of legal protection outside of Jakarta, it is only natural for industries to gravitate to Jakarta. The capital has better transportation infrastructure and is where people can find better jobs. 

While the government is planning to increase the budget for infrastructure spending by 14.9 percent in 2013, bringing it to Rp 193.8 trillion (approximately $20.3 billion, and 11.6 percent of the budget), such an increase is long overdue, and considering the current state of Indonesia’s infrastructure, would probably be inadequate. 

What the government needs to do is to encourage more private investment in transportation infrastructure and labor-extensive industries, especially outside of the Jakarta region. To do that, however, the government has to develop a strong, united and coherent economic policy, trim the bureaucracy, streamline labor laws and business permits, and ensure investors that even in the outlying regions, they will not suffer from the greed of unscrupulous local officials. 

More important, the government needs to show commitment in upholding the law and eradicating corruption. Sadly, the government has been burying its head in the sand in the past few years. 

While President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono keeps voicing his displeasure over his government’s poor performance in boosting economic growth, his inaction in the light of a recent fight between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police has done little to generate public trust. 

Actions speak louder than words. As long as Yudhoyono is unable to translate his rhetoric into action, investors will remain jittery over what they perceive as Indonesia’s lack of seriousness in upholding the rule of law. And they won’t have the desire to invest far from the capital’s city limits. 

Thus Jakarta will keep having its traffic jams, and the annual death toll from mudik will keep increasing.

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Pelan2

3:10pm Aug 28, 2012

Pak Yohanes - on the spot again - too bad that SBY does not read your snippets when they are published.

With the electoral system presently in force, no capable independent Indonesian will come forward to lead. Presidential candidates will be the "has beens" - brought up through the political parties, which are all ridden with corruption, and if elected, they are faced with the "payback issue" to those political parties that backed him/her during the run-up to the election. Rather disappointing that 250 mill Indonesians have to choose between a bunch of handpicked "crooks" instead of getting fresh, forward thinking Indonesian candidates. One "small" hope though, is that Jokowi steamrolls over Fauzi Bowo in the DKI-1 election on Sep. 20th and that he will later move on to the national stage - last hope I would say..

jchay

3:57pm Aug 28, 2012

Move the capital city out of Jakarta, give more incentive for investors, get rid of non-performance and corrupt Bupati.. c'mon Indonesia, it's 2012. Be smarter voters or else you're shooting your own foot!

bajajbutut

7:11pm Aug 28, 2012

At the end of the day, I think it's up to the motorists to start looking after ourselves. Accident can occur anywhere, anytime. I really think it's the people mentality, their driving style and their disregard to road safety that account more to road accidents than anything else.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:31am Aug 29, 2012

Thank you all for your comments.

@Pelan2: To be frank, I am probably one of few people who actually look at Jokowi skeptically. Yes, he is a lesser of two evils, but dunno, I think he is way overhyped, and when he could not deliver due to the huge problems that Jakarta face, then expect s**t hits the fan. I wish him the best though.

@Jchay: the idea of moving capital out of Jakarta has actually been broached as early as in 1910s(?). Bandung's "Gedung Sate" was supposed to be the new Dutch Governor General palace. So, don't think it will happen anytime soon (unfortunately).

@Bajajbutut: agree, but that does not address the root cause of the mudik phenomena itself. Still, you are right that the driving style in Indonesia is atrocious and I blame it to the lack of law enforcement with the police ready to look elsewhere when they are offered some incentives.

zerodiversity

9:20am Aug 29, 2012

Pak Yohannes made a good point but I am done thinking that SBY would do something about the problem. From now till 2014 SBY would be more interested to negotiate on ways to consolidate his power after his term is done. He would not put the country interest first.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

10:33am Aug 29, 2012

@zerodiversity: I agree. The next two years will be power consolidations. There are some rumors about him trying to groom a young minister in his cabinet to be his successor (not Hatta), so I don't think there will be any major breakthrough in respect of anything in the next two years. (You might notice that this piece is more of an analysis than the usual "exhortation.")

Pelan2

10:56am Aug 29, 2012

@Yohanes - noted your reservations about Jokowi, maybe you are right. However, if he wins by a huge margin, at least that would show that he has the majority of Jakartans behind him which would give him a good mandate to govern and the political parties should be very careful not to put "the breaks on" keeping the 2014 elections in mind.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

11:29am Aug 29, 2012

@Pelan2: I don't discount the impact of a landslide to his ability to get things done. That will be a good wake up call to a lot of Indonesian politicians and the corrupt oligarchy that support them. At the same time, however, this might also inspire his political opponents to try to make his life hell, in order to ensure that he won't be a viable candidate for higher office. Moreover, people tend to be impatient for someone who they believe as Messiah, and thus when he cannot deliver in his first or second years, expect things to turn ugly. Still, I do sincerely hope that my misgivings are misplaced in this case.

zerodiversity

2:29pm Aug 29, 2012

Don't expect too much even if Jokowi-Ahok did manage to win the election. There are too much problems piled up in Jakarta and the bureaucracy is too much to expect Jokowi to perform miracles. If Jokowi manages to show us his determination for changes and small but concrete steps towards making improvement, I will say he is a good enough leader.

As for the yearly mudik problems, I am surprised that we are already going into 2013 and there is still no express toll road from Jakarta to Surabaya. Connecting the entire java island would have indirectly improved the traffic condition in Jakarta tremendously. I believe the main reason we don't have a connected java island is because too many people want a share of the big profit the project would have given.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:14am Aug 30, 2012

@Zerodiversity: Corruption is probably the only reason for this lack of express toll road. I believe that there was a company planning to invest in a toll road a couple of years ago, but they decided to pull out once they found out that the total bribes that they had to pay would have already at least doubled the original estimate of investment needed to build the toll road.

TheSplodge

10:22am Aug 30, 2012

@All

It would be interesting to have a break down of deaths caused by accidents to see where the majority of problems lie.

I, for one, would be surprised if the vast majority of deaths and injuries were not to motorbike riders. If that is the case, surely one way to lessen the awful carnage would be to ban all motorbikes from leaving the city, especially the 'bebeks'. Since Jakarta bikes have a 'B' on the license plate I can't imagine it would be very difficult to enforce.

I realize that this does not solve the problem of how to get hundreds of thousands of Indonesians back to their kampungs but saving around 6000 people from being killed or injured must surely be the higher priority.

zerodiversity

10:39am Aug 30, 2012

@Pak Yohannes

I agree, the government and bureaucracy here is a farce and disgrace to the country. Those so-called "government people" think only of themselves and how much money they can siphon off the country. I am not surprised foreign and private companies refused to invest money in toll road projects because of the huge amount of 'grease' money they have to pay

devine

3:38pm Aug 30, 2012

Pelan2; my guess is that SBY actually reads the snippets... but does not understand them...

Nullify

3:43pm Aug 30, 2012

Country Corruption indices such as Corruption Perception Index etc are made and published yearly to aid potential investors in their feasibility studies. Ignore these indices at your own perils.

Let Us Embrace and Celebrate Our Diversity

Okay, I don't know why or how, but they totally butchered my article into a pile of nonsense. You can compare the differences between the original version and the published version here.
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Original version:

Let Us Embrace and Celebrate Our Diversity
Yohanes Sulaiman | August 16, 2012

When Indonesian founding fathers proclaimed the independence of Indonesia on August 17, 1945, they envisioned a strong united state, where the diversity of the populations, the various ethnicity, religions, races, and social classes became the pillars of the new young nation.

This idea is further crystallized by Mohammad Hatta, who recalled a particular episode that happened in the late afternoon of the Proclamation Day. He was visited by an officer of the Japanese Navy and Mr. Nishijima, an assistant to Rear Admiral Tadashi Maeda. The two Japanese gentlemen brought up the concerns from the population of the Eastern Indonesia, the majority of who were Christians and Catholics.

The main concern of the Eastern Indonesians was that the new country might start from the wrong foot, by putting in the idea of Islamic law (Shariah) in the preamble of the Indonesian Constitution. While technically the Shariah wouldn’t apply to them, the presence of the Shariah in the preamble signaled that the new Indonesian nation was going to favor one religion only.

Hatta, realizing the danger of creeping sectarian problem that in the end would undermine the unity of the young nation, decided to have a meeting with Ki Bagus Hadikusumo, Wahid Hasjim, Mr. kasman Singodimedjo and Mr. Teuku Hasan, all of them were influential representatives of the Moslem community. In the end, they were agreed to replace the problematic part of the Preamble with simply “Unity in One God.”

The event surrounding the change of the wording is still under debate to the present day, and was seen as controversial especially for those advocating the implementation of Islamic law in Indonesia. Yet, it is clear that for the Indonesian founding fathers, the interest of the nation as a whole was far more important than their own narrow interests, and they could not simply sacrifice idea of a united independent Indonesia nation on the altar of their egoism.

President Sukarno also approved this idea of a united nation, where the diversity of the nation is seen as something to be celebrated, rather than something used to break the nation apart. As he argued powerfully in his speech in front of the Eight Conference of the Baperki (back then, a Chinese Indonesian association, seen as close to the Indonesian Communist Party) that:

“Why should I demand an Indonesian of Chinese descent who wants to become an Indonesian citizen to change his name? …No! That’s a private affair. Religion is also a private affair, and I don’t interfere in that. What I want is for us to be truly Indonesians. We become true citizens of Republic of Indonesia.”

Therefore, it is saddening to see that sixty seven years after the proclamation of Indonesian independence, the issue of sectarianism has not diminished. Instead, irresponsible politicians and their supporters seem to enjoy stoking the issue of race and religion as a way to advocate their narrow political interests at the expense of the interests of the nation as a whole.

The irresponsible use of the issues of ethnicity, religions, races, and social classes would undermine the integrity and stability of Indonesia’s democracy. Rather than seeing elections as a referendum to judge whether an incumbent was a competent guardian of public trust or as an arena to test and promote idea and programs, elections are now being turned into “scaremongering events,” that electing a certain candidate would bring down the wrath of God or the opposite candidate would turn into a “Manchurian Candidate,” doing the bidding of a certain narrow interest group to destroy the nation.

Our founding fathers would shed tears, seeing decades of their works to create a united nation enriched by the diversity of its population are wasted by people with narrow interests, people who prefer to sacrifice and destroy the unity of the nation for their own selfish short term political goals and narrow interests.

It will be useful to use the celebration of the sixty-seventh anniversary of the Indonesian Independence as a time of reflection to see how far astray this nation has gone from the ideals of our founding fathers and try to go back to the path of putting national interests above selfish narrow interests of our own.

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Butchered version:

When Indonesia’s founding fathers proclaimed independence from the Netherlands on Aug. 17, 1945, they envisioned a strong, united state, where the diverse population would be the pillar of the new nation. 

This idea was crystallized by Mohammad Hatta, who recalled being visited on Proclamation Day by two men, an officer from the Japanese Navy and the assistant to Rear Adm. Tadashi Maeda. They raised concerns about the people of eastern Indonesia, many of whom were Protestants and Catholics. 

The main concern was that the new country might start on the wrong foot by putting in the idea of Islamic law in the preamble to the Constitution. Realizing the danger of creeping sectarianism, Hatta met with Ki Bagus Hadikusumo, Wahid Hasjim, Kasman Singodimedjo and Teuku Hasan, all influential representatives of the Muslim community. All agreed to simply use the phrase “Unity in One God” in the preamble. 

It is clear that for Indonesia’s founding fathers, the interests of the nation as a whole were far more important than their personal interests, and they did not sacrifice the idea of a united, independent Indonesian nation on the altar of their egoism. 

President Sukarno embraced a diverse nation as something to be celebrated, rather than something to be used to break the nation apart. 

As he argued in his speech at the Eighth Conference of the Consultative Body for Indonesian Citizenship (Baperki), a Chinese-Indonesian association: “Why should I demand an Indonesian of Chinese descent who wants to become an Indonesian citizen to change his name? … No! That’s a private affair. Religion is also a private affair, and I don’t interfere in that. What I want is for us to be truly Indonesians.” 

It is saddening today to see that the issue of sectarianism has not diminished. Our founding fathers would shed tears, seeing decades of their work wasted. 

The 67th anniversary of Indonesian independence should be a time of reflection. In the spirit of our founders, let’s try to get back to putting national interests above narrow self-interest. 

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masmon2

3:35pm Aug 16, 2012

Good article Yohanes - the country seems to take more steps backwards than forwards in the areas that you discuss.

This is all the result of weak government and greed having gone unchecked for so long.

The country desperately needs leaders that will work to educate, inspire and motivate people towards excellence. The starting point should be the education system, but when education funds are plundered by the authorities or the very schools they are intended for one has to ask when will change ever occur.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

4:04pm Aug 16, 2012

@masmon2: thanks for your kind comment. I am afraid the changes won't come until people got fed up and throw out the bums. Though, I see the Jokiwi's victory is a much needed jolt to the status quo, that people who believe that they could simply rely on "nasi bungkus" and big parties' support got their comeuppance in the last round. Still don't think he will be the silver bullet who can solve everything.

 

Complacent Govt Can Do Much More to Shake ‘Failed State’ Tag

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Complacent Govt Can Do Much More to Shake ‘Failed State’ Tag
Yohanes Sulaiman | June 29, 2012

The late independence activist Mako Tabuni in Jaypura in an undated file photo. 'While the Indonesian government is trying to improve the economy to prevent social breakdown (and sliding into the category of failed state), it does a bad job in actually addressing the root cause of the failure, notably extremism and violence due to its own passivity or incompetence. The examples of the latter were especially glaring in recent weeks, during which there were several reports of police misconduct. In Papua, the controversial shooting of Tabuni on June 14 led to unrest and mysterious shootings. Regardless of Mako’s guilt or innocence, the situation would not have deteriorated had the police acted with restraint that considered the already-volatile environment there.'

A debate has been sparked by the publication of the latest Failed State Index, which placed Indonesia in the “warning” category, meaning the country is in danger of becoming a “failed state.” Its rank worsened marginally, from 64th in 2011 to 63rd this year.

Despite that, the indicators in general are positive, with Indonesia’s score actually decreasing from 81.6 in 2011 to 80.6 in 2012 in the study compiled by the US-based think tank Fund for Peace in collaboration with Foreign Policy magazine.

This means that the overall situation of the country improved slightly with progress in almost every sector, especially the economy.

On that topic, the report noted that economic development had improved, the poverty level was declining and gross domestic product was increasing. There’s still a long way to go, but any gains on the economic side, especially sustained across five years, is good news.

History shows us that the collapse of states and the rise of religious and nationalist extremists to power are almost always preceded by economic collapse. With the moderates discredited in many parts of the world due to failed economic policies, radicals and extremists with utopian, “pie in the sky” solutions become attractive to desperate populations hoping to escape economic hardship.

This is especially true in Indonesia, where regime changes have historically been preceded by economic crisis. The falls of presidents Sukarno and Suharto happened after economic conditions worsened. But as many analysts noted, the Failed State Index report found that social indicators were showing stalled progress. The report notes ongoing problems in infrastructure development, demographic pressures and “an increase in protests, harassment and violence against religious minorities. The government’s ability to curb violence between groups has been limited.”

While the government is trying to improve the economy in order to prevent social breakdown, it does a bad job in actually addressing the root cause of the failure, notably extremism and violence due to its own passivity or incompetence.

The examples of the latter were especially glaring in recent weeks, during which there were several reports of police misconduct. In Papua, the controversial shooting of independence activist Mako Tabuni on June 14 led to unrest and mysterious shootings. Regardless of Mako’s guilt or innocence, the situation would not have deteriorated had the police acted with restraint that considered the already-volatile environment there.

Elsewhere, police in Serang, Banten, landed in hot water over the false arrest, kidnapping and torture of Jumhani, a fried-food seller. Not long after that, Twitter was abuzz with the story of Jakarta policemen who allegedly attempted to blackmail a woman by declaring that her allergy medicine was some sort of illegal substance.

These three are currently the most glaring examples of police’s misconducts that did nothing to inspire people’s confidence on the police force, and by extension, the government itself. Not surprisingly, pundits have a field day, pinning all blames on the Indonesia’s worrisome rank squarely on President Yudhoyono.

While it is probably unfair to put all blames on President Yudhoyono’s shoulders, the fact is that the Yudhoyono presidency did nothing but to raise the popular expectations during the last elections. Thus, when the government is seen as actually passive, unwilling to tackle the law enforcement reforms and to address the growing evidence of corruption within its ranks and the ruling party, the blowback was swift, with the trust to the government rapidly declining.

This feeds the narrative of Indonesia as a failed state. The claim, while unfair, is the result of the government’s inability to control violence caused by either hard-line organizations or from within the ranks of its own law enforcers.
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padt

2:34pm Jun 29, 2012

The root causes of a failed state don't only lie in failure to deal with extremism and violence and the passivity of the government refusing to deal with it.

A failed state will always be based also on money politics.

Indonesia will become a failed state if it turns out that the indecisive SBY has all the time been a 'distracted' SBY - more intent on creating a political dynasty and feathering his families nest.

The ruckas in the Democratic Party would indicate that there is every possibility that this will prove to be the case.

The connection?

It's SBY's Party and they do his bidding. A fish rots from it's head down.

SBY is looking more Mugabe-ish every day.

Pelan2

4:02pm Jun 29, 2012

Yohanes & padt - SBY has been politically blackmailed since day one of his presidency, unfortunately, by a certain "towkay" from Golkar. It got worse when he "lost" control of Partai Democrat when Anas was elected chairman instead of Andi M. Since then it has only gone downhill as those who are stabbing him in the back are only interested in furthering their own cases and have no regard or interest of the poor kids singing songs near the traffic lights instead of being educated at proper schools and contribute to the growth of the country at a later stage.

ambiga

4:17pm Jun 29, 2012

Disagree with fail state tag. export,investment, economy growth the only 3 countries grow more than 6%. Look at china, 2 points better than Indonesia, as failed state while bailing out Europe already failed states. Plenty of expats looking for jobs in these two failed states.. you can't justify as fail state cause of extremism or hard line religion fanatics. The best weapon against hardline fanatics is Freedom and economy growth, indonesia has that. to compare with Malaysia, where none a single politician ever steps into court tells so much about rule of law in that country.

jchay

5:04pm Jun 29, 2012

@Pelan2: excuses after excuses, SBY is President RI, the number 1 person in Indonesia, chosen and elected by majority votes of Indonesians, what else he needs?! He didn't loose control, SBY literally "sold" his control to PKS PAN Golkar etc when he chose to do "politik dagang sapi". Failed government, not state.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

8:19am Jun 30, 2012

@ambiga: I've discussed what you said in the article. My argument is that economy helps, but only to the extent of not keeping tension boiling and does not address the root cause of violence which is lack of trust in legal system, due to incompetence, lack of training, law enforcement, etc. When econ goes south (which will always happen) without trust in legal system, things will blow up.

Other commenters, padt and jchay had also put their fine 2cents.

Pelan2, there are ways to break the jam but SBY sadly doesn't have political will to do so.

DrDez

12:36pm Jun 30, 2012

22 - Once again you place money as the pinnacle above all else - your holy grail if you will to be gained at any cost, and fail to understand what this report is about when says failed state -

Instead you use cheap quips backed by your incessant underlying racism to say what? Nothing.

You are devoid of any original thought and fail on a daily basis to construct a tenable argument relying on deflection, racism and plagiarism or more often than not pure incoherent drivel - you are an embarrassment to whatever nation you call home.. Truly you are.

padt

3:26pm Jun 30, 2012

Yohanes-Sulaiman - economic growth without accompanying developments in human rights, transparent and accountable government, rule of law and order and an honest judiciary who give verdicts without fear or favour - are all necessary - unless you want to head for a failed state which Indonesia is heading for.

And that's my 'two cents' worth in a country where human life and dignity are treated cheaply by the elite minority running - or ruining - the show.

TalkingEid

5:41pm Jun 30, 2012

DrDez - he fails in exactly the same way that Indonesia does - inability to get along with others, intolerance, placing money as the only measure of success, lack of education etc etc etc - he should get an award "Symbol of Indonesia".

ambiga

8:23pm Jun 30, 2012

Dez,With your 19th century union mentality you will always view businesspeople as the enemy rather than as risk takers and job creators. I don't think there really is much hope, especially with a mentality as yours if you were in government, those risk takes and job creators put billions of dollars in here based on only one point, rule of law. If those people believe in the rule of law indonesia provides to guarantee their money while getting good returns ,to give you one simple example,lion air local company has huge leverage with foreign banks that believe in Indonesia market and rule of law, why these small percentage of hard line extremists becoming an issue to put indonesia as fail state? as i said before, the best way forward to get rid of these extremists is FREEDOM and Economy growth, i believe indonesia has and will be going and marching forward in that path. It may take bit of time to trickle down but results are there. Pancasila guarantees all but atheist.

DrDez

8:53pm Jun 30, 2012

Keep up the denial 22, keep up the racism itr just makes you look a total tosser

1. There is no rule of law or certainty for investors

2. You again fail to see why we are on the verge of a failed nation - I'm sorry you cannot as you and your peers are probably RI's tomorrow

3. Freedom... Now you are just having a laugh

4. Cheap shot at non religious people just shows your immaturity and ignorance

I welcome clear debate on any of the above points

marko1

7:14am Jul 1, 2012

22 its the lack a credentials that inhibits the reform. Rice farmer one day Then becomes law maker.

DrDez

9:03am Jul 1, 2012

Talking... I fear you are correct, Greed is the true religion and it is worshiped at any cost

Enough of this anyway - its hard to fill a bucket with holes in, and even harder when someones stolen the bucket

Valkyrie

9:21am Jul 1, 2012

ambiga aka 22 aka lapinda

In this country ..."a bit of time" is equivalent to decades.

What rule of law are you spouting about? There's no rule of law here. Only money to grease your enterprise through. KKN is at it's height right now and continues to spiral upwards at a fast pace..

Do you own a business here? I don't think so.

Dez, some others and myself included, have identified ourselves. What about you?