Jakarta (The King of Pop, Idle threats,Tehran, the Indonesian Police)

This is IT.

Well…  in case you have not heard the news Michael Jackson is dead. All the news channels are covering the event ad nausuem. I am certain, in short order, the news will filter to as far as Kalabahi on Alor island or to Wetar island where the Wetar Ground-dove coos way down the chain of the Malay Archipelago.

Fox News reported that:

“News of Michael Jackson’s death yesterday caused the largest spike in SMS traffic in our network history,” AT&T Wireless spokeswoman Jeannie Hornung told FoxNews.com. “Nearly 65,000 texts per second were sent as fans reached out to each other to share the sad news.”

And…

“Yahoo! News set a record in unique visitors with 16.4 million UV’s in a day,” Yahoo spokeswoman Carolyn Clark told FoxNews.com. “Our previous record was on Election Day when we had 15.1 million visitors. Yahoo! News had 4 million visitors come to the site between 3-4 p.m. [PDT Thursday], setting an hourly record.”

For sure, by this time tomorrow the news will have circled the globe hundreds of times over.

As I watched the ever continuing news coverage I was reminded by one commentator of how we are all just like Michael Jackson- from the richest potentate to the poorest kampung dweller we will all it up covered in a white sheet hauled off the whatever our final resting place is.  A comforting thought indeed.

Still, while our necks which are attached to our heads are turned to look at the passing wreck in other news North Korea threatens to wipe the United States off the face of the earth in a “shower of fire”.

Do they really believe this? This come while a U.S. Navy destroyer shadows an NK cargo ship carrying small arms to the democratic loving regime of Myanmar. No doubt the NKs are dangerous but it seems an awful lot like putting a few rocks in a tin can and trying to make as much noise as possible all the time screaming  out “hey, look here, we’re dangerous.”

Then there is Tehran. Ahmadinejad today compared Obama to Bush.  Laughable. The man and his regime are clearly mentally ill. The world has seen the video of the tragic death of Neda Soltan. The Iranian government alternately has accused the CIA of killing her and of the British Broadcasting Company of having arranged her death so that they could film it. Currently her family is not to be found.

What is clearly remarkable about the Iranian situation is how clear the Internet and cell phones are contributing to the truth rising above the madness of the lies Iranian government is telling.

This is, apparently, where an Islamic Republic will get you. An oligarch of grey beards who values money and power above the Holy Quran.

The Internet and cell phones played an important role in the 1998 student demonstrations in Jakarta but it has been over ten years since this took place and the technology is cheaper and much more wide spread now.

As this opinion piece which appeared in the Jakarta Post recently indicates…

Iran elections, Prita Mulyasari and Internet freedom

Bonni Rambatan , Malang | Fri, 06/26/2009 1:10 PM | Opinion

On May 13 this year, Prita Mulyasari was sued by Omni International Hospital for defamation and was sent to prison for expressing her opinions online, an action many would consider stifling free speech.

Thousands of people, largely Internet-literate youth, took to Facebook and the blogosphere and rallied for her freedom, after which she was released from prison and placed instead under city arrest to await her trial.

Exactly one month later on June 13, the Islamic nation of Iran entered what has largely been called its worse period of civil unrest in over a decade following the release of election results.

Communication within the country was crippled, with phone lines and many IP addresses blocked. People worldwide signed petitions and voiced support for the protesting Iranians via cyberspace.

The protest movement in Iran have been widely dubbed a “cyberwar” as people offer support to the Iran opposition by providing new venues of free speech, including new proxies for the protesters, baiting fake Iranian identities to government authorities, leaking documents, setting up anonymous forums, and so on.

Regular updates of the situation on the ground that would never have made it to media outlets such as CNN instead emerged through grassroots sources such as Twitter.

Through this technology, people worldwide could follow the unrest virtually in real-time while on YouTube, amateur videos of the protests, complete with the shaky camera angles and sounds of violence, reached our computers.

While it is true that the significance of the Iranian election protests far dwarfs the case of Prita, one should never be so easy to dismiss one case in favor of another, as each provide insight into the current state of society.” go to article…>

Iran is a very  computer literate nation. Seventy percent of the population is below the age of thirty. Iran is also a nation of bloggers, there are 60,000 in Tehran alone.

In Tehran there truly is a Twitter and a Facebook revolution. While there are those who do disparage social networks and “don’t have time for them” Iran has shown how very useful they can be. Apparently they are hard to shut down short of total electrical blackouts.

Here the immediate brutality of the police and government have been reported not in days or hours or minutes but in seconds.

Which brings me to the slow motion of the brutality of the Indonesian Police. No YouTube or Twitter moments here. Yet.

The AFP reports:

Torture ‘widespread’ in Indonesia: Amnesty

By Stephen Coates – 1 day ago

“JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesian police commonly beat and torture people in custody and offer better treatment in exchange for money and sex, Amnesty International said in a report released.

The human rights organisation demanded the Indonesian government acknowledge the problem and end the culture of impunity that allows police to act as if they are above the law in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

The report, “Unfinished Business: Police Accountability in Indonesia”, found that the police were particularly brutal to the most vulnerable and marginalised people, such as drug addicts and women.

“Amnesty International’s report shows how widespread the culture of abuse is among the Indonesian police force,” the organisation’s Asia Pacific deputy director, Donna Guest, said.

“The police’s primary role is to enforce the law and protect human rights, yet all too often many police officers behave as if they are above the law.”

The report cited the case of 21-year-old sex worker Dita, who was arrested in 2006 and described being sexually abused on the way to the police station.

“I was arrested with five or six other prostitutes. On the way to (the station) they were grabbing me and touching me saying, ‘You’re so young, why aren’t you in school?’,” she was quoted as saying.

At the station the women were told they could buy their freedom with 100 dollars or with sex.

“Three of the girls agreed to have sex with them. I point blank refused to do either. Our pimps have paid them enough already,” she said.

Abuses meted out included shootings, electric shocks and beatings, sometimes for days on end, the report said.

“The suspects often received inadequate medical care for the injuries they received as a result of torture and other ill treatment,” Amnesty said.

“In some cases detainees had to pay for treatment after police abused them, and received inadequate medical care from police medical institutions.”

The report, based on interviews in Indonesia over two years, said police frequently sought bribes from detainees in return for better treatment or lighter sentences.

“At a time when the Indonesian government and senior police figures have made the commitment to enhance trust between the police and the community, the message is not being translated into practical steps,” Guest said.

“Too many victims are left without access to real justice and reparations, thus fuelling a climate of mistrust towards the police.”

Most police do not even know of, let alone follow, the force’s code of conduct which forbids abuse, she said.

Victims’ complaints were not impartially investigated and opened the plaintiff to further abuse, especially if they were still in police custody.

Amnesty recommended the government acknowledge and condemn the problem but no police or government officials attended the launch of the 84-page report.

It is the second report from a major international rights group to condemn torture in Indonesia this month.

US-based Human Rights Watch said on June 5 that torture and abuse of prisoners in a jail in Indonesia’s sensitive Papua region is “rampant.”

The United Nations has reported that Indonesian police routinely torture and beat suspects in custody.

Indonesia is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture but it has no corresponding law against the practice.

The UN special rapporteur for torture visited Indonesia in 2007 and found that police used torture as a “routine practice in Jakarta and other metropolitan areas of Java”.

A decade of political and institutional reform after the fall of the military-backed Suharto regime in 1998 has not left its mark on the police and prison system, analysts say.”

I would argue that the violence on the streets of Tehran is not so much different that the violence on the streets of Jakarta.

We are caught between sensational pop news,  the lies of violent governments whose only intent it to perpetuate their grip on power, and histories which we do not care to address in polite company.

Time to fire up the cell phone camera.

Shine a light.

Jakarta (Selamat hari ulang tahun!)

Kampung Betawi

Happy 482nd birthday, Jakarta!

Of course it is all made up. I think Jakarta is actually older that 482 but it is not nice to ask an old lady her age. When asked she is bound to cut a few years off what she knows to be her real age.

Or, on the other hand, Jakarta might be much younger than she looks- like the song goes, “her name was McGill but she called herself Lil but everyone knew her as Batavia…”

But let’s face it, when you’re old you’re old and give or take a hundred years does not amount to much.

Either way its nice to have a birthday and to be remembered.

Being born on June 22 places Jakarta in the sign a Cancer. The Cancer horoscope for the week comes from Rob Brezsney’s Free Will Astrology.

And how very appropriate!

Cancer Horoscope for week of June 18, 2009

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

“We ask that you not divulge the climax of the epic story to anyone — at least until you’ve let it sink in for a while and felt all the reverberations it has unleashed. After that, you’ll be wise to speak about it only with skilled listeners and empathetic allies who can help you harvest the meaning of all the clues that were packed inside your adventures. One further counsel: Before you reach the absolute, final denouement of the drama, there may be a tricky turn that looks a lot like the ending.”

Hey, don’t ask me why but I love you Jakarta.

I know you are old, decrepit, overworked, run down, and have changed your name a few times over the years. Your arteries are clogged and you are frequently incontinent. You are in need of a long hot shower and should pay more attention to your dental hygiene. Maybe try to quit smoking, or at least cut down a bit. Don’t hang out at the mall so often and try to pick some nicer boyfriends for a change.

You deserve better than what you are getting.

Hey, remember that Sukarno fellow? He wasn’t all that bad.

I hope the next 482 years will be as interesting as the last.

Jakarta (the legacy)

I have posted Tom Allard’s excellent reporting from the Sydney Morning Herald here in full. This is just a small part of the Indonesian puzzle. There is Timor, Ache, Trisakti, and Semanggi… Ambon and Kalimantan…  There are just too many cockroaches of the Soeharto era to stamp out.  Some are even prominent politicians.

Starting here would be a good thing.

Survivors … Sumini and Anwar Umar. Photo: Tom Allard

From the Sydney Morning Herald, June 13, 2009

Indonesia unwilling to tackle legacy of massacres

Tom Allard Herald Correspondent in Jakarta

MOST Thursday afternoons, octogenarians Sumini and Anwar Umar take a bus from their homes in Jakarta’s suburbs to the city centre and set up camp outside the presidential palace in the city centre.

They join a smattering of other elderly Indonesians. Each of them are victims of the brutal crackdown on leftists that wracked the country from 1965 to 1966. The massacre of about 500,000 people, and imprisonment without trial of about 1 million others, ranks as one of the worst mass killings of the 20th century.

Yet this meagre, if heartfelt, protest each week across the road from the offices of the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is testament to the ambivalence many feel about the slaughter and its inability to reconcile the actions of the perpetrators, the military and vigilante groups from Indonesia’s mass Islamic organisations.

The spark for the bloodletting was the failed coup in 1965,which began with the abduction and murder of six generals but lasted barely one day.

Crushed by an obscure general, Suharto, who would later become a long-standing dictator, the forces behind the coup remain a subject of debate.

But, with the support of the United States and the acquiescence of Australia, the army began a propaganda campaign that blamed the treasonous uprising on the Communist Party, then a major force in society.

Whipping up a frenzy of anti-communist hatred before it launched its killing spree, members of the Communist-linked Indonesian Women’s Movement, or Gerwani, were accused of cutting off the genitals of the generals. The women, so the reports went, then took part in a sexual orgy with Communist cadres and sympathetic air force officers at the very place the bodies of the generals had been thrown into a well.

Sumini was a member of Gerwani, living in Central Java and working as a kindergarten teacher. She remembers the propaganda campaign. “I did not believe it,” she said. “Gerwani was good … Its statutes said we should help the illiterates, children from poor families.”

It was a couple of months after the failed coup that Sumini was detained by an army officer and sent to prison, along with her sister and cousin. It was another 10 years before she was released.

“I remember my sister being stripped and electrocuted,” she said.

Mr Anwar, who was a secretary-general of a civil servants union, spent 12 years in prison. He, too, was electrocuted, beaten with a chair and fists. The worst thing, though, was being separated from his family.

They had no idea what had happened to him, but remained ostracised for his affiliation with the union movement. Three of his children had died – including one who committed suicide – before his release.

Like all those identified as leftists, Sumini and Mr Anwar were unable to get work after their release, their identity papers marking them as former political prisoners.

Even so, compared with other victims, Mr Anwar and Sumini got off relatively lightly.

The mass killings were particularly gruesome. Some were lined up and shot by the military. Many more were beheaded, garrotted or had their throats slit by Islamic militias with knives or machetes.

“It was done face to face,” says Greg Fealy, of the Australian National University. “It’s not like the mechanical process that the Nazis had, or Pol Pot’s farms [in Cambodia].”

Mr Fealy will be among about 30 academics who will congregate in Singapore next week for the biggest conference ever held on the massacres.

It is perhaps instructive that the conference is not being held in Indonesia and that most of the participants are not Indonesians.

Despite some steps towards accounting for the events of 1965 and 1966 after the fall of Suharto, Indonesia’s efforts to undertake a detailed official investigation into the coup and its aftermath have been stillborn.

The Parliament set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after Suharto was deposed, but it never got off the ground after Mr Yudhoyono failed to appoint delegates and the Constitutional Court ruled it unlawful.

The highly sanitised history of the period taught at schools was briefly abandoned in 2004.

But the old texts, depicting the events as a patriotic campaign that resulted in less than 80,000 deaths, were reintroduced in 2006 following protests by Islamic groups and the military. The offending text books from 2004 were burnt.

Katherine McGregor, a University of Melbourne academic and the convener of next week’s conference, said there remained a lack of political will from the highest levels to tackle the legacy of the massacres.

As the Indonesian scholar Asvi Warman Adam notes, Mr Yudhoyono’s father-in-law, Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, was the military officer who led the killings in Central Java.

Jakarta (mini-poem)

Because the world has entered the final age

the best are unwilling to remain in it for long.

Their duties completed, they quickly depart this earth

Aiming for the heavens.

They fear to be corrupted by the poisons of the Age of Kali.

-Purwa Senghara Pupuh XXXIII, verses 46-47

Jakarta (Manohara Odelia Pinot part 2, CRUSH MALAYSIA! and An Indonesian Con)

Teenage US-Indonesian model Manohara Odelia Pino, seen here, has returned to her family in Indonesia. Photo: AFP

It appears that Indonesian – Malyasian relations are falling on hard times. No since the good old bad old days of CONFRONTASI! and CRUSH MALYASIA! have things been at such a low ebb.

First, there is the Manohara Odelia Pinot case. If any of it turns out to be true (and there is no reason to think it is not true) then the Malaysian government (and the Indonesian government as well) has much to account for regarding this case.

As you may remember or not Ms. Pinot was whisked away in the private jet of her husband while visiting Saudi Arabia. Kidnapped, in other words, and taken back to Malaysia where AFP reports she  was drugged, raped, and viciously abused.

“JAKARTA (AFP) — A teenage US-Indonesian model has returned to her family in Indonesia with tales of abuse, rape and torture at the hands of a Malaysian prince, after her dramatic escape with the help of Singapore police.

Manohara Odelia Pinot, 17, told reporters she was treated like a sex slave after her marriage to Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of Malaysia’s Kelantan state, last year.

Her mother, Daisy Fajarina, said she would press charges against the 31-year-old prince, and blamed the Malaysian and Indonesian governments for trying to cover up the alleged abuse.

“The things I’ve been afraid of were revealed to be true. Manohara has suffered physical abuse. She’s got several razor cuts on her chest,” Fajarina told AFP on Monday.

“No parent could be silent if their child was treated in such a barbaric way.”

The Malaysian government had ignored her pleas for access to her daughter and had blocked her from entering the country, she said, while the Indonesian embassy had said that Manohara was fine with her new husband. go to article…>

Apparently the Singpore polic helped her to escape this madness. Hopefully her Prince of a husband will find himself  locked up in a Malaysian jail.

Second, is the Asia Sentinel reports:

A research-rich Celebes Sea block spurs a confrontation between two navies

“An unlikely naval confrontation has broken out between Indonesia and Malaysia, with warships from the two nations challenging each other repeatedly in the disputed oil-rich waters of the Celebes Sea east of the island of Borneo this week.

Indonesian navy officials told local media their ships were minutes away from firing on Malaysian warships, which they charged were 12 nautical miles inside Indonesia’s territory. However, they said, they called off the attack when the Malaysian ships pulled back.”  go to article…>

All of this action took place before the Pinot escape.  But it IS an odd priority (or not) that Indonesia would lock and load over a potentially rich gas and oil field rather than for the sake of one its citizens who was kidnapped and tortured.  Such is t he way of the world these days. I would expect as much from my own government.

However, the recent news that is really striking and apparently not well reported is the Indonesian con of the Sultan of Brunei.

As reported by the Straits Times…

Brunei ruler is con victim

“Jakarta – The Brunei Sultan has lost 20 billion rupiah (S$2.8 billion) to a group of Indonesian con men posing as officials from Indonesia’s presidential palace, according to police here.

Commissioner General Susno Duadji, the chief of the National Police criminal investigation unit, put an end to days of speculation by confirming over the weekend that the victim was indeed Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

Gen Susno added at the media briefing that the con men did not speak directly to Sultan Bolkiah. ‘They talked only with the Sultan’s adjutant, who was called from Jakarta,’ he said.

Officials at the Brunei Embassy in Indonesia could not be reached for confirmation, as their offices were closed yesterday.

At least 32 foreign and Indonesian officials fell victim to the gang, said Inspector-General Hadiatmoko, Gen Susno’s deputy.

The local media, including The Jakarta Globe newspaper, said the con men pretended to be presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng and even President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself when they asked for money, ostensibly to help fund election campaigns.

The victims were asked to deposit the funds into various bank accounts opened under the name of the public figures to make the scam look convincing. The funds had been frozen and would be returned to the victims, said Gen Susno.

So far, 13 people had been arrested, but two, including the mastermind, were still on the run. go to article…>

Who says we do not live in interesting, it not entirely frivolous and wholly ridiculous, times?

Apparently it all has worked out. Ms. Pinot is damaged for life but free, Indonesian warships held their fire (this time), and the master mind is still at large with the Sultan of Brunei’s pocket money.

Jakarta (Map of the Invisible World)

Map of the Invisable World is the new novel by the Malaysian writer Tash Aw.  Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian-Chinese parents and grew up in Kuala Lumpar.  His previous novel The Harmony Silk Factorywon the 2005 Whitbread First Novel Award and a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel, and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

Map of the Invisible World has been recently reviewed by Ziauddin Sardar in The Independent (Friday, 8 May 2009) and writes,

“…Gently, and ever so slowly, we are led into 1960s Indonesia and Malaysia, the two countries struggling with independence, fighting the communists and each other.

In the forefront, we have Adam’s quest to find Karl: a Dutch Indonesian artist who has stayed after independence to help rebuild the new country. He adopts the orphan Adam who is distinguished by his “neutral Indo-Malay features”. They live on the Indonesian island of Perdo, shrouded in legends and myths. Karl’s distaste for colonialism is so strong that he bans Dutch in his house: “it’s the language of oppression”. One should not grow up absorbing the culture of a country that has colonised one’s own. “We are independent now; we need our own culture.”

On one level, Map of the Invisible World is about how postcolonial culture is shaped, how histories and memories collide to produce a new synthesis. The emerging construction is not free from xenophobia or anti-colonial sentiments; both become important components of the new national culture. Karl is seized largely for his pink skin as Dutch colonial administrators are repatriated. Even Indonesia’s aggressive stance towards Malaysia, the policy of Konfrontasi, is projected as an attempt to shape a distinctive cultural identity.

But Malaysia and Indonesia, with the same language and so much of their history and customs in common, are like two siblings. Aw shows us how the two countries took different routes…”

There is the character of Din.

“…Din longs for the authentic Indonesian culture free from colonial gaze; and plans to write a “secret history” of the “lost world” of Bali. Aw handles both political upheaval and the personal trauma it generates with considerable skill and verve. However, his real talent is for description. His prose is vividly lyrical; and one can almost feel the heat and smell the sweat of Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. But sometime the descriptions become burdensome: Jakarta is not just grey but its greyness acts as a cataract to cloud the city. Eventually, they get the better of a narrative which peters out towards the end. Adam’s quest, to our disappointment, turns out as rather insignificant.

Map of the Invisible World consciously echoes the novels of the late, great Pradoedya Ananta Toer, who chronicled Indonesia’s struggle against the Dutch and the turmoil of the emerging nation. Clearly, Aw has bags of talent. But he has some way to go before he can match the genius of the Master.”

Of course Toer is the Master but Tash Aw offers us here something new in the continuing dialog. Tash Aw is certainly finding his voice.

What was interesting to me is that Jakarta itself plays a role in the novel as stage and backdrop to Sukarno’s revolutionary Indonesia. Here there is a sense of turmoil, of working things through, a sense of the history everyone was caught up in.

Here are a few excerpts from Chapter 14.

‘No! That is the point- Malaysia does not exist!’ Din shouted suddenly, his head jerking. ‘Malaysia’ – he pronounced it as if speaking a foreign language, his voice squeaky, like a child’s… ‘Ma-lay-sia is a British construct! It is a work of pure fiction, created by the old Imperialist countries to destablise Indonesia and all the newly independent countries of the world. It was created so Britain and America and their cronies can continue to have a presence in the region, but I tell you, their time is finished, finished! We will invade them and crush them, all those Malaysian puppets. They look like us and even speak our language- but they do not know they are being used. This is why we beat them in the Thomas Cup: They are not masters of their own destiny. We are.’

Here is Jakarta (in part).

“There were a dozen people in the wood-and-tin shack that stood at the far end of the collection of flimsy structures that formed a courtyard. They were on the edge of a sprawling shantytown bordering Kebon Jeruk, where the houses seemed solid and at least semi-permanent, built more from timber than pieces of rusty corrugated iron: they would at least weather this rainy season, and maybe also the next one. Deeper in this labyrinth, away from the tarmac roads and running water, the houses were a patchwork of salvaged scrap: flatted oil drums, biscuit tins, fragments of tarpaulin, splintered lengths of wood, torn mosquito nets- anything that would bring momentary respite from the rain and the sun. But even here, on the fringes of the kampung, Adam had seen a tiny house with walls made from bits of advertising boards. In front of this house a young woman was fanning a wood-fire that refused to light properly. Next to her was a small child, a girl, no more than three or four years old, naked except for a dirty ribbon in her hair; she looked up at Adam as he walked past and retreated shyly into the shade of the house. There was no front door, just a gap in the walls that read

…KES YOU TEN TIMES STRON …MOUS ALL OVER THE WORLD, NOW AVAI…

‘Of course these houses will not last very long’, Din shrugged, ‘but they can be quickly rebuilt. We are a strong, practical people, remember’, he said.”

Sukarno Speaks… The Revolutionary Z

“…There was a moment of near-complete silence; they could not hear even the faintest crackle of static from the radio. In the distance there was a baby’s cry, a thin wail that started and then stopped; there was no other noise from the slums around them… …No one moved. And then the voice began speaking in a tone that at once was urgent and measured. He had never heard a voice like this before: rich with calm strength and intonations that seemed both foreign and familiar. He felt a hot surge running through his body, filling his head with a sudden, giddy excitement he could not explain…

‘…fellow country men and revolutionaries, the twentieth century has been a time of terrific dynamism, but also great fear. Yes, we are living in a world of fear. The life of man is corroded and made bitter by fear- fear of the future, of the hydrogen bomb, of ideologies, of everything, but especially of the loss of man’s safety and morality. Perhaps this fear is a greater danger than the danger itself, because it is fear which drives men to act foolishly, to act thoughtlessly…’

‘…nowadays to hear people say, “Colonialism is dead.” Let us not be soothed or deceived by this. I say to you, friends and fellow revolutionaries, that colonialism is NOT dead. How can it be, so long as vast areas of Asiaand Africa are not yet free? I beg you no to think of colonialism only in the classic form which we in Indonesia have known- it is a skillful and determined enemy that warps, virus-like, into its modern form of economic and intellectual control…’

‘…the Indonesian Revolution has become a rocky mountain shooting fire amidst the ocean of mankind’s struggle to build a new world free of explotation of man by man, free of exploitation of nation by nation. My fellow revolutionaries, there is a phrase in Italian, Vivere Pericoloso. This mean, To Live Dangerously. Yes, my brothers! You have understood me. For Indonesia and every other country that strives to be free, this is the Year of Living Dangerously. It is our duty a revolutionaries to do so.’

…I will not allow the enemy’s foot to step upon the proud rampaging Indonesian Bull. It is no longer time to be conciliatory. Our revolution has foes everywhere. We have a duty to attack, to destroy every power, whether foreign no not, native or not, that endangers the security and the continuation of the revolution.’

Z shifted in her seat. ‘I don’t like the tone of this’, she said. Her brow was only troubled by a frown, but it was enough of a signal for the other to start a debate:

‘The country is starving – let’s fight expensive wars with the Americans!’

‘What a convenient excuse to suppress anyone who dares to oppose him!’

‘Revolution? What Revolution? He has no ideology. Listen, listen…’

‘…I know a science that is efficacious, namely Marxism. As you know, I am a friend of communists because communists are revolutionary people, and I am a friend of all revolutionary people, whatever their cause, be it religion or ideology…’

Z spoke again, more firmly this time. ‘This man is unbelievable. He has no idea what Marxism is. It’s just a word he’s heard. He wants to keep everyone happy but he can’t do so any longer. He shouldn’t be allowed.’

‘As I wrote in my satirical epic poem in last month’s Z’, said the long haired poet. ‘our dear President has supplanted the State in controlling the means of production in a classless society.’

‘It makes me so angry’ someone else added, ‘because the economics and demographics of Indonesia would make it an ideal communist state. That’s what my thesis is all about.’

So, Tash Aw has in Map of the Invisible World, written a novel well worth exploring. In part it asks:  Indonesia, where is your history? 

I think Indonesia needs a novelist like Tash Aw to answer that question.

Indonesia, where is your history? In Suharto’s mass graves of East Java, Bali, and Sumatra?  In this darkness is your history shut out from your own eyes?

Jakarta (Shadow Play)

Sukarno: Image: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS – Photographer: Bert Hardy – Date Photographed: April 1949

The Jakarta Indonesia Urban Blog will soon be moving from Hilo, Hawaii to Hololulu, Hawaii. We’re packing up the house, the library, and the cats and moving to the big city. Although I have to admitt that  Hilo is to Honolulu what Honolulu is to Jakarta, if you follow that logic. Nevertheless, Honolulu is a city.

I will be attending graduate school at the University of Hawaii – Manoa and will focus on urban geography, with a particular emphasis on my beloved city of Jakarta. I am looking forward to the move.

I also thank you for your continued support in visiting this blog.

Postings will be rather sporadic through the summer but there is enough here on this blog to keep anyone busy who might be  interested in Jakarta.

I am currently reading two biographies of Sukarno. The first is Sukarno: An Autobiography, As told to Cindy Adams, published in 1965 by Bobbs-Merrill. A  most interesting read. Sukarno’s voice is both precise, candid,  and clear in the text. This is a book I highly recommend because you can feel just how full of life Sukarno is. He is not afraid of his faults nor of his love of Indonesia.

The other book is Soekarno: Founding Father of Indonesia, 1901-1945 written by Bob Hering and published in 2002 by Koninklijk Instituut Voor de Tropen. Which explains the spelling of Sukarno’s name. This is a closely written academic type of book and quite exhaustive in its documentation. It’s sort of the flip side of the Cindy Adams book but well worth reading as it fills in Sukarno’s glosses.

Properly his name is spelled as “Sukarno” and not “Soekarno.” “Soekarno” being the the Dutch spelling of the name. Although, even Sukarno admitts himself that he often signed official state documents using the “Soekarno” spelling.  The old colonial habits were and are  hard to quit.

Both books are  posted as Book(s) of the Week.

This coming June 6 is Sukarno’s birthday. My intent here is to write and reflect a bit on this most remarkable man.  If there had been no Sukarno there would be no Indonesia.

I thought I would start by sharing a few video clips.

The following clips are from the documentary Shadow Play  of the production company Hilton Cordell, by Vagabond Films, produced by Sylvie Le Clezio and Chris Hilton, directed and wirtten by Chris Hilton, with the original music by Scott Saunders and narrated by Linda Hunt.

Synopsis

“In Indonesia, on 30 September 1965 a group of President Sukarno’s guards murdered six generals who were anti-Communist. General Suharto blamed the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). Suharto grabbed power and set up death squads to murder up to a million accused Communist sympathisers. The documentary traces the events from 1965 to today. Archival film is used together with interviews and re-enactments.”

September 30 is still a date in Indonesian history which even the Indonesians have yet to fully come to terms with.  This is a topic I would like to explore in future posts.

Clip 1: Sukarno

“Reviews the background and leadership of President Sukarno, leader of Indonesia from 1949 to 1965. He had led the independence movement after the Second World War and embraced communism while preaching religious tolerance as a means to unite Indonesia’s various ideologies and religions.”

done

Clip 2: ‘Not a Slaughter’

done

Clip 3: When a coup is a transfer of power

done

Jakarta (kicking ass on the mean streets of Jakarta)

Merantau…  coming to a movie screen near you…

The story goes something like this:

“In Minangkabau, West Sumatera, Yuda a skilled practitioner of Silat Harimau is in the final preparations to begin his “Merantau” a century’s old rites-of-passage to be carried out by the community’s young men that will see him leave the comforts of his idyllic farming village and make a name for himself in the bustling city of Jakarta. After a series of setbacks leave Yuda homeless and uncertain about his new future, a chance encounter results in him defending the orphaned Astri from becoming the latest victim of a European human trafficking ring led by the wildly psychotic, Ratger and his right-hand man Luc. With Ratger injured in the melee and seeking both his “merchandise” and bloody retribution, Yuda’s introduction to the city is a baptism of fire as he is forced to go on the run with Astri and her younger brother Adit as all the pimps and gangsters that inhabit the night hound the streets chasing their every step. With escape seemingly beyond their grasp, Yuda has no choice but to face his attackers in an adrenaline charged, jaw-dropping finale.”

Or, as Twitch has it: “Nearly Three Minutes Of Extreme Ass-Whuppery!”

Just what Jakarta needs, ya?

But can he save Manohara from the evil Malaysian Prince? Will he help SMI become VP? Can he poke Probowo in the eye? Or whip Wiranto for his misdeeds? Have tea and cookies with Megawati? Kick Kalla all the way to Kediri?

I suddenly see the Jakarta streets alive with the followers of Silat Harimau.

Merantau is both written and directed by Welsh born filmmaker Gareth Evans. The film is presented by Pt. Merantau Films and opens in theaters in Jakarta, Indonesia in August later this year.

The official Merantau web page is here  go to site…>

A short cultural primer…

Minangkabau

“The Minangkabau–who predominate along the coasts of Sumatera Utara and Sumatera Barat, interior Riau, and northern Bengkulu provinces–in the early 1990s numbered more than 3.5 million. Like the Batak, they have large corporate descent groups, but unlike the Batak, the Minangkabau traditionally reckon descent matrilineally. In this system, a child is regarded as descended from his mother, not his father. A young boy, for instance, has his primary responsibility to his mother’s and sisters’ clans. In practice, in most villages a young man will visit his wife in the evenings but spend the days with his sister and her children. It is usual for married sisters to remain in their parental home. According to a 1980 study by anthropologist Joel S. Kahn, there is a general pattern of residence among the Minangkabau in which sisters and unmarried lineage members try to live close to one another, or even in the same house.

Landholding is one of the crucial functions of the female lineage unit called suku. Since the Minangkabau men, like the Acehnese men, often merantau (go abroad) to seek experience, wealth, and commercial success, the women’s kin group is responsible for maintaining the continuity of the family and the distribution and cultivation of the land. These groups are led by a penghulu (headman). The leaders are elected by groups of lineage leaders. As the suku declines in importance relative to the outwardly directed male sphere of commerce, however, the position of penghulu is not always filled after the death of the incumbent, particularly if lineage members are not willing to bear the expense of the ceremony required to install a new penghulu.

The traditions of sharia and indigenous female-oriented adat are often depicted as conflicting forces in Minangkabau society. The male-oriented sharia appears to offer young men something of a balance against the dominance of adat law in local villages, which forces a young man to wait passively for a marriage proposal from some young woman’s family. By acquiring property and education through merantau experience, a young man can attempt to influence his own destiny in positive ways.

Increasingly, when married couples merantau, the women’s roles tend to change. When married couples reside in urban areas or outside the Minangkabau region, women lose some of their social and economic rights in property, their social and economic position becomes less favorable, and their divorce rate rises.

Minangkabau were prominent among the intellectual figures in the independence movement of Indonesia. Not only were they strongly Islamic, they spoke a language closely related to Bahasa Indonesia, which was considerably freer of hierarchical connotations than Javanese. Partly because of their tradition of merantau, Minangkabau developed a cosmopolitan bourgeoisie that readily adopted and promoted the ideas of an emerging nation state.”

 

Jakarta (Sri Mulyani Indrawati for VP)

 

Sri Mulyani Indrawati

In Economic Dynamism of Asia in the New Millenium: From the Asian Crisis to a New Stage of Growth(Advanced Research in Asian Economic Studies),Yoshinori Shimizu (Editor), 2007, appears an essay written by Ms. Indrawati, “Indonesian Economic Recovery Process and the Role of Government”. In this essay of the economic recovery of Indonesia at the 1997-98 economic crisis she concludes:

“Indonesia’s painful political transition is likely to remain a dominant factor affecting the sustainability of economic recovery. The effectiveness of the government in implementing economic programs and reform is highly dependent on support of the parliament and the capacity and the credibility of the new government. Major handicap lies in the weak institutional foundation in the area of politics, law (including basic constitution), and bureaucracy. Alleviation of these institutional problems requires persistent and consistent effort.

Realistically, even under the best cabinet formation in the government, a longer time will be needed for the new government to be able to fix the economic destruction and to create significant improvement. This is because, in the past four years, many opportunities were forgone. Even worse, problems emerged that further aggravated the burden and risk to the whole country. While building strong, effective, but accountable institutions will take some time, the explosion of problems can happen any time. Even with full support of parliament members in execution of difficult policies, the risk of failure is not trivial. These are seriously daunting tasks. Despite their size, Indonesia has no other option but to triumph over them.”

Here in a concise few paragraphs is, I believe, Ms. Indrawati’s poltical and economic philosphy.  She has maintained, through out, the best interests of  Indonesia. She clearly understands that no matter the “daunting tasks” that Indonesia faces that there is ”no other option but to triumph over them.”

In her record of government service and in her tenure as Finance Minister she has held true to this as a guiding principle.

This is my third post regarding Ms. Indrawati. The other two can be found below:  Jakarta (Sri Mulyani Indrawati)  and Jakarta (the next Vice President of Indonesia) where I have outlined why I think she should be selected to run with SBY as his Vice President in the upcoming elections.

Here I would simply like to make a few observations:

If she is simply going to be some kind of figurehead stand-in for SBY then the job is not for her. Her talents would otherwise be wasted. There is also the question of whether or not she really would want to be VP. Maybe she doesn’t. I have not read that anyone has directly asked her that question. On the other hand if she gets assurances from SBY that she will be able to extend reforms through the government then maybe she would consider taking the position, if offered.

Apparently there are other possible contenders for VP as well. The Jakarta Globe reports Hidayat Nur Wahid, Hatta Rajasa, and even Akbar Tanjung.

Recent polling suggests that no matter what his choice SBY will win the election. For some reason I don’t think SBY is interested in cutting political deals. I do think he is interested in doing what is best for Indonesia.

There is another interesting aspect to this as well.  It really doesn’t have much to do with directly with Mulyani (only maybe in part).

Suharto’s shadow still looms over Indonesian politics and society in general. 

It’s clear that Megawati, Kalla, Probowo, and Wiranto have tossed away any semblance of ideaology. Now it’s all about positioning. Kalla talks to Probowo, Probowo talks to Megawati, Probowo and Wiranto talk, and on and on it goes. Indonesia will never be able to move forward mired in all this talking among these old political hacks. Probowo likely would not be able to get a  US Visa. Wiranto is still regarded as a war criminal by the UN. Megawati is just plain ridiculous and Kalla is an opportunist and it appears he may have split GOLKAR or damaged it poltically.

Both Wiranto and Probowo are directly tied to Suharto. They worked for him.  Megawati’s party was victimized by Suharto and by the very people she is now trying to (or was trying to) form a political coalition with. Kalla simply took over GOLKAR as a ready made political machine when it should have been disbanded.

It’s as if there were not any Indonesian history after 1998, or at least any politician with a memory.

Suharto’s shadow still looms large over the political landscape.

When you look at all the players in the current election scheme you can only conclude that a new generation of reformasi minded politicians is necessary to move Indonesia foward. Indonesia has no other option but to triumph over the past.

I say Ms. Indrawati is representative of  new poltical possibilties for Indonesia. She has it right.

Jakarta (May Day)

It’s May Day

Revolution in South Asia

 

President Sukarno Addressing May Day Rally 5/7/1965-Djakarta, Indonesia- President Sukarno of Indonesia addresses a mass May Day rally in the Sports Hall Building. Sukarno announced his decision not to attend a peace conference with Malaysian Prime Minister Rahman in Tokyo. The announcement was viewed as a victory for Indonesia’s powerful Communist Party. Posters above the silent crowd stress the unity of the working classes in their struggle to overcome “imperialism.”
Image: © Bettmann/CORBIS
Date Photographed: May 7, 1965