Jakarta (INVASION POSTPONED! and other news)

n_pg23tebedu

Photo: TheStar online – Extra vigilant: Police personnel manning the Tebedu border post yesterday. – Bernama

Let it never be said that Indonesia is a nation which is lacking of interest.

You may now rest assured (at least for the time being) that the invasion of Malaysia has been postponed.  At least by a day…

From: TheStar online – Friday October 9, 2009

Indonesian group postpones ‘invasion’ of Malaysia by a day

“PETALING JAYA: Volunteer vigilante group from Indonesia Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat (Bendera) has postponed its “plans” to wage war with Malaysia by a day.

The group, which had conducted a “sweeping” for Malaysians recently in Menteng, Jakarta, originally planned to attack yesterday.

“They will enter through pathways that will be unexpected for Malaysian security,” he said, adding that they would not be deterred.

Mustar, however, did not give any reason why the “invasion” was postponed by a day.

The Thursday attack was to wreak vengeance on Malaysia for “stealing” their culture and abusing their maids. The group planned to attack with “primitive” weapons like bamboo spears, sticks and parangs.

In Putrajaya, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop said security forces, namely those guarding the coast, had been put on alert following threats of attacks by the Indonesians, adding that the Government took the threat seriously.

“We are on alert. Security personnel are ready and prepared to meet whatever threats that come our way,’’ he told reporters yesterday.

However, he said there were no reports of Indonesians entering the country with sharpened bamboo poles.

Police have also stepped up security at all entry points from West Kalimantan to Sarawak as a precaution.

Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mohmad Salleh said patrols by the General Opera­tions Force had been doubled, especially at the Tebedu and Serikin border posts, and several illegal trails at the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.

“So far, we have not received any report of moves by the group to enter Sarawak,” he told reporters after the Sarawak police contingent’s monthly assembly and Aidilfitri open house at its headquarters here.

Malaysian Consul in Pontianak M. Zairi M. Basri said the situation in Pontianak was calm and there were no signs of anti-Malaysia activities.

He said that based on surveillance yesterday at the Pontianak main bus terminal, which provides transportation services from Pontia­nak to Kuching, nothing unusual happened.

Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, its coordinator Mustar Nona Ventura said that around 1,300 volunteers, including 50 medical personnel, would be departing for Malaysia between today and Oct 22.”

And, of course, in other news the executions of ‘terrorists’ continues. I am still left with an uneasy feeling about all of this.

Specifically, why are these people not captured and brought to trial?

I think it would not be difficult to use careful surveillance and simply capture them at the store or in the mandi.

But no. It seems much more useful just to rub them out. I guess it must be a message to ‘others’.

However this makes it all quite reminiscent of the ‘petrus’ killings of Soeharto in Jakarta in the 1980s.

Just remember- if they can rub out the ‘terrorists’ this way the can rub you out this way as well.

Who needs ‘due process’?

From ABC News – 10.10.09

Police kill brothers linked to Jakarta bombs

By Jakarta correspondent Geoff Thompson

“Indonesian anti-terrorist forces say they have killed two brothers wanted over hotel bombings in Jakarta in July that left seven people dead.

The police say the two men, who were killed in a counter-terrorist raid on a boarding house in Jakarta yesterday, are linked to the dead terrorist leader, Noordin Mohammed Top.

Forensic tests are expected to confirm this on Monday.

Indonesia’s national police spokesman, Nanan Sukarna, says counter-terrorism police had no choice but to shoot dead two men they confronted at the house.

Syaifudin Zuhri or Jaelani is regarded by police as the chief recruiter of suicide bombers for the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist leader Noordin Mohammed Top, who was killed in a police raid last month.

Educated in Yemen, Jaelani is accused of recruiting the two so-called “bride grooms” who blew themselves up inside Jakarta’s Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels on July 17, killing seven people.

Jaelani’s brother, Mohammed Syahrir, once worked for the national airline, Garuda, and has been linked to the 2004 truck-bombing of the Australian embassy here.”

Jakarta (tetangga baru)

Along_the_Tracks_by_renegade150

Along the Tracks by ~renegade150

Soon Jakarta will exhale most of its residents in the annual Idul Fitri celebrations which mark the end of  Ramadan. Time for people to head home, see loved ones, exchange gifts.

Some 840,000 Jakartans will leave the city by train. Additional hundreds-of-thousands will go by motorcycle.

The Jakarta Post reports that  “The central bank has allocated Rp 150.8 trillion (US$14.9 billion) in cash to anticipate the high rate of withdrawals ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday that falls on Sept. 21 to 22.”

During the holiday, after everyone leaves,  you can walk down the middle of Jalan Thamrin and not see a hint of a vehicle. The air quality in Jakarta actually improves.

After the holiday the city inhales.

Jakarta Expected to Have up to 200,000 Newcomers

Tuesday, 08 September, 2009 | 13:27 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:

The Jakarta Government has estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 people will come to Jakarta this year after the Idul Fitri celebrations.

“However, not all of these newcomers will stay in Jakarta,” said the head of the Jakarta Demography and Civil Registration Office, Franky Mangatas Panjaitan, at his office, yesterday (7/9).

It is predicted that half of these newcomers will only transit in Jakarta before going to other places like Bogor, Tangerang, Depok, and Bekasi, while the rest stay in Jakarta.

SOFIAN

I thought I was having a flash of deje vu. Had I not seen this Tempo article before?

Jakarta to be Flooded by 150.000 Newcomers

Tuesday, 07 October, 2008 | 12:39 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:

The capital city is still an urbanization magnet. The Jakarta government estimates at least 150.000 new residents will enter Jakarta after Lebaran. “We must wait for the monitoring results to get an accurate number,” Demographics Center chief Franky Panjaitan told Tempo yesterday.

Franky said the government, through respective offices, will carry out a Resident Registration campaign beginning October 23 in five of the city’s suspected pockets where new people stay, while checking their job status. Posters have previously been distributed, calling on people not to bring new people to the capital city.

Every year Jakarta is kept occupied by the huge inflow of newcomers – especially those without permanent jobs — following Lebaran. However, according to the Demographics Center data, their number has been declining in the past five years. There were 109.000 new comers in 2007, 124.000 in 2006, 280.000 in 2005, 190.000 in 2004, and 204.000 in 2003.

Franky promised that the operation to register the newcomers will be carried out sensibly without discrimination. The officers, cooperating with the Police, the District Attorney’s office, and community chiefs will check the districts. People found to be harboring and helping newcomers will be tried and charged with a maximum of three-month imprisonment or a Rp 5 million fine in accordance with Regional Law no. 4/2004.

The government will also monitor 33 key entry points to Jakarta, namely the terminals, stations, ports, airports, toll entrances, and main roads. According to Franky such operation is held regularly but it is normally intensified after Lebaran.

The Jakarta Regional Legislative Council’s (DPRD) Welfare Commission member, Selamat Nurdin thinks people still come to the capital city because of inequitable development in the provinces. The non-governmental Urban Poor Consortium announced it was rejecting the Jakarta Administration’s operation. “This operation violates the constitution and fails to solve the urbanization problem,” said the consortium’s activist, Wardah Hafidz on Saturday.

JOBPIE S. | FAMEGA SYAVIRA | RUDY PRASETYO

Still, 200,000 people per year for 5 years is only 1 million people. It’s only about 1/20 of the estimated current population of greater Jakarta.

So, here they come to settle in.

Jakarta (a novel in nine scenes)

dipo

The Bronze Horseman of Jakarta

SCENE

This story takes place late in the evening during one of those Jakarta blackouts in a season, which is not a season at all. At the time when the weather is changing from hot, dry, and dusty to monsoon wet threatening to flood the Ciliwung and scatter the people of Kampung Malayu yet once again. A time when most people find themselves a bit edgy.

Budi, the food vendor has had a fair day stirring up his mie goreng on the street corner and is just sitting down to his own late evening meal at the Pak Memek food stall when he notices… what?

A ghost – the ghost is dressed in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a purple checked sarong, and a peci. The ghost is smoking a hand rolled kretek and is chanting verses in old Javanese from The Book of Kings.

Budi had no idea whatsoever that ghosts could smoke but before the evening was done and the sun was to rise again over the slack and silver Java sea he would be appraised of much, much more.

SCENE

Tommy Soeharto and Sukarno are having a full-on fist fight in Merdeka Square. Sukarno is vigorously lecturing Tommy about what a jerk his father was and how Tommy is just like him as he repeatedly lands roundhouse punches to Tommy’s face. He’s beating the crap out of Tommy. Finally, when Sukarno has done his worst he drives away in a ’57 Chrysler Town Car with a beautiful woman who is sitting in the back seat. As he leaves he shouts out to Tommy. “Now see what you’ve done you crazy bastard!” and points his finger in the direction of MONAS where the giant purple gorilla from the Mal Artha Gading is scaling the monument and is about to perch itself on the gold flame.

SCENE

The Diponegoro statues creaks and rumbles, sparks and smokes, and comes to life. Horse and rider jump off their pedestal and hit the ground with a huge metal clang. Horse (does Diponegoro’s horse have a name?) and rider charge down Jalan Thamrin. The horse snorts fire and leaves its hoof marks in the ripped up pavement of the street. Diponegoro shoots green laser beams from his eyes.

They are on their way to Menteng and leave a trail of heart attacks, emptied offshore bank accounts, and wrecked luxury vehicles in their wake.

SCENE

During the blackout a group of terrorists get stuck in the elevator on the car park basement floor of a swanky high-rise business hotel. In their panic they fumble around and detonate their bombs and kill only themselves amazingly doing little other damage. They have forgotten to destroy the notes they left behind in their room which detail methods, supplies, names, a hand written letter of encouragement from Abu Bakar Basyir, and the telephone numbers of their Saudi handlers who live with Korean prostitutes in Bekasi.

SCENE

High government officials are alerted to a number of “strange goings-on” in the city including unauthorized troop movements. When they ring back to their respective ministries the only connection they can get through to is the office of the leader of the PKI, Aidit.

SCENE

Squads of black cats sporting pearl handled nickel-plated Smith and Wesson 45s are rumored to be raiding Burger Kings, Pizza Huts, KFCs, McDonalds, and A&Ws. They break windows and generally wreak the kind of havoc that  takes weeks to repair.

SCENE

Strangely, the only place in Jakarta with electricity is Ya Udah’s on Jalan Jaksa where two expats, the only customers, are drinking beer.  Oblivious of the late hour they are discussing the respective merits of their blogs. All the wait staff has gone home. Only the cook remains staring out toward the dark black and empty street.

SCENE

The Transjakarta Busway is totally clogged with zombie motorcycle riders the meaning of which indicates a difficult day ahead.

SCENE

When day breaks  under the banner of The Jakarta Post the headline reads:

RI RECOGNIZES THE INDEPENDENT ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF ACEH.

Below the fold are printed several nude photos of Miss Indonesia which have recently come to light.

This causes great confusion on the street about what to be the most upset over.

THE END or is it?

Posted in Notes. Tags: . 2 Comments »

Jakarta (society of the spectacle)

jakarta-blast-cctv-montage

Photo: equal-life

from the Wikipedia (something to consider)

Society of the Spectacle

The concept of a Society of the Spectacle may refer in a narrow sense to the people who appear in television, particularly the hosts of television shows and news. A broader meaning refers to all the people leaving in a society, and whose behavior and lives are heavily conditioned by the behavior of tv presenters. The impact of the medium of television, labeled by Marshall McLuhan as the timid giant, is such that even the small minority of people that don’t watch it at all, are indirectly influenced by their relationship with those who do.

Historically in the capitalist societies, television outlets have not been public places where talented and skilled individuals can make a career and express their ideas without censorship. Instead, they have been owned by powerful corporations or controlled by directors appointed by political officials.

The flow of ideas that go through a society come from, or are edulcorated  [to render sweet] by, the television. This is in fact a totalitarian control of the public discourse, resulting in the pollution of ideas, tastes, behaviors, life styles, and political choices.

Degradation of human life

Debord traces the development of a modern society in which authentic social life has been replaced with its representation: “All that was once directly lived has become mere representation.” Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as “the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing.” This condition, according to Debord, is the “historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life.”

With the term spectacle, Debord defines the system that is a confluence of advanced capitalism, the mass media, and the types of governments who favor those phenomena. “… the spectacle, taken in the limited sense of “mass media” which are its most glaring superficial manifestation…”. The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity. “The spectacle is not a collection of images,” Debord writes. “rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.”

In his analysis of the spectacular society, Debord notes that quality of life is impoverished, with such lack of authenticity, human perceptions are affected, and there’s also a degradation of knowledge, with the hindering of critical thought. Debord analyzes the use of knowledge to assuage reality: the spectacle obfuscates the past, imploding it with the future into an undifferentiated mass, a type of never ending present; in this way the spectacle prevents individuals from realizing that the society of spectacle is only a moment in history (time), one that can be overturned through revolution.

Debord’s aim and proposal, is “to wake up the spectator who has been drugged by spectacular images,” “through radical action in the form of the construction of situations,” “situations that bring a revolutionary reordering of life, politics, and art”. In the situationist view, situations are actively created moments characterized by “a sense of self-consciousness of existence within a particular environment or ambience”.

Debord encouraged the use of détournement, “which involves using spectacular images and language to disrupt the flow of the spectacle.”

from ABC News:

Jakarta bomber has ‘rock idol’ status

By Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson

Posted Thu Aug 6, 2009 5:13am AEST

A former student of one Indonesia’s schools that graduated many trained terrorists says Noordin Mohammad Top is considered a “rock-idol” by the country’s young Islamist extremists.

Noor Huda Ismail received a masters degree in International Security from St Andrews, the same university attended by Britain’s Prince William.

But he is better known as former student of the Ngruki boarding school founded by Abu Bakar Bashir which was was also attended by many known terrorists.

His recent interviews with current and former members of Jemaah Islamiah reveal the way some young Islamic radicals regard Top – the man thought to be behind the recent hotel bombings in Jakarta.

“Noordin still considered like a rock idol – they praise him,” Ismail said.

He also says that the bombings may be intended to attract more financial support from organizations like Al Qaeda by demonstrating the capabilities of Indonesian terrorists”.

When I first heard of the goings on in Temanggung, Central Java, this is the first article which I came to. What is of interest is not its brevity but the embedded video which appears in the article. The video has no sound and it likely was taken with a cell phone video camera. There is no attribution of the video in the BBC article. Whoever produced the video was not so much interested in the goings on at Top’s hideout as with the huge numbers of people who had gathered on the scene to watch what was about to play out.  The video is 30 seconds in length and is worth watching. It is not nearly as focused on the police action as in the videos and news accounts I have seen on MetroTV or other news agencys.  It is, well, as if Manchester United had descended on the village ready to play.

from the BBC:

Indonesia suspect ‘in shoot-out’

Indonesian police have exchanged gunfire with the occupants of a house in Java, believed to include one of South-East Asia’s most wanted men, Noordin Mohamed Top.

[see video here]

The Malaysian citizen is suspected of involvement in last month’s bombings of two Jakarta hotels.”

New York Times:

Plot to Kill Indonesian President Foiled, Police Say

By SETH MYDANS

Published: August 8, 2009

“The president told reporters he had been briefed about a counterterrorism operation by the police, though he did not mention Mr. Noordin. “I extend my highest gratitude and respect to the police for their brilliant achievement in this operation,” he said.”

The Jakarta Post is now reporting that Top was killed in the bathroom of the hideout. More details and details and details to follow. Yet, here is something rather curious from a Google search “Noordin Top killed in bathroom”.

Plenty of red flags, yet it happened

AsiaOneJohn McBeth‎Jul 25, 2009‎
It has been determined that the explosives themselves were concealed from household staff in an air-conditioning service duct in the bathroom.

AP Top News at 4:42 am EDT

The Republican – MassLive.com‎10 hours ago‎
militant chief Noordin Mohammad Top, who is blamed for last month’s attacks on two American hotels in the capital Jakarta, was killed in the bathroom of
Of course there is this bit of recent news as well

Noordin Top may still be alive

Indonesia News.Net

Saturday 8th August, 2009

“Serious doubts have emerged over the killing of Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist Noordin Mohammed Top.

While a man killed in police raids in central Java on the weekend was assumed to be Top, the dead man’s remains are still in Jakarta being DNA tested.

Indonesian police at the weekend trapped two men in a house in Temanggung, after receiving information Noordin was inside.

They raided the house and shot the men, who were believed to be using the raided house as a refuge.

But there are now fears that police intelligence may have been incorrect.

Indonesian anti-terrorism sources, who were confident they had killed Top, have now refused to confirm widespread local reports of his death, saying they will wait for the DNA tests in Jakarta.”

This is Sinatron.

from: My Fasionable Life [blog]

Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Do YOU Watch Sinetron?

I do sometimes…to bond with my mum.

Here’s my excuse: Being a working woman, by the time I got home, it usually around 7 or 8 pm and during that time my mum would be in front of the TV, watching her favorite sinetron.

Sure, I have a complete set of entertainment center and American TV Series (told ya…I’m half Americanized, but let’s not get into that) in my room, but we often sit by her…yes….watching sinetron. For someone who dislike sinetron, I have a tolerable knowledge of it, being an obliged daughter that I want to be :p

What bothers us (me and my dad) is not the sinetron part, it is the content that makes us constant complainer every night. My mum used to comment: “aren’t you both ever got tired of complaining?”

No, we don’t.

If the programs are worth watching, we wouldn’t care. Have you seen what our sinetron are all about recently?

The programs are all about wealth exploitation, looks, evil, torture, puppy-love, and consumerism. I’ve noticed that they usually have simple storylines….at the beginning. But…. when its gaining commercials (the success parameter, sadly), what would’ve been a good program is now no better than just a mere object of eye candy, with its eye soothing cast. But that’s just about it. Now…it’s just a crappy program that plays with viewers mind with its neverending conflict and crisis.

My dad used to say, the script writer, director and producer must have been lunatics to come up with an impossible storyline. And for what? Just to fulfill their obsession with money that runs through the incoming commercials….that’s why they prolonged the plot into an impossible to believe storyline.

Through out the neverending episodes the main character suffers badly (if not tortured, both mentally and physically), and she or he doesn’t get to be happy until one last episode. The main character usually is very weak and very giving, never think of herself, a do gooder, a saint, an angel. Arrrrgghhhh!!!!

Now…I have to pray that our Culture and Tourism Minister (do we still have one?) will see for himself and consider to warn TV station to stop harrassing their viewers with bad, bad programs. Is sinetron considered as culture? I think so, keeping in mind that all TV stations are going with the same programs at the same time. If not mistaken this is called “pop culture”, so Pak Menteri…please…please revised these crappy programs.

Bring back program like Si Doel Anak Sekolahan, where the only antagonist was Zaenab’s mom (but would not consider her as evil, just a human being…a saint if compared with current sinetron antagonists). Please produce more quality programs like Rumah Masa Depan, Losmen (hey…I’m reminiscing here) and Jendela Rumah Kita…even ACI.”

My point exactly.

Or more to the point…

On hearing the news of W.S. Rendra’s death ( a tragic loss but a joy that he lived) I came across a review written by Mike Heald of Harry Aveling’s book  Secrets Need Words: Indonesian Poetry, 1966-1998, Center for International Studies, Ohio University: Ohio, 2001

Heald writes:

…In the same week, an article appeared in The Age newspaper written by Wahid, entitled “How to counter Islamic extremism”, a topic, of course, very much on people’s minds after the events of September 11th. Wahid’s argument was that many students from Muslim nations who study overseas do not receive a broadly-based liberal education, focusing only on vocational areas such as engineering and the sciences. He argued that, as a result of this narrow education, many of the students lack the intellectual subtlety and capacity to interpret their religion in any but a simplistic, literalistic way, unmindful of cultural change and nuance:

Because they [the students]have not been trained in the rich disciplines of Islamic scholarship, they tend to bring to their reflection on their faith the same sort of simple modelling and formulistic thinking that they have learned as students of engineering or other applied sciences. Students studying liberal arts are rather better served when it comes times [sic] to reflect on the place of Islam in the modern world.

I read Wahid’s article with an interest fueled, in part, by my own professional role within the teaching program responsible for this journal, the Foundation Studies Program of Trinity College, Melbourne University. The wisdom of including humanities subjects, such as Literature, Drama and History of Ideas, as compulsory elements of our Core Curriculum, is periodically questioned, from the position that a functional competence for one’s vocation is all the formal education that a young person needs. The error of this way of thinking, and the very real connection between suicide bombers and intellectual training, is made very clear by Wahid. Intellectual subtlety, a capacity to deal with ambiguity, metaphor and cultural relativity, are by no means disposable, abstract or decorative educational objectives: they are indeed ‘foundational’, and they lead to certain kinds of behavior which are highly preferable to anyone who values an open and tolerant society. The Core Curriculum of Foundation Studies at Trinity guarantees, for example, that students encounter, and reflect upon, poetry. And poetry, as this anthology Secrets Need Words again confirms, entails a grappling with the subtleties of human experience: so that, through Harry Aveling’s translations, we encounter the ambiguities, the passions, the uncertainties and, in general, the inner life of Indonesians in the Suharto years. After reading such a collection, we can no longer believe in simplistic, or strategically distorted conceptions of contemporary Indonesia: they are dispelled.”

Let us hope so.

Rendra’s death reminds us that there is more than sheer spectacle in life.

This is my poem.

An emergency appeal.

What is the meaning of art,

If divorced from the world of suffering.

What is the meaning of thought,

If separated from the troubles of life.

-W.S. Rendra, Sajak Sebatang Lisong

Jakarta (urban stereoscopy)

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Lobby: Gran Melia Jakarta

Stereoscopy: Stereoscopy consists of two simultaneous space-based observations.

Or:

“The simultaneity of virtual and real environments” (from “Perpetuating Cities: Excepting Globalization and the Southeast Asia Supplement”, Bishop, Phillips, and Yeo, in : Post Colonialism: Southeast Asian Cities and Global Processes, Routledge, London, 2003.)

The Magical Misery Tour is waiting to take you away, waiting to take you away, take you away…

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Photo: The Jakarta Post 7/22/09

Your bus awaits. All aboard.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Today our tour takes us to Kunciran subdistrict, Tangerang municipality where our senses will be ignited by the horrific scene of a second wife burning.

As seen here by The Jakarta Post:

First wife burns second wife in front of husband

Multa Fidrus , The Jakarta Post , Tangerang | Wed, 07/29/2009 9:13 PM | Jakarta

“Jenni, 35, a resident of Kunciran subdistrict, Tangerang municipality, has burned Euis, 25, her husband’s second wife, after their husband Sahroni, 40, asked them to live together with him in peace and share the house.

Tangerang Police chief Sr. Comr. Hamidin said Wednesday the incident started with Euis promising she would divorce Sahroni after entrusting her baby to Jenni.

“But later Euis came to Jenny and asked for her baby back,” Hamidin said.

The two argued and Jenni took a jerrycan of gasoline, poured it onto Euis’s body and set her on fire.

Jenni then rushed to the police station with the baby to turn herself in. Euis was taken to hospital with 90 percent of her body burnt.”

Then we are off to The Gran Melia Jakarta for an early lunch.

Timeless Luxury with an Avant-Garde Flair

Discover the Bold New Shade of Luxury.

As you must know the

“Gran Meliá Jakarta hotel is a stimulus of exoticism and mystery; imbued by the warmth and passion of South East Asia. A dramatic structure, towering over the community of Kuningan, looking out to Jakarta’s elaborate skyline.

The luxury hotel’s unique, swerving architecture is coated in a distinct azure that seemingly drifts into the clouds. Within, Gran Meliá Jakarta hotel broadcasts a similar and enchanting aesthetic, communicating the spirit and vitality of Indonesian culture with grand, cascading ceilings, and evocative décor.

Situated at the heart of Jakarta’s exclusive diplomatic and business district, the hotel is in exact vicinity to the city’s premier shopping malls, attractions, and the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Gran Meliá Jakarta’s world-renowned restaurants and bars, event facilities, spa, and tiered accommodations are fashioned by a discriminating auteur and showcased as a bold new expression of luxury.”

Lunch is served. We certainly hope that you bring a hearty appetite. You will need it.

We will then continue our tour to the site of the St. Moritz. A self-contained city within a city.

Come to Jakarta and not see it at all.

In fact come and never leave as all your wishes, desires, and needs can be serviced in one cradle to the grave stop.

St. Moritz will become to a global city in Asia

St Moritz - Print Ad Global City Inspired

” Mochtar’s first grand son, Michael Riyadi will leading the projet of St. Moritz Penthouse and Residences in this year projects, a multi billion dollar projects to establish a new business district in Puri Kembangan, West Jakarta.

St. Moritz will have 17 buildings that will provide 11 centers in one area, including office buildings, apartments, schools, a hotel, a hospital and a mall.

This project will be a blast in the future and will help people to cut commuting time in Jakarta. The office building has 65 floors and will be the tallest in Indonesia.

The 135-hectare land plot is designed to be a self-sustaining business district with a block concept. We also want the new business district to be a global city, competing not with other developers, but with other cities in Southeast Asia.

This projects will become to a global city in Asia and also have a competitive advantage. Property prices in Jakarta are among the cheapest in the world.

According to Global Property Guide 2008, the average apartment price in Jakarta is US$1,068 per square meter while in Manila it is $1,969. In Kuala Lumpur, it’s $1,400.”

Well, I bet you have never seen anything like it!

Oh, we’re not done yet! Not by a long shot.

Prepare yourselves now to see THE REAL JAKARTA!

As reported by CNN:

Slum tourism: Visitors see the ‘real’ Jakarta

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) — Hidden in the alleyways behind Jakarta’s fancy malls and in between the high-rise apartment buildings is what Ronny Poluan, a former film maker, calls the “real Jakarta.”

It is not far from the glitz and glam that dominates the capital’s skyline, yet it is a side of the city that few foreigners ever see.

“I want them to (have an) authentic view,” Poluan, who runs “Jakarta Hidden Tours,” said as he took a group of Australians through the winding maze of a central Jakarta slum.

“I’m running out of rice,” an old lady mumbles in the doorway of her tiny dark home as the group passes by.

Further along, little girls push their faces into wire fencing, while another group of children draw 36-year-old Daniel Knott into a game of cards. Knott, a volunteer for various NGOs, and his wife, who works for AUSAID, live in Jakarta and have been to the slums before. But it is the first time their friends, Kerri Bell and her husband Phil Paschke, have been to Indonesia.

Knott said he felt it was important to bring the visiting couple here.

“I think Jakarta is a city of contrasts,” he said. “There’s a lot of shopping malls and kitschy stuff, but it’s also a lot of normal people. And, it’s fun to come and hang out with the locals, actually.”

“It’s fantastic,” Kerri Bell said. “I’ve been in Asia once before and we didn’t want to just gloss over the surface and see all the things you can see in a western country. It feels to me much more like the real Jakarta, to see what drives it. To see that is so much more valuable than coming and lying on the beach.”

The tour first took them into a couple of cramped and sweltering soy bean cake and tofu factories — both staples in the Indonesian diet. Video Watch Arwa Damon tour through the slum »

The group remarked that there were few other cities where foreigners can wander around the slums, and not just feel safe but welcomed — and that is what Poluan said these tours were all about.

“I want to see people meet people,” he said. “The other culture meet the other culture.”

“It’s a pretty big eye opener,” Paschke said. “It’s the first time I have left Australia, so yes, it’s completely different.”

Poluan ushered the group into a covered market where you can find just about anything. For the group, it was a bombardment of the senses.

“I love seeing them,” fish seller Rokayah said, laughing. “They are handsome and they are rich. It is rare for me to see foreigners here at the traditional market, and I like talking to them, but I don’t understand English.”

The tour costs around $34 per person. Poluan keeps about half of the money for himself and his NGO, INTERKULTUR. The other half goes to the community.

Critics, however, said that this type of direct cash aid was counter-productive. They said the tours were demeaning, exploited the poor, and taught them to be dependent on the handouts of others.

“These poor people, we have to educate them,” said Wardah Hafidz, coordinator of the Urban Poor Consortium. “We have to tell them that it’s not God’s will that they are poor, that they also have to fight for themselves. They can’t depend on other people forever.”

This type of criticism angers and frustrates Poluan, who said his tours were about raising awareness on both sides. In the last month, he has also started a microfinance scheme.

More importantly though, he said, were the initiatives that he hoped his tours would jumpstart.

“They (the foreigners) usually think about how to help, to educate,” he said. “They come back again, bring books. I try to make a pushcart library for the children.”

He said his tours were also about educating foreigners on real issues facing the country.

The group weaved its way to the city’s train tracks, only barely visible amid the garbage and squalor.

It is the site of a constant battle between the track dwellers and the government, which says that living there is illegal and dangerous. Government evictions and the destruction of the feeble structures, usually just bits of plastic tarp and wood, are fairly commonplace.

“I am used to it,” shrugged 80-year-old Indarjo.

He has lived like this for five decades, making his living as a scavenger. He said he has been forced to move over 200 times.

He invited the group into his home, and explained that when it rains, he just pulls the flap over.

“I feel that I am equal to them. I treat them as my guests,” he said. “I believe that they would do the same for me.”

The visitors were dumbstruck, the impact of what they were seeing, they say, was hard to put into words.

It was a sobering but educational look at Indonesia, where some 40 million people live below the poverty line.

“It’s pretty confronting,” Paschke said. “The things you complain about at home don’t seem too significant.”

“It’s hard to see something like this and just go home to normal life,” his wife, Bell, added as the couple stood in the middle of the tracks. “It makes me motivated to look at the local community and things that we can help out with at home.”

Yes, see Jakarta now in its unreal realness. Really.

At the end of the day we will whisk you back aboard our open air bus to the JW Marriott or Ritz Carlton. As you prefer.

They’ve just reopened. It’s business as usual.

Next up, high tea at Jakartass Towers where we will converse  at length on the subject of what is real and what is not.

Jakarta (city of thieves)

trainweb1

 Train web instalation by Alvin-Bake

 I have not been posting at my previous pace because of commitments to education and thinking.

I have decided that thinking is a good thing. I am thinking about whether or not Jakarta is a city and what that means if it is or is not.

I will have something to say about that for sure so stay tuned. Maybe my suveyees (is that a word?) need more time to respond (at least the ones that haven’t yet). In any event I should be getting back to something resembling almost normal in a week or two.

Apropos of nothing at all I occasionally get comments on my blog posts. I received the following comment today on a post called Jakarta (money, money, money) which was written on 12/13/2007 making some comment about how rich Mr. Bakrie is (was) (is). Anyway, times have changed. But given that I have been thinking about Jakarta and the “city” thing I offer said comment mentioned above as a sort of prelude.

I have replaced names (maybe real, maybe not) and telephone numbers (maybe real, maybe not) with bold dashed lines. No need to ruffle feathers or be the tool of some practical joke. You will get the picture once having read below.

The “comment” speaks for itself… …and Jakarta after all, as a friend of mine said, is not Baghdad or Johannesburg.

The Comment

It is advisable to reconsider need to travel Indonesia. Especially Jakarta. As soon as you touch Indonesian soil you are in great danger. The mentality of every Indonesian is only centered on how they can bribe. Jakarta people live by crime.
I can mention names of armed professional gangs like the ‘——–’ having a base in ———-. Telpon ——– or ———.
This ——- group deals on hard drugs and prostitution and thefts. One of the group leaders is ————— a very though guy with no scruples.

Indonesia is classified as top most corrupt nation in the world.
Authorities warned that thieves in Jakarta go in organized groups. One most particular area of Jakarta where its a hide out for professional thieves is South of Jakarta.

If authorities are eager to stop this growing corruption Im ready to help. You may contact me

John on email ——-

End Comment.

Names are named, addresses spelled out, telephone numbers, my wife tells me, are real Jakarta numbers.

And John is ready to help with bat cape and mask.

I am sure the comment would be a lot more exciting if I had posted it in full but better to error on the side of caution. I still like the idea of being able to walk down Jalan Thamrin without the need for a body guard.

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Back to Jakarta (back to the future)

Trends and Emergent Properties

giant rat


Giant Rat of the Foja Mountains    (five times bigger than common city rat)

Gong Xi Fat Chai – Year of the Rat

Asia Times

New year bonus for Indonesia’s Chinese

 By Kalinga Seneviratne

During the authoritarian regime of president Suharto (1967-98), public displays of Chinese culture were banned, and many Chinese were asked to change their names to Indonesian ones if they wished to be eventually considered for citizenship. “Suharto’s government saw Chinese characters and culture as political. We were not even allowed to make candles,” said Yu Le, a member of a Buddhist temple.

He said he now prefers to use his Chinese name rather than his adopted Indonesian one of Suherman. “Around the temple there were always police and military. We could not celebrate Imlek here. People were afraid to come. We had to do it at home, hiding.” …>go to article

At the start of the Chinese lunar new year it is tradtional to make predictions about the character of the coming year.  In this Year of the Rat it appears CAUTION will be the watchword as Chinese fortune tellers predict financial and political rumblings, tsunamis and epidemics in the year ahead…

“The mounts of Anak Krakatau, Merapi and Kelud, which last year did not generate a relatively huge explosion, may spew their infernal lava this year,” Jakarta-based feng shui expert Master Tan told The Jakarta Post, placing the eruptions between March and August. “To tell you the truth, I am so worried about these three volcanos… I hope this time my prediction misses.” While mainstream Chinese astrology lists this year as an “Earth” year, Master Tan says it is a fire year, combining the sky element with its positive soil and the earth element with its positive water, producing “fire thunder”. Surabaya-based feng shui practitioner Putri Wong Kam Fu has had the same vision of the three volcanoes. “I don’t know when they will erupt. But if we all repent, they will not explode as a volcanic eruption is actually an admonition of us humans,” she said. …>go to article

One does not necessarily need to be a feng shui practitioner to make predictions regarding the coming year for Jakarta. A close review of the news will do.  As per Indonesia: volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are a sure thing. No difficulty there. 

I offer a few of my own predictions here:

Soeharto’s “hero status”.  Not going to happen.

The oddest (perhaps not) scandal relating to that came at the conference of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption held on Bali on Februrary 2, 2008. Delegates were asked to bow their heads in a minute of silence to observe the passing of Indonesian dictator Soeharto. SBY jetted off to attend the funeral. The Sydney Morning Hearald reported that, “Dismayed by the irony of the conference’s condolences for Soeharto, Filipino activist Vincent Lazatan took the stage on Wednesday to present civil society groups call for stronger, quicker action to combat corruption – demanding a transparent, effective review mechanism”.  First, he asked all delegates to stand for a second time. “Please, a minute’s silence for all those who have died fighting corruption,” Mr Lazatan demanded. They stood”.  The whole thing seemed simply and utterly strange.

Another interesting development which may tarnish the hero status thing is reported by TempoInteraktif.

“Cendana” Family’s Wealth May be Confiscated as Guarantee
Tuesday, 05 February, 2008

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The state attorney team from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is of the opinion that the assets of Suharto’s beneficiaries can be included in the list of guaranteed confiscation in the Supersemar Foundation civil case. According to Yoseph Suardi Sabda, one of the attorneys from the AGO, it can be the responsibility if the foundation’s assets are insufficient to meet the claim’s value. “The AGO can include it by a request during the trial,” he said in Jakarta last Saturday (2/2). …>go to article

If the family moves assets the AGO can move to confiscate them.  Nice.

While the Golkar Party proposes Soeharto as a hero of Indonesia the people dispose. The voices of his victims still live, the historical record too concrete for this to ever happen, now or later.  Of interest is the recent annoucement by the Univerity of Westminster to fund Innovative film project to document Indonesia’s hidden genocide …>go to article

Floods.  There will be more.

Haven’t we been here before? As Jakartass has recently written, “Jeez”.  My comment there was, “welcome to the new Jakarta (or old Jakarta as the case may be). Soon some enterprising individual will start a water taxi service. Jakarta will be the Venice of the Java Sea”. 

Miko added, “already happened Thomas, when Jalan Thamrin turned into a tributary of the Ciliwung river I watched as several enterprising individuals rowed boats down along the Busway picking up passengers and dropping them off at the nearest dry spot. The most ingenious chap for me was the sampah man (scavenger) who used his cart to take people across the flooded car park of Sarinah to the relative dryness of the overpass, for a small fee I hope.

Curiously I couldn’t help but notice the complete lack of Jakarta’s finest money earners who normally populate Jalan Thamrin in large numbers but who seemed to have disappeared completely.

Traffic was directed by street boys, the old and infirm were assisted by passers-by but nary a peeler was to be seen”.

This, of course, jogged my memory of the Jakarta floods of February 2007, where I saw on MetroTV vegetable sellers using rafts to bring their produce to flooded upscale neigborhoods.

Perhaps SBY will have to tow a boat behind his Mercy Benz so he does not get his feet wet (again).

Still, Jakarta as the Venice of the Java Sea has quite a ring to it. I can see the tourist brochures even now.  As the Official Indonesian Tourism web site quotes Frieda Pinto from India, “Everything in Indonesia are great, I never thought about it the moment I came here…“   Or Wai Lok from Hongkong, “I’ll tell them, that the negative thing we heard about Indonesia is a fake news”.

Thought about whatFake news? Am I missing something here?

In any event flooding is a trend and emergent property which is here to stay.

More ominously…

H5N1. I have written on this subject before below. 

Flu burung, bird flu. It is out there in Jakarta stewing and brewing.  The virus is extremely lethal and while only 103 people have died from it so far there remains a huge uncertainty of where this is all going, except that it is not going away.  This is yet another trend and emergent propety of Jakarta living.

AFP 2.6.2008

‘Mysterious’ bird flu baffles Indonesian scientists

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesian scientists and officials said they were baffled by the “mysterious” behaviour of the bird flu virus here, which has already claimed nine lives this year in the world’s worst-hit nation.Indonesia has reported 126 cases of H5N1 bird flu, 103 of them fatal, since 2005. This year’s victims have all come from the capital Jakarta and its satellite cities. …>go to article

Traffic.  I predict there will be a traffic jam in Jakarta in 2008.

Barack Obama.  Jakarta’s favorite son polls 75% of the 100 expat votes cast. 

Reuters 2.6.08

Many Indonesians cheer Obama in Democrat race …>go to article

If you cannot predict you can hope…

How am I doing so far?  When it comes to Jakarta it is not difficult to end up talking or writing in circles. 

As the novelist Haruki Murakami has written, “On the flip side of everything we think we absolutely understand lurks an equal amount of the unknown. Understanding is but the sum of our misunderstandings. In the world we live in, what we know and what we don’t know are like Siamese twins, inseparable, existing in a state of confusion”.  

Here at Jakarta Urban Blog there are many of things to see and do.  Look for a new review of Helmond and Michiels Jakarta Megalopis: Horizontal and Verticle Observations and new edits to Selamat Jakarta.

Jakarta (money, money, money)

money

Photo: The Jakarta Post

Welfare minister tops Indonesian rich list: Forbes

JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesia’s welfare minister and his family, under fire for their company’s role in an oozing mud volcano that has displaced thousands, has topped Forbes Asia’s 2007 Indonesia rich list, the magazine said Thursday.

Aburizal Bakrie and his family saw their net worth blow out to 5.4 billion dollars this year, up from 1.2 billion dollars in 2006 when they were sixth on the list, according to the title’s December 24 edition.

The largest contributor to their wealth gain came from surging stock prices in Bakrie Group’s largest holding, coal producer Bumi Resources, it reported.

Bakrie has faced sustained criticism over the role his part-owned company Lapindo Brantas played in triggering the mud volcano in Sidoarjo, East Java, which began spurting in May 2006 during exploratory gas drilling by Lapindo.

While many experts say the company’s negligence led to the flow, Lapindo maintains that it was caused by a nearby earthquake.

Some 10,000 victims have been told to accept compensation from Lapindo for their land, with no payout for other losses such as houses and material goods. …> read full article here