Coming to an election near you

The general election is scheduled for 2009 but understandably some parties have begun to buy advertisements. It is these advertisements which have attracted attention to a candidate called Rizal Mallarangeng.

Discussions at wedding parties and dinner table often mention the Rizal phenomenon. It is not widely known how he has been funding one full page full colour ad in the country's largest dailies. Recently however it is noticed that a private tv station displayed its logo in a billboard of Rizal's.

What is also not clear is Dr. Mallarangeng's objectives. He has not come out and say what his plans are, whether it involves running as an independent or jumping into bed with some of the 38 political parties which will be contesting next year's election.

Therefore people like your correspondent is at a loss in understanding his motives. Some people believe that Dr. Malarangeng is a proxy of elements of the Golongan Karya (GOLKAR) political party who wanted to disrupt the progress Mr. Soetrisno Bachir, a one-time client of Dr. Mallarangeng (he created Mr. Bachir's ads and bought airtime to play them. In fact there are large similarities between the themes of Dr. Mallarangeng's ads and Mr. Bachir's).

All this is purely speculation. However indeed the private tv station associating itself with Dr. Mallarangeng is owned by the head of GOLKAR's supervisory board. That , your correspondent believes, started the speculation about GOLKAR aligning itself with Dr. Mallarangeng.

What does all this mean for the voters? Against this background, one must also consider the recent barrage of stories alleging how MPs have been taking facilitation payments. Your correspondent believes all this builds a picture which is not rosy for the political establishment. In essence these stories highlight that all MPs are created equal; ie no matter what parties they belong to, they all took the money when offered.

Arguably this reduces voters' trust in the parties. It can either lead to support for "independent" with no visible political associations , like Dr. Mallarangeng. Or, the second possibility is that the as voters distrust the parties, they decide to boycott the election and not vote at all.

If the second possibility were to be realized, it will be a pity for Indonesian democracy. The right to vote is a precious right and should not be waved on a whim. Granted 'not voting' is also a vote but it should be taken as a last resort.

Have a winnebago ?

The last time I took the Pantura road during the Lebaran "Mudik" period was, well, never, actually. In fact I have always spent my Lebaran at home, be it Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Den Haag or Manchester. Any self respecting petrol head would never be seen crawling 1 kph for hours on end as they criss cross Java from one end to another.

Why am I writing about this at all. Ah but in today's KOMPAS, the respected daily appear to argue for a rethink of the Trans Java motorway to be built on 1,200 km of road between Merak and Banyuwangi. By building on its current grote postweg expedition it warns policy makers about making the same mistake that governor general Daendels made when he built that road 200 years ago.

To be brutaly frank this is just about the most daft analysis I read and from Kompas it is even more annoying. Of course the grote postweg did not benefit the people. Did the Kompas reporter remember that Indonesia was ruled by a band of well armed Dutch traders? Hello anybody home?

The piece was directed to policy makers so that they took into considerations such aspects as potential damage to the environment, displacement of people etc. It even interviewed Emil Salim (alas not a relative) who basically cautioned the government to ensure all that is in place.

Ok so it is not all daft in this morning's piece. I completely agree with the observation about potential destructions to rice fields. And I don't understand how an executive plans to "replace" the affected fields with a similar one in another island. Is he talking about transmigration? Ow my gawd ...

Ah but wouldn't it be cool that Trans Java actually becomes a reality ? I have visions of a flotilla of R.V (recreational vehicles) filling up a wide motorway from Jakarta to Surabaya, passing through scenic locations and with plenty of rest areas complete with motels, restaurants (ah obviously need to put up gas stations), swimming pool for the kids ...

Ow this idea is so good I think I won't cancel my lifelong subscription to Kompas despite reading the silly piece ...

But will Trans Java actually be realized? I think the idea has been bandied about for a long time so if it is going to be built, it is about time. If any of you have a spare cash these days (as you do), you might want to quickly grab a strategic land, get talking to a motelier and restaurateur and a fuel marketing company. It may just be an investment which will pay handsomely ...

On Vacation

After working at some weekends since January, traveling in challenging roads to remote places and generally busy, your corrrespondent decided to take 10 days off and chill out.



So what does your correspondent do on vacation? Well not too much this time. So far, your correspondent is becoming a full time taxi driver for the kids, becoming well-versed in trying (focus is on trying) to restore a 1996 C-Class Mercedes Benz and balancing his financial condition.



Before starting off, it should be mentioned that the bbq on Sunday was a good one. Families came along and he thinks he managed to convert a few to succumb to the temptations of wines and cigars :)



The taxi run so far is quite taxing. In the process, he noticed that maybe he needs to wean Stuttgart's finest off the 88R and go back to 92R. Today he was told that the retail price of 92R has dipped just below Rp. 9,000 again. The gap has closed...



He is also building a checklist of the improvements which he is keen to do on his W 202. The car is beginning to have that nice smooth and shiny feel to the body. Guess all those biweekly trips to Medicars at Pondok Indah Mall begins to pay off.



Has your correspondent managed to escape the shackles of work? Well he is quite proud to admit that he only read and replied to four work-related emails on his first official leave day. The phone is switched off so he is not immediately contactable.



So far so good, let's see what other "homeworks" your correspondent will get tomorrow ...

The forgotten "father" of the Republic

He travels well and often uses secret and different identities, depending on which country he is on. At each country, his secret mission is often compromised and he has to use all at his disposal to escape from his nemesis. In every mission, there are often attractive female "friends" who is sympathetic with him. There are times when he was caught and thrown into prisons but he always escaped.

This is not a fictional biography of James Bond but rather the non-fictional history of Tan Malaka. In the folklore of the new order, Tan Malaka is he-whose name-should-not-be- mentioned. He occupies this place along with other politicians , who, deemed dangerous by both the 'old' and the 'new' orders, who found that there was a systematic cleansing of collective memory. This purge was achieved through a combination of a ban on their publications, their relatives shun by their neighbours and employment opportunities (especially the civil service) for relatives suddenly closed shut before their eyes.

But, thankfully, through the works of both established media (the respected newsweekly "Tempo" recently ran a special edition of Tan Malaka, titling the edition "the forgotten father of the Republic") and the alternative press (it's difficult to name them all) , the young-ish generation starts to hear an alternative version of the story of Tan Malaka.

At the risk of a spoiler effect, your correspondent decides not to divulge the details of the special edition. Needless to say it does seem a pity that Tempo appears to focus solely on Tan Malaka's side of the story and less on the 'establishment' side of the story. Understandbly there are reasons behind this, not least is probably that Tempo could have felt that sufficient time has been allocated to give the "official" version.

Your correspondent obviously is not a historian but in the process of reading the special edition, he obtains the impression that maybe Ibrahim (which is Tan Malaka' s real name; Datuk Tan Malaka is a title passed to him by his Clan) is a normal politician after all.

More to follow ...

Absolute power, corrupts absolutely

News , by definition, are information which had hitherto been unknown or not made public. When a former Indonesian MP accused his past and current colleagues of accepting funds for passing legislation, arguably this could not be accepted as news. The fact that the stories remained at the forefront as this newspaper hit the press, even attracting the president to call in his two MPs-turned-cabinet members, suggests otherwise.



There have been accusations of MPs receiving facilitation payments in the past. Some have been convicted. Unfortunately those have been the exception rather than the rule.



The rule unfortunately is the cases were lost in the maze also known as the Indonesian legal system. The cynics have termed this system the case trading system. This newspaper's recent report on deputy attorney generals caught on record as receiving payments from lobbyists was but a recent example of just how corrupt the 3rd branch of government is.



So is there hope for a corrupt-free society and a just, fair legal system? Or is it like waiting for Godot?



More to follow ...