http://weblog.iom.int/over-500-new-human-trafficking-victims-identified-indonesia-benjina-%E2%80%98slave-fisheries%E2%80%99-exposed
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
Over 500 New Human Trafficking Victims Identified in Indonesia since Benjina ‘Slave Fisheries’ Exposed
I knocked out this blog a while back but it was never posted for one reason or another. Now updated to July 31, it timelines the work done to date bu IOM and the government to assist victims of trafficking in the foreign fisheries in Indonesia.
http://weblog.iom.int/over-500-new-human-trafficking-victims-identified-indonesia-benjina-%E2%80%98slave-fisheries%E2%80%99-exposed
http://weblog.iom.int/over-500-new-human-trafficking-victims-identified-indonesia-benjina-%E2%80%98slave-fisheries%E2%80%99-exposed
Monday, August 03, 2015
Hunt for "Slave Ships" Continues
Nice to be back in the 'game'.
The stories out of Benjina, Ambon and PNG are pretty awful. Glad the Guardian/Observer picked up for the Saturday edition.
Ambon is where it is all happening; PNG was just the news peg.
A fleet of at least 30 fishing trawlers crewed by slaves is being hunted off the coast of Papua New Guinea as the true extent becomes apparent of the trafficking of Burmese men by a massive Thai-run criminal syndicate operating throughout the East Indies.
Immigration officials have so far intercepted one of the fishing vessels, called the Blissful Reefer, and rescued its trafficked crew. Another 33 Thai trawlers thought to be crewed by slaves are being tracked in fishing grounds off the south coast of Papua New Guinea, known locally as the Dog Leg.
The trawlers are thought to be linked to a huge trafficking operation that was disrupted on the isolated Indonesian island of Benjina in March, liberating hundreds of enslaved fishermen – although a large number of boats loaded with slaves managed to escape.
Analysis of the trafficking operation reveals that the fish, which were originally heading for Thailand’s huge export-oriented seafood trade, are entering global supply chains, with some almost certainly destined for Britain.
It has also emerged that another, much larger, fleet of fishing boats crewed by slaves has been identified on the Indonesian island of Ambon – 1,200 miles to the west and once an important destination in the region’s spice trade. Officials from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) believe that a further 240 Thai fishing vessels are moored there, along with a total of around 1,000 slaves. To date, the crews of around 70 fishing vessels have been interviewed by IOM officials on the island, resulting in the rescue of some 350 Burmese slaves who will be repatriated to Burma (Myanmar). Accounts from a handful of former Burmese slaves who have already arrived home say hundreds of men remain unaccounted for.
Paul Dillon, a Jakarta-based IOM official, told the Observer: “We’ve interviewed the men from over a third of the 240 vessels in the port and discovered over 350 victims of trafficking, virtually all of whom are from Myanmar. If the pattern holds and we’re finally able to get access to the remaining men, we could be looking at up to 1,000.”
However, Dillon said local corruption had obstructed attempts to examine the remaining boats: “We are hoping they will see the light, understand that we are on a humanitarian, not a law-enforcement, mission, and let us get in there, assess and rescue these men and get them back home to their families.”
The findings and potential scale of slavery in Ambon has prompted the IOM to look at extending its investigation to ascertain how many other slave fishermen are being forced to work in Indonesia – an archipelago of more than 17,500 islands, of which just 922 are permanently inhabited.
“The Ambon experience has stirred us up to want to look at other parts of the country,” said Dillon. “Currently we don’t know where else in the country there are large numbers of fishing vessels standing by. Many of the islands are very remote.”
Meanwhile, the hunt for the Thai fishing vessels in the narrow, dangerous straits of the Dog Leg will continue this week as the Blissful Reefer is impounded in the port of Daru in Papua New Guinea. The eight crew members of the vessel, rescued on Monday, have been found to be trafficking victims. George Gigauri, the IOM’s chief of mission in Papua New Guinea, said: “They are trying to locate an approximate area where the vessels are, and then narrow it down exactly. The search is becoming more targeted, although it is difficult.”
Advertisement
The boats are suspected of being part of a massive transnational Thai trafficking operation that until recently operated from the Benjina fisheries weigh station in eastern Indonesia.
In November, an investigation by Associated Press discovered hundreds of forced labourers, mainly from Burma, on Benjina. Some were filmed trapped in a cage, and many of those interviewed said they had been abused or had witnessed others being beaten – or in some cases killed.
Almost all described being kicked, beaten or whipped with toxic stingray tails if they complained or attempted to rest. Despite working 20- to 22-hour shifts and being forced to drink unclean water, they were either paid a pittance or went unpaid.
The discovery by AP led to at least 300 men managing to escape but, before help arrived at the island, boats loaded with slaves fled the region for new fishing grounds – some to the island of Ambon, others apparently to the Dog Leg.
The Burmese slaves are recruited to work in Thailand’s seafood business and are usually lured or tricked into leaving their country to go to Thailand, where they are then taken south and put on boats in Indonesia. Others, though, are kidnapped and forced to work.
Once in Indonesian waters – some of the world’s richest fishing grounds for species including tuna and prawns – the ships’ names and flags are changed to escape the authorities’ notice, although the captain of the trawler is usually a Thai national.
Thailand’s seafood industry is worth around £5bn a year, with the vast majority of its produce exported globally to satisfy the global appetite for cheap fish. The catches are deposited with a huge refrigerated “mothership”, which transports the fish back to Thailand. Dillon said: “Look, It’s a billion-dollar business. There are powerful interests out there who have been making a lot of money for many years off the backs of these men, through acts of great cruelty. It is not going to disappear overnight, but in Indonesia at this time there appears to be the will to break their business model.”
However, little is known of the size of the Thai criminal syndicates, of their connections or of how they manage to coerce and recruit so many slaves. Investigators are still searching for the nerve centre of the operation.
Gigauri said: “It’s still not clear to us how this operates. Where exactly are these boats registered? To which company do they report? Who does the recruiting? Where is the headquarters of this operation?”
Last year another Guardian investigation tracked the supply chain of prawns produced with slave labour to British and American supermarket chains. Another more recent inquiry linked Thailand’s fishing industry with the trafficking syndicates profiting from the misery of Rohingya migrants.
The stories out of Benjina, Ambon and PNG are pretty awful. Glad the Guardian/Observer picked up for the Saturday edition.
Ambon is where it is all happening; PNG was just the news peg.
Benjina facility, Eastern Indonesia
Hunt is on for 33 slave ships off coast of Papua New Guinea
Immigration officials seek trawler fleet crewed by 1,000 trafficked Burmese men that is thought likely to be supplying the UK with seafoodA fleet of at least 30 fishing trawlers crewed by slaves is being hunted off the coast of Papua New Guinea as the true extent becomes apparent of the trafficking of Burmese men by a massive Thai-run criminal syndicate operating throughout the East Indies.
Immigration officials have so far intercepted one of the fishing vessels, called the Blissful Reefer, and rescued its trafficked crew. Another 33 Thai trawlers thought to be crewed by slaves are being tracked in fishing grounds off the south coast of Papua New Guinea, known locally as the Dog Leg.
The trawlers are thought to be linked to a huge trafficking operation that was disrupted on the isolated Indonesian island of Benjina in March, liberating hundreds of enslaved fishermen – although a large number of boats loaded with slaves managed to escape.
Analysis of the trafficking operation reveals that the fish, which were originally heading for Thailand’s huge export-oriented seafood trade, are entering global supply chains, with some almost certainly destined for Britain.
It has also emerged that another, much larger, fleet of fishing boats crewed by slaves has been identified on the Indonesian island of Ambon – 1,200 miles to the west and once an important destination in the region’s spice trade. Officials from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) believe that a further 240 Thai fishing vessels are moored there, along with a total of around 1,000 slaves. To date, the crews of around 70 fishing vessels have been interviewed by IOM officials on the island, resulting in the rescue of some 350 Burmese slaves who will be repatriated to Burma (Myanmar). Accounts from a handful of former Burmese slaves who have already arrived home say hundreds of men remain unaccounted for.
Paul Dillon, a Jakarta-based IOM official, told the Observer: “We’ve interviewed the men from over a third of the 240 vessels in the port and discovered over 350 victims of trafficking, virtually all of whom are from Myanmar. If the pattern holds and we’re finally able to get access to the remaining men, we could be looking at up to 1,000.”
However, Dillon said local corruption had obstructed attempts to examine the remaining boats: “We are hoping they will see the light, understand that we are on a humanitarian, not a law-enforcement, mission, and let us get in there, assess and rescue these men and get them back home to their families.”
The findings and potential scale of slavery in Ambon has prompted the IOM to look at extending its investigation to ascertain how many other slave fishermen are being forced to work in Indonesia – an archipelago of more than 17,500 islands, of which just 922 are permanently inhabited.
“The Ambon experience has stirred us up to want to look at other parts of the country,” said Dillon. “Currently we don’t know where else in the country there are large numbers of fishing vessels standing by. Many of the islands are very remote.”
Meanwhile, the hunt for the Thai fishing vessels in the narrow, dangerous straits of the Dog Leg will continue this week as the Blissful Reefer is impounded in the port of Daru in Papua New Guinea. The eight crew members of the vessel, rescued on Monday, have been found to be trafficking victims. George Gigauri, the IOM’s chief of mission in Papua New Guinea, said: “They are trying to locate an approximate area where the vessels are, and then narrow it down exactly. The search is becoming more targeted, although it is difficult.”
Advertisement
The boats are suspected of being part of a massive transnational Thai trafficking operation that until recently operated from the Benjina fisheries weigh station in eastern Indonesia.
In November, an investigation by Associated Press discovered hundreds of forced labourers, mainly from Burma, on Benjina. Some were filmed trapped in a cage, and many of those interviewed said they had been abused or had witnessed others being beaten – or in some cases killed.
Almost all described being kicked, beaten or whipped with toxic stingray tails if they complained or attempted to rest. Despite working 20- to 22-hour shifts and being forced to drink unclean water, they were either paid a pittance or went unpaid.
The discovery by AP led to at least 300 men managing to escape but, before help arrived at the island, boats loaded with slaves fled the region for new fishing grounds – some to the island of Ambon, others apparently to the Dog Leg.
The Burmese slaves are recruited to work in Thailand’s seafood business and are usually lured or tricked into leaving their country to go to Thailand, where they are then taken south and put on boats in Indonesia. Others, though, are kidnapped and forced to work.
Once in Indonesian waters – some of the world’s richest fishing grounds for species including tuna and prawns – the ships’ names and flags are changed to escape the authorities’ notice, although the captain of the trawler is usually a Thai national.
Thailand’s seafood industry is worth around £5bn a year, with the vast majority of its produce exported globally to satisfy the global appetite for cheap fish. The catches are deposited with a huge refrigerated “mothership”, which transports the fish back to Thailand. Dillon said: “Look, It’s a billion-dollar business. There are powerful interests out there who have been making a lot of money for many years off the backs of these men, through acts of great cruelty. It is not going to disappear overnight, but in Indonesia at this time there appears to be the will to break their business model.”
However, little is known of the size of the Thai criminal syndicates, of their connections or of how they manage to coerce and recruit so many slaves. Investigators are still searching for the nerve centre of the operation.
Gigauri said: “It’s still not clear to us how this operates. Where exactly are these boats registered? To which company do they report? Who does the recruiting? Where is the headquarters of this operation?”
Last year another Guardian investigation tracked the supply chain of prawns produced with slave labour to British and American supermarket chains. Another more recent inquiry linked Thailand’s fishing industry with the trafficking syndicates profiting from the misery of Rohingya migrants.
Thursday, December 04, 2014
What the fuck is that, “Act my age”?
As I chased down (and failed to find) the source of this awesome quote:
"'Act my age'? What the fuck is that, 'Act my age'? What do I care how old I am? The Ocean is old as fuck. It will still drown your ass with vigor."
...I stumbled across a few others at http://listography.com
“I know you and I are not about poems or other sentimental bullshit but I have to tell you even the way you drink your coffee knocks me the fuck out.” — Clementine von Radics
•
"People say i love you all the time - when they say 'take an umbrella, it's raining' or 'hurry back' or even 'watch out you'll break your neck'. There are hundreds of ways of wording it - you just have to listen dear." - the curious savage- John Patrick
•
The story so far; In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams
•
You were a chapter in my book and i was merely a line in yours. p.b.p
•
“I used to think I was tough, but then I realized I wasn’t. I was fragile and I wore thick fucking armor. And I hurt people so they couldn’t hurt me. And I thought that was what being tough was, but it isn’t.” — James Frey
•
“Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt.” -- Meša Selimović
•
We are all the main characters of our own story, but we play supporting roles and extras in other stories. Sometimes we're not even in a story at all. That's okay though because our story influences the world. Remember that --theprettylittleblogger tumblr
•
“It’s like drowning but you just won’t fucking die.” — Urban Dictionary definition of unrequited love
•
I think we’re each given a gift or two so that we have something special to offer to others. But sometimes we make the mistake of assuming that the things we’re good at are common to everyone. We don’t recognize that our gifts are unique and therefore worth offering…I think sometimes we get confused and believe that our gift must bring us money or success or fame. Sometimes those things do happen, but not usually. The only thing a gift needs to do is bring you joy in the doing of that thing, and not worry about the outcome. - Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Melton
•
You may mess up, but you are not a mess up.
You may make a mistake, but you are not a mistake.
You may screw up, but you are not a screw up.
You may fail, but you are not a failure.
You are not your downfalls. - tumblr user p3rspective
•
"You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens." - LOUISE L. HAY
•
"Everybody goes through a tough time and I thought I wasn’t ready or I would want it to stop, but now I’m thanking god for each and every obstacle because he is only trying to bring the best out in us. So I’ll pray that he too will give you guys the wisdom and the strength to get through whatever is going on." - Tiffany Hwang
•
“I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we’d choose anyway.” ̶ Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars
•
Just because someone with depression has a better day, doesn't mean that person got better. The day is still grey but without any rain. - Miley
•
“It’s much easier to humiliate, degrade and just generally shit all over someone, than it is to admit that you love them.” — Nathan, Misfits
•
“Maybe the wolf is in love with moon, and each month it cries for a love it will never touch.” — Anonymous (via keimun)
• “Every villain is a hero in his own mind.”
― Tom Hiddleston )
"'Act my age'? What the fuck is that, 'Act my age'? What do I care how old I am? The Ocean is old as fuck. It will still drown your ass with vigor."
...I stumbled across a few others at http://listography.com
“I know you and I are not about poems or other sentimental bullshit but I have to tell you even the way you drink your coffee knocks me the fuck out.” — Clementine von Radics
•
"People say i love you all the time - when they say 'take an umbrella, it's raining' or 'hurry back' or even 'watch out you'll break your neck'. There are hundreds of ways of wording it - you just have to listen dear." - the curious savage- John Patrick
•
The story so far; In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams
•
You were a chapter in my book and i was merely a line in yours. p.b.p
•
“I used to think I was tough, but then I realized I wasn’t. I was fragile and I wore thick fucking armor. And I hurt people so they couldn’t hurt me. And I thought that was what being tough was, but it isn’t.” — James Frey
•
“Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt.” -- Meša Selimović
•
We are all the main characters of our own story, but we play supporting roles and extras in other stories. Sometimes we're not even in a story at all. That's okay though because our story influences the world. Remember that --theprettylittleblogger tumblr
•
“It’s like drowning but you just won’t fucking die.” — Urban Dictionary definition of unrequited love
•
I think we’re each given a gift or two so that we have something special to offer to others. But sometimes we make the mistake of assuming that the things we’re good at are common to everyone. We don’t recognize that our gifts are unique and therefore worth offering…I think sometimes we get confused and believe that our gift must bring us money or success or fame. Sometimes those things do happen, but not usually. The only thing a gift needs to do is bring you joy in the doing of that thing, and not worry about the outcome. - Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Melton
•
You may mess up, but you are not a mess up.
You may make a mistake, but you are not a mistake.
You may screw up, but you are not a screw up.
You may fail, but you are not a failure.
You are not your downfalls. - tumblr user p3rspective
•
"You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens." - LOUISE L. HAY
•
"Everybody goes through a tough time and I thought I wasn’t ready or I would want it to stop, but now I’m thanking god for each and every obstacle because he is only trying to bring the best out in us. So I’ll pray that he too will give you guys the wisdom and the strength to get through whatever is going on." - Tiffany Hwang
•
“I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we’d choose anyway.” ̶ Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars
•
Just because someone with depression has a better day, doesn't mean that person got better. The day is still grey but without any rain. - Miley
•
“It’s much easier to humiliate, degrade and just generally shit all over someone, than it is to admit that you love them.” — Nathan, Misfits
•
“Maybe the wolf is in love with moon, and each month it cries for a love it will never touch.” — Anonymous (via keimun)
• “Every villain is a hero in his own mind.”
― Tom Hiddleston )
Friday, September 26, 2014
First Dog on the Moon: Isis' Letter To The West
Classic offering from The Guardian's First Dog on the Moon.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Scotch bar cites “dress code”, tosses kilted Grinch
So here’s one for ya.
Last Thursday 4.4 million Scots voted in a referendum to decide whether to yank the U outta UK, kick the Queen to the curb and go independent. As yer Grinch is Edinburgh sired and papered, he’s a degree of emotional investment in the decision and no strong opinions on the matter one way or the other. A she-kin reduced the possible severing of a 300-year-old relationship to the quandary any bar rat familiar with Last Call can relate to: “Heart says Yes, Brain says No”.
So I decided with a small group of like-minded Scotsmen and Anglos to meet at our local establishment for some discount libations before motoring over to a swanky whisky joint called Nip&Dram (#nipanddram) to mull early results over glasses of liquid fire culled from their (claimed) 400+ bottles of Scotch. I’d been meaning to attend the place for many months as I’ve had a twenty-year fling with single malt and thought it would be nice to meet some fellow travelers, have a cigar and chill.
It being a special occasion I wore my kilt and sporran with Doc Martens and a black-T.
1030ish we drift down to the Landmark Centre in ones and twos. The first hint something was off came when I discovered a gal-pal and her boy languishing in the parking area; refused entry because he’s in shorts and sandals. “Well… aye, I can see how a small, high end club might have a problem with that. Pity though… maybe next time!”
So yer correspondent rocks up, acknowledges the Meathead in a safari suit at the door, and is ushered inside where he’s greeted by two young women in LBDs and heels, one clutching a menu board. I catch my highland pal’s eye across the room; he’s comfortably ensconced with friends listening to the jazz trio opposite, and I make to join them. At which point menu board tells me I’m not allowed in because I’m wearing shorts. Clearly there’s some sort of misunderstanding, laughs I. Surely you recognize this as a kilt, formal attire worn by the male of the species in the lands from whence virtually your entire product line and by extension your current employment, hail! Let me speak to your manager.
The manager, no doubt a reasonable woman, a seasoned veteran of the higher ends of the hospitality industry here and abroad is just the person to see at a thirsty time like this, no? No. “We have a strict dress code and you cannot come in dressed like that,” says she, as Meathead #2 slips into the shadows off my starboard.
You understand that’s like telling a Javanese guy he’s not welcome at the wedding because he’s wearing a batik shirt, right?
Murrmmurr murmmer murmmmur
I’m still laughing when my pal ambles up, asks what’s the matter and makes to call the owner/partner at who’s invitation we’ve come this night. I tell him not to waste a dime because even if I get the green light I’d rather take power tools to my kilted goolies than put money in these fucker’s pockets. Poor fella has just got his obscenely-priced glass of hooch so I tell him to chill with our friends, I’ll wait car.
My pal the security guard Surya is a bit shocked to see me back so soon. He’d been surprised to see a whitey driving a car, let alone one who climbed out wearing a skirt. So I’d taken a couple minutes to educate him on the kilt in terms he’d grok. When I told him I’d been refused entry he was quite literally gobsmacked: he stood there for several moments with his mouth hanging open.
My buddy showed up not long after with the manager in tow: “She’s going to apologize to you now,” says he.
Which she did. Very sorry for the misunderstanding. Please come back… durka durka durka… and I started to think, okay, don’t be a complete ass, Grinch. If you don’t want to go, be gruff and gracious and accept her apology, she’s just a minion after all etc. And then she said the most amazing thing, words to the effect, “We’ll waive the rules this time” (presumably by order of the boss).
Charming, eh?
So, let me get this straight, you’ll let me in tonight but the next time a sober, well-heeled Scottish guy in a kilt shows up at your bar, whose reason for existing is to market and sell Scottish whisky, you’ll not let him in?
I laughed, told her hell would freeze before I’d set foot in her (strangled obscenity) of a bar. Then loaded up the rest who couldn’t be bothered staying, pointed wheels north and ten mins later landed back in the warm bosom of my local, sharing glasses of Quarter-cask Laphroaig with proper friends.
As for Drip and Dram? Well, y’all can…
Last Thursday 4.4 million Scots voted in a referendum to decide whether to yank the U outta UK, kick the Queen to the curb and go independent. As yer Grinch is Edinburgh sired and papered, he’s a degree of emotional investment in the decision and no strong opinions on the matter one way or the other. A she-kin reduced the possible severing of a 300-year-old relationship to the quandary any bar rat familiar with Last Call can relate to: “Heart says Yes, Brain says No”.
So I decided with a small group of like-minded Scotsmen and Anglos to meet at our local establishment for some discount libations before motoring over to a swanky whisky joint called Nip&Dram (#nipanddram) to mull early results over glasses of liquid fire culled from their (claimed) 400+ bottles of Scotch. I’d been meaning to attend the place for many months as I’ve had a twenty-year fling with single malt and thought it would be nice to meet some fellow travelers, have a cigar and chill.
It being a special occasion I wore my kilt and sporran with Doc Martens and a black-T.
1030ish we drift down to the Landmark Centre in ones and twos. The first hint something was off came when I discovered a gal-pal and her boy languishing in the parking area; refused entry because he’s in shorts and sandals. “Well… aye, I can see how a small, high end club might have a problem with that. Pity though… maybe next time!”
So yer correspondent rocks up, acknowledges the Meathead in a safari suit at the door, and is ushered inside where he’s greeted by two young women in LBDs and heels, one clutching a menu board. I catch my highland pal’s eye across the room; he’s comfortably ensconced with friends listening to the jazz trio opposite, and I make to join them. At which point menu board tells me I’m not allowed in because I’m wearing shorts. Clearly there’s some sort of misunderstanding, laughs I. Surely you recognize this as a kilt, formal attire worn by the male of the species in the lands from whence virtually your entire product line and by extension your current employment, hail! Let me speak to your manager.
You understand that’s like telling a Javanese guy he’s not welcome at the wedding because he’s wearing a batik shirt, right?
Murrmmurr murmmer murmmmur
I’m still laughing when my pal ambles up, asks what’s the matter and makes to call the owner/partner at who’s invitation we’ve come this night. I tell him not to waste a dime because even if I get the green light I’d rather take power tools to my kilted goolies than put money in these fucker’s pockets. Poor fella has just got his obscenely-priced glass of hooch so I tell him to chill with our friends, I’ll wait car.
My pal the security guard Surya is a bit shocked to see me back so soon. He’d been surprised to see a whitey driving a car, let alone one who climbed out wearing a skirt. So I’d taken a couple minutes to educate him on the kilt in terms he’d grok. When I told him I’d been refused entry he was quite literally gobsmacked: he stood there for several moments with his mouth hanging open.
My buddy showed up not long after with the manager in tow: “She’s going to apologize to you now,” says he.
Which she did. Very sorry for the misunderstanding. Please come back… durka durka durka… and I started to think, okay, don’t be a complete ass, Grinch. If you don’t want to go, be gruff and gracious and accept her apology, she’s just a minion after all etc. And then she said the most amazing thing, words to the effect, “We’ll waive the rules this time” (presumably by order of the boss).
Charming, eh?
So, let me get this straight, you’ll let me in tonight but the next time a sober, well-heeled Scottish guy in a kilt shows up at your bar, whose reason for existing is to market and sell Scottish whisky, you’ll not let him in?
I laughed, told her hell would freeze before I’d set foot in her (strangled obscenity) of a bar. Then loaded up the rest who couldn’t be bothered staying, pointed wheels north and ten mins later landed back in the warm bosom of my local, sharing glasses of Quarter-cask Laphroaig with proper friends.
As for Drip and Dram? Well, y’all can…
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
25 things you never wanted to know about Grinch On Tour
A while back - prodded by a social media 'poke' - I wrote 25 random things about myself. Here's that bit of navel gazing five years on.
1. I almost died of exposure as a child when my just-off-the-BOAC Dad and his just-off-the-coal-scow Welsh buddy took me hunting in the middle of a Manitoba winter and got stuck many miles up a disused logging road. As dark and almost certain death by exposure loomed, hero Dad flagged down a truckload of hydro workers who literally lifted our station wagon and pointed it in the right direction. A year later I fell through the ice in a pond behind my apartment building. In addition to being first in a long line of near-death experiences these incidents and Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon are among my earliest memories.
2. I write, carry a hammer and wear a watch on my right hand, but I throw, draw an arrow and lift heavy objects with my left. I punch and kick with either.
3. I can spit further and whistle louder than anyone I know.
4. For as long as I can remember I have spent idle moments I drawing imaginary lines of infinite length through the 90-degree angles formed by tiles so that my eyes pinball around the ceiling or floor until they finally arrive in a dead-end corner. Then I retrace/unravel the pattern. This hypnotic activity keeps me captivated for hours.
5. I feel like a Guy Lafleur soul trapped in a Gille Lubien body: if I have to explain that then fuggedaboudit.
6. At least once a month since I was a child I get the sensation that I'm a nano-second out of phase with the world around me. Ambient sounds echo in my head, my peripheral vision blurs and I become a detached third-party observer to what I'm doing. It can take hours for this sensation to pass.
7. I've always wanted hair like Jimmy Page (or Tony Alva).
8. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think about Trudy (The Wonder Dog) and the way the light in her cataract-green eyes faded and died as I held her in my arms.
9. The Life of Brian was the funniest movie released in 1979, perhaps the single greatest year for comedies: The Jerk, Richard Pryor Live in Concert, 10, Being There, Manhattan, Meatballs, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, 1941 etc.
10. I graduated high school because I could crib a year's worth of theorems or irregular Spanish verbs onto a 2cm x 2cm square of paper with an architect's pencil.
11. I spent a couple of years in my 20s playing Dungeons & Dragons in my buddy Ed's basement: Sunday noon-till-midnight marathons and at least one other day each week. When Tolgar, my righteous, ass-whuppin' Level 16 Paladin was seduced by a horny +24 Charisma wood nymph and vanished into a forest permanently I realized it was time to do something more productive with my life.
12. I never received a copy of my university diploma so I'm not even sure I officially graduated.
13. My first job was as a nine year old picking up newspapers on garbage nights in Montreal for a recycling venture an elder (like, 16) had cooked up. Around the same time I picked up my first Montreal Star paper route. Since then I have: delivered groceries on a 3-wheeled bike, tele-marketed (briefly), recycled newspapers, sharpened skates & sold sports ware, worked in numerous restaurants and bars, split wood, hauled lumber, loaded fat tourists on ski lifts, stocked supermarket shelves at night, made pizza, sold produce, worked as a courier, been a carpenters apprentice, painted many, many homes, committed journalism, worked as a carny, picked grapes (France), peaches, apples and tomatoes (B.C.), managed projects worth millions of dollars and been a tour guide at a Cognac factory. I imagine there’s a few others I’ve forgotten along the way. Ironically, at this time in my life I have a lot of trouble answering the question: “So, what do you do?” and its corollary, "where are you from?"
14. Weed makes me sleep (so what's the point), I dislike the artificial intimacy of club-drugs and 'shrooms take me places I don't wanna go, but I will always have a sweet spot for LSD-25 or a piece of Afghan black.
15. Once upon a time, someone (some group of people more likely) stenciled distinctive bird silhouettes on hundreds of highway overpasses and bridges across Eastern Canada. A guy at a Sally-An soup kitchen in Sudbury, Ontario, was the first to tell me the combinations of birds (sparrows, gulls, eagles, robins etc.) were a code for hitchhikers. One of my great regrets is that years on the thumb and many thousands of miles later I've never met anyone who claimed to be able to read 'em, and the images themselves are long gone.
16. I pepper casual conversation with references to movies, episodes of M*A*S*H*, All in The Family, Taxi and WKRP among others, song lyrics, arcane advertising slogans and other pop culture detritus that no one (except my buddy Marty) ever “gets” but amuse the hell out of me.
17. In my experience when a journalist says "If both sides are pissed off then I must be doing my job well" the opposite is often the case.
18. "It's astounding" but I can still remember the words/crowd responses to most of the songs in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
19. I believe there is no greater threat to personal freedom than social orthodoxies and prejudices buttressed by religion in the hands of a Charismatic.
20. I have never been happier than during my solo bike trip across North America on a beat-up 1000cc Yamaha Virago that literally disintegrated 45 minutes from the end of an 8,000km journey.
21. Being a freelance journalist in Asia is the greatest job on earth. Being a freelance journalist in Asia is the worst job on earth. This is not a contradiction.
22. I'm a fan of things that require no improvement: 10-year-old Laphroaig quarter cask and good Cuban cigars; the Coleman cooler; knee-high Sorels; CCM Super-Tacks, ACS 651 skateboard trucks and Salomon 747Equipe ski bindings; my 20" iMac, the basic Bic ballpoint and lighter; Volvo D240 station wagon; the combination of a black cotton t-shirt, 501s and Dayton boots; the roll-up crazy carpet snow sled; Export-A rolling papers and, the wooden-handled 4-inch Mora belt-knife.
23. If I could go back and do it all over again I would try not to be such a complete asshole to my parents during the worst of my hormonal teenage years.
24. I'm enjoying watching my face age. From the time I got my first line at 21/22, I've tried to imagine what I’d look like at 80. I even started a scrap book of head-shots – one per page – for ever year starting in 1965 to see the progression: its in a filing cabinet I've not seen in 10 years, 12,000km from my current locale. Now pushing 50 I'm generally satisfied with the pace of decay but would dearly love to drop this last 15 pounds so I can get into a size 32.
25. At the end of it all, I want a proper Irish wake; laid out on the table, lotsa whiskey and poitín, singing, coins on the eyes, candles and photographs and stopped clocks and smoking, much gnashing and wailing and lamentations and laughter, and carousing in the shadows. I've even got an informal list of songs I want played but I'm careful to never settle on more than nine: why tempt fate, eh?
1. I almost died of exposure as a child when my just-off-the-BOAC Dad and his just-off-the-coal-scow Welsh buddy took me hunting in the middle of a Manitoba winter and got stuck many miles up a disused logging road. As dark and almost certain death by exposure loomed, hero Dad flagged down a truckload of hydro workers who literally lifted our station wagon and pointed it in the right direction. A year later I fell through the ice in a pond behind my apartment building. In addition to being first in a long line of near-death experiences these incidents and Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon are among my earliest memories.
2. I write, carry a hammer and wear a watch on my right hand, but I throw, draw an arrow and lift heavy objects with my left. I punch and kick with either.
3. I can spit further and whistle louder than anyone I know.
4. For as long as I can remember I have spent idle moments I drawing imaginary lines of infinite length through the 90-degree angles formed by tiles so that my eyes pinball around the ceiling or floor until they finally arrive in a dead-end corner. Then I retrace/unravel the pattern. This hypnotic activity keeps me captivated for hours.
5. I feel like a Guy Lafleur soul trapped in a Gille Lubien body: if I have to explain that then fuggedaboudit.
6. At least once a month since I was a child I get the sensation that I'm a nano-second out of phase with the world around me. Ambient sounds echo in my head, my peripheral vision blurs and I become a detached third-party observer to what I'm doing. It can take hours for this sensation to pass.
7. I've always wanted hair like Jimmy Page (or Tony Alva).
8. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think about Trudy (The Wonder Dog) and the way the light in her cataract-green eyes faded and died as I held her in my arms.
9. The Life of Brian was the funniest movie released in 1979, perhaps the single greatest year for comedies: The Jerk, Richard Pryor Live in Concert, 10, Being There, Manhattan, Meatballs, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, 1941 etc.
10. I graduated high school because I could crib a year's worth of theorems or irregular Spanish verbs onto a 2cm x 2cm square of paper with an architect's pencil.
11. I spent a couple of years in my 20s playing Dungeons & Dragons in my buddy Ed's basement: Sunday noon-till-midnight marathons and at least one other day each week. When Tolgar, my righteous, ass-whuppin' Level 16 Paladin was seduced by a horny +24 Charisma wood nymph and vanished into a forest permanently I realized it was time to do something more productive with my life.
12. I never received a copy of my university diploma so I'm not even sure I officially graduated.
13. My first job was as a nine year old picking up newspapers on garbage nights in Montreal for a recycling venture an elder (like, 16) had cooked up. Around the same time I picked up my first Montreal Star paper route. Since then I have: delivered groceries on a 3-wheeled bike, tele-marketed (briefly), recycled newspapers, sharpened skates & sold sports ware, worked in numerous restaurants and bars, split wood, hauled lumber, loaded fat tourists on ski lifts, stocked supermarket shelves at night, made pizza, sold produce, worked as a courier, been a carpenters apprentice, painted many, many homes, committed journalism, worked as a carny, picked grapes (France), peaches, apples and tomatoes (B.C.), managed projects worth millions of dollars and been a tour guide at a Cognac factory. I imagine there’s a few others I’ve forgotten along the way. Ironically, at this time in my life I have a lot of trouble answering the question: “So, what do you do?” and its corollary, "where are you from?"
14. Weed makes me sleep (so what's the point), I dislike the artificial intimacy of club-drugs and 'shrooms take me places I don't wanna go, but I will always have a sweet spot for LSD-25 or a piece of Afghan black.
15. Once upon a time, someone (some group of people more likely) stenciled distinctive bird silhouettes on hundreds of highway overpasses and bridges across Eastern Canada. A guy at a Sally-An soup kitchen in Sudbury, Ontario, was the first to tell me the combinations of birds (sparrows, gulls, eagles, robins etc.) were a code for hitchhikers. One of my great regrets is that years on the thumb and many thousands of miles later I've never met anyone who claimed to be able to read 'em, and the images themselves are long gone.
16. I pepper casual conversation with references to movies, episodes of M*A*S*H*, All in The Family, Taxi and WKRP among others, song lyrics, arcane advertising slogans and other pop culture detritus that no one (except my buddy Marty) ever “gets” but amuse the hell out of me.
17. In my experience when a journalist says "If both sides are pissed off then I must be doing my job well" the opposite is often the case.
18. "It's astounding" but I can still remember the words/crowd responses to most of the songs in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
19. I believe there is no greater threat to personal freedom than social orthodoxies and prejudices buttressed by religion in the hands of a Charismatic.
20. I have never been happier than during my solo bike trip across North America on a beat-up 1000cc Yamaha Virago that literally disintegrated 45 minutes from the end of an 8,000km journey.
21. Being a freelance journalist in Asia is the greatest job on earth. Being a freelance journalist in Asia is the worst job on earth. This is not a contradiction.
22. I'm a fan of things that require no improvement: 10-year-old Laphroaig quarter cask and good Cuban cigars; the Coleman cooler; knee-high Sorels; CCM Super-Tacks, ACS 651 skateboard trucks and Salomon 747Equipe ski bindings; my 20" iMac, the basic Bic ballpoint and lighter; Volvo D240 station wagon; the combination of a black cotton t-shirt, 501s and Dayton boots; the roll-up crazy carpet snow sled; Export-A rolling papers and, the wooden-handled 4-inch Mora belt-knife.
23. If I could go back and do it all over again I would try not to be such a complete asshole to my parents during the worst of my hormonal teenage years.
24. I'm enjoying watching my face age. From the time I got my first line at 21/22, I've tried to imagine what I’d look like at 80. I even started a scrap book of head-shots – one per page – for ever year starting in 1965 to see the progression: its in a filing cabinet I've not seen in 10 years, 12,000km from my current locale. Now pushing 50 I'm generally satisfied with the pace of decay but would dearly love to drop this last 15 pounds so I can get into a size 32.
25. At the end of it all, I want a proper Irish wake; laid out on the table, lotsa whiskey and poitín, singing, coins on the eyes, candles and photographs and stopped clocks and smoking, much gnashing and wailing and lamentations and laughter, and carousing in the shadows. I've even got an informal list of songs I want played but I'm careful to never settle on more than nine: why tempt fate, eh?
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Grinch Holiday ramblings...
Just back from three weeks R&R in the homeland.
Some musings:
Top Ten Holiday Highlights (in no particular order)
1. 4 1/2 year old female grinchlette in a life-jacket bobbing like a cork down Ottawa River rapids squealing, “Lemme go! Let! Me! Go!” to a clingy Dad. Thanks to Dave at http://www.ottawacityadventures.com/adventures/rafting/
2. Watching reactions in Plateau Montreal shops as the smell of a backpack stuffed with fresh Fairmont bagels infused the air. http://www.fairmountbagel.com/
3. Having the kids identify the Big Dipper the first time they’d ever seen a truly star-studded northern sky (thanks apparently to Disney Channel’s Doc McStuffins & “Celestial Celeste” who is apparently doing a better job edukatin’ my kids than I) http://www.allreadable.com/39316qDW
4. Watching 4 1/2 year old male grinchlette on auto-belay flash a three-story vertical wall at Altitude in Gatineau, pausing long enough to say, “Hey, good lookin’” to my brother, his climbing partner. http://www.altitudegym.ca/en/
5. The Big Family Dinner; many roast beasts consumed.
6. Special evening of fine dining with the famle @ Le Serpent… http://www.leserpent.ca/en/
7. Camping… bc a bad day camping is still more enjoyable than the best day at work (even when it leaves yer Grinch with a severed tendon in his hand that will require surgery within the week) http://www.ontarioparks.com/park/voyageur
8. Street hockey, trampolines, rock climbing, rafting, horseback rides and backyard swimming pools; blueberry pancakes, suitable volumes of decent wine, village-made cheese, and decent beers with buddies in Mtl; the CFL; Franco-Quebecois who default to English and Anglo-Ontarians who default to French; dueling hummingbirds, fat hissing ‘coons at the Mont Royal pullover, gonzo moths, a (sadly) rare tree frog & massive turkey vultures wheeling, watching, waiting; Players Extra-Light Kings and economy-sized little blue boats; needing a duvet in August and family, family, family.
9. Driving the same car for three weeks without feeling like an unwitting participant in a diabolical swarm-theory experiment http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Swarm_intelligence Taking the same period to figure out wipers and lights have swapped sides on the steering column.
10. Canadian Tire. Before there was anything else, there was Canadian Tire http://www.canadiantire.ca/en.html
Dillon Family Holiday: By the Numbers
Aggregate air travel (4pax) 136,240kms. Total layover time: 19.5 hrs.
Kms on rental car: 1,812. Speeding/parking tickets: 0. Times in the past 15 years when that's happened: 0.
Kms traveled by Zodiac: 9.1. Kms by ferry: 4.8. Kms by horseback: 2.2 (guesstimate).
Tent poles known to be broken prior to leaving to camp ground: 1. Percentage level of importance of that pole in timely erection of tent fly: 100. Minutes required for sky to go from blue to black after setting up camp tent (minus fly): 15. Mins of continuous bloody rain before tent fly successfully raised: 16. Number of new curse words acquired by kids: 3. Number with more than one syllable: 2.
Years rolled back as Dad, Mum and son again wrestled against the elements on a camping trip: 30+
Check-in bags to Canada: 3.
Check-in bags to Jakarta: 5. Weight of return baggage: 97.2kg. Quarts of fresh blueberries crushed in return baggage: 1. Jam jars smashed: 0. Total new books acquired: 17. Total of those books that are for adults: 2.
Bottles of single malt acquired at Doha Duty free: 2. Rank (1-10) of Doha duty free selection of single malts: 8.7. Percentage likelihood single malts to be provided as gifts: 0.
Total clothes and meds bill at Hawkesbury, Ont. Walmart store: $531.
Bill at Hawkesbury, Ont. Harley dealership: $138.48. Number of days after leaving Canada that cast members of TV show Sons of Anarchy will (inexplicably) travel of Hawkesbury, Ont. HD shop to party with locals: 24.
Level of spouse's disappointment (1-10) that she won't meet the guy who plays SAMCRO's sexual deviant Sgt-At-Arms, Tig Trager: 8.1. Level of disappointment had it been Opie: 11
Pax at Big Family Dinner: 16. Bottles of wine drunk: Dunno oshiffer. Montreal-style bagels purchased 24 hours prior to BFD: six dozen. Bagels remaining to be brought to Jakarta (after vultures picked through the remains): six. Actually brought: 0 (bc one does not leave parents without bagels).
New craft beers made in nearby village of 1,500: 2. Taps of craft beer made within an hour's drive of the village in a new local tav: 19. Average alcohol level: 6.8%.
Confirmed number of marshmallows eaten by two under-5s: 15. Stomach incidents: 1. Percentage likelihood daughter will impale marshmallow and eat it before it can be roasted: 100.
Cumulative wasp stings: 3. Wasp stings at 2:30am in a pitch-effin-black bathroom: 1. Number of new curse words acquired by kids: 0.
20-something Arab men on return flight who spoke English when they boarded for Jakarta: six. Who spoke English when mate unloaded on them for behaving like bleedin’ eejits: 0.
Author's weigh gain: 2.5kg. Primary physical activity: opening fridge door; light laundry. Spouse's weight gain: nil. Primary physical activity: 5km morning power-walk. Lessons learned: Sorry… can you repeat the question?
Friday, September 06, 2013
Metallica @ Bungkarno Statium, Jakarta
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Dumb Bell Destroyer
Yer Grinch has been getting a lot of questions the past few months about what sorta exercise he's been doing.
Been thinking about writing a bit about what I've learned over the past three years, since I took that long look in the mirror and decided I wasn't gonna be buried in an XXL coffin.... and I will knock something together on the grounds that I've learned a lot about what's doable, and might be able to offer some practical tips about exercise and good eating.
But in the interim my exercise routine is pretty simple. I get to the gym usually three times a week for about 90 min and I play hockey every Tuesday night. At the gym I stick to the dumb bells almost exclusively because they sorta force you to focus on good posture and technique; if you're lazy and/or unfocused lifting DBs you're going to get hurt.
I split the focus of my days between Shoulder/Back/Chest and Biceps/Triceps/Legs and try and spring the time to do at least 20 minutes of intense cardio to end each session; usually sprint intervals, one-min at 80% max and two-mins at a fast walk.
Because time is an issue for me I Superset my DB exercises. Simply put, Supersets combine several lift sets working similar muscles (though not always the case) with zero rest. For example I might do 12 reps Standing DB Curls & 15 reps Incline Hammer Curls, rest of 90 secs and repeat for three reps and then move immediately to a triceps Superset and so on.
I've tweaked the approach a bit by adding a third element to the SS. Depending on my mood it'll either be a core or abdominal element like planks or crunches, or something from my off-day routine; if I'm working arms I'll add a shoulder/chest/back set.
I can get through four sets of three exercises in an hour and if I'm doing it right I'm completely wasted by the end, heart in the 125-135 bpm range before getting on the treadmill.
Recently I came across a DB combo I like a lot:
I've tweaked this as well, replacing a couple of the 14 exercises, adding to the number of repetitions, increasing the mix of weight a bit etc. It's kinda fun once you get into it. There's now 15 different exercises which I do without a break - the whole cycle takes about 20 minutes to complete - and then take a two/three min breather between each of three reps. This is my Saturday afternoon routine; it clears the residual booze vapors very efficiently and forces my lungs to manage the ten+ cigarettes I smoked the night before. A bit of well-deserved punishment for the night's excesses. The results since I started have been very noticeable (and in one regard unwelcome!); I'd sorta plateaued at 88kg but five weeks after adding this new component I've put on at least 1.5kg of muscle. Nice I guess but not really what I'm going for as I try and track down to my goal coffin weight in the low 80s.
I've tweaked this as well, replacing a couple of the 14 exercises, adding to the number of repetitions, increasing the mix of weight a bit etc. It's kinda fun once you get into it. There's now 15 different exercises which I do without a break - the whole cycle takes about 20 minutes to complete - and then take a two/three min breather between each of three reps. This is my Saturday afternoon routine; it clears the residual booze vapors very efficiently and forces my lungs to manage the ten+ cigarettes I smoked the night before. A bit of well-deserved punishment for the night's excesses. The results since I started have been very noticeable (and in one regard unwelcome!); I'd sorta plateaued at 88kg but five weeks after adding this new component I've put on at least 1.5kg of muscle. Nice I guess but not really what I'm going for as I try and track down to my goal coffin weight in the low 80s.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
In Floods
Friday, May 18, 2012
It's been a weird couple of weeks even by G's standards.
Three young relatives of immediate friends have died, including a five-year-old girl taken by dengue. The Grinchlettes came down with the chicken pox - passed along by an elder hatchling owned by the couple who keep our den tidy and the larder stocked - which was unpleasant but not as unpleasant as I'd imagined.
After six agonizing months of hand-wringing the nameless, incompetent and risk-averse government agency that funds my work has gotten off the pot, found the money and wants to plow ahead NOW-NOW-NOW-NOW-NOW (meaning another 15-months of employment), at the very moment that a private sector suitor has come knocking, all pimped out and offering an obscenely large amount of money for yer Grinch to jump ship in exchange for a further four year commitment to Indonesia.
... and then there's this: Wolf Boy on YouTube
Written and performed by an old, old friend in Montreal, and filmed on a mobile phone last weekend in some dodgy Plateau dive (I'm guessing), this dirge Wolf Boy was apparently inspired by yer G's mutterings 15 years ago about wanting to be a foreign correspondent (and then going out and doing it).
Now, Kurt's a lovely fellow, a Cohen-esque Boulevardier, the owner or many black-sweater-and-black-jean combinations, a retired Christmas tree vendor, 4am bagel aficionado and cunning linguist, or at least was when I last spoke to him, like, 100 years ago. So I have a lot of questions, chief among them being: where's the royalties at, homeboy?
Three young relatives of immediate friends have died, including a five-year-old girl taken by dengue. The Grinchlettes came down with the chicken pox - passed along by an elder hatchling owned by the couple who keep our den tidy and the larder stocked - which was unpleasant but not as unpleasant as I'd imagined.
After six agonizing months of hand-wringing the nameless, incompetent and risk-averse government agency that funds my work has gotten off the pot, found the money and wants to plow ahead NOW-NOW-NOW-NOW-NOW (meaning another 15-months of employment), at the very moment that a private sector suitor has come knocking, all pimped out and offering an obscenely large amount of money for yer Grinch to jump ship in exchange for a further four year commitment to Indonesia.
... and then there's this: Wolf Boy on YouTube
Written and performed by an old, old friend in Montreal, and filmed on a mobile phone last weekend in some dodgy Plateau dive (I'm guessing), this dirge Wolf Boy was apparently inspired by yer G's mutterings 15 years ago about wanting to be a foreign correspondent (and then going out and doing it).
Now, Kurt's a lovely fellow, a Cohen-esque Boulevardier, the owner or many black-sweater-and-black-jean combinations, a retired Christmas tree vendor, 4am bagel aficionado and cunning linguist, or at least was when I last spoke to him, like, 100 years ago. So I have a lot of questions, chief among them being: where's the royalties at, homeboy?
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Angels& Demons
I'm not even going to begin to make excuses for the unseemly lag in blogs to this site. Hopefully this will serve to restart my engines (aye, where have we read that before, Papa Grinch?)
Michael Buehler's fascinating article below appeared in Inside Indonesia this week.
http://www.insideindonesia.org/stories/angels-and-demons-22042912
It is probably too "inside" for most tastes but for observers of the reform process here, development issues and the blind adulation afforded the current SBY administration by (most recently) David Cameron, Ban Ki-Moon and the Obaminator, it serves as a clear-eyed evaluation of the efforts of so-called reform champions and the emergence of a new class of Raptor as (highly!) unlikely defenders of democracy.
Every year, the development industry in Jakarta churns out ‘update’, ‘stock-taking’ and ‘rapid appraisal’ reports about the progress of democratisation and decentralisation in Indonesian local politics. Often these reports deal with the great complexity of their topic by focusing on the behaviour of individual politicians. Virtually every report picks out a few ‘reform-minded’ individuals and portrays them as leaders who are both ‘responsive’ and ‘responsible’ to citizen demands. These heroes of reform are then celebrated as pushing forward Indonesia’s democratisation and decentralisation against the interests of ‘old elites’ and ‘entrenched interests’.
In provinces, districts and municipalities that have been blessed with such ‘good leadership’ change is happening, so the story goes. In localities where ‘bosses’, ‘little kings’ and ‘predatory forces’ rule, in contrast, progress is depicted as stagnating. In this context, multilateral organisations have outdone each other over the past decade in their praise for half a dozen so-called reformers running the executive government of places such as Gorontalo (Sulawesi), Jembrana (Bali), Solok (West Sumatra), Sragen and Kebumen (both Central Java). Frequently discussed in the expatriate bars in Jakarta but rarely visited for in-depth research, these places loom large in the minds of development consultants. Stories abound of how the executive government heads in these few regions place the will of the people above everything and offer ‘best practice’ examples to other politicians scattered across the archipelago.
The simplicity and naiveté of such a Jesuit worldview, in which ‘good’ fights against ‘evil ‘, have been exposed by developments that have quietly unfolded in Indonesian local politics over recent months. Suddenly, one of the good governance heroes has advocated dismantling a pillar of local governance reform, while the predators are proving to be more interested in defending democracy.
Ironically, Gamawan Fauzi owes much of his stellar rise in Indonesian politics to these direct elections, and for a long time he was the poster boy of the development agencies, lionised as the main example of the new breed of local leaders winning their way to power by delivering good governance and reform. Appointed district head of Solok in West Sumatra in 1995, he won (indirect) elections in 2000. In 2005, people elected him as Governor of West Sumatra province, a post he left a few years later to become interior minister.
In past years, I sat through countless meetings and workshops in which donor agency folks busily constructed a narrative about Fauzi’s meteoric rise to the inner circles of the Yudhoyono administration. The main story line was that Gamawan Fauzi’s pro-democracy attitude and successful good governance programs had gotten him re-elected as district head, then governor and finally catapulted him into Yudhoyono’s cabinet. He was, in other words, a messianic figure whose exemplary behaviour showed ‘old elites’ that support for democracy was being rewarded.
Only a few people dared to say that Fauzi’s shallow reform programs in Solok collapsed soon after he had moved on to greener pastures. Fauzi could not fire many of the corrupt bureaucrats in the local administration since they were protected by Indonesia’s decrepit civil service law. Hence, such bureaucrats simply waited for Fauzi’s departure to regain control. Most development consultants were also unaware of the fact that governor Fauzi had re-introduced an older form of local administration that goes back to pre-colonial times called the Nagari system, which excludes women from political decision-making processes by restricting participation to male clan chiefs. Finally, the fact that Gamawan Fauzi was also one of the most prolific local executives in Indonesia with regard to the adoption and implementation of discriminatory syariah local regulations received no mention at all in development industry circles.
Good-looking, as comfortable donning a Western business suit as wearing a traditional khaki civil service uniform, fluent in English and well-versed in development-lingo thanks to some exposure to development industry seminars early on in his career (his résumé notes participation in such grandly-titled events as ‘The Role of Local Government in Implementing APEC Declaration’(1995); ‘Reinventing Government’ (1995); ‘Civil-Affair and Civil Military Operation’ (1999); ‘Implementing Integrity Pacts’ (2003)), Gamawan Fauzi became the darling of the development industry soon after the fall of Suharto in 1998.
Rarely a major donor workshop on decentralisation went by in Jakarta without Gamawan Fauzi speaking in his capacity as a ‘reformer’, or a ‘democracy-minded politician’. Finally a local executive head who said exactly the kind of things the donor community was craving to hear from Indonesian politicians. Fauzi’s recent U-turn suggests he was but a well-trained parrot, or simply a shrewd politician who knew what kind of rhetoric would raise his profile in democratising Indonesia and eventually pave the way for a career in national politics.
District head of Gowa between 1993 and 2003, Syahrul Yasin Limpo made national headlines when he was busted in a 2002 drug raid together with a prostitute. Others may have seen such an incident as a setback to their political career, but Syahrul not only managed to become the head of the provincial Anti-Drug Commission and a prolific anti-drug columnist in a local newspaper soon afterwards but also ran as deputy governor in 2003. In his successful campaign for governor a few years later, his official campaign slogan conveyed a simple and apt message to the electorate: ‘Don’t look back!’ In 2012, he launched his re-election campaign for a second term as governor. Driving around one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces in various high-end luxury cars with a number plate that consists only of his initials SYL while commanding several private security forces and hundreds of thugs, Syahrul Yasin Limpo lords over South Sulawesi precisely like one of the ‘little kings’ mentioned in donor agency reports.
Flanking Syahrul Yasin Limpo during the press conference in April 2012 in support of local democracy were several other notorious governors such as Awang Faroek Ishak from East Kalimantan province, who was named a suspect in a corruption case surrounding the divestment of PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) shares in 2010, Teras Narang from Central Kalimantan, who had come up on the radar screen of the Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis Centre (PPATK) for suspicious payments into his bank account in 2009, and last but not least, Ratu Atut Chosiyah from Banten, scion of one of Indonesia’s most corrupt families that has run the local construction industry in a criminal fashion for decades with the help of tens of thousands of thugs organised in martial art associations. In short, the politicians that stood up for democracy were hardly the kind of types one would see attending donor meetings and democracy workshops at swanky Jakarta hotels.
For starters, it offers a rare glimpse into centre-periphery tensions in Indonesia, a topic that is grossly understudied by academics and practitioners alike. Various efforts of national level politicians to re-centralise power both within state institutions and the party system in past years have gone unopposed. Arguably, the absence of any resistance is due to the fact that the institutional powers transferred back to the centre were not very substantive. Likewise, the re-centralisation within the party system did not matter to sub-national politicians because their careers do not depend on the dysfunctional parties anyway but on their personal networks and connections.
So why then does Fauzi’s proposal aggravate local executive heads? Above all, their reaction shows that democratic institutions have become a viable power base for politicians who a few years back seemed least likely to have any interest in them. Many of these governors are rich enough to bribe national politicians and officials to protect themselves from becoming corruption suspects but lack the financial and political connections to influence national party headquarters. Gamawan Fauzi’s plan would empower the national party headquarters, all of which have adopted regulations in recent years that concentrate power at the national level when putting forward candidates for local executive head elections.
Most of these governors are also local figures who have established networks in their respective constituencies, sometimes over decades. Fauzi’s proposal would render such ‘social capital’ – consisting of connections with groups from vote-canvassers, local notables, leaders of prayer groups through to criminal networks – worthless and therefore constitute a threat to local politicians’ prospects of winning political power.
There is no doubt that Limpo and his colleagues had first and foremost themselves in mind and not the people when they publicly attacked Fauzi’s plan in April. After all, governors’ offices provide legal and illegal access to resources, the possibility of implementing predatory taxes and levies or simply the chance to embezzle state funds. Given the riches that come with an executive post, it is not surprising that many of the aforementioned figures are running for a second term, including Syahrul Yasin Limpo whose entire political program once again consists of a single sentence: ‘Don’t stop, Komandan!’
The contradiction between these figures’ pious rhetoric and their worldly motives for defending democracy is not a reason to abolish direct elections for local executive heads, however. As the eighteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant showed in his treatise Zum Ewigen Frieden (Perpetual Peace) there were always people who believed that ‘a republic would have to be a nation of angels, because men with their selfish inclinations are not capable of a constitution of such sublime form.’ Kant refuted this position: ‘The problem of organising a state, however hard it may seem, can be solved even for a race of devils, if only they are intelligent.’ The key thing is for those devils to ‘establish a constitution in such a way that, although their private intentions conflict, they check each other, with the result that their public conduct is the same as if they had no such intentions.’ In other words, the right institutions can constrain the personal agendas of even the very worst politicians, and force them in new directions.
Direct elections for local executive heads in Indonesia are an approximation to the system Kant described. In the old days of President Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime, recruitment, promotion and retirement mechanisms for public officials were upward oriented and ultimately regulated by Suharto.
The introduction of direct executive elections in the context of decentralisation created a more competitive environment for political elites. My research shows, for instance, that there are more than two ‘effective candidates’ in almost all local executive head elections conducted in Indonesia since 2005. In other words, in most races, there are at least two candidates with a good chance of winning and relatively equal strength with regard to the number of votes they obtain. The domination of provincial, district and municipality executive head elections by an all-powerful single figure is rare in contemporary Indonesia.
At the same time, it seems that although extensive family-based political networks exist, local Indonesian politicians struggle to establish enduring dynasties. Although one may say that it is too early to come to such a conclusion since dynasties have not yet had the opportunity to accumulate power through a series of elections in the same locality, we can equally say it is too early to come to Gamawan Fauzi’s conclusion that Indonesia needs to abolish such elections in order to prevent local dynasties.
The competitive nature of local electoral politics has disrupted ties within the political elite. As competition re-ordered the relatively stable political structure of the New Order years, political elites have faced new challenges to stay in power. To find allies and support for their battles with one another, political elites who could afford to ignore citizens during the New Order period have now started to ‘reach-down’ in the political arena. Consequently, new alliances have emerged between political elites and ordinary citizens in the context of direct executive elections.
The creation of such alliances may have allowed elites to defend their political position overall, but concessions made during these struggles with one another have come to limit them in new and significant ways. Most importantly, local politicians have become dependent on ordinary citizens to a degree unthinkable during the New Order and therefore have to go to great lengths to obtain support from the electorate. For instance, every candidate serious about running for local executive head office has to spend an extended period of time on the campaign trail, travelling through villages and small towns for months on end. In addition, politicians have to buy votes and deliver favours to the electorate prior to elections, which has allowed communities to press for at least some sort of service delivery, however crude.
Direct elections for local executive figures assure such competition. Hence, Gamawan Fauzi‘s proposal to end direct elections for governors would deal one of the most severe blows of recent years to Indonesia’s democratisation efforts. Against this backdrop, foreign democracy crusaders may want to read, if not Kant’s treatise, then at least Dan Brown’s less highbrow novel Angels and Demons that introduced a broader public to the world of ambigrams that play an important role in Christian mysticism. Ambigrams are words that, when read from another viewpoint or perspective, reveal a word that is different from the original. Such an alternative viewpoint on who are the forces in favour of and against local democratisation in Indonesia may be useful when putting together the guest lists for future development industry workshops.
Michael Buehler (michibuehler@gmx.net) is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Northern Illinois University.
Michael Buehler's fascinating article below appeared in Inside Indonesia this week.
http://www.insideindonesia.org/stories/angels-and-demons-22042912
It is probably too "inside" for most tastes but for observers of the reform process here, development issues and the blind adulation afforded the current SBY administration by (most recently) David Cameron, Ban Ki-Moon and the Obaminator, it serves as a clear-eyed evaluation of the efforts of so-called reform champions and the emergence of a new class of Raptor as (highly!) unlikely defenders of democracy.
Angels and demons
Sunday, 22 April 2012 11:05
While a famous ‘reformer’ tries to undermine Indonesia’s local democratic institutions, the predators come to the rescue
Every year, the development industry in Jakarta churns out ‘update’, ‘stock-taking’ and ‘rapid appraisal’ reports about the progress of democratisation and decentralisation in Indonesian local politics. Often these reports deal with the great complexity of their topic by focusing on the behaviour of individual politicians. Virtually every report picks out a few ‘reform-minded’ individuals and portrays them as leaders who are both ‘responsive’ and ‘responsible’ to citizen demands. These heroes of reform are then celebrated as pushing forward Indonesia’s democratisation and decentralisation against the interests of ‘old elites’ and ‘entrenched interests’.
In provinces, districts and municipalities that have been blessed with such ‘good leadership’ change is happening, so the story goes. In localities where ‘bosses’, ‘little kings’ and ‘predatory forces’ rule, in contrast, progress is depicted as stagnating. In this context, multilateral organisations have outdone each other over the past decade in their praise for half a dozen so-called reformers running the executive government of places such as Gorontalo (Sulawesi), Jembrana (Bali), Solok (West Sumatra), Sragen and Kebumen (both Central Java). Frequently discussed in the expatriate bars in Jakarta but rarely visited for in-depth research, these places loom large in the minds of development consultants. Stories abound of how the executive government heads in these few regions place the will of the people above everything and offer ‘best practice’ examples to other politicians scattered across the archipelago.
The simplicity and naiveté of such a Jesuit worldview, in which ‘good’ fights against ‘evil ‘, have been exposed by developments that have quietly unfolded in Indonesian local politics over recent months. Suddenly, one of the good governance heroes has advocated dismantling a pillar of local governance reform, while the predators are proving to be more interested in defending democracy.
The reformer who became a conservative
In late 2009, only a few weeks after he was appointed Interior Minister, Gamawan Fauzi proposed to abolish direct elections for governors. Such elections had been introduced in 2005 as a way to empower citizens. They have shaken up the way local politics works. Now, Gamawan Fauzi argued, direct elections for governors were too costly due to the rampant money politics and vote buying associated with these races. At the same time, such direct elections would facilitate the establishment of local dynasties, he claimed. The new minister suggested reviving the system that was in place before 2005 in which provincial parliaments elected governors.Ironically, Gamawan Fauzi owes much of his stellar rise in Indonesian politics to these direct elections, and for a long time he was the poster boy of the development agencies, lionised as the main example of the new breed of local leaders winning their way to power by delivering good governance and reform. Appointed district head of Solok in West Sumatra in 1995, he won (indirect) elections in 2000. In 2005, people elected him as Governor of West Sumatra province, a post he left a few years later to become interior minister.
In past years, I sat through countless meetings and workshops in which donor agency folks busily constructed a narrative about Fauzi’s meteoric rise to the inner circles of the Yudhoyono administration. The main story line was that Gamawan Fauzi’s pro-democracy attitude and successful good governance programs had gotten him re-elected as district head, then governor and finally catapulted him into Yudhoyono’s cabinet. He was, in other words, a messianic figure whose exemplary behaviour showed ‘old elites’ that support for democracy was being rewarded.
Only a few people dared to say that Fauzi’s shallow reform programs in Solok collapsed soon after he had moved on to greener pastures. Fauzi could not fire many of the corrupt bureaucrats in the local administration since they were protected by Indonesia’s decrepit civil service law. Hence, such bureaucrats simply waited for Fauzi’s departure to regain control. Most development consultants were also unaware of the fact that governor Fauzi had re-introduced an older form of local administration that goes back to pre-colonial times called the Nagari system, which excludes women from political decision-making processes by restricting participation to male clan chiefs. Finally, the fact that Gamawan Fauzi was also one of the most prolific local executives in Indonesia with regard to the adoption and implementation of discriminatory syariah local regulations received no mention at all in development industry circles.
Good-looking, as comfortable donning a Western business suit as wearing a traditional khaki civil service uniform, fluent in English and well-versed in development-lingo thanks to some exposure to development industry seminars early on in his career (his résumé notes participation in such grandly-titled events as ‘The Role of Local Government in Implementing APEC Declaration’(1995); ‘Reinventing Government’ (1995); ‘Civil-Affair and Civil Military Operation’ (1999); ‘Implementing Integrity Pacts’ (2003)), Gamawan Fauzi became the darling of the development industry soon after the fall of Suharto in 1998.
Rarely a major donor workshop on decentralisation went by in Jakarta without Gamawan Fauzi speaking in his capacity as a ‘reformer’, or a ‘democracy-minded politician’. Finally a local executive head who said exactly the kind of things the donor community was craving to hear from Indonesian politicians. Fauzi’s recent U-turn suggests he was but a well-trained parrot, or simply a shrewd politician who knew what kind of rhetoric would raise his profile in democratising Indonesia and eventually pave the way for a career in national politics.
Predators to the rescue
In the face of Fauzi’s proposal to wind back local democracy, support for the country’s local democratic institutions has come from unexpected quarters. In April 2012, Syahrul Yasin Limpo the head of the Provincial Government Association (APPSI) and South Sulawesi Governor publicly lambasted Fauzi’s proposal as undemocratic and accused the Interior Minister of trying to ‘take away rights from the people’. Limpo, of course, is no stranger to observers of Indonesian local politics since he too has frequently been in the news over past years, although for altogether different reasons than Gamawan Fauzi.District head of Gowa between 1993 and 2003, Syahrul Yasin Limpo made national headlines when he was busted in a 2002 drug raid together with a prostitute. Others may have seen such an incident as a setback to their political career, but Syahrul not only managed to become the head of the provincial Anti-Drug Commission and a prolific anti-drug columnist in a local newspaper soon afterwards but also ran as deputy governor in 2003. In his successful campaign for governor a few years later, his official campaign slogan conveyed a simple and apt message to the electorate: ‘Don’t look back!’ In 2012, he launched his re-election campaign for a second term as governor. Driving around one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces in various high-end luxury cars with a number plate that consists only of his initials SYL while commanding several private security forces and hundreds of thugs, Syahrul Yasin Limpo lords over South Sulawesi precisely like one of the ‘little kings’ mentioned in donor agency reports.
Flanking Syahrul Yasin Limpo during the press conference in April 2012 in support of local democracy were several other notorious governors such as Awang Faroek Ishak from East Kalimantan province, who was named a suspect in a corruption case surrounding the divestment of PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) shares in 2010, Teras Narang from Central Kalimantan, who had come up on the radar screen of the Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis Centre (PPATK) for suspicious payments into his bank account in 2009, and last but not least, Ratu Atut Chosiyah from Banten, scion of one of Indonesia’s most corrupt families that has run the local construction industry in a criminal fashion for decades with the help of tens of thousands of thugs organised in martial art associations. In short, the politicians that stood up for democracy were hardly the kind of types one would see attending donor meetings and democracy workshops at swanky Jakarta hotels.
Heaven versus hell?
The emphatic criticism of Fauzi’s plan, which is now awaiting approval in the parliament, by these governors who are surrounded by a taint of illegality and figure in the public mind for their run-ins with the law rather than their democratic credentials, is interesting for various reasons.For starters, it offers a rare glimpse into centre-periphery tensions in Indonesia, a topic that is grossly understudied by academics and practitioners alike. Various efforts of national level politicians to re-centralise power both within state institutions and the party system in past years have gone unopposed. Arguably, the absence of any resistance is due to the fact that the institutional powers transferred back to the centre were not very substantive. Likewise, the re-centralisation within the party system did not matter to sub-national politicians because their careers do not depend on the dysfunctional parties anyway but on their personal networks and connections.
So why then does Fauzi’s proposal aggravate local executive heads? Above all, their reaction shows that democratic institutions have become a viable power base for politicians who a few years back seemed least likely to have any interest in them. Many of these governors are rich enough to bribe national politicians and officials to protect themselves from becoming corruption suspects but lack the financial and political connections to influence national party headquarters. Gamawan Fauzi’s plan would empower the national party headquarters, all of which have adopted regulations in recent years that concentrate power at the national level when putting forward candidates for local executive head elections.
Most of these governors are also local figures who have established networks in their respective constituencies, sometimes over decades. Fauzi’s proposal would render such ‘social capital’ – consisting of connections with groups from vote-canvassers, local notables, leaders of prayer groups through to criminal networks – worthless and therefore constitute a threat to local politicians’ prospects of winning political power.
There is no doubt that Limpo and his colleagues had first and foremost themselves in mind and not the people when they publicly attacked Fauzi’s plan in April. After all, governors’ offices provide legal and illegal access to resources, the possibility of implementing predatory taxes and levies or simply the chance to embezzle state funds. Given the riches that come with an executive post, it is not surprising that many of the aforementioned figures are running for a second term, including Syahrul Yasin Limpo whose entire political program once again consists of a single sentence: ‘Don’t stop, Komandan!’
The contradiction between these figures’ pious rhetoric and their worldly motives for defending democracy is not a reason to abolish direct elections for local executive heads, however. As the eighteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant showed in his treatise Zum Ewigen Frieden (Perpetual Peace) there were always people who believed that ‘a republic would have to be a nation of angels, because men with their selfish inclinations are not capable of a constitution of such sublime form.’ Kant refuted this position: ‘The problem of organising a state, however hard it may seem, can be solved even for a race of devils, if only they are intelligent.’ The key thing is for those devils to ‘establish a constitution in such a way that, although their private intentions conflict, they check each other, with the result that their public conduct is the same as if they had no such intentions.’ In other words, the right institutions can constrain the personal agendas of even the very worst politicians, and force them in new directions.
Direct elections for local executive heads in Indonesia are an approximation to the system Kant described. In the old days of President Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime, recruitment, promotion and retirement mechanisms for public officials were upward oriented and ultimately regulated by Suharto.
The introduction of direct executive elections in the context of decentralisation created a more competitive environment for political elites. My research shows, for instance, that there are more than two ‘effective candidates’ in almost all local executive head elections conducted in Indonesia since 2005. In other words, in most races, there are at least two candidates with a good chance of winning and relatively equal strength with regard to the number of votes they obtain. The domination of provincial, district and municipality executive head elections by an all-powerful single figure is rare in contemporary Indonesia.
At the same time, it seems that although extensive family-based political networks exist, local Indonesian politicians struggle to establish enduring dynasties. Although one may say that it is too early to come to such a conclusion since dynasties have not yet had the opportunity to accumulate power through a series of elections in the same locality, we can equally say it is too early to come to Gamawan Fauzi’s conclusion that Indonesia needs to abolish such elections in order to prevent local dynasties.
The competitive nature of local electoral politics has disrupted ties within the political elite. As competition re-ordered the relatively stable political structure of the New Order years, political elites have faced new challenges to stay in power. To find allies and support for their battles with one another, political elites who could afford to ignore citizens during the New Order period have now started to ‘reach-down’ in the political arena. Consequently, new alliances have emerged between political elites and ordinary citizens in the context of direct executive elections.
The creation of such alliances may have allowed elites to defend their political position overall, but concessions made during these struggles with one another have come to limit them in new and significant ways. Most importantly, local politicians have become dependent on ordinary citizens to a degree unthinkable during the New Order and therefore have to go to great lengths to obtain support from the electorate. For instance, every candidate serious about running for local executive head office has to spend an extended period of time on the campaign trail, travelling through villages and small towns for months on end. In addition, politicians have to buy votes and deliver favours to the electorate prior to elections, which has allowed communities to press for at least some sort of service delivery, however crude.
It’s relationships that count
In short, it is the relationships within elites, not the personal character traits or the behaviours of individual politicians, that shape power dynamics in contemporary Indonesian local politics. By competing against each other, ‘predatory forces’, ‘little kings’ and ‘entrenched elites’ have pushed state-society relations in more democratic directions – in spite of themselves.Direct elections for local executive figures assure such competition. Hence, Gamawan Fauzi‘s proposal to end direct elections for governors would deal one of the most severe blows of recent years to Indonesia’s democratisation efforts. Against this backdrop, foreign democracy crusaders may want to read, if not Kant’s treatise, then at least Dan Brown’s less highbrow novel Angels and Demons that introduced a broader public to the world of ambigrams that play an important role in Christian mysticism. Ambigrams are words that, when read from another viewpoint or perspective, reveal a word that is different from the original. Such an alternative viewpoint on who are the forces in favour of and against local democratisation in Indonesia may be useful when putting together the guest lists for future development industry workshops.
Michael Buehler (michibuehler@gmx.net) is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Northern Illinois University.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Suryo Bambang Sulisto is the Grinch's Hero of the Week.
Kadin (Indonesian Chamber of Commerce) has rarely rocked the boat because the status quo is so damn lucrative. However, the new boss and a Board made up of forward-looking, sharp-toothed businessman including James Riady, the president director of Garuda Airlines, Emirsyah Satar, and First Media's Peter Gontha is shaking things up and no doubt pissing off the old guard. Of course they threw the Palace a bone by inexplicably including president neophyte 28-year-old son on the BoD but that's a small price to pay because the big boys will eat him for lunch.
We'll see how long it is before someone buries a knife in his back, but in the meantime, bravo Pak Suryo.
Graft fuels Indonesia's infrastructure woes
By Shirley Wibisono | AFP Dec 12, 2011
When Indonesia's longest suspension bridge suddenly collapsed last month, killing more than 20 people, allegations immediately surfaced that corruption was behind the disaster.
Police have come up with little explanation as to why the 720-metre-long (2,400-foot-long) structure on Borneo island -- built just 10 years ago to resemble San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge -- gave way, sending dozens of vehicles into the river. But they are investigating accusations by the country's corruption-fighting commission and others that the materials used were of poorer quality and cheaper than the construction company claimed.
"The bridge collapse is one example of how quality is being compromised by corruption, where A-grade materials are substituted with lower-grade ones. That's very dangerous," Indonesian Chamber of Commerce chairman Suryo Bambang Sulisto told AFP. "It's common for corruption to happen at all stages in Indonesian infrastructure projects, whether it's during the tender process or extortion along the way."
After the incident, parliament called for an audit of every major bridge in the country, in which East Java province alone found nine on the brink of buckling. As developed countries remain in the economic doldrums, overseas investors have taken a keen interest in Indonesia, with foreign direct investment expected to top $20 billion by the year end.
A wealth of natural resources and a burgeoning middle class that fuels Indonesia's economic expansion, forecast to reach 6.5 percent this year, make the country an attractive prospect. But investors consistently cite corruption as a major deterrent and bemoan the lack of reliable infrastructure, with companies often forced to build their own roads, bridges, railways and ports to do business in the sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands.
Indonesia's 2011-2025 development plan calls for around $440 billion of investment in highways, harbours and power plants, and to tackle crippling traffic in major cities. London-based risk consultancy Business Monitor International (BMI) says high levels of corruption have "severely impeded investment in the country's infrastructure from non-public sources". "Although the Indonesian government is working hard to attract private investors, there is still an underlying threat of corruption and a lack of transparency in the tendering process," a BMI report said.
A World Bank analysis found corruption could add up to 20 percent to the existing costs of projects in Indonesia. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won two elections on promises to tackle graft in one of the most corrupt countries in Asia, but critics say he has failed to make any genuine difference to the culture of graft and impunity. A Gallup poll released in October found that 91 percent of Indonesians believe corruption in government is widespread, compared to 84 percent in 2006.
At a function to mark International Anti-Corruption Day on Friday, Yudhoyono called for action and told law enforcers to go after the big fish.
"We should not make this event a ceremonial thing, but let's use it to reflect and improve our efforts to eradicate corruption in this country, especially during my term," he said, according to his official website. "What we need is action," he said, calling on anti-corruption activists and leaders of NGOs to help eradicate graft.
But corruption is an old and deep-seated problem, said economist Sri Adiningsih from Gadjah Mada University. "Here in Indonesia, it is a common practice for businessmen to bribe officials to get a project," Adiningsih told AFP. "The government have actually placed layers of preventive measures to deal with this problem. However, we are still lacking efforts in law enforcement," she said. "It is very difficult to tackle this widespread practice since the younger civil servants tend to follow the common practice as soon as they are involved in the system."
Indonesia has set up several bodies to tackle graft and the country's corruption ranking has improved slightly to 100 from 110 last year, out of 183 countries, according to a report by Transparency International last week. Poor infrastructure has also elevated distribution costs, so that a 50-kilogram (110-pound) sack of cement which sells for around $9 in Jakarta can cost as much as $130 in the remote and poorly connected eastern Papua region.
"Logistics costs, which normally account for five to six percent of production costs, can eat up between 10 to 15 percent in Indonesia," Indonesian Employers Association chairman Sofjan Wanandi told AFP. "If this goes on, Indonesians will likely start importing more goods instead of producing locally," he added.
Kadin (Indonesian Chamber of Commerce) has rarely rocked the boat because the status quo is so damn lucrative. However, the new boss and a Board made up of forward-looking, sharp-toothed businessman including James Riady, the president director of Garuda Airlines, Emirsyah Satar, and First Media's Peter Gontha is shaking things up and no doubt pissing off the old guard. Of course they threw the Palace a bone by inexplicably including president neophyte 28-year-old son on the BoD but that's a small price to pay because the big boys will eat him for lunch.
We'll see how long it is before someone buries a knife in his back, but in the meantime, bravo Pak Suryo.
Graft fuels Indonesia's infrastructure woes
By Shirley Wibisono | AFP Dec 12, 2011
When Indonesia's longest suspension bridge suddenly collapsed last month, killing more than 20 people, allegations immediately surfaced that corruption was behind the disaster.
Police have come up with little explanation as to why the 720-metre-long (2,400-foot-long) structure on Borneo island -- built just 10 years ago to resemble San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge -- gave way, sending dozens of vehicles into the river. But they are investigating accusations by the country's corruption-fighting commission and others that the materials used were of poorer quality and cheaper than the construction company claimed.
"The bridge collapse is one example of how quality is being compromised by corruption, where A-grade materials are substituted with lower-grade ones. That's very dangerous," Indonesian Chamber of Commerce chairman Suryo Bambang Sulisto told AFP. "It's common for corruption to happen at all stages in Indonesian infrastructure projects, whether it's during the tender process or extortion along the way."
After the incident, parliament called for an audit of every major bridge in the country, in which East Java province alone found nine on the brink of buckling. As developed countries remain in the economic doldrums, overseas investors have taken a keen interest in Indonesia, with foreign direct investment expected to top $20 billion by the year end.
A wealth of natural resources and a burgeoning middle class that fuels Indonesia's economic expansion, forecast to reach 6.5 percent this year, make the country an attractive prospect. But investors consistently cite corruption as a major deterrent and bemoan the lack of reliable infrastructure, with companies often forced to build their own roads, bridges, railways and ports to do business in the sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands.
Indonesia's 2011-2025 development plan calls for around $440 billion of investment in highways, harbours and power plants, and to tackle crippling traffic in major cities. London-based risk consultancy Business Monitor International (BMI) says high levels of corruption have "severely impeded investment in the country's infrastructure from non-public sources". "Although the Indonesian government is working hard to attract private investors, there is still an underlying threat of corruption and a lack of transparency in the tendering process," a BMI report said.
A World Bank analysis found corruption could add up to 20 percent to the existing costs of projects in Indonesia. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won two elections on promises to tackle graft in one of the most corrupt countries in Asia, but critics say he has failed to make any genuine difference to the culture of graft and impunity. A Gallup poll released in October found that 91 percent of Indonesians believe corruption in government is widespread, compared to 84 percent in 2006.
At a function to mark International Anti-Corruption Day on Friday, Yudhoyono called for action and told law enforcers to go after the big fish.
"We should not make this event a ceremonial thing, but let's use it to reflect and improve our efforts to eradicate corruption in this country, especially during my term," he said, according to his official website. "What we need is action," he said, calling on anti-corruption activists and leaders of NGOs to help eradicate graft.
But corruption is an old and deep-seated problem, said economist Sri Adiningsih from Gadjah Mada University. "Here in Indonesia, it is a common practice for businessmen to bribe officials to get a project," Adiningsih told AFP. "The government have actually placed layers of preventive measures to deal with this problem. However, we are still lacking efforts in law enforcement," she said. "It is very difficult to tackle this widespread practice since the younger civil servants tend to follow the common practice as soon as they are involved in the system."
Indonesia has set up several bodies to tackle graft and the country's corruption ranking has improved slightly to 100 from 110 last year, out of 183 countries, according to a report by Transparency International last week. Poor infrastructure has also elevated distribution costs, so that a 50-kilogram (110-pound) sack of cement which sells for around $9 in Jakarta can cost as much as $130 in the remote and poorly connected eastern Papua region.
"Logistics costs, which normally account for five to six percent of production costs, can eat up between 10 to 15 percent in Indonesia," Indonesian Employers Association chairman Sofjan Wanandi told AFP. "If this goes on, Indonesians will likely start importing more goods instead of producing locally," he added.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Explosive WikiLeaks Cables Nail Yudhoyono
It has taken a while - arrival of twin grinchlettes back in Jan 2010 set back efforts - but this news is too good to keep down.
The funny thing is that while it will no doubt case enormous diplomatic indigestion, no one, and I mean no one, is here is even remotely surprised by any of this.
gt
Explosive WikiLeaks Cables Nail Yudhoyono
Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:20 WIB
US embassy in Jakarta has serious doubts about the Indonesian president's own integrity
When Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a surprise victory in Indonesia's 2004 presidential elections, the United States Embassy in Jakarta hailed it as "a remarkable triumph of a popular, articulate figure against a rival [incumbent president Megawati Sukarnoputri] with more power, money, and connections."
The former army general and security minister has gone on to win international accolades for strengthening governance, promoting economic reform, and his efforts to suppress the Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.
While visiting Jakarta last November, US President Barack Obama applauded Indonesia's democracy and "the leadership of my good friend President Yudhoyono."
However Yudhoyono's record may have to be reviewed after secret US embassy cables, leaked to WikiLeaks and provided to Fairfax Media, reveal allegations of corruption and abuse of power that extend all the way to the presidential palace.
According to the diplomatic cables, Yudhoyono, widely known by his initials SBY, personally intervened to influence prosecutors and judges to protect corrupt political figures and put pressure on his adversaries. He reportedly also used the Indonesian intelligence service to spy on rivals and, on at least one occasion, a senior minister in his own government.
Yudhoyono's former vice-president reportedly paid out millions of dollars to buy control of Indonesia's largest political party, while the President's wife and her family have allegedly moved to enrich themselves on the basis of their political connections.
The US embassy's political reporting, much of it classified "Secret/NoForn" – meaning for American eyes only — makes clear that the continuing influence of money politics, which extends, despite the President's public commitment to combating corruption, to Yudhoyono himself.
The US embassy cables reveal that one of Yudhoyono's early presidential actions was to personally intervene in the case of Taufik Kiemas, the husband of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri. Taufik reportedly used his continuing control of his wife's Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-P) to broker protection from prosecution for what the US diplomats described as "legendary corruption during his wife's tenure."
Taufik has been publicly accused, though without charges being laid against him, of improper dealings in massive infrastructure projects heavily tainted with corruption. He is believed to have profited from deals relating to the US$2.3billion Jakarta Outer Ring Road project, the US$2.4 billion double-track railway project from Merak in West Java to Banyuwangi in East Java, the US$2.3billion trans-Kalimantan highway, and the US$1.7 billion trans-Papua highway.
In December 2004, the US embassy in Jakarta reported to Washington that one of its most valued political informants, senior presidential adviser TB Silalahi, had advised that Indonesia's Assistant Attorney-General, Hendarman Supandji, who was then leading the new government's anti-corruption campaign, had gathered "sufficient evidence of the corruption of former first gentleman Taufik Kiemas to warrant Taufik's arrest."
However, Silalahi, one of Yudhoyono's closest political confidants, told the US embassy that the President "had personally instructed Hendarman not to pursue a case against Taufik."
No legal proceedings were brought against the former "first gentleman," who remains an influential political figure and is now Speaker of Indonesia's parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly.
While Yudhoyono protected Taufik from prosecution, his then vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, allegedly paid what the US embassy described as "enormous bribes" to win the chairmanship of Golkar, Indonesia's largest political party, during a December 2004 party congress, US diplomats observed firsthand.
"According to multiple sources close to the major candidates, Kalla's team offered district boards at least Rp200 million (over US$22,000) for their votes," the US embassy reported. "Provincial boards — which had the same voting right, but also could influence subordinate district boards — received Rp500 million or more. According to one contact with prior experience in such matters, board officials received down payments ...and would expect full payment from the winner, in cash, within hours of the vote."
US diplomats reported that, with 243 votes required to win a majority, the Golkar chairmanship would have cost more than US$6million.
"One contact claimed that [then Indonesian House of Representatives chairman Agung Laksono] alone — not the wealthiest of Kalla's backers — had allocated (if not actually spent) Rp50 billion (more than US$5.5 million ) on the event." The US embassy cables further allege that Yudhoyono had then cabinet secretary Sudi Silalahi "intimidate" at least one judge in a 2006 court case arising from a fight for control of former president Abdurahman Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB). According to the embassy's contacts, Sudi told the judge "if the court were to help [Wahid] it would be like helping to overthrow the government."
The intervention of "SBY's right-hand man" was not successful in a direct sense because, according to embassy sources with close ties to the PKB and lawyers involved in the case, Wahid's supporters paid the judges Rp3 billion in bribes for a verdict that awarded control of PKB to Wahid instead of a dissident faction. However, Yudhoyono's strategic objective was achieved as external pressure on Wahid's "precarious position" forced the PKB to reposition itself to support the administration.
Other US embassy reports indicate that Yudhoyono has used the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to spy on both his political allies and opponents.
The president reportedly also got BIN to spy on rival presidential candidates. This practice appears to have begun while Yudhoyono was serving as co-ordinating minister of political and security affairs in former president Megawati's government. He directed the intelligence service to report on former army commander and Golkar presidential candidate Wiranto. Subsequently, at a meeting of Yudhoyono's cabinet, BIN chief Syamsir characterised Wiranto as a "terrorist mastermind."
Through his own military contacts Wiranto learnt that he was the subject of "derogatory" BIN reports, but when he complained he was told by presidential adviser TB Silalahi that no such reports existed.
The leaked US embassy cables are ambiguous on the question of whether Yudhoyono has been personally engaged in corruption. However, US diplomats reported that at a 2006 meeting with the chairman of his own Democratic Party, Yudhoyono "bemoaned his own failure to date to establish himself in business matters," apparently feeling "he needed to ‘catch up' ... [and] wanted to ensure he left a sizeable legacy for his children."
In the course of investigating the President's private, political and business interests, American diplomats noted alleged links between Yudhoyono and Chinese-Indonesian businessmen, most notably Tomy Winata, an alleged underworld figure and member of the "Gang of Nine" or "Nine Dragons," a leading gambling syndicate.
In 2006, Agung Laksono, now Yudhoyono's Co-ordinating Minister for People's Welfare, told US embassy officers that TB Silalahi "functioned as a middleman, relaying funds from Winata to Yudhoyono, protecting the president from the potential liabilities that could arise if Yudhoyono were to deal with Tomy directly."
Tomy Winata reportedly also used prominent entrepreneur Muhammad Lutfi as a channel of funding to Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono appointed Lutfi chairman of Indonesia's Investment Co-ordinating Board.
Senior State Intelligence Agency official Yahya Asagaf also told the US embassy Tomy Winata was trying to cultivate influence by using a senior presidential aide as his channel to first lady Kristiani Herawati.
Yudhoyono's wife and relatives also feature prominently in the US embassy's political reporting, with American diplomats highlighting the efforts of the president's family "particularly first lady Kristiani Herawati ...to profit financially from its political position."
In June 2006, one presidential staff member told US embassy officers Kristiani's family members were "specifically targeting financial opportunities related to state-owned enterprises." The well-connected staffer portrayed the President as "witting of these efforts, which his closest operators (e.g. Sudi Silalahi) would advance, while Yudhoyono himself maintained sufficient distance that he could not be implicated."
Such is the first lady's behind-the-scenes influence that the US embassy described her as "a cabinet of one" and "the President's undisputed top adviser."
The embassy reported: "As presidential adviser TB Silalahi told [US political officers], members of the President's staff increasingly feel marginalised and powerless to provide counsel to the President."
Yahya Asagaf at the State Intelligence Agency privately declared the first lady's opinion to be "the only one that matters."
Significantly, the US embassy's contacts identified Kristiani as the primary influence behind Yudhoyono's decision to drop vice-president Kalla as his running mate in the 2009 presidential elections.
With Bank of Indonesia governor Boediono as his new vice-presidential running mate, Yudhoyono went on to an overwhelming victory. The President secured more than 60 per cent of the vote, defeating both former president Megawati, who had teamed up with former special forces commander Prabowo Subianto, and vice-president Kalla, who allied himself with Wiranto.
In January 2010 the US embassy observed: "Ten years of political and economic reform have made Indonesia democratic, stable, and increasingly confident about its leadership role in south-east Asia and the Muslim world. Indonesia has held successful, free and fair elections; has weathered the global financial crisis; and is tackling internal security threats."
However, America's diplomats also noted that a series of political scandals through late 2009 and into 2010 had seriously damaged Yudhoyono's political standing.
A protracted conflict between the Indonesian police and the national Corruption Eradication Commission had damaged the government's public anti-corruption credentials, while a parliamentary inquiry into the massive bailout of a major financial institution, Bank Century, called into question the Vice-President's performance as former central bank governor.
One prominent anti-corruption non-government organization privately told the US embassy that it had "credible" information that funds from Bank Century had been used for financing Yudhoyono's re-election campaign.
Former vice-president Kalla strongly criticized the bailout, alleging that the Bank of Indonesia under Boediono had been negligent in supervising Bank Century and arguing that the bank should have been closed as its failure was due to fraud perpetrated by major shareholders.
Against this background the US embassy reported that Yudhoyono was increasingly "paralyzed" as his political popularity rapidly diminished.
"Unwilling to risk alienating segments of the parliament, media, bureaucracy and civil society, Yudhoyono has slowed reforms. He is also unwilling to cross any constituencies ...Until he is satisfied that he has shored up his political position, Yudhoyono is unlikely to spend any political capital to move his reform agenda, or controversial aspects of US -Indonesia relations, forward."
Over the past 13 years Indonesian democracy has undoubtedly strengthened. The Suharto dictatorship has been replaced by a competitive political system characterized by robust debate and free media.
However, as the leaked US embassy's reports show, in what is only a glimpse of the inside workings of President Yudhoyono's tenure, some of the secretive and corrupt habits of the Suharto years still linger in Indonesian presidential politics. (Ach/asiasentinel.com)
The funny thing is that while it will no doubt case enormous diplomatic indigestion, no one, and I mean no one, is here is even remotely surprised by any of this.
gt
Explosive WikiLeaks Cables Nail Yudhoyono
Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:20 WIB
US embassy in Jakarta has serious doubts about the Indonesian president's own integrity
When Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a surprise victory in Indonesia's 2004 presidential elections, the United States Embassy in Jakarta hailed it as "a remarkable triumph of a popular, articulate figure against a rival [incumbent president Megawati Sukarnoputri] with more power, money, and connections."
The former army general and security minister has gone on to win international accolades for strengthening governance, promoting economic reform, and his efforts to suppress the Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.
While visiting Jakarta last November, US President Barack Obama applauded Indonesia's democracy and "the leadership of my good friend President Yudhoyono."
However Yudhoyono's record may have to be reviewed after secret US embassy cables, leaked to WikiLeaks and provided to Fairfax Media, reveal allegations of corruption and abuse of power that extend all the way to the presidential palace.
According to the diplomatic cables, Yudhoyono, widely known by his initials SBY, personally intervened to influence prosecutors and judges to protect corrupt political figures and put pressure on his adversaries. He reportedly also used the Indonesian intelligence service to spy on rivals and, on at least one occasion, a senior minister in his own government.
Yudhoyono's former vice-president reportedly paid out millions of dollars to buy control of Indonesia's largest political party, while the President's wife and her family have allegedly moved to enrich themselves on the basis of their political connections.
The US embassy's political reporting, much of it classified "Secret/NoForn" – meaning for American eyes only — makes clear that the continuing influence of money politics, which extends, despite the President's public commitment to combating corruption, to Yudhoyono himself.
The US embassy cables reveal that one of Yudhoyono's early presidential actions was to personally intervene in the case of Taufik Kiemas, the husband of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri. Taufik reportedly used his continuing control of his wife's Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-P) to broker protection from prosecution for what the US diplomats described as "legendary corruption during his wife's tenure."
Taufik has been publicly accused, though without charges being laid against him, of improper dealings in massive infrastructure projects heavily tainted with corruption. He is believed to have profited from deals relating to the US$2.3billion Jakarta Outer Ring Road project, the US$2.4 billion double-track railway project from Merak in West Java to Banyuwangi in East Java, the US$2.3billion trans-Kalimantan highway, and the US$1.7 billion trans-Papua highway.
In December 2004, the US embassy in Jakarta reported to Washington that one of its most valued political informants, senior presidential adviser TB Silalahi, had advised that Indonesia's Assistant Attorney-General, Hendarman Supandji, who was then leading the new government's anti-corruption campaign, had gathered "sufficient evidence of the corruption of former first gentleman Taufik Kiemas to warrant Taufik's arrest."
However, Silalahi, one of Yudhoyono's closest political confidants, told the US embassy that the President "had personally instructed Hendarman not to pursue a case against Taufik."
No legal proceedings were brought against the former "first gentleman," who remains an influential political figure and is now Speaker of Indonesia's parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly.
While Yudhoyono protected Taufik from prosecution, his then vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, allegedly paid what the US embassy described as "enormous bribes" to win the chairmanship of Golkar, Indonesia's largest political party, during a December 2004 party congress, US diplomats observed firsthand.
"According to multiple sources close to the major candidates, Kalla's team offered district boards at least Rp200 million (over US$22,000) for their votes," the US embassy reported. "Provincial boards — which had the same voting right, but also could influence subordinate district boards — received Rp500 million or more. According to one contact with prior experience in such matters, board officials received down payments ...and would expect full payment from the winner, in cash, within hours of the vote."
US diplomats reported that, with 243 votes required to win a majority, the Golkar chairmanship would have cost more than US$6million.
"One contact claimed that [then Indonesian House of Representatives chairman Agung Laksono] alone — not the wealthiest of Kalla's backers — had allocated (if not actually spent) Rp50 billion (more than US$5.5 million ) on the event." The US embassy cables further allege that Yudhoyono had then cabinet secretary Sudi Silalahi "intimidate" at least one judge in a 2006 court case arising from a fight for control of former president Abdurahman Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB). According to the embassy's contacts, Sudi told the judge "if the court were to help [Wahid] it would be like helping to overthrow the government."
The intervention of "SBY's right-hand man" was not successful in a direct sense because, according to embassy sources with close ties to the PKB and lawyers involved in the case, Wahid's supporters paid the judges Rp3 billion in bribes for a verdict that awarded control of PKB to Wahid instead of a dissident faction. However, Yudhoyono's strategic objective was achieved as external pressure on Wahid's "precarious position" forced the PKB to reposition itself to support the administration.
Other US embassy reports indicate that Yudhoyono has used the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to spy on both his political allies and opponents.
The president reportedly also got BIN to spy on rival presidential candidates. This practice appears to have begun while Yudhoyono was serving as co-ordinating minister of political and security affairs in former president Megawati's government. He directed the intelligence service to report on former army commander and Golkar presidential candidate Wiranto. Subsequently, at a meeting of Yudhoyono's cabinet, BIN chief Syamsir characterised Wiranto as a "terrorist mastermind."
Through his own military contacts Wiranto learnt that he was the subject of "derogatory" BIN reports, but when he complained he was told by presidential adviser TB Silalahi that no such reports existed.
The leaked US embassy cables are ambiguous on the question of whether Yudhoyono has been personally engaged in corruption. However, US diplomats reported that at a 2006 meeting with the chairman of his own Democratic Party, Yudhoyono "bemoaned his own failure to date to establish himself in business matters," apparently feeling "he needed to ‘catch up' ... [and] wanted to ensure he left a sizeable legacy for his children."
In the course of investigating the President's private, political and business interests, American diplomats noted alleged links between Yudhoyono and Chinese-Indonesian businessmen, most notably Tomy Winata, an alleged underworld figure and member of the "Gang of Nine" or "Nine Dragons," a leading gambling syndicate.
In 2006, Agung Laksono, now Yudhoyono's Co-ordinating Minister for People's Welfare, told US embassy officers that TB Silalahi "functioned as a middleman, relaying funds from Winata to Yudhoyono, protecting the president from the potential liabilities that could arise if Yudhoyono were to deal with Tomy directly."
Tomy Winata reportedly also used prominent entrepreneur Muhammad Lutfi as a channel of funding to Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono appointed Lutfi chairman of Indonesia's Investment Co-ordinating Board.
Senior State Intelligence Agency official Yahya Asagaf also told the US embassy Tomy Winata was trying to cultivate influence by using a senior presidential aide as his channel to first lady Kristiani Herawati.
Yudhoyono's wife and relatives also feature prominently in the US embassy's political reporting, with American diplomats highlighting the efforts of the president's family "particularly first lady Kristiani Herawati ...to profit financially from its political position."
In June 2006, one presidential staff member told US embassy officers Kristiani's family members were "specifically targeting financial opportunities related to state-owned enterprises." The well-connected staffer portrayed the President as "witting of these efforts, which his closest operators (e.g. Sudi Silalahi) would advance, while Yudhoyono himself maintained sufficient distance that he could not be implicated."
Such is the first lady's behind-the-scenes influence that the US embassy described her as "a cabinet of one" and "the President's undisputed top adviser."
The embassy reported: "As presidential adviser TB Silalahi told [US political officers], members of the President's staff increasingly feel marginalised and powerless to provide counsel to the President."
Yahya Asagaf at the State Intelligence Agency privately declared the first lady's opinion to be "the only one that matters."
Significantly, the US embassy's contacts identified Kristiani as the primary influence behind Yudhoyono's decision to drop vice-president Kalla as his running mate in the 2009 presidential elections.
With Bank of Indonesia governor Boediono as his new vice-presidential running mate, Yudhoyono went on to an overwhelming victory. The President secured more than 60 per cent of the vote, defeating both former president Megawati, who had teamed up with former special forces commander Prabowo Subianto, and vice-president Kalla, who allied himself with Wiranto.
In January 2010 the US embassy observed: "Ten years of political and economic reform have made Indonesia democratic, stable, and increasingly confident about its leadership role in south-east Asia and the Muslim world. Indonesia has held successful, free and fair elections; has weathered the global financial crisis; and is tackling internal security threats."
However, America's diplomats also noted that a series of political scandals through late 2009 and into 2010 had seriously damaged Yudhoyono's political standing.
A protracted conflict between the Indonesian police and the national Corruption Eradication Commission had damaged the government's public anti-corruption credentials, while a parliamentary inquiry into the massive bailout of a major financial institution, Bank Century, called into question the Vice-President's performance as former central bank governor.
One prominent anti-corruption non-government organization privately told the US embassy that it had "credible" information that funds from Bank Century had been used for financing Yudhoyono's re-election campaign.
Former vice-president Kalla strongly criticized the bailout, alleging that the Bank of Indonesia under Boediono had been negligent in supervising Bank Century and arguing that the bank should have been closed as its failure was due to fraud perpetrated by major shareholders.
Against this background the US embassy reported that Yudhoyono was increasingly "paralyzed" as his political popularity rapidly diminished.
"Unwilling to risk alienating segments of the parliament, media, bureaucracy and civil society, Yudhoyono has slowed reforms. He is also unwilling to cross any constituencies ...Until he is satisfied that he has shored up his political position, Yudhoyono is unlikely to spend any political capital to move his reform agenda, or controversial aspects of US -Indonesia relations, forward."
Over the past 13 years Indonesian democracy has undoubtedly strengthened. The Suharto dictatorship has been replaced by a competitive political system characterized by robust debate and free media.
However, as the leaked US embassy's reports show, in what is only a glimpse of the inside workings of President Yudhoyono's tenure, some of the secretive and corrupt habits of the Suharto years still linger in Indonesian presidential politics. (Ach/asiasentinel.com)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
When the going gets weird...
My favorite bits and pieces from the last couple of days
Snakes and Adders
The clearing of the 50+ hectare Rasuna Epicentrum lands smack in the centre of Jakarta and opposite the Grinch’s temporary lair claimed the life of a seven-meter-long reticulated python, crushed by a back-hoe on Saturday morning: as if I needed another reason to hate Aburizal Bakrie and his band of reptiles.
Save Me From Myself
A judge in Sulawesi fired because he was caught in a polygamist relationship (formally prohibited behavior for civil servants but tolerated, nudge-nudge, wink-wink claims he only married the other three women to prevent himself from committing adultery (ed: presumably with them...).
Top Cop Cock Block
Indonesian National Police and armed forces announced last week they will no longer accept Papuan recruits who have tried to increase to the size of their tackle through bindings and the use of mildly poisonous plants to encourage swelling on account of it affecting their readiness to fight.
Idiocy in Paradise
Much harrumphing in Bali after the release on youtube of teasers for a film that focuses on the Kuta Cowboy phenomena of young Indonesian surfer types servicing older foreign female tourists. Bali’s bandar “traditionalists” (ed: goons in checker-board sarongs and silly hats) are publicly outraged to discover that a small group of beach boys are providing the same types of services as the thousands of juvenile female sex workers trolling their wares on the Island of the Gods.
Gov Made Pastika – the much admired former police general – applauded the beach raids conducted this week which saw two dozen ‘muscular, tanned men’ detained and questioned.
The Company You Keep
The Justice and Human Rights Minister toured the country’s new bespoke prison wing for corruption suspects on Tuesday accompanied by….one of the country’s most loathed corruption suspects.
Roaring Mice
Gayus, a nobody in the tax office who has emerged at the centre of a poisonous new scandal after it was revealed he amassed over $3 million in kickbacks in a few short years is singing to investigators, implicating his former bosses, local prosecutors and senior officials at the AG’s offices, several judges and national-level police generals in a broader “judicial mafia” conspiracy that is too Byzantine to explain in brief. No one disputes that Gayus is a very small fish in the grand scheme of things, but what’ll be interesting to see is how he is remade into a national hero.
Ango-Indo Conspiracy Poisoned Local Kids: And a Nation Yawns….
The UK arm of an American company, Innospec Ltd, that manufactures fuel additives was fined $12.5 millions in a London court for bribing Indonesian officials $8.7 million to delay implementation of the government’s order to convert from leaded- to non-leaded gasoline for several years. Does anyone believe the American and British business communities in Jakarta were unaware that this was going on? Where’s the embassy demos, the outrage?
What’s His Name’s Disease, Contagious
Hard on the heels of news that a central figure in the $2.6 million Bank Indonesia vote-buying scandal is unable to comply with multiple subpoenas to appear before the KPK because she is undergoing therapy for ‘memory loss’ in Singapore, a crooked Bupati from Kalimantan has suddenly developed similar symptoms…. and was immediately released from prison.
Taliban-Lite Tangled Up in Blues
The forgetful corrupter (previous item) in Singapore, Nunun, is married to former deputy national police chief Adang Daradjatun who is a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator. It is hard to believe that such a conservative and pious (uhhh.. ya) man would be unaware that his wife is running around handing out millions of dollars in travelers cheques to crooked politicians so I for one am looking forward to his detention.
Better news came early this week with the detention of PKS legislator Mukhamad Misbakhun accused of forging a letter of credit to secure a $21.4 million bank loan that he subsequently defaulted on. The juice is in the fact that he borrowed from the collapsed Bank Century and was one of the prime movers behind the House’s investigation into the bank’s failure, a thinly disguised smear job directed at the current finance minister, Sri Mulyani.
Snakes and Adders
The clearing of the 50+ hectare Rasuna Epicentrum lands smack in the centre of Jakarta and opposite the Grinch’s temporary lair claimed the life of a seven-meter-long reticulated python, crushed by a back-hoe on Saturday morning: as if I needed another reason to hate Aburizal Bakrie and his band of reptiles.
Save Me From Myself
A judge in Sulawesi fired because he was caught in a polygamist relationship (formally prohibited behavior for civil servants but tolerated, nudge-nudge, wink-wink claims he only married the other three women to prevent himself from committing adultery (ed: presumably with them...).
Top Cop Cock Block
Indonesian National Police and armed forces announced last week they will no longer accept Papuan recruits who have tried to increase to the size of their tackle through bindings and the use of mildly poisonous plants to encourage swelling on account of it affecting their readiness to fight.
Idiocy in Paradise
Much harrumphing in Bali after the release on youtube of teasers for a film that focuses on the Kuta Cowboy phenomena of young Indonesian surfer types servicing older foreign female tourists. Bali’s bandar “traditionalists” (ed: goons in checker-board sarongs and silly hats) are publicly outraged to discover that a small group of beach boys are providing the same types of services as the thousands of juvenile female sex workers trolling their wares on the Island of the Gods.
Gov Made Pastika – the much admired former police general – applauded the beach raids conducted this week which saw two dozen ‘muscular, tanned men’ detained and questioned.
The Company You Keep
The Justice and Human Rights Minister toured the country’s new bespoke prison wing for corruption suspects on Tuesday accompanied by….one of the country’s most loathed corruption suspects.
Roaring Mice
Gayus, a nobody in the tax office who has emerged at the centre of a poisonous new scandal after it was revealed he amassed over $3 million in kickbacks in a few short years is singing to investigators, implicating his former bosses, local prosecutors and senior officials at the AG’s offices, several judges and national-level police generals in a broader “judicial mafia” conspiracy that is too Byzantine to explain in brief. No one disputes that Gayus is a very small fish in the grand scheme of things, but what’ll be interesting to see is how he is remade into a national hero.
Ango-Indo Conspiracy Poisoned Local Kids: And a Nation Yawns….
The UK arm of an American company, Innospec Ltd, that manufactures fuel additives was fined $12.5 millions in a London court for bribing Indonesian officials $8.7 million to delay implementation of the government’s order to convert from leaded- to non-leaded gasoline for several years. Does anyone believe the American and British business communities in Jakarta were unaware that this was going on? Where’s the embassy demos, the outrage?
What’s His Name’s Disease, Contagious
Hard on the heels of news that a central figure in the $2.6 million Bank Indonesia vote-buying scandal is unable to comply with multiple subpoenas to appear before the KPK because she is undergoing therapy for ‘memory loss’ in Singapore, a crooked Bupati from Kalimantan has suddenly developed similar symptoms…. and was immediately released from prison.
Taliban-Lite Tangled Up in Blues
The forgetful corrupter (previous item) in Singapore, Nunun, is married to former deputy national police chief Adang Daradjatun who is a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator. It is hard to believe that such a conservative and pious (uhhh.. ya) man would be unaware that his wife is running around handing out millions of dollars in travelers cheques to crooked politicians so I for one am looking forward to his detention.
Better news came early this week with the detention of PKS legislator Mukhamad Misbakhun accused of forging a letter of credit to secure a $21.4 million bank loan that he subsequently defaulted on. The juice is in the fact that he borrowed from the collapsed Bank Century and was one of the prime movers behind the House’s investigation into the bank’s failure, a thinly disguised smear job directed at the current finance minister, Sri Mulyani.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Papa’s Rollin’ Stone Gathers No Political Joss
One of the weirder recent newsy bits that slipped beneath the radar was the midnight relocation last week of the gravestone of Indonesia’s first president Soekarno and what it says about the declining political fortunes of his puddin’ daughter.
Jakarta Post gave it a couple of inches. I’ve not found any other references in the Indonesian media or blogosphere tho I’m sure there’s more out there.
Story goes that the two-ton slab of rock – which looks like a meteor but I can’t confirm - marking his grave in Blitar, East Java, was pushed one meter to the north by a posse armed with permits, shovels and four 5-ton jacks. Word is the move was executed at daughter Megawati (Mega) Sukarnoputri’s orders, supervised by her son and witnessed by a member of her political party PDI-P (Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle).
Before I suggest the likely motive behind the rolling stone, one admission: I reckon there’s a special place in hell reserved for people like Mega. The fact she has never bothered to reach out to the families of the party activists murdered by security forces in front of her Jakarta office in 1996 – “I never asked them to support me…” – tells you everything you need to know about her character. I also watched her physically jerk away from terrified Madurese during her six-minute visit to the camps where they were living during the worst of the Kalimantan/Sampit headhunter riots. Only weeks of retail therapy in Singapore allowed her to recover from the trauma of a poor, ‘unclean’ person having the gall to actually make contact with her. She’s a sham, a parody of the courageous woman who stood up to Suharto in the 90s.
There is little doubt that Mega’s orders regarding Daddy’s tombstone were inspired by her regular consultations with her spiritual advisors and astrologers who likely suggested the slab’s positioning as lacking the necessary JavaVoodoo-meets-Feng Sui to cement her political fortunes. As for why it was done at this specific moment in time, I’ll posit the following.
PDI-P are in crisis as they enter their three-day national congress in Bali this week. What was once the populist choice of the people, whose tides of supporters turned the streets of the country’s major cities the party’s red-and-black back in the day, is a national disgrace. Under Mega’s stewardship – including a desultory three-year as president – PDI-P has imploded. Gone are any vestiges of the neo-people’s power vibe it carried through Suharto’s decline and disgrace, pimped off by the party brass to a new old guard of powerful businessmen lead by her husband, Taufik Kemas.
Despite Mega Inc.’s efforts to cement the family fortunes by pushing forth her daughter as the logical next leader, this is a ‘dynasty’ in collapse.
Observers expect Mega to be re-elected party chairman but it is clear to all but the most brainwashed of supporters that her aura is greatly diminished. PDI-P has been pummeled in the past two national elections, watching its share of the popular vote plunge from 34% in 1999, to 20% in 2004 and 14% in 2009. Mega was soundly beaten (60/40) in the run-off presidential elections in 2004. Her personal popularity was further tested last year when incumbent President Waffle took almost two-thirds of the ballots cast to Mega’s 28%, obviating the need for the presidential run-off.
At the provincial level, PDI-P saw its locked-up East Java gubernatorial race (pop 40 million) stolen through a combination of ballot-stuffing and graft and their power greatly diminished in other regional and local elections.
Various members of the clan – don’t even get me started on the bed-hopping in this family - have defected to other parties, and/or challenge her for the leadership of a party she claims as a birthright. More importantly, dozens of current and former national legislators have found themselves caught up in recent scandals, ranging from the auctioning off of the deputy governorship of the national bank to the collapse of Bank Century.
The party will not toss off Mega this week and tack back towards a serious challenge to the Democrats and a successor to President Waffle (TBA at a later date). With the dynasty as stake, she’ll need all the mojo she can muster to position the 3rd generation of the family as the ‘natural’ choice for the future of PDI-P, and thus the reason for last weeks’ dead-of-night kejawen moment in rural East Java.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Poop, Boob-radar and Furry Babies: Pearls of Wisdom From a New Dad (Part I)
This is the day the Grinchlettes were scheduled to arrive. Clever buggers, they decided to roll up in the middle of Letterman seven weeks early. Here’s what I’ve gleaned about the process and child-rearing thus far:
* Babies don’t totally suck (though I’m still unclear as to their actual function).
* Childbirth is not as gory as you might think, though the furry black pelt covering their bodies is a bit of a surprise (even for a Grinch).
* Cesarean deliveries are the new “normal”. The missus’ unassisted ‘natural’ delivery of was met with shock and awe.
* Telling a new mum whose 30-hour labor ended in a C-Section that that you delivered twins naturally three hours after your first contraction is an unnecessary infliction of psychic pain.
* Five weeks in an incubator does not guarantee your pre-term newborn healthy skin color. Consuming your own body weight every 72 hours on the other hand…
* In a corollary to “Every Sperm is Sacred”, there exists an astonishing variety of different types, consistencies, hues and densities of poop, and each is fascinating in its own special way.
* Diaper technology has come a long way in the 30 years since I last tried to wrap a worming infant.
* We Grinch seem to have a built-in mechanism to prevent us from rolling over and crushing our spawn while we sleep.
* The first thing grinchlette will grab in his/her greedy little fists is chest fur, followed by the goatee (and later, glasses).
* Most girl children eventually lose the hardwired “boob-dar” that allows them to track the location, vector, speed and size of breasts with an accuracy that is the envy of NASA. Boys refine it over a lifetime and bring it to the grave.
* Rookie parents who wish to entertain friends with toddlers and young children should tell ‘em all about their “plans for the feeding schedule…”
* Movies featuring zombies, vampires and murderous angels are all popular with the after-midnight nursing set. The same cannot be said for CSI, further proof that one does not need a fully functioning frontal lobe to wish “actor” David Caruso ill.
* People you do not know will tell you what is best for your child. Other new parents will applaud the judicious use of Tasers, mace and 2x4s in such circumstances.
* The selection of suitable strollers is (or ought to be) a ‘guy thing’.
* A 2G memory card is not enough space to contain a week’s worth of photos of your spawn.
* Having twins means there will always be a squabble about who gets to wear the “I’m With Stoopid” t-shirt.
* Despite their many obvious flaws, females kinda rock.
* Babies don’t totally suck (though I’m still unclear as to their actual function).
* Childbirth is not as gory as you might think, though the furry black pelt covering their bodies is a bit of a surprise (even for a Grinch).
* Cesarean deliveries are the new “normal”. The missus’ unassisted ‘natural’ delivery of was met with shock and awe.
* Telling a new mum whose 30-hour labor ended in a C-Section that that you delivered twins naturally three hours after your first contraction is an unnecessary infliction of psychic pain.
* Five weeks in an incubator does not guarantee your pre-term newborn healthy skin color. Consuming your own body weight every 72 hours on the other hand…
* In a corollary to “Every Sperm is Sacred”, there exists an astonishing variety of different types, consistencies, hues and densities of poop, and each is fascinating in its own special way.
* Diaper technology has come a long way in the 30 years since I last tried to wrap a worming infant.
* We Grinch seem to have a built-in mechanism to prevent us from rolling over and crushing our spawn while we sleep.
* The first thing grinchlette will grab in his/her greedy little fists is chest fur, followed by the goatee (and later, glasses).
* Most girl children eventually lose the hardwired “boob-dar” that allows them to track the location, vector, speed and size of breasts with an accuracy that is the envy of NASA. Boys refine it over a lifetime and bring it to the grave.
* Rookie parents who wish to entertain friends with toddlers and young children should tell ‘em all about their “plans for the feeding schedule…”
* Movies featuring zombies, vampires and murderous angels are all popular with the after-midnight nursing set. The same cannot be said for CSI, further proof that one does not need a fully functioning frontal lobe to wish “actor” David Caruso ill.
* People you do not know will tell you what is best for your child. Other new parents will applaud the judicious use of Tasers, mace and 2x4s in such circumstances.
* The selection of suitable strollers is (or ought to be) a ‘guy thing’.
* A 2G memory card is not enough space to contain a week’s worth of photos of your spawn.
* Having twins means there will always be a squabble about who gets to wear the “I’m With Stoopid” t-shirt.
* Despite their many obvious flaws, females kinda rock.
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