Beating Activists in Indonesia...

Some things seem destined to never change. The fact that Indonesia seemingly does not take this kind of violence and brutality seriously only serves to embolden the perpetrators into believing that they can act with immunity and impunity. The Munir case remains unresolved; unresolved to any satisfaction to those who have suffered directly and to the great majority of Indonesians who suffer indirectly because of the president's, the government's, and law enforcement's desire not to pursue the case seriously.

This lack of action can be directly linked, at least in my humble opinion, to the recent brutal bashing and stabbing of Tama Satrya Langkun of Indonesian Corruption watch. Langkun is an investigator with ICW and has been prominent in the uncovering of alleged police corruption, particularly the publicising of some rather large deposits into the personal bank accounts of Indonesian police officers. Langkun was stabbed and beaten in a vicious attack in Duren Tiga in South Jakarta. He was riding a motorcycle with a colleague. The attack occurred at 3.45am. He is reportedly in a stable condition in a local hospital.

This was clearly not a robbery but rather a calculated attack against an activist. Nothing was stolen. In fact, the perpetrators revisited the scene of the crime after the attack to return Langkun's motorcycle helmet, which had been taken.

Indonesia claims to be a democracy where the rule of law prevails. This would be much easier to believe if the perpetrators of assassinations, such as that of Munir, and the political violence evidenced in this most recent attack were pursued and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Indonesia might be a democracy, but it is a democracy where the 'old ways' continue to be tolerated and seemingly encouraged through the lack of action taken by the powers that be.

Maybe it is time for all Indonesians to take a stand and demand something more than lip-service to the ideal of good governance, clean governance, democracy, and human rights from their fellow Indonesians in government and law enforcement.

It could be a long wait.

The photo was sourced from The Jakarta Globe via Facebook.

Is SBY A Thief or A Buffalo?

In a case of Indonesian democracy in action, the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), has decided that he needs to put together a working group to, in part, examine the conduct of demonstrators. The working group is ostensibly tasked with looking at matters related to law enforcement, security, bureaucratic reform, and democracy. Seemingly this includes whether or not there is a code of ethics and conduct that demonstrators must subscribe to if they want to protest. The president is concerned that some recent protests have breached the 'code' and even the law.

The protests that the president is particularly referring to are those related to the ongoing Bank Century shenanigans, particularly those ones where protesters / demonstrators using loud speakers yell at the top of their lungs that the president is a thief. Or even more recently where the second term president has been likened to a buffalo (he doesn't look like a buffalo to me). In the mind of SBY buffaloes are fat and lazy. Now, that is a bad rap for the buffaloes because they work pretty hard in the fields and do their work without too many complaints. In fact, they work for food. In contrast, the president has put on a few pounds since becoming president and his 100-day agenda for his second, legacy building, term has been a bust. So, a bad rap for the buffaloes.

The problem is that the demonstrators scarper after the event and the authorities cannot track them down, presumably to prosecute them for being so rude as to liken the president to a buffalo or call him 'Mr. Light Fingers'. I am not sure why the authorities could not simply arrest the protesters before they scarper at the end of the protest if the president is really concerned that the protesters are going to far in their criticisms of him.

It appears that the president does not consider either accusation within the parameters of freedom of speech or freedom of expression. It, further, appears that the president wants to put a stop to this unwelcome behaviour before it gets truly out of hand.

The reality here is that this is a non-issue. The president has serious problems confronting his nation that are obviously beyond the scope and ability of the current cabinet he has assembled and his coalition of the willing to resolve, or in the first instance, and even address. Nevertheless, the president has characterized this issue as one that is so important that it goes to the heart of saving Indonesian culture, democracy, and civilization! Are you serious, Mr. President?

Rather than worry about whether people think he is a thief or a buffalo, it is perhaps a good time to actually do some work and solve some problems. Then, perhaps, the people will start to see SBY as the saviour that they once thought him to be. But, no, the president is just another politician looking to pass the buck and cast the blame onto some other poor unfortunate soul with neither the money nor the time to defend themselves.

It is time that the fella started doing what he was elected to do, be the president. It is time for some presidential leadership to come to the fore and fulfill the promise of making Indonesia better than it has ever been before. The people are ready and willing, are you Mr. President?

Viva Indonesia!

Protesting in Jakarta

I read with interest that the "opinion" piece in the Jakarta Post today was about responsible protesting and the fact that protesters no longer seemed to care about the people that their protesting would affect. This now seems to be standard fodder for many editorialists and opinion writers. It is a line that has been trotted out before and one I have commented on elsewhere in my blog. It is also something that has been trotted out by Globe Media in their flag bearing publication "Globe Asia".

The gist of the argument is that street demonstrations and protests cause traffic jams, traffic jams make people late for work and negatively impacts on business, these negative impacts cost money, and money lost means investors are likely to rethink whether or not to invest in Indonesia. Yeah, right! Pull the other chain in plays Dixie!

The whole point of protesting is to exercise a democratic right to do so and to hold your government accountable. Can it be inconvenient, yes. Should it be inconvenient, yes! The reality is that the only time some of us might ever think about an issue is if it directly impacts upon us. Being caught in a traffic jam and being late impacts upon us. But instead of being angry at the protesters, perhaps this anger should be directed towards the government that allowed conditions to get to a point where people felt that their only recourse was to demonstrate and protest.

So, the protesters threw some Molotov cocktails. This is hardly a reason to ban protests altogether! It is an excuse though to stifle the democratic rights of the masses. Those that break the law by perpetrating violence threw such methods as the destruction of property must be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent permissible under the law. Peaceful demonstrations no matter how inconvenient must be permitted. These demonstrations and protests are legitimate means of expression and calling the government to account.

The Jakarta Post singles out the recent actions relating to the proposed and now happened fuel price hike. The protesters have legitimate concerns here as to their ability to live without additional government assistance and the proportional impact of the price rise on the poor compared to the more affluent.

I have not seen the Jakarta Post jumping up and down about the inconvenience caused by protests staged by the PKS in support of Palestine! This is also a worthy cause, but if we are going to characterize the argument into one of convenience, then any protest in support of any aim that results in a traffic jam should be frowned upon. Once again this clearly misses the point of protesting and taking your demands to the street.

The Jakarta Post's solution to this problem is to restrict protests and demonstrations to public parks such as in and around Monas. Why not go the whole nine yards and allocated special days for protests to be held in the out-of-the-way surrounds of the Ragunan Zoo. The Jakarta Post then goes even further with this gem:

"It is high time for Indonesians to avoid such past practices for changing the state leadership to the more modern, constitutional means: the five-yearly democratic election."

This I am guessing is a suggestion that protests and demonstrations should be banned altogether and the only permissible protest by the community must come at the ballot box and only every five years. Maybe the Jakarta Post should be telling Zimbabweans that the best way forward is not street protests but accepting your fate and then voting the office holders out at the next election.

If the Jakarta Post is not in the mood to go that far, why not editorialize something much closer to home such as the inept generals of the Burmese regime, who in their citizens' moment of most critical need they are ummmming and ahhhing about whether or not to let foreign aid workers in. Maybe street protests, although sometimes violent and violently suppressed by authorities are the best way to bring attention to one's plight.

The right to protest is a democratic right and this must not be curtailed for reasons of convenience. Maybe if we all paid a little more attention and demanded a lot more of our elected governments then protests would occur a whole lot less frequently! The photograph is courtesy of the Jakarta Post and photographer Ricky Yudhistira.

An Interesting Thought

For those of you who want to say objectionable, offensive, and downright rude things to each other or to me, and also to those of you that thinking banning and prohibiting access to whole swathes of information and data on the Internet is a fair and proportional response to what is considered a pretty poor excuse for a film, then this is what I have for you to consider...

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

-- Voltaire

Happy blogging!