Police vs. Demonstrators -- Indonesian Style...

This rather disturbing image that came through on Facebook shows just how far Indonesia has come since 1998 under the stewardship of Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), Megawati, and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). It would seem that the police way of repelling unruly demonstrators is to point guns at them.

I am not advocating that students or others have a right to violent protest. What I am wondering is whether pointing guns at them and shooting them is an appropriate or proportional response.

As to the image. I do not know of its authenticity or lack thereof. I pass comment only on that which I see in it.

SBY Having Another Buffalo Moment...

It would appear that the very considerable resources of the National Police Force of the Republic of Indonesia are being brought together to keep people's legitimate rights to protest at bay. Funnily enough in the democracy that Indonesia claims to be, there are those that don't see eye-to-eye with the president on his performance.

In order to make the president see that he is doing a below average job they plan to protest on 20 October 2010 to commiserate the first 12 months of the second Yudhoyono term.

A previous protest was notable for the reaction of the ever and over-sensitive president. One of the protesters thought the best visual way to articulate his dissatisfaction about the job the president was not doing, namely: being president, was to bring along his buffalo and paint SiBuYo on the side of it.

There is little doubting what this protesters intention was. However, this, in my opinion, is a poor rap for the buffalo. After all, the buffalo is worth something and actually pulls their weight and does some work.In fact, the buffalo earns its keep. Whereas, in contrast SBY, is just big, fat and lazy, except when it comes to making albums and inserting inappropriate questions into the civil service exams!

But, to ensure that the super-thin-skinned president is not the subject of ridicule and offense. The National Police have reminded protesters they are not to bring animals to the protest, particularly animals that will cause offense. This is presumably for public safety and law and order concerns. As I said, bad rap for the buffalo.

Maybe the RMS should just start bringing buffaloes to the airport...it seems that Pak Presiden is just as scared of buffaloes as he is court cases.

Pong Harjatmo -- Actor and Graffiti Artist...

Most people would expect that their elected members of parliament would live by a creed that demands honesty resoluteness, and fairness. So, having it spray painted on the roof of the Indonesian parliament does not seem all that outrageous in the big scheme of democracy.

Then again, it is Indonesia and most would argue, at least anecdotally, that the people's house in Indonesia, the parliament, is not a bastion of honesty, resoluteness, or even fairness. It is a place, usually uninhabited during plenary sessions, that spends a lot of money, the people's money, and has next to nothing to show for it. For example, legislation. Members can you count the number of pieces of legislation you have passed this term to date? Oh yes, none, zero, zip, bugger all.

So, when Pong Harjatmo decided he was going to climb up onto the roof of the DPR and spray paint his demands on the green roof, it was sure to attract a little attention. It was good to see that the old fella was not disappointed. Pong was a bit of a legend of film back in the 1970s and 1980s, he is now a legend again but for slightly different reasons.

Pong was arrested for his artwork and questioned. He was, however, released without charge. He was given a slap on the wrist and told not to be out and about spray painting his protests on government buildings. Not to be deterred, Pong has said he will be making his protests wherever he feels is appropriate. If I may be so forward, the Police Headquarters could use some new paint!

The Buddha Bar -- More Protests...

Some things come and go, and this is one of those; protests against the Buddha Bar in Jakarta. This really is making a mountain out of a molehill. The idea that it is in some way threatening interfaith relations and national unity do not bear out.

The only relationships that it seems to be threatening are those of the protesters who cannot seem to cope with the concept of a Buddha theme for a resto, cafe, and bar.

The current argument is that the name of the bar is an insult to Buddha and Buddhism. My guess is that Buddha would probably be telling the protesters to chill out and meditate a little, you know search for a little enlightenment, devote their human energies to something that is important and worthwhile.

The protesters have decided that if the governments of Jakarta and Indonesia are not going to revoke the business permits of the franchise holder, then the next best course of action is to congregate outside the French Embassy and demand that the French government do something about it because the trademark name is owned by a French company.

The biggest beef of the protesters is that using the name and image of the Buddha is an insult. This insult is further exacerbated by the fact that prostitutes hang out their. Now, for them to know that the bar is either frequented by prostitutes or overrun by them would require the protesters to have some intimate knowledge of the joint. Perhaps they are disgruntled customers?

One of the protesters even went so far as to suggest, "What's next? Christ Bar, Islam Bar, Hindu Bar?" Now, there is an idea. I would probably go for Jesus Bar myself. Let's face it, Jesus supposedly turned water into wine. Not just a little bit of wine but a lot of wine. So, the "Jesus Wine Bar" would seem to be aptly named. Now, for the Islam Bar. Why not? Not all bars have to serve alcohol. It could be a coffee bar. Maybe it could serve up coffees from places like Turkey and pastries from the Middle East. A Hindu Bar might need a little more thought...

There are so many important issues that need the dedicated attention of Indonesian citizens, this is not one of them.

Ho hum...

FPI, Violence, Protest, Tolerance & Respect...

This is the Islamic Defenders' Front in action (as opposed to inaction). The photo is a 'file photo' that I found floating around on The Jakarta Globe website. The photo is of the FPI demonstrating in front of the US Embassy.

I have always been one for supporting the right to protest. I am also very much for non-violent protest, and this includes acts of civil disobedience. In that respect, I much admire the determination of men like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, both of whom paid the ultimate price in the pursuit of their ideals.

I guess the point of this very short post is to say something about tolerance and respect. If "we" as people are going to move forward to a more peaceful, harmonious and prosperous existence then we are going to have to become more tolerant and respectful of out differences. Quite simply, violent protest that results in the destruction of people and property is not going to advance our causes and out beliefs over the long term.

Perhaps it is time for others to take the lead? Perhaps those others are those that are committed to peaceful co-existence based on mutual tolerance and mutual respect.

Always the eternal optimist, but you just never know...maybe one day the world will become the place that I desire it to be (at least in the little part of it that I inhabit). I guess when it is all said and done, it is about being the change that you want to see in the world.

Is SBY Paranoid?

Wednesday, 9 December 2009, is International Anti-Corruption Day. The day is marked for protest. This is not all that surprising in light of the recent, and ongoing, Cicak vs. Buaya fiasco and the ever-present Bank Century scandal. There is still enough corruption in Indonesia to warrant a demonstration on most days, let alone only on international anti-corruption day.

Poor old Mr. President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or SBY to his friends, has suggested in a fit of paranoia that the protest or demonstration is not really in support of anti-corruption efforts but rather has been hijacked by his political opponents as a means of scoring some cheap political points. Awwww schucks Mr. President, it is nothing personal, it is called democracy and freedom of speech and freedom of expression. People in democracies feel comfortable and free to express their views in the form of demonstrations.

Maybe the photo above is an indication of how paranoid the President feels at the moment on the finger scale.

The fact that they feel free and safe enough to do it in Indonesia must be exploited by you! You need to get your PR people on this thing straight away and get them spinning it for all it is worth. "Look, under my watch democracy in Indonesia has thrived, and people believe that they are safe, so safe in fact that the feel comfortable in protesting about the one thing that is going to be my legacy, anti-corruption".

But instead, and as he is prone to do, the President has missed the moment. This is another one of those post-Marriott / Ritz-Carlton hotel bombings where the president has decided that the emphasis needs to be on him rather than the issues at hand. Pretty sad really that the President is seeking to silence his critics in this way.

The cold hard reality for the President, his family, his party, and any other associates is this; if they are clean and corruption free then there is absolutely nothing to worry about when a group gets together and wants to demonstrate about the failures they perceive to be occurring on the eradication of corruption front.

It is interesting that the President is all for freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of association when it does not disturb national stability or law and order, yet, he was more than happy to stand by and let the "investigation" run its course in the attack on the KPK and two of its commissioners. Sounds like wanting to have one's cake and eat it too!

Perhaps it is time that the President worried more about governing than a few demonstrators getting together to celebrate International Anti-Corruption Day.

There is more to leadership than winning an election!

(Photo can be found here)

Manohara, Corruption, and Cemeteries

I have decided not to go with the traditional Manohara post heading. I think we are up to the mid-twenties or something, but who really cares about that.

There is one thing you have to acknowledge about Manohara and her handlers, they are master manipulators of the media. Manohara is often referred to as a teen sinetron star. Yet, her only foray into sinetron, or Indonesian soap operas, was axed after not fully completing a whole season. There are obviously diverse opinions on why that is, but it seems that the self-titled soap opera was not a big ratings winner once the novelty wore off.

In any event, this has not been a deterrent to Manohara or those handling her public image. She seems to have this uncanny knack of being everywhere that there is a photo opportunity. Most recently she turned up at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout to support a demonstration by the "Red and White Troops" focusing on anti-corruption.

The thrust of the demonstration or protest was that corruption is bad and that convicted corruptors need to be socially stigmatized in life and in death. In death, meaning that the government should set aside special pieces of land to build cemeteries for corruptors. Personally, this seems a tad unnecessary, particularly for god-fearing people. Simply, if corruption is the evil many of us believe it to be then it would seem pretty obvious that God is unlikely to reward corruptors no matter where they are buried.

And, if there is no God then it does not really matter where corruptors commence their worm food journey, does it?

In the understatement of the day category Manohara piped up that she hope that Indonesia will one day be corruption free. Don't we all, Mano?

She went onto say that she hopes corruptors are severely punished and that where those corruptors are government employees that they are fired. This was topped off by a call for unity in the fight against corruption that would see the KPK, the Police, and the Office of the Attorney General reunited in their common cause, corruption eradication.

Although, the best part of the Manohara saga is how she refers to herself in the third person. It is almost like she is not there when she is talking about herself. One quote attributed to her is, “Mano is not afraid to get dark (from the sun). Mano could get in the car but any people out here have to stand the heat.”

I am wondering though, if Mano and her mother, Daisy Fajarina, are so concerned about law and order, then why did they not deal with the case against them in Malaysia which resulted in a rather large default judgment against them? Or why Daisy insists in not finalizing the legal issues pertaining to her alleged abuse of a domestic servant whilst living in France?

People who live in glass houses probably should not throw stones (or walk around naked :D).

The ISA in Malaysia -- Protests, Tear Gas, and Water Cannons

The Internal Security Act, or ISA, is a law that allows police in Malaysia to detain people without trial in certain circumstances. The primary concern for most is that the ISA does not recognize some basic human rights with respect to the idea of a right to a speedy and fair trial. The ISA is designed, according to its supporters, to ensure that Malaysia's domestic security is protected from all threats. In essence, the ISA gives the authorities the right to undertake pre-emptive or preventive detention.

As this as a backdrop, some 15,000 Malaysians seeking to have the ISA removed from the statute books took to the streets (photo courtesy of Reuters). If I was Malaysian, and perhaps even if I wasn't but just there, I would have taken to the streets too. Human rights are human rights. These basic human rights, no matter what the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahatir, says, are not based on western or eastern / Asian values. Human rights are human values, simple.

In Kuala Lumpur the 5,000 police on hand were seemingly outnumbered by protesters. Nevertheless, police had at their disposal water cannons and tear gas, both of which they were prepared to use, and did so.

At least 175 people have been arrested in this heavy-handed assault on a peaceful demonstration. According to Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime Minister and one-time jail inmate, the police action was not only unwarranted but unnecessarily brutal.

The current Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has called the protest unnecessary as he has already agreed to review the ISA. However, it would seem that at least 15,000 Malaysians do not believe him and are prepared to make their lack of faith in the PM known.

Fuel Prices At The Pump

The Indonesian government's recent decision to jack up the fuel prices here in Indonesia was met with some isolated but fierce demonstrations. Isolated because many of them were one off and have yet to be repeated. This tends to give the impression that in most cases the demonstrators were of the rent-a-crowd variety.

Nevertheless, the reduction of the fuel subsidies is going to have a significant impact on the great number of Indonesians living on or under the poverty line. Estimates put this figure at somewhere near 40 million people. The jacking up of the fuel prices is going to impact on the middle and upper classes as there is likely to be fuel-based inflation in prices of most goods. Yet, the impact will be minor compared to others.

In any event this got me to thinking. Australians, at least Sydney-siders, are now paying record prices for fuel at the pump. The price last night in Sydney has reached 171.9 cents a litre. When I left my homeland the price of fuel at the pump was under AUD 1. How times have changed!

The thinking part comes on this point though. Indonesians are now paying around IDR 6,000 a litre for fuel. Considering they were paying IDR 2,500 a couple of years ago this is a significant hike. Nevertheless, if the 171.9 cents per litre is converted to IDR, then Australians are paying the equivalent of about IDR 16,000 per litre. Indonesians have still got it good in that sense.

World Naked Bike Ride -- 2008

World Naked Bike Ride is an event that has been happening for a number of years. However, I do not recall having ever heard of it!

The rides take place in more than 70 countries. It has expanded to include non-pedal power means of transport such as roller skating, inline skating and the like. The ride is to protest "indecent exposure to cars" and in particular the pollution of cars.

The photos are from the Sao Paulo (Brazil) and London (United Kingdom) protests / rides.

This is from Sao Paulo. I have to say there seems to be many more clothed than unclothed people riding bikes. However, it should be added that full nudity in public places in Brazil is apparently illegal! It would seem that the camera person knows which of the riders they want to photograph!

Nah...this is what I call a real kick in the nuts! This is one unhappy copper and it is likely to be one unhappy bike rider who might not be riding a bike for a while if the police officer manages to connect with the big right kick! Take a look at the expression on the copper's face; he's not messing around on this one!

This is a photo from the London event! This fella has a billboard big enough that he could have written a few other slogans for the day. I hazard to guess that he does not get the bike out of the garage all that often!

Saving the best till last! It seems like the route is spectator lined. I wonder why?

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.

Industrial Action & the Qantas Response

Keeping on the theme about the right to protest and to strike (just one of many forms of protest and demonstration). A news bite from Australia has Qantas, the national flag carrier, lining up engineers that it has retrenched over the past couple of years, some as recently as last year, with outrageous salary proposals in order to break a strike.

So, I guess even in some of the world's oldest surviving parliamentary democracies the right to strike and to protest remains...just the means that businesses employ to get around the inconvenience becomes a little more devious and in some cases silly because the potential outlay here on rehiring retrenched engineers who might not even get to work is going to be huge. If I was a shareholder I would want the Board explaining the numbers to me on this one.

The Right to Protest

Some would have us believe that there is no right to protest when that protest negatively impacts on others or the economy and sites an example of 25 farmers holding up traffic, preventing people from getting to the office on time, preventing deliveries, and a hole range of other negative impacts. The author of this editorial piece then goes on to say that all people have a right to protest but protests must be democratic and be made through democratic channels like the courts and the media, which is equated to using your right properly.

I would agree that it is difficult to calculate the economic costs of protesting and particularly the protests that have racked Indonesia since the fall of the dictatorial regime of the former President Soeharto. But rather than blame the protesters it might be prudent to look at why after ten years of "reformasi" protesting and street demonstrations are still the method of choice to voice one's grievances. The courts have not been providing equal justice and news media is often guilty of pandering to interest groups and businesses.

If protesters believed that they would get either a fair hearing in court or equal play in the media then perhaps the demonstrations that so pointedly grate on the author of the editorial piece then he might have a valid point, but the less fortunate and poor do not have the same opportunities and access and to suggest that in Indonesia's democracy they do is profoundly misrepresenting the truth of practice.

But this debate is more along the lines of the community against the individual. Simply, what is of the greater immediate good of the community outweighs the needs and rights of the individual. I was surprised that the piece did not degenerate into an Eastern values system being undermined by the misguided democratic ideals of the West.

The author goes on to state that in most other more developed countries the courts and media are the proper channels for airing grievances. This is to suggest that more democratically developed nations than Indonesia do not have any protests or street demonstrations and this too is simply not the case.

In most cases in Indonesia protesters and demonstrators must obtain a permit from the police to hold a demonstration that will impede a public thoroughfare, and most do! Holding a demonstration or a protest is hardly taking the law into your own hands. yet, to suggest that the most appropriate means to air your grievances is by writing and publishing your point of view in the mass media seems to suggest that the mass media dictates public policy.

So, hypothetically the 25 farmers need not have protested but rather written to a publication such as Suara Pembaruan or Globe Asia and the government would have then taken note of the farmer's grievances and altered public policy on agrarian reform. This is not a criticism of the articles or news printed in either of these publications but rather a question as to whether the publishing of a grievance in a newspaper or business oriented magazine will garner the attention of the government and inspire them into action to rectify the farmer's grievances.

To take this argument to its logical extension. A group of laborers unhappy with their mass retrenchment decide to exercise their right to voice their grievance. They enter into bipartite and tripartite negotiations, but to no avail. They take their grievance to Court get satisfaction but the Company threatens to tie the case up in litigation and does so. They appeal to a higher Court and get satisfaction but the Company still refuses to abide by the earlier decision just affirmed. Ultimately, they have not received satisfaction or more aptly in this case justice. So, they write a letter to a newspaper and have their grievance recorded in the pages of that newspaper.

The question is; will this inspire the Company to do the right thing? It does not. Now what? The courts and the media have failed them in this perfect little democratic model. They protest, they demonstrate, and they make it know to all through the inconvenience of a traffic jam and delayed deliveries that democracy is not working for them.

These labourers are not taking the law into their own hands but rather they are fighting for an equal future, their rights to participate in a democracy, and their right to be heard. Sorry, for the inconvenience but it is a right worth fighting for!

Oh, to live in such a perfect democratic world.

Readers (if I have any)...Feel free to comment on this one and to criticize (constructively of course) if I am missing the point of the editorial piece (I will try and scan it and upload it in my Blog within the bounds of copyright of course) or my musing a just too left of mainstream. I guess having just watched the 'Bastard Boys' on Australia Network, I am missing my union and labor roots!

The editorial to which I refer is in the January 2008 edition of Globe Asia and is entitled "Outlook" (page 12). Unfortunately, buying the magazine which I did does not get you access to the online version so I cannot link the article for your viewing pleasure.