School Over-Crowding and Birth Control...

How best to deal with surging school populations? A rapidly expanding school population is not something that I am going to have to worry about at Collarenebri Central School. There is undoubtedly some fluctuation in student numbers. But, as I understand it, those fluctuations are up and down 10 - 15 students. Then again, Collarenebri is a town of just 250 people. It goes without saying that New York faces a whole raft of different challenges. One of those is overcrowding in its school system.

It is estimated that by 2015 that the lower Manhattan school area will need to find an additional 1000 spaces for children wanting to attend school. This poses an enormous challenge to officials and city administrators. Do you build new schools or expand existing schools? Or is there some other alternative. According to, the recently appointed Schools Chancellor, Cathie Black perhaps birth control would be a good option.

This tongue in cheek comment has caused considerable offense. The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has had to come to her defense and state, what to me seems obvious, that it was a joke. For offense to be taken it would mean that those taking offense must have believed that she was seriously contemplating birth control as a means of resolving what will become a significant burden on the education budget of the city. Hmmmm....

Nevertheless, the tongue in cheek comment has garnered more press than what the city actually plans to do. So, how are the New York City bureaucracy going to deal with the 1000 extra students that will need to be educated by 2015? Aside from needing extra schools or classroom space at existing schools to accommodate the additional students, there will be a need for additional teachers, won't there? Or is the expectation that class sizes will continue to expand?

The Power of Journalism, Citizen Journalists, and Bloggers...

Poor old SBY has got his talking heads out trying to spin the rebuff he gave to Susi Haryani and her badly burnt son, Ridho Januar.

The president's men, in this case the talking head is Julian Aldrin Pasha, are now telling us that they are responsible for the treatment that young Ridho is getting because they coordinated the response with Pertamina and the Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital.

This may be true, but it only became true after the poor treatment was exposed in the press, initially by the Jakarta Globe, and then picked up on by new media types like bloggers, twitterers, Facebookers, and the like.

This is damage control, this is reactive and not pro-active. SBY and his merry men and women had a choice. They made a bad choice and are now trying to save a little face. Sad!

The outpouring of support for Susi and Ridho was immediate and large. There were quite a number of donors ready to stump up much-needed cash to see Ridho get the treatment he needs to recover from his very serious burns. However, to her credit, Susi has been unequivocal in stating that she does not want the money and she does not want to manage it. Her choice is to send it to the hospital and they can sort out how much the cost is and how much of it the donors have covered.

Perhaps, a trust fund of some description managed by an independent party would be a better choice, but at least it would seem that through the generous giving of donors the treatment costs are covered. Unfortunately, this means that PT Pertamina will look to shirk its responsibility and pass of the expenses to donors.

It has not been surprising that both the president and Pertamina have been trying to pass the buck to each other on this one. Pertamina claiming that the exploding gas cylinders are the result of poor and rushed policy making on the run. And, the government claiming that Pertamina are cutting corners and putting out inferior product into the market. Well, maybe it is not quite that simple, but a cursory reading gets one to that point.

Well, Mr. President, if you really do care and you really are responsible for all this coordination, why is it that these gas cylinders are still exploding and maiming innocents like young Ridho? Sometimes a president has to make the hard calls and do what has to be done, perhaps now is one of those times. Time to harden up and face down the special interests and start being presidential.

Ho hum...

Presidential PR -- SBY Has Got No Game!

Creating and leaving a presidential legacy is just as much about good public relations (PR) as it is about making substantive changes and reforms to a broken system. The current Indonesian president, SBY, came to office an a tidal wave of public support and expectations. He has failed to deliver on all of his key election promises. Therefore, any good publicity would be most welcome. It might just prove to be the impetus that reinvigorates a stale and decaying presidency that appears increasing out of touch with the real every day issues that afflict the people of Indonesia.

In this regard, a good dose of positive PR would have been a most welcome respite for the president. However, his minders and those with his ear have missed a perfect opportunity for the president to be presidential, to take the high moral ground and berate big business for failing the people, and to show that he is a man of compassion who understands the plight of the little people that form the great majority of Indonesian citizens. But, alas rather than meet with a poor helpless mother and her badly burned son, a bevy of the president's meanest and nastiest looking bunch quickly bundled her up and ushered her away and out of sight.

Shame on you Mr. President!

This is a story of exploding gas cylinders. This is not a new story, but an old one. The government in its infinite wisdom has decided to push its policy of conversion from kerosene to gas aggressively. The policy is one that ultimately has to succeed.

Quite simply Indonesia needs to move away from kerosene to alternative fuels such as gas. However, the conversion process mandates that the 3kg gas cylinders that ordinary citizens are going to have thrust upon them need to be safe. These cylinders are clearly not safe. How unsafe are these cylinders, you ask? A quick Google search reveals the extent of the danger here.

Susi Hariyani and her son, Rido Januar, are the faces of what is going so horribly wrong with this policy and the program. Her recent attempt to meet with the president and get his help in treating the serious burns her son has suffered as a result of a government sponsored 3kg gas cylinder was rebuffed. This was a PR mistake. In more human terms, it was a mistake because a little bit of compassion can go a long way. And, to help is just the right thing to do.

In the larger scheme of things, the president could have stamped his authority all over this policy and program by intervening in a public way. However, he kept true to form. This is a president who keeps his distance from everything to ensure that he is safe from any criticism. This in effect ensures that he is constantly being criticised. Mr. President, there is no plausible deniability here. You are the president and ultimately all these things are your responsibility, the buck (rupiah) stops with you!

It might be true that you get the government and the president that you vote for, but it is almost certain that no-one was expecting to get this when they cast their votes!

Shame on you Mr. President!

A President With A Sense of Humour...

There has been much made of whether race is a factor in politics no matter where you live in the world. The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States of America was historic, perhaps for many reasons, but none more so than the fact he is a black man. The USA's first African-American president.

The current health care debate has had some commentators foaming at the mouth about whether or not the race card is being played in the sense that some people are anti-health bill for no other reason than the president is black. Obama has addressed these concerns in two ways, one a little more serious than the other.

The more serious version has Obama talking about the fact that the election showed that lots of folks voted for him irrespective of the colour of his skin, these folks were not only African-Americans, but Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, and a whole lot of others as well. He acknowledges that maybe some people voted for him because he is black and some others voted for the other fella, John McCain, because Obama is black.

The less serious version popped up on the David Letterman Late Show where Obama said, "First of all, I think it's important to realize that I was actually black before the election."

However, it is worth noting that Obama himself has rejected the racism claims as they relate to health care reform and the passage of a health care bill. It is interesting that race is now re-appearing and raising its ugly head after so much talk and discussion of the USA entering into a post-racial phase. Post-racial being used to indicate a period where issues no longer had to be defined on race as there was a common or shared challenge in facing the future. To many this was the hope that the "Yes, we can!" campaign envisaged.

Health care reform is not about race, but rather it is about selling public policy and selling reforms. Simply, it is not going to ultimately matter what the colour of your skin is if you do not have health insurance.

In any event, the irreverent humor displayed by a sitting president appearing on a late night comedy show says much about the man.

The Singing President -- All The Way With SBY

I wonder if things are getting desperate in the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (or SBY as he is affectionately known) camp. It seems on a recent campaign stop the big announcements of a policy nature have been overtaken by the public performance of the President's new song. The song, "Is There?", was performed by Indonesian Idol winner Joy Tobing to a receptive crowd of about 3,000 in Pekanbaru, Riau.

I always figured that a president would be too busy to be promoting a new song when he could be doing the things that presidents do when they are being presidents. Or, in an election cycle, campaigning on the substantive issues of what he might be wanting to accomplish should the people see fit to give him another term in office.

Indonesian campaign events often include, or is it always includes, celebrities. Therefore, why should anyone be surprised when the biggest celebrity of them all is the current president himself (photo courtesy of Kompas and Kristianto Purnomo).

Virginity Pledge and Abstinence

This is something out of the Washington Post and therefore more focused on what is happening in the US. However, I guess, pre-marital sex is an issue everywhere, including Indonesia. Nevertheless, the US Government is investing considerable sums of cash into abstinence-based programs, some USD 176 million at last count, so it is probably worthwhile knowing whether the programs work.

The survey (a report that appears in the journal, Pediatrics) that the Washington Post quotes suggests that there are plenty of pledgers that cannot go the distance and abstain until marriage. What is disheartening here is that those that cannot go the distance are significantly more likely to engage in unsafe sex by neither using condoms or birth control.

I am guessing I will have to do a little more research to try and track down figures for Indonesia (assuming that they exist) and see what sorts of comparisons can be made.

Electricity and Investment in Indonesia

Indonesia might be an emerging democracy but for what was once on of the tiger economies of Southeast Asia there are significant structural problems that over the last 10 years are yet to be resolved. Electricity, specifically the generation of electricity is a growing problem in Indonesia with rolling blackouts expected to run through to at least October 2009.

It so happens there is an election next year and it would make sense for the government to get a better handle on this. As is regularly the way in Indonesia the government was behind the ball on this and the tender process was long and drawn out. Nevertheless, there are several electricity generation projects working towards completion and a 10,000 MW generator is scheduled to come on line sometime after October 2009.

With the rising cost of oil and much of Indonesia's electricity being based on generation by the exploitation of oil. So, any shortages in oil supply means that there is to be a shortfall in electricity and then a subsequent shortage in electricity availability. This has led to rolling blackouts. The State Electricity Company (PLN) is begging for understanding but why should the people be so forgiving? Unannounced blackouts have led to the damaging of electronic goods among others. Unannounced blackouts also mean that cold storage facilities have suffered losses in food that is no longer edible as it has gone bad. Rolling blackouts effect and affect everyone.

On a personal level, I have been the victim of the unannounced rolling blackouts over the last month or so. However, in order to try and avert some of the unannounced aspect of this PLN has posted on its website the locations of the next blackout.

The government has flagged its intentions of restricting office and manufacturing hours in an effort to reduce consumption.

This begs the question, how does this effect the future of investment in Indonesia, particularly considering the government has made investment one of its policy pillars?

The reality is that putting into place a regulatory framework is only half the battle. If the government cannot guarantee supply then no matter how much a local or foreign investor dumps into a project if those investors cannot progress to production or if they have to operate on restricted capacity because there is no electricity to power their operations.

The government needs to start considering and making moves towards alternative energy. The cold hard truth is that an ever-increasing population is going to place ever-increasing demands on energy and particularly electricity. If the government continues to remain a step behind then Indonesia is going to become increasingly uncompetitive in the global market.

The government really does need to get a handle on this going forward.

SBY and Extremists in Indonesia

Indonesia will be heading to the polls in 2009 and most candidates will want to be affirming their Islamic credentials and it would seem that a sure-fire way to do that would be to line up anything considered to be anti-Islam or outside of mainstream Islamic thought. It would seem that Ahmadiyya would be a good target for this credential affirming exercise.

I have written on this on a number of occasions. It seems clear to me that banning religious faiths and organizations is a step backwards in the democratic process. The recently released International Crisis Group (ICG) report agrees with that assessment.

The idea that the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI) dictates policy responses. There is no doubt that the MUI has a role to play. However, it is an advisory role at best and it is definitely not a policy role. Nevertheless, it seems that the SBY government has caved into the hard-line fundamental interpretations prevalent in the MUI. This is not only a step backwards but rather a worrying development that indicates a significant shift to the right.

Going forward, leaders of moderate Islamic organizations have to step up and be much more vocal in criticizing the radical elements. The joint decree prohibiting Ahmadiyya is a victory for the hard-line conservatives and they will be emboldened by this victory and will be looking for others.

It's time for moderate Indonesians to step up and create some critical mass against the hard liners.

Water Policy in Indonesia -- Ground Water

Ground water and the exploitation of this water is coming under greater government scrutiny both on a national level and a local level. It is fair to say that both have been slow of the mark and many of you might be thinking what else is new in this part of the world and this part of the country. It seems to be standard practice to mess around until the last minute and then think about addressing the problem.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that after a somewhat long and tortuous journey the government has confirmed and issued a Regulation on Ground Water. This Regulation is No. 43 of 2008. The Regulation has been in force since the date of its confirmation, 23 May 2008.

The need for this Regulation was that the following Articles from the Law on Water Resources (Law No. 7 of 2004) regulate the exploitation and management of ground water, specifically Articles 10, 12(3), 13(5), 37(3), 58(2), and 59, and these needed to be further enumerated to give effect to the provisions.

The rationale for the Regulation is that ground water plays a critical role in the sustaining of life generally but more importantly is that it sustains the life of the broader community. The Regulation provides for the taking of an inventory of ground water resources while promoting conservation and sustainable management of the resource for the long-term.

Recent debate on the need to more strictly regulate ground water usage is that experts have stated that parts of Jakarta (also known as the Big Durian) have sunk up to 1.5 meters over the last decade because of the unregulated pillaging of Jakarta’s ground water. It is expected that further subsidiary legislation at the local level will see an increase in fees and levies on those that use ground water as their primary water source.

Now, the Jakarta government under the provisions of this Regulation are intending to issue a local regulation or ordinance that will further restrict the use of ground water and set out sizable fines for breach of the provisions. The proposed ordinance is also going to see some substantial increases in the taxes levied on ground water.

Considering that the ground water policy has national, provincial, and municipal elements where each of the distinct government levels has a degree of policy control over the water resources. Nevertheless, it is clear that provincial and municipal policies will not be permitted to run counter to any national ground water policy determined by the Central Government. So, no matter how the government of Jakarta approaches this issue they are still going to have to fall within the basic parameters of the national water policy.

Generally, ground water management will cover aspects of planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, conservation, and exploitation. The terms themselves are self-explanatory and need to be as some of them are only briefly regulated in the Regulation.

However, other provisions are much more comprehensive such as the taking of an inventory of ground water resources which states that the inventory process will include mapping, examination, research, exploration, and evaluation of the data obtained.

The Regulation also stipulates licensing provisions; who needs a license, what licenses are to be granted, and the procedures for securing a license.

It is high time that the government pulled its collective heads out of the sand on this issue and now that it has perhaps it can look at other important issues while it is in the land of the living and the real world.

Binge Drinking in Australia

Binge drinking at any time and in any country can be and is a problem. Australia is no different from any other country in that binge drinking is a problem, particularly amongst the youth population. However, binge drinking is not just a youth problem and it effects adults as well. With this in mind the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is going to release a set of guidelines defining what constitutes binge drinking in Australia. This is part of a government initiative to reduce and eliminate binge drinking from the Australian community and culture.

The NHMRC guidelines will state that any more than four standard drinks per day constitutes a binge drinking session (photo by Adam Hollingworth). This would seem to be a some what draconian means of setting the limit in that there is expected to be associated legislation that comes into force in an attempt to reduce binge drinking. Simply, two people sharing a bottle of wine where one of the drinkers takes a little larger share of the bottle will constitute that person having been on a binge drinking session. The idea that four drinks is a binge drinking session plays to the hysteria that permeates the public debate on drinking in general and binge drinking in particular.

There is no doubt that alcohol is a dangerous drug and the number of accidents and the amount of crime that can be linked to alcohol abuse and misuse is considerable. The question that arises is whether there are any redeeming features of responsible alcohol use? It has long been reported that a glass of wine or two a day is good for overall health and heart health. Two glasses of wine would put you close to the four drink limit.

Nevertheless, alcohol is probably not the most dangerous drug in our communities and its elevation to a position of one of the most dangerous drugs in the community completely fails to recognize that it is legal and people are allowed to drink. The reality is that there are many more illicit drugs in out communities that are illegal, rightly or wrongly so, but all the same illegal. Perhaps the government should be directing more attention to crimes involving illicit drugs.

The alternatives here are that the government if it is indeed serious about reducing alcohol related crime, then it must ban all chemical substances that can harm us. This includes not only alcohol but tobacco as well. Yet, history shows us that prohibition does not work. So, perhaps legalization of other chemical substances might be the way to go.

The reality is that the only way to enforce the proposed NHMRC binge drinking guidelines is going to be to draft and enact super-draconian laws that not only punish binge drinkers but those that facilitate binge drinking by serving more than four standard drinks to any patron of their respective establishments.

Undoubtedly, there is to be more debate on this subject and more opportunities for me to comment.

Nationalizing Strategic Industries

The Venezuela way of ensuring that it gets the majority of the income derived from its natural resources is to heavily tax foreign companies on the profits made. The oil sector is one of Venezuela's top earning resources and the current tax rates are 50% per barrel when the price of oil is above USD 70 per barrel and 60% once the price per barrel hits USD 110. With the current oil price at almost USD 130 per barrel, Venezuela is projecting revenue of some USD 9 billion a year going forward.

Nice income if you can get it!

This follows 2006 legislation that forced foreign companies to offload 60% of the operations to the Venezuelan Government. What this means in simple economic terms is that for foreign investors the law of diminishing returns is starting to kick in and it is no longer a worthwhile endeavour to invest in Venezuela. The regulatory changes have already forced the arm of two of the world's biggest oil players in Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, both of whom have opted out of their respective Venezuelan adventure.

Exxon Mobil are suing to claim back USD 12 billion that it claims to have lost when Hugo Chavez, the President, nationalized Exxon operations last year. Most commentators would be wishing them luck with that action! Chavez has said that Venezuela is prepared to pay fair compensation to any foreign company affected by the recent round of nationalizations.

Oil is not the only "strategic" industry in the sites of the President. He has recently nationalized the entire Venezuelan cement industry as he says that he cannot rationalize the export of cement when Venezuela is experiencing a housing crisis that might just be averted if sufficient cement was available to the local building industry.

Nationalization of strategic industries is not a new concept and most States have constitutions that permit nationalization to occur with fair compensation to be paid.

I wonder what the investor response would be if Indonesia took a similar root and started to declare specific industries to be strategic and then commenced the process of nationalizing them in the national interest.

Although there seems to be no real interest in Indonesia for nationalization on a broad scale, it is worth noting that some high profile Ministers and politicians are on the record as saying that it is high time Indonesia took a stronger interest in the rape and pillage of its natural resources by foreign companies. The Health Minister, although this would be somewhat outside of her portfolio, has commented recently about the natural resources sector. She has also be adamant that foreigners are trying to exploit Indonesia in respect of the avian influenza outbreak.

Simply, nationalization is not entirely beyond the realm of possibility. It would require a sharp hair-pin turn in current policy, but as I said; this is Indonesia and anything is possible!

Site Blocking & Fitna

Fitna is the flavour of the month it seems and blog worthy developments just keep on coming...

MUI, the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, has decided to call for a boycott of Dutch goods in protest of the film. Interestingly, the MUI has not issued a Fatwa about this but rather has decided to make its views known through statements to the press. Two questions: "Is the film not offensive enough to warrant a Fatwa?" and "Is it true that the reason that a Fatwa was not issued was because that Fatwas issued by the MUI have no legal standing and hence a waste of time and paper?"

The MUI plays a role in assisting with policy development and to provide insight as to what religious implications there are in policy or law from the perspective of Islam. Therefore, it has an advisory function but the MUI seems to be a lightweight wanting to fight in the heavyweight division. It simply is not a constitutionally defined law making or adjudicative body.

Now, onto the main point of this blog entry, the blocking of Internet sites and bloggers. The Minister of Communication and Information in his infinite wisdom has issued a letter demanding that all Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Network Access Points (NAP) block the film Fitna in order that it cannot be downloaded by Indonesians in Indonesia.

There are a couple of points to be made here. The call to ban and block comes a little too late as the film has been released on the Internet already and those Indonesians with an interest have probably already downloaded it. Those that haven't will find that it is destined to appear on locally hosted sites that ISPs will have much more difficulty in dealing with. Furthermore, the letter left too much discretion to the imagination of ISPs and NAPs in how to deal with this.

This discretion has seen XL (Indonesian phone company - apologies link is in Indonesian) decide to ban access completely to You Tube, My Space, Meta Cafe, and Rapidshare. This is a somewhat extreme maneuver to ensure that one single film does not enter the jurisdiction of the Republic of Indonesia. It also sets a bad precedent on which the government can capitalize on later when it want to restrict access to other objectionable material. Indonesia seems to be returning to an era of the New Order ++ where information and communication restrictions are potentially more repressive than ever.

So, anyone that relies on access to You Tube, My Space, Meta Cafe, or Rapidshare needs to find an ISP or NAP that is yet to block these sites in their entirety or as some have already done find ways of bypassing the blocks instituted by the ISP or NAP.

The current letter was issued under Article 21 of the Telecommunications Law and not the recently enacted Information and Electronic Transactions Law. However, the provisions in both are similar in the manner in which they intend to deal with issues of religious relations, harmony, gambling, threats of violence, and public order.

Jakarta Traffic

This one is for the cynic in me. The police in Jakarta have conducted a 10-day operation in which they were targeting motorists who were breaching traffic laws and regulations. The underlying premise of this operation was to improve driver discipline. No drama there and good luck on the discipline front!

However, it is reported that the good police officers recorded more than 18,000 violations of prevailing traffic laws and regulations -- no shock there either! It is reported that from these 18,000 plus violations a mere 2,948 tickets / citations were issued. So, this means that there were more than 15,000 friendly warnings issued to the not so law-abiding motorists. One must assume that these 15,000+ offences were not so serious as to warrant a ticket.

But here is the thing, and this is the cynic in me, I have not come across that many police who are into free friendly warnings. My personal experience has always been that a free friendly warning always involves a "transaction" either a ticket or the Soeharto get out of jail free card, that nice blue IDR 50K note! The value of the transaction generally depends on the seriousness of the offence. The reason people pay is simple; going to court is a hassle and the payment to court officials is not any less! If you want to read about this practice there are plenty of descriptions on the web and a simple Google search will lead you to many of them.

The even more cynical me generally thinks that perhaps there were considerably more violations than the 18,000+ noted and that these were not recorded for whatever reason!

There is no doubt that motorists in Jakarta and more generally in Indonesia need to get some discipline happening but this is not gonna happen with operations like this no matter how many official and unofficial tickets are issued. The reality is there needs to be better technology to track people with driving licenses and cars. There also needs to be better enforcement; simply people who violate the law enough times in 12 months lose their license. If they get caught driving without a licence they pay a huge fine and if they get caught twice they pay an even bigger fine and if they get caught a third time then they should automatically enjoy the hospitality of the State in prison!

The government needs to install red light cameras and be active in fining people and taking their licenses away when they do not pay.

Perhaps an incentive system for police to catch and ticket people properly could be implemented. Although, an incentive system like this is susceptible to corrupt policing it would not be any more corrupt than the system now. Motorists could still contest the fine!

This sort of system would also alleviate employment and perhaps even transport issues in the capital, people losing licenses means they need to employ new drivers, hence increasing employment opportunities, or leave the car at home and therefore there are less cars on the road! A winner either way!

Likelihood of happening -- Zero! Yep, the big "0"...

Judicial Appointments

The soon-to-be retirements of a number of Justices from the Indonesian Constitutional Court and the imminent end to the remaining Justices appointments for their first term has re-ignited the debate about the mechanisms for deciding judicial appointments and the format of any term of appointment. Re-ignited the debate at least in legal and political circles. It would not be of any surprise if the majority of the population was not following the developments or they did not give the proverbial 'rats' on the outcome.

For legal and political watchers the filling of legal vacancies and the amount of passion that arises in US circles is testament to the critical role that judges play and the influence they can exert on our lives. For this reason alone people must care about who gets the nod and who does not when it comes to judicial appointments, particularly to the highest courts in the land. In the Indonesian case this is either the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court.

Having recently had the opportunity to hear the current Chief Justice (he prefers to call himself the President) of the Constitutional Court speak and the role he envisages that his first 5-year term has played in setting up the future direction of this particular court, then Indonesians should be concerned and interested in what appointments are to follow.

In the US justices to the US Supreme Court are lifetime appointments. Justices can retire and in some cases might even be forced out where they become just too old, and dementia or senility sets in and their abilities wane. Some jurisdictions such as Australia set a mandatory retirement age of 70 years old. Others such as South Africa set term limits to 12 years for a once only term.

Indonesia on the other hand sets a mandatory retirement age of 67 and also term limits of 5 years with the possibility of a judge being appointend for 2 terms. The Indonesian age and term limits reflect arguments and debates advanced at the time of the drafting of the legislation. When one considers that in the immediate aftermath of the brutal dicatatorial regime of the former President Soeharto there was a fervent desire to ensure that power could never become entrenched in a similar manner again, the simplest answer was obviously setting time limits to public service.

This needs to be re-evaluated now that this fervour has died down and more realistic mechanisms and systems of appointment to judicial positions can be discussed and debated. The key issue is the independence of the judiciary from influence from government or other places. The idea of a 5-year appointment and the possibility of an additional 5-year appointment flies in the face of the concept of an independent judiciary.

Simply, the first 5 years will be spent ensuring that you stay on the right side of your potential backers for a second 5-year appointment. This means that the courts ultimately become overtly political and increase the difficulty of justice ever being seen to be done.

The idea of a one-off 12 or 15 year appointment is also problematic if there is a mandated retirement age which might fall before the appointment ends. But even more troubling with a one-off appointment is what a waste of knowledge and experience if at the end of the one-off appointment the relevant Justice is still a further 10 years away from mandatory retirement!

People are living longer and the economic reality is that as a community we are going to have to keep people working longer in order that they can save enough for what is likely to be a long retirement.

Appointments for life to the highest courts are not such a bad idea. Specific conditions can be put in place with regards to annual health checks after a certain age (75, 80, 85, or 90, whatever). However, where the stakes are considered to be too high for a lifetime appointment to be agreed a mandatory retirement age without any term restrictions is the way to go. Simply, it does not matter whether you are appointed at age 35, 40, 50, or 67, if the mandatory retirement age is 70 then you retire at 70!

This all seems too simple to me. I do not see where the hassle lies. I guess politics gets in the way!

The rule of law and legal certainty demand that the Indonesian judiciary and the Indonesian parliament face up to this task and make some headway into resolving this emerging problem. It is not a now or never issue but it is a sooner the better one!

Trains -- A Spray for Discipline

Discipline and riding trains always brings to mind vivid memories of over-crowded trains and punters taking their lives into their own hands by riding on the roof. I guess compared to hanging out of the door of a moving train and having to contend with all of the track side dangers makes riding on the roof a relatively safe option. Well, at least as safe as riding on an open roof with live electricity wires carrying 1000s of volts can be.

In this very important 'train riding discipline month' being run by the State Rail carrier, PT. Kereta Api Indonesia, people without valid tickets and roof-riders are being fined between IDR 7,500 and IDR 25,000 for their indiscretions. The transportation officers are also confiscating identification cards which is an even bigger hassle than the fine as life in Indonesia is always dependent on having identification. Confiscated identity cards are almost never returned to the owner without the payment of a "facilitation" fee. And it is the facilitation fees that drive the continuance of this practice.

Nevertheless, it is the roof-riders that are in for the most fun. It has been decided that they are too difficult to catch if they refuse to come down from the train roof voluntarily. So, the answer is to spray them with a coloured dye that will allow them to be caught later and fined accordingly.

But as is common in Indonesia this is just another revenue raising venture that does not address the underlying core reasons for people breaking the law; simply there are not enough trains running frequently enough during the peak periods to cater for the demand. If you want to stop people riding on the roof of a train then the obvious answer would be to provide extra carriages so that they have a safe environment to sit in. Alas another example of putting the cart before the horse...

Egypt - One Step Forward and Two Steps Backwards

A news piece out of Cairo. The Supreme Administrative Court in Egypt has recognized the right of Muslims to convert to Christianity. Well, maybe not that far-reaching as the ruling only applies to Christians who converted to Islam and after consideration and reflection want to change back to their original Christian faith.

This is interesting for a number of reasons. First, Egypt had always applied an interpretation where once someone had converted to Islam there was no route of return no matter what your previous religious faith may have been. This concurs with many traditional interpretations of the Koran which considers apostasy to be a grave sin. Nevertheless, the Koran itself (at least my understanding) deos not proscribe a specific punishment for this sin.

However, I guess if we were to look at it from a legal point and try and decipher what the punishment might be we could look at the response of the Prophet and his followers to see how apostasy was dealt with back in the time of the formation of Islam.

It seems pretty clear that the punishment for apostasy was severe, it was death. So, it is fair to say that the decision in this case is a departure from those very traditional views and teachings. However, it is not all peaches and cream for those wanting to revert to their former religious beliefs as their respective identity cards must note that they are formers converts to Islam who have since converted back to a previous faith.

This condition is problematic as it seems to provide a perfect opening for authorities to discriminate against and victimize individuals converting back to their original beliefs. Hence, one step forward and two steps back!

Honour Killings

I have been reading this piece about honour killings and what struck me most is that there is no honour in this sort of killing. Perhaps it is time these crimes were labelled for what they are, cold-blooded murder. Men saving face by killing their wives or daughters because they feel that they have been shamed is reprehensible.

There is simply no justification for it and the practice must be stopped, cold. If the communities themselves where honour killings occur cannot prevent the practice or hide behind some claim that this is culturally acceptable then the law should step in and protect those that cannot protect themselves and punish those that prefer to kill rather than lose face.

I am glad I was born where I was born and have the culture that I have. It would not have dawned on me and neither would it have mattered to the degree that I would have felt compelled to kill my sister or throw acid on her to disfigure her in order that she never leave the family if she were to associate with someone I disliked or heaven forbid chatted to some unknown bloke on her mobile phone.

Yet, what did dawn on me reading this article was the following, "men are like gold coins and women are like silk, if you drop a gold coin in the mud it can be polished but if you drop silk in the mud it is stained forever!"...

In the case contained in the article not only was the young women murdered in cold blood because she fell in love with a man other than the man that her family had arranged for her to marry. Yes folks we are indeed in the 21st century and the family had been resident in the UK for many years and yes they maintained the old traditions of arranged marriage.

I can understand arranged marriages and in this case the arranged marriage was a bad one but not all arranged marriages are. The problem here is that this one was bad and there was no recourse to get out of it and getting out of it caused the family to lose face or at least this is what they have claimed. This was made worse when the daughter fell in love with another man deemed to be of lesser status.

But the point is that not only was she murdered for causing her father to lose face but the perpetrators of this heinous crime raped and tortured her before killing her. Where is the honour in that?

Affordable Apartments in Indonesia

The Government has taken the initiative and decided that one way to promote prosperity in Indonesia and to rid urban areas of their slums is to provide low-cost apartment housing for the masses. This is a two-pronged attack where the prongs represent housing for civil servants and then housing for everybody else.

It seems that the rationale is that happy workers are productive workers and happy workers need happy housing.

With space being a premium in Indonesia's bigger urban centers it is going to take some creative accounting, financing, and incentives to get developers into the game and people into the low cost apartments that the developers build. It reminds me of Kevin Costner in 'Field of Dreams' and the ever-present whisper of 'if you build it they will come'. Hopefully, real life follows the fantasy world of film because Kevin Costner did end up building that baseball field in the middle of his corn field and they, being long dead baseballers, did come!

There is plenty being written and there is plenty of active discussion on the low cost apartment topic. But what is truly amazing is the assumptions that commentators are making about the cost-effectiveness of developing and building low cost housing or apartments for the developers. There is little or no discussion on whether once a low or middle income earner purchases one of these cheap apartments whether or not they will be able to maintain the costs associated with keeping it.

For example, Kompas (p. 52 01/02/08) ordered up their financial wizards to crunch the numbers and not surprisingly found that developers could in fact make a profit on the development of low-cost apartments. The issue is probably not as simplistic as whether or not one would make a profit but rather whether company resources could be used elsewhere and generate even bigger profits. The sad but true answer to that question is yes. When it is all said and done the company's responsibilities are to their shareholders. Shareholders want to see increases in the value of the equity they invested. And this exponential equity value increase is going to be seen at the top end of town and not down the bottom.

Perhaps the Government could allow companies to satisfy their Corporate Social Responsibility obligations by participating in the development of a low-cost apartment scheme.

My other concern is that one of the rationale behind this policy initiative is to reduce the number of slums and other non-formal residential eyesores that dot Indonesia's urban landscapes. Yet, I have always wondered how this might happen as your run of the mill slum dweller is not living where they are because of choice but rather because of lack of choice. Simply, this is the best they can afford. Even if the Government was to subsidize this low-cost housing and apartment sector to keep it affordable the reality is the inhabitants of Indonesia's burgeoning slums are not going to be able to afford to purchase even a low-cost apartment.

The truth is that Indonesia needs to create jobs and with income people will be able to get into the market because they will be able to borrow to finance their apartment purchase. Oops, I made an assumption, I assumed that banks would lend money to a low or medium income earner -- not the case. A bank has no moral problem with throwing credit cards at low income earners and getting them into the perpetual debt cycle of paying off minimum balances...but lend money to a low-income earner and allow them to develop equity, not in this lifetime.

There is no doubt that the Government must take the lead and initiative in this sector but it must do so by putting into place a regulatory framework that not only supports developers but also those people who are the targets of the initiative; those that are going to buy into this segment of the apartment market. Without incentives or facilities this is just another round on the lip service merry-go-round that the Government wheels out when it needs to be seen to be trying to do something...

But this must be read in conjunction with the fact that the Parliament has recently authorized an additional payment of IDR 13 million a month to all of its members to cover accommodation costs while their official residences are renovated -- two points here; this is objectionable when one considers the salaries and allowances already paid, and second on a more personal note, this is more than I earn in a month...Is the Government serious, you decide!

The dream of owning your own home or apartment in Indonesia remains just that for the majority; a dream!

Sportspeople and Steroids

It was with a small degree of disappointment that I read Marion Jones had been sentenced to six months in prison. The reality is that this woman through her own stupidity has thrown away a life of recognition and appreciation by being caught out in a lie but her crimes are not deserving of jail time.

There are serious questions about the danger of steroids that are quite separate from their use by sportspeople in the pursuit of the winning edge. Let's face it the current use of steroids in professional sports is a monster of out own creation. Sportspeople can become fabulously wealthy if they are winners. Winners are rewarded and losers, well, they come back another day and do it all over again, perhaps this time with some chemical assistance.

Steroids in sports...there are two options here; open slather or zero tolerance! The fact that those that seek the winning edge are going to continually invest in methods and mechanisms to get around the possibility of detection means that there will never be 100% eradication. It was interesting to note that the former Australian Head Swim Coach suggested that there should be serious consideration given to the open slather approach. He was obviously and quickly shot down, but all the same the point was a valid one and one with which we are all familiar--if you cannot beat 'em, join 'em.

The issue of steroid use in the general population is a completely different issue as the responsible use of steroids has generally been shown to enhance well-being and health. However, as with any drug the irresponsible use and abuse of any drug can have severe side-effects, including death! But to suggest that steroids are the evil of all evils is in and of itself irresponsible.

This post is not advocating that children should be permitted to use steroids. This post is suggesting that adults, in consultation with their doctors should be permitted to use steroids, even where their use is for cosmetic rather than health purposes. I hope one day I run for office and someone digs up this post and tries to attack me with it. But with a bit of luck before I ever run for office this debate will be long over and decided in favour of responsible use.

The simple reality is that if the debate is premised on the dangers to long or short term health then the debate must also include other harmful drugs. Tobacco and alcohol kill many thousands, perhaps millions, of people every year through out the world. Neither are illegal, why? For the purposes of consistency it would make perfect sense for the governments of the world to also go after these other killers and ban them absolutely and immediately rather than reducing the areas where you can legally kill yourself by banning smoking in public places for instance.

But the 1920s highlighted the fallacy that is prohibition! By banning steroids or making the possession of steroids an indictable and jailable offence does not prevent their use. It simply drives it underground and allows the development of a black market. The government would be in a better position if it was to legalize steroids. It could even be a revenue raiser in that where there is no legitimate medical use for the steroid prescribed then it is deemed to be for cosmetic use and there is a tax applied.

But back to Marion Jones and her very public fall from grace. She has been humiliated enough through the fact that she had to make a public admission of her guilt as it related to lying about the use of performance enhancing drugs. Her medals and records have been stripped from her personally and from the record books. She is banned from competition and is unlikely to ever have the opportunity to compete again except perhaps in some kind of masters competition in a couple of decades down the track (pun intended). Jail is supposed to rehabilitate the offender but it is unlikely to rehabilitate Marion Jones as most of her rehabilitation in the sense of understanding her crime has occurred with her public humiliation on an international scale.

Community service through giving back to the children of this world would be a much more suitable punishment. If Naomi Campbell can abuse her domestic help and get to sweep streets then it is strange that Marion Jones gets injected or smeared with a steroid and has to go to jail because she lied about it! Community service if the judge in the case wants to set an example then make her do a couple of thousand hours of community service at "Little Athletics" or something similar. Marion Jones' crime did not really hurt anyone but herself. It may have disappointed her family, friends, and fans but it did not hurt anyone but herself. The punishment on the other hand hurts her children who are going to be deprived of their mother for the next six months.

There is a need for balance in terms of the crime and the punishment...It is time for the justice system and judges to wake up an smell the coffee!

Post Script...

There is an interesting piece in The Age Newspaper (Australia) about how Marion Jones got her just desserts and that no one should have sympathy for her because she is a drug cheat...Most sportspeople caught using performance enhancing drugs are not jailed for using the drugs themselves. Marion Jones was not jailed for admitting to using steroids. She was, however, jailed for lying to Federal Investigators and misleading an investigation, a breach of the US Criminal Code.

Most of the commentary implies Jones was jailed for being a drug user and this is not only a misrepresentation of the facts but it is irresponsible. It was good to see that the quote by John Fahey, former NSW Premier and Federal Minister, and now Chief of the WADA, pointing out that Jones was not jailed for being a drug taker.

To suggest that Jones got off easier than she should have because she disappointed a lot of people is ludicrous! You do not go to jail for disappointing people. You go to jail for committing crimes! If people started getting sent to jail for disappointing their family, friends, and fellow citizens our jails would suddenly become much more over-crowded and financially burdensome for all of us. There is more value in keeping Jones out of jail than putting her behind bars for six months. Jones did not get what she deserved but rather she was given what was thought to be sufficient appeasement for the masses...

Her humiliation, once again, is more than punishment enough!

IVF & Incest

A story from the Sydney Morning Herald caught my eye, surprising because after my morning swim my eyes are red and watering (that's because men don't cry their eyes just water), oh yeah, the story!

After reading the title "Unwitting incest" and the politically incorrect and morally questionable jokes of my youth such as incest being a game the whole family can play, the story really is a tragedy. It is too bad that I am not a statistician or some kind of mathematical genius in order to work out what the odds are that twins separated at birth and raised by different families would run into each other, fall in love, and get married! I would guess that this is remote.

It seems this remote case is being used to ensure that the names of biological parents in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) programs are recorded on birth certificates. One of the features of IVF has always been that the donors could be anonymous if that was what was wanted. The other issue worth considering is that many people donate because their identity is not revealed. If identities are to be revealed potential donors are going to think long and hard before donating their genetic material. This is particularly the case now where biological parents of children are being sued for material and financial support for children that they never intended supporting.

It would be possible to have a complete medical history of donors without ever having to release their names. Yet, this is lost in the emotion. The debate is no doubt going to be heated but is the remote possibility that tragedies like this will unfold in the future sufficient to see a shift in public policy from protecting the identity of the donors to making it compulsory for all donors to be named?