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Indonesia, a Jilbab Democracy?
Henk Schulte Nordholt ends his book (“Indonesia na Suharto, reformasi en restauratie“, 2008;ISBN 978 90 351 31354 ) with a quote by Ben Mboi, ex governor of Nusa Tenggara Timur: “Indonesia is like the Titanic. The only difference is that Indonesia keeps on sinking without perishing“.
I can say it at the outset: this is solid but tasty contemporary history. Preceded by two chapters on the Sukarno era and the Suharto’s New Order, it is mainly about the last ten turbulent years of Indonesia. An easy, informative and pleasant read, despite the thorough and scrupulous scientific approach the author took. It contains a lot of relevant facts ( of course), quite a number of new and refreshing insights ( at least to this reader) and useful matter-of-fact debunking of a number of myths, plus a general conclusion which leaves a lot of doubt about Indonesia’s future as a democracy. Read More
Does Democracy Further Corruption?
It’s a disconcerting idea. But it appears there are quite a number of witnesses for the prosecution.
The awful versatile, energetic and prolific rimafauzi, who usually is in a upbeat mood on her blog but never unwilling to aim at some blatant abuse neither, recently wrote a post which looked like a sincere angry pamphlet on Indonesian corruption (among many other failures of the young democracy). She makes the observation that this phenomenon didn’t diminish since the introduction of democracy, but became even much more widespread.
While at the outset I thought she overdid, at the recent conference “Indonesia ten years after- 1998 – 2008†Ari Kuncoro also had said in his contribution: “The number of bribe-takers has increased to such an extent that it is now more detrimental to economic efficiency than in the Suharto eraâ€. His explanation is that the democratic decentralization also “democratized” corruption. In stead of a “one stop central”, predictable bribe office ( Suharto’s family, the military top brass and some ethnic Chinese business conglomerates) which guaranteed the client the whole package, nowadays there’s a unpredictable, haphazard and diffuse, fragmented bribe collection system.
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Newsflash: Ambassador Junus Effendi Habibie in “Buitenhof”
Today the Indonesian Ambassador in The Hague, Junus Effendi Habibie, was interviewed for half an hour by Clairy Polak in “Buitenhof”. Which is the main Dutch (weekly) TV program on social, economical and political issues.
Habibie, who speaks Dutch fluently, made it clear he played an important part in the damage control of “Fitna”. It was on his advice that the Dutch government distanced itself from this notorious movie. It was on his initiative also that the other 23 Ambassadors of countries with an Islam majority, played for moderation and agreed with his letter to the Dutch government in which it was praised for its stand.
1998 – 2008
Next week it will be all about Indonesia in this building. A rather formidable line up of international brainpower will discuss “Indonesia ten years after (1998 – 2008)â€. Suharto fell, the dictator was deposed, this month ten years ago. On may 22nd and 23rd scholars* from Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Norway, Germany and The Netherlands will try to pinpoint the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the young democracy. The conference will be organized by Inside Indonesia, ASiA and KITLV.
Jakarta at the Seaside
Wilma van der Maten is an anthropologist and journalist. Well, actually a professional journalist. She was “our women in Jakarta†from 1999 up to 2007 for Dutch public radio and TV. Usually she provided for reports which took 60 seconds or three minutes max, and were about bomb blasts, tsunami’s and human interest.
She left Indonesia this year and is correspondent in Delhi now. If we believe what she says she already misses the Indonesian capital. And is longing for the moment she can get back with her family to the place they bought near Pelabuhanratu. Read More