Jokowi-Ahok 100 Days

Since they were elected last September, Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo a.k.a Jokowi and Vice Governor Basuki a.k.a Ahok have been the "darling" of the mass media. Almost everything they said and done have been reported to the public. 

Although Jokowi-Ahok never set any target for their first 100th. day in offices, which happens to be today, but the news media seems to be very anxious to report about their progress. 

According to news media reports, during the election campaign, Jokowi and Ahok have promised, among others :
1)  Construction of mass transportation to reduce traffic jam : MRT and Monorail
2)  Development of villages and slum area
3)  Distribution of Health card and Smart card, e-ID card

What has been done was the distribution of Health, Smart and E-ID cards. The development of villages and slum area is still being planned, while the MRT and Monorail construction projects are being reviewed and discussed with the Jakarta People's Representative Council..

Their works was obstructed by the continuous heavy rainfall that has widely inundated Jakarta and vicinity last Thursday until Sunday.  

In my opinion it is too early to assess the work of Jokowi-Ahok in just 100 days, considering that there are so many problems that must be solved in Jakarta.

Picture: Courtesy of Kompas

The Alternative Candidates for President & VP - 2014

In 2014, Indonesia will hold a General Election to elect members of the national, provincial and district People's Representative Councils, and afterwards the Presidential Election.

According to the Presidential Election Law No. 42/2008, a Presidential Candidate must be nominated by a political party or a group of political  parties that won at least 20% of the total seats in the national People's Representative Council or won a total of 25% of the electoral votes.

In this connection, on 7 January the General Election Commission announced 10 political parties that are eligible to compete in the General Election based on General Election Law No. 8/2012.

Among those 10, only the National Democratic Party is a new party, the others are existing parties i.e. President SBY's Democratic Party, Golkar Party, Democratic Party in Struggle (PDIP, Social Welfare Party (PKS), National Mandate Party (PAN), National Awakening Party (PKB), United Development Party (PPP), People's Conscience Party(Hanura), and Indonesian People's Movement Party (Gerindra).

Currently, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) is serving his second 5-years term, and based on the Constitution he cannot be nominated again in 2014. But until now his Democratic Party still has not announce who will be SBY's successor.

There are some public figures whose names were often mentioned by the traditional mass media as potential candidates, like Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie, former President and PDIP Chairperson Megawati, former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, (Ret. General) Prabowo, Chief of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD.

However, this Sunday I want to write about a very controversial Polygamous person who declared himself as a Presidential Candidate i.e. Dangdut Musician Rhoma Irama.

Last December, the media reported that someone posted Rhoma Irama's name and photo (above - Left) on Twitter micro-blog. Standing next to Rhoma Irama was the very controversial Regent of Garut West Java Aceng Fikri (above - Right) who illegally married Fani Oktora an 18 years old local girl on 14 July 2012 and divorced her via Text Message (SMS) 4 days later because he said that she was not a Virgin.

As shown on the above photo, for the candidacy their names were nicknamed as  RHOCENG 2014 which implied that Rhoma Irama as Candidate President, and Aceng as Candidate Vice President (VP).

Please keep Aceh Peaceful

The signing of the Helsinski Peace Agreement on 15 August 2005 has ended many years of violence in Indonesia's eastern most Province of Aceh, and since then people in the province have been enjoying a peaceful life.

This peaceful situation was confirmed after Irawadi Yusuf, an independent candidate supported by former separatist GAM, won the Governor election on December 2006, and the Aceh Party (reincarnation of GAM) won the provincial parliamentary elections in 2009.

And then there was a verdict of the Constitutional Court on December 2010 which determined that independent candidates may be nominated as candidates in the 2011/2012 Governor and Regents elections. The Court's reason was to provide opportunity for not-political party backed candidates to be nominated, and the fact that more than 50 % of the Regents and Governor were independent candidates.

This verdict was protested by the Aceh Party who said that independent candidates can only be nominated in the 2006 election, after that all candidates should be nominated by political parties.
The general election commission plan to implement the Constitutional Court's verdict, therefore the Aceh Party said that it will boycott the elections.

In recent months, there has been lots of shootings that have killed 13 people and wounding 13 others. According to the Coordinating Minister of Politics, Laws and Security General Djoko Suyanto this violence is related to the Regional Election in Aceh.


Due to this violence, there is a possibility that the regional election in Aceh will be postponed.

Considering the above, I hope that the central government in Jakarta, the general election commission and all the parties in Aceh would seat down together and find the best solution acceptable by all the political parties, including the Aceh party.

Expensive Elections

Since 2005, provincial governors, town/city mayors and heads of regencies in Indonesia are directly elected by the people in their provinces/regents/cities..

After that, many governors, mayors and heads of regents have been brought to trial in courts for corruption charges.

In a talk show held by the Jakarta Lawyers Club at TVOne last night, the master of ceremony Karni Ilyas told the audience that since the direct election there were 17 provincial Governors and 150 mayors/regents who have been tried in Court on charges of Corruption.

Gamawan Fauzi, Minister of Home Affairs and former Governor of West Sumatra, the main speaker of teh show, acknowledged the correlationship between the said direct election and corruption.
He said that this is obvious because in order to be an eligible election candidate, one must meet the standard requirements and supported by a political party or group of political parties that have a minimum of 15% seats in the local parliament.

For which purpose, the candidate must have access to lots of money to get support from political party (-ies), for campaign logistics and rallies, for advertisements on the news media, for withness fees, etc.

The Minister estimated that in order to be elected, a candidate governor should spend around 50 Billion up to 100 Billion Rupiah, which is so many times very high compared to the basic salary of 8,7 Million Rupiah that he will receive as Governor. Note :  Beside basic salary, a governor would receive additional money so many times more for attending meetings etc, for clothes, receive benefits like official home, cars, 

Considering that Indonesia is a Unitary State, whereby provincial governors are representatives of the central government in Jakarta, I felt that it would be better if governors are nominated by the central government and elected by the parliaments of each provinces, just like before 2005. That way excessive spending of money for campaign would not be necessary anymore, and corruption can be prevented or at least be minimized.

Sources :
-  Pemilihan Umum kepala daerah dan wakil kepala daerah (Wikipedia)
-  Gamawan Fauzi: Pilkada Mahal Sebabkan Korupsi (TVOne)

Photo: Courtesy of UDFL.

Political Advisors

The liberal democratic system adopted by Indonesia since May 1998 required members of the national and regional parliaments as well as heads of province/regions to be elected directly by people.

As a consequence of the direct elections, every candidates must be very popular and liked by people who are eligible to vote in the elections. For this purpose, many candidates hired political advisors to help increase popularity.

Unfortunately, many of the advice given by those advisers were not workable, this can be seen from the facts that most candidates failed in the elections.

In this regards, I would like to share an interesting article written by a PR expert in Indonesia i.e. Unspun, on his blog http: //theunspunblog.com (below).

Echo chamber political advisors

September 26th, 2010 

You have to wonder at the quality of political advisors in this country. Sometimes, you wonder if  they understand politics at all, in spite of their much vaunted reputations as consummate image makers.

The latest victim of bad political advice is Sandiaga Uno, the clean-cut and sensitive looking candidate for the Kadin chairmanship. As we all now know, Sandiaga did not even go into the second round of voting on Saturday night. He came in a distant third in a field of five candidates. This is a shame as someone with Sandiaga’s image and reputation deserves better and his Indonesia Setara campaign had tapped into a strong undercurrent in society (for a first hand report go here).

Political analysts will point out many reasons why Sandiaga did not win, chief of them because of alleged massive vote buying at the business caucus. It may have been so but that’s not so much Unspun‘s concern, which is more on Sandiaga’s political communications. Here, he bombed out with the online community on Wednesday night last week when he invited a group of bloggers to witness ostensibly the launch of his Indonesia Setara campaign.

The bloggers went there to witness the launch of the campaign and a chance to speak personally to Sandiaga but when they got there they felt duped because the event was actually an announcement of his campaign for the Kadin charimanship. The bloggers also felt doubly duped when they were shoved a press release claiming that “hundreds of technopreneurs and bloggers endorsed his candidacy for Kadin chairmanship”.

And to add insult to injury, the liaison officer later offered envelops of money to the bloggers. Within minutes, the bloggers who were there started Tweeting critically about Sandiaga and Indonesia Setara. When uberblogger Twitterer and blogger Ndoro Kakung joined in the conversation, what could be assured was that hundreds, if not thousands, of Tweeps got to know of these shenanigans.

The result was potential damage to Sandiaga’s heretofore pristine image. Did it affect his chances at the Kadin chairmanship election?

Unlikely if you look at the Kadin voting structure:

At the Kadin caucus, the decision makers are a small group. The power to vote the next chairman resides in each of Kadin’s 33 regional chapters that are entitled to three votes each. Another 30 votes are divided among Indonesia’s 180 business associations, grouped into 12 sectors.

What are the chances of these delegates being influenced by what goes on in the Blogosphere and Twitterland? Theirs is a world where influence is secured, traded and lost in smoke-filled hotel rooms and suites in Hotel Mulia. Practical considerations – some say money – but certainly political favors and alliances are the currency among these guys and gals, not something as ephemeral as reutations shaped in the ether of online communications. It is no accident that Indonesia does not have the equivalent of a Huffington Post or any prominent political bloggers.

If you accept this argument, then there is very little necessity for Sandiaga to engage bloggers and Twitterers. It was something perhaps trendy to do but was politically futile and its bad execution only harvested contempt and criticim from bloggers. Strange then why Sandiaga or his people were advised in the first place to engage with onliners, except for what Unspun would call the echo chamber trap.

This is a trap that communications advisers sometimes fall into. Like everyone else, they make recommendations largely based on what shapes their opinions. As some of these communicators are bloggers and Twitterers, their world is largely informed by what happens in blogs and Twitterland. They then make the mistake of confusing it for reality when it actually is an echo chamber for their particular interests and obsessions. They then advice their clients that social media is a must to shore up their popularity.

Sandiaga is not the only one subjected to bad political advice. Even a “seasoned” politician such as Sports Minister and  former Presidential spokesperson Andi Mallarengeng was also a victim.  Even with a brother, Rizal, who is a widely acknowledged expert in political communications, he spent huge resources on unnecessary communications channels when he was contesting to be head of Partai Demokrat.

Who among us could forget the extravagant billboards and television commercials that Andi launched as part of his campaign. And to what end? He lost remarkably. Again the Partai Demokrat caucus was made up of delegates who were influenced by backroom deals and alliances rather than by slick advertising and billboards. It was not as if he was asking the population to vote him in.

On the other end of the spectrum there was also Jusuf Kalla when he tried to stand for President and therefore had to appeal to the public. he did lots of stuff but one of the activities was to meet up with bloggers. It provided a good echo chmber as several people Tweeted about it and there were a few blog entries. But in the end did any of this influence the voters, most of whom do not pay attention to social media? One thinks not.

This is not to say, however, that social media is not important or effective. It was effective when it came to Prita Mulyasari and in the resistance to Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring’s attempts to introduce repressive laws on the net.

In Sandiaga’s case the chatter caused by hi Indonesia Setara campaign gives a good indication that he may be on to something. If the Tweets provide any indication it is that Indonesians are receptive to someone young, clean cut and with a clean reputation taking on a leading role. The message of greater equality for all Indonesians also seemed to have found some resonance.

Sandiaga has lost out on the Kadin chairmanship but his efforts may not have been all wasted. If he can build the Indonesia Setara campaign into a full-fledged movement he can still make a huge political impact in Indonesia. Shooting for the Presidency in 2014 is not out of the question. But for Goodness Sakes, Unspun hopes he gets competent political communications advisors that will correctly identify who he needs to influence or engage first before recommending he plunge into the latest flavor in communications – social media. Find someone with a good sense of the practicalities of life and politics, not someone working out of the Echo Chamber.

(Footnote: Unspun knows the liaison officer who offered envelopes to the bloggers on Wednesday night. Since the case came to light he has come clean, took responsibility and apologized for his actions here (comment 58). Unspun thinks he’s acquitted himself well. After all, all of us can make a mistake, but it takes courage to admit a mistake and to take responsibility for it. He’ll probably be much wiser after this. He’s young. He deserves a break.)

Wives fighting for Husband's Office

I believe that Polygamy marriage is a personal matter of the man and woman who are involved in such kind of marriage.       

As long as such marriage is done according to the national laws, regulations and traditions in Indonesia and do not cause disturbances to society, and those involved do not hold public offices, I really don't care.

It is for this reason that I was very surprised when I read on The Jakarta Globe (below) about two wives of the Resident of Kediri, East Java, competing against each other in a regional election to replace their husband in office.

Claws Out as Two Wives Fight to Replace Husband in Office

What happens when two wives of an incumbent district head vie to replace their outgoing husband?

Hostility comes out into the open.

And that is exactly what is happening in the election in Kediri, East Java.

Haryanti is the first wife of district head Sutrisno. Among others, she will be running against Nurlaila, her husband’s younger wife.

Haryanti has the support of four political parties — the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).

Nurlaila’s ticket is being backed by the National Mandate Party (PAN) and some other factions not represented in the national legislature.

The hostility between the two wives was evident on Thursday when all the candidates were invited to explain their vision and mission at the Bukit Daun Hotel in Kediri.

It got off to a bad start when first wife Haryanti refused to shake hands with Nurlaila. 

As a consequence, a member of the audience threw a plastic glass of water at the candidates. It was not clear who the target was, as it failed to hit any of the three hopefuls. But chaos ensued.

The head of the Kediri General Elections Commission (KPU), Agus Edi Winarto, said he had tried his best to hold a debate among candidates before the elections on Wednesday.

Agus said he did not believe there was a political motive behind the incident and he was certain the candidates would behave themselves in the future.

He acknowledged the debate had been designed to prevent the candidates from confronting one another head on.

“We designed it with a mediator so that they could not directly argue against each other, in the hope that they would not try to attack each other,” Agus said.

Hostility between the two wives has been obvious for a long time.

During a presentation of the candidates’ vision and mission before Kediri’s Regional Legislative Council last month, the two wives previously refused to shake hands after the event.

Haryanti also left the building through another door to avoid having to meet Nurlaila.

While the two wives are currently squabbling for a position now held by their husband, he is busy facing corruption allegations over the construction of the Simpang Lima Gumul monument, which ate up billions of rupiah of the state budget.

Stiffer Election Rules for Celebrities

Celebrities have very good chances to win the hearts of people who vote during elections, because they     are  more popular than many politicians. 

That is the reason why efforts have been made to impose a stiffer election rules that would limit the numbers of celebrities who can be nominated in elections, as reported by The Jakarta Globe.

In my opinion, celebrities who do not violate the laws and regulations are eligible to elect and and be elected during elections. And politicians who felt that they are less popular than celebrities should improve their own quality so as to be able to compete with celebrities.

April 17, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran & Cameron Bates

Julia Perez on the cover of her album, Kamasutra. 

Indonesian Political Hopefuls to Face Stiffer Poll Rules

In what is already shaping up to be a highly controversial initiative, the Ministry of Home Affairs wants to further tighten eligibility criteria for political candidates in a move seen as aimed at preventing celebrities from running for office.

Under the 2004 Regional Governance Law, a candidate must meet 16 requirements to stand for election, including having a high school diploma, never having been to prison for a crime punishable by more than five years in jail and being at least 30 years old.

“The law requires regional heads to have good moral standards,” Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said on Friday. “For example, if they are proven to have committed adultery, they will be banned from contesting an election. I heard that in the past a person who featured in a sex video later ran in a regional election. It should not be that way.”

Now, with a number of racy celebrities — including actress Julia Perez — throwing their hats into the ring for this year’s 224 regional and municipal elections while admitting to having little political experience, the government is taking further steps.

“We’re going to add another requirement for candidates to have enough experience in government or in civil organizations,” Gamawan said.

“This is to prevent people who know nothing about how to lead a region suddenly becoming district head just because of popularity. We should pity the millions of people whose fate is put in jeopardy.”

Julia, known for her sexy persona and bikini photos, created an immediate stir when she said she was hoping to be the next district head of Pacitan in East Java.

Pacitan is the hometown of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, known for his conservative views on public conduct.

Julia, better known by her nickname Jupe, has said she has much to learn about politics but is willing to learn.

But Gamawan denied suggestions the new requirement had been triggered by celebrities announcing their desire to contest this year’s polls.

“It’s not only for artists, but also other popular people who have no experience,” he said. “To be a regional head, a person must have legal responsibility, political responsibility and moral responsibility to advance the region and lead the people toward prosperity. If a candidate is running on a platform of popularity alone, that’s not appropriate.”

The new requirement will be added to revisions of the 2004 law being drafted by the government. It is likely to be submitted to the House of Representatives by June.

Julia lashed out on Friday at what she said was a government attempt to prevent her from contesting the election.

“It’s directed at me,” she told the Jakarta Globe. “People have the right to become politicians. This is supposed to be a democracy. If the government is saying this is a new rule then clearly this is not right.”

Julia said that she had the backing of eight parties at the district level, including the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) and was “100 percent serious” about contesting the election.

She said she had formed a campaign team and would visit Pacitan on April 25.

Inul, Candidate Regent of Malang

Many Chief of Regencies in Indonesia will end their office terms this year, therefore many regional elections will be held.

In this connection, some celebrities have stated their wishes to participate as Candidates in the said election, among others film actress Ayu Azhari who wishes to be Candidate Vice Regent of Sukabumi, West Java.

And recently, Dangdut Singer Inul Daratista has also stated her wish to run as Candidate in the Election of Regent of Malang, East Java, next August.

Detik quoted Inul as saying that for that purpose she will pick the Chief of the National Awakening Party (PKB) in Malang as her running mate, and shall prepare finance amounting to Rp 60 Billion Rupiah to support her election campaign.

Considering that celebrities are famous and have lots of financial resources, it is obvious that they want to get top position in society. In this case, I hope that they would do their very best to improve their knowledge, abilities, moral, behaviors and everything needed to fulfill all the needs of the people and country.

Desi Ratnasari, a prospective Politician

It seems that the upcoming election for the Chief/Vice Chief of Regency in Sukabumi, West Java, on May 2010, will be filled with movie actresses as candidates.

First, there was movie actress Ayu Azhari who requested the Indonesian Democratic Party In Struggle (PDIP) to nominate her as candidate Vice Chief of Regency.

Recently, the media reported that singer/actress Desi Ratnasari (36) has been approached by the Democrat Party to be a candidate Vice Chief of Regency in the said election.

For details, please click here and here.

I am not a fan of Ayu or Desi, all I know is that both are popular movie actresses in Indonesia, but I felt that a person who wants to be a candidate in an election for Chief/Vice of a Regency should have more that just beauty and popularity. The important thing is that he/she must be able to lead and manage the area and its people.


Photo: Courtesy of Facebook.

Ayu Azhari became a Politician

Movie stars are people who are talented to play many kinds of roles in life, including the role as politicians.

It is because of this reason that the people of West Java province has elected Actor Dede Yusuf (43) as Vice Governor on April 2008.

Dede's success has inspired Actress Ayu Azhari (40) to request the Indonesian Democratic Party in Struggle (PDIP) to name her as running mate for Dr. Heryanto, PDIP's candidate in the election of the Chief of Regency of Sukabumi, West Java, on May 2010.

For detailed media reports, please click here, here, here and here.

Considering that Sukabumi is the hometown of my late grandmother, I felt that anyone who wants to run for public offices there should not only be popular as an actress, but should also be able to lead the people and work professionally when he/she is elected to the office.
So, as long as Ayu Azhari meet those requirement, I don't think that people would mind about her candidacy


Photo : Courtesy of Inilah.com

The latest Bombings in Jakarta

This morning, Jakarta has been devastated by 2 bomb explosions, first at 7.47 am at the J.W Marriot Hotel, followed by louder blast 5 minutes later, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel located accross the street.

The media reported 9 people killed and more than 50 people wounded. But according to the Police Hospital where dead victims were sent for autopsy, they have actually received 12 body bags from the incident.

Meanwhile, National Police Chief Bambang Danuri said that the explosions were ignited by two suicide bombers, whose decapitated heads were found at both places. A Police spokesman said that the bombers may have disguised as guests of the hotels, which can be seen from the explosives found in room no. 1808 of JW Marriot Hotel which are the same as the ones they found when they captured terrorists in Cilacap, Central Java 2 days ago.

Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) condemned the bombings and said that he has inteligence reports about people who are dissapointed with the presidential election. Those people were involved in the killing and the dissapearance of people in the past but never been prosecuted. He quoted those people as saying that SBY should not win the election otherwise they will take actions to hinder SBY's re-election ceremony.
SBY also show some photos of 2 terrorists holding pistols aiming at SBY's photo. In this regards, the National Police Chief explained that the photos were taken last May in East Kalimantan, and the terrorists have been arrested.

In reaction to SBY's allegations, two Presidential candidates i.e. incumbent Vice President Jusuf Kalla and former President Megawati and her running mate Prabowo denied that the bombings have link with the elections. They also condemned the bombings as crime against humanity.

For details regarding the bombings, please click here, here, here, here and here.

As the effect of the bombings, British soccer club Manchester United, who have booked to stay at the Ritz Carlton, has cancelled their match in Jakarta next Monday. Further, foreign countries have condemned the bombings, and governments of Australia, Singapore, U.S have warned their citizens about the danger of travelling to Indonesia.

To the families of the victims, I would like to express my condolence and symphaty. And to those who are involved in the planning, financing and execution of the bombings, I condemn each and everyone of you for your Barbaric, Cowardice and Inhuman actions, no matter what your reasons are. I also hope that the government especially the Police and the National Inteligence Agency (BIN) would do their very best to investigate this case so that those who are responsible can be identified, prosecuted & punnished.

Doubtful Quick Counts

Only few hours after the voting places were closed at 12 noons yesterday, TV stations have started to announce the preliminary results of ballot counting, popularly known as the Quick Count.

Political parties who were announced as losers such as Indonesian Democratic Party in Struggle (PDIP), Golkar Party, and Gerindra Party, said that the Quick Counts were inaccurate, and they accused that certain party has paid the survey institutes that announced the Quick Counts.

This accusation reminds me of an article I read yesterday morning in the Kompas Newspaper Page 3 about Election Survey Institutes that have been hired by political parties as their political consultants.
One of them is Lingkaran Survey Indonesia headed by Denny J.A. who admitted that PDIP has hired his institute as consultant.
The next one is Charta Politica headed by Arya Bima who admitted that President SBY’s Democrat Party has hired his institute as consultant.
However, both institutes denied that they would be biased in announcing the Quick Count, they said that their professionalism would enable them to separate their job as consultant for the party, and as surveyor.

But another survey institute i.e. Lembaga Survey Indonesia headed by Saiful Mujani has denied allegations that his institute has been hired by the Democrat Party. He said that it is MetroTV who has financed the survey conducted by his institute.

Considering the above, I hope that our society in general and the news media in particular would not take the Quick Count too seriously and wait until the General Election Commission made its announcement on the result of ballot counting.

Election Day

This morning, Indonesians gave their votes in the general election to elect members of the national Parliament(DPR), provincial (DPRD-I)& regional (DPRD-II) parliaments.

According to the General Election Commission (KPU) there are 171 million people who are eligible to vote i.e. 17 years old and above, registered in the permanent voter list (DPT). And the contestants consists of 38 political parties plus 6 additional local parties in the province of Aceh.

However, according to news media only around 60% of the registered voters came to the polls. Many said that the reason is because many people who are supposed to vote are not registered, and many who cannot vote e.g already dead or underage children, are registered as voters. The news media's allegation may have been right if I compare with my own experience in casting vote and also witnessing the counting of ballots in 3 voting places around my home in Kebayoran, South Jakarta, and 4 voting places around my parents' home in Bintaro, Banten. In those voting places, only around 40% of the registered voters show up at the polls. And the results in the 7 polls show that President SBY's Democratic Party won.
This result is the same as the preliminary result of voting Quick Count reported by several Election Survey institutions.
Although the said Quick Count result is still preliminary, however the news media and some politicians believe that they would not be very different compared to the actual result of counting by KPU.

In spite of the bad sides, there is one thing that made me and many Indonesians very happy i.e the fact that our country as the world's third largest democracy has successfully carried out the general election peacefully. And I am proud of it. God Bless Indonesia!

Jusuf Kalla & Bloggers

When Barack Obama won the U.S presidential election last November, the news media reported that one of the main factor for success was the ability of his campaign team to master the use of internet social network, including the blog.

This success has inspired some candidates for the Indonesian parliamentary elections that will be held on 9 April, and presidential election on 8 July 2009, to establish rapport with bloggers. One of them is Jusuf Kalla (JK) incumbent Vice President, Chairman of the Golkar Party and candidate for the presidential race. According to senior Indonesian blogger Ndoro Kakung, JK has met with bloggers on Thursday 19 March, at Pisa Café, Jalan Mahakam, South Jakarta. The meeting runs from 20.15 to 21.20 pm and attended by around 130 persons consisting of bloggers, journalists and JK’s staffs. JK, who wear short sleeve batik shirt, explained that the reason he wants to meet bloggers because he thinks that bloggers are part of the present information freedom who have created the free information. And in the dialog that follows, JK answered questions, but only mentioned the name Golkar once.
Further, Ndoro Kakung wrote that JK has invited senior blogger and founder of political blog Politikana i.e. Enda Nasution to attend JK’s campaign.
In order to maintain his image, Enda Nasution explained in his Tweeter as follows :
“ To make it clear. I am not campaigning for JK nor a kader partai. Just invited on the campaign trail. I’ll welcome invitation from others ”.

The above news shows that bloggers have now been acknowledged by very important person in our country as a respectable community that provide free information to our society. And as such, bloggers should always be fair, neutral and positive.

Current Issues

The Death of a New Student
The New Students Orientation programs have caused the death of many new students; however, older students seemed to love the program so much that they keep on organizing it eventhough without permission from the campus' authority. And this time the tragedy hapened to Dwi Yanto (22), a student of the Civil Engineering Faculty of the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), who died last Sunday night during the activity in Lembang, Bandung, West Java. Detik quoted two of ITB's Deputy Rector as saying that the activity is illegal because the campus authority has never gave permit for it. Due to which fact, ITB's Discipline Committee shall conduct an investigation and shall take action against those responsible for the death.

The Death of the Speaker of North Sumatera Parliament
In connection with the death of the Speaker of North Sumatera Parliament (DPR) Abdul Aziz, in Medan, North Sumatera last Tuesday, The Jakarta Globe reported that the Chief of National Police Bambang Danuri has dismissed the North Sumatera Police Chief and the Medan Police Chief for “negligence.”
While Tempo reported that the Police have named 31 persons as suspects, including four members of Parliament, and 70 persons as witnesses.

The Existence of Anti Corruption Court
On December 2006, the Constitutional Council has decided that the existence of the Anti Corruption Court (Tipikor) would cease by December 2009. In this regards, The Jakarta Globe reported that the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) has urged President SBY to rush the preparation of the bill of the Anti Corruption Court Law that would set a new Anti Corruption Court to replace the current one.
According to ICW, major political parties in the Parliament (DPR), including SBY’s Democratic Party, are seemingly reluctant to pursue such bill of law, because they are now busy preparing for the Parliamentary election on April 9.

The Presidential & Vice Presidential Candidates
During the opening of his Democratic Party national meeting, President SBY declined to name the Vice President who will run with him in the Presidential election on 8 July. According to The Jakarta Post, the President said that the name of candidate will only be announced after the result of Parliamentary election on April 9 has been known. This statement has leads to speculation that he would leave the option open to others than the incumbent Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
The report also mentioned that Jusuf Kalla's Golkar Party will not name a Presidential candidate during its national meeting this week.