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).

President SBY & Greenpeace

On 12 November, 50 Greenpeace activists demonstrated at a tract of forest in Riau, Sumatera, that was recently cleared by the huge paper and pulp manufacturer PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper, a subsidiary of the Asia Pacific Resources International Holding. Some chained themselves to excavators owned by the company.

Those activists protested the destruction of forest & peatland in Riau, which has been estimated to contain around 2 gigatons of greenhouse gases.
As a consequence, 11 foreign activists and jurnalists who covered the event were deported and 21 Indonesians were charged by the Police for tresspassing and for conducting illegal demonstration.

In spite of the above incident, last Saturday around 150 Greenpeace activists demonstrated in Jakarta to support the plan of President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) to cut greenhouse emissions from forest and peatland clearing by 26 percent by 2020 as he has promised to the international community.

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

I hope that the above support from Greenpeace will strengthen the President's determination to cut Carbon Emission in Indonesia.

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.