The Candidate Presidents and their VPs

On Saturday, 30 May 2009, the General Election Commission (KPU) has officially announced the names & numbers of pairs of candidate President/Vice President who will be running for the Presidential Election on 8 July 2009.
(Photo: courtesy of The Jakarta Post).

The Jakarta Post reported that the result of drawing of numbers by each of the pairs shows that they will be competing as follows:
No.1 - Megawati Soekarnoputri(President) & Prabowo Subijanto (VP)
No.2 - Soesilo Bambang Yudoyono (President) & Boediono (VP)
No.3 - Jusuf Kalla (President) & Wiranto (VP)

According to Kompas, last Friday KPU announced the amount of campaign fund that will be used by the three pairs:
SBY-Boediono: Rp 20.750 Billion; Megawati-Prabowo: Rp 15.5 Billion; and Yusuf Kalla-Wiranto: Rp 10 Billion.
KPU also announced those candidates' wealth as follows :
1)Prabowo: Rp 1.5 Trillion plus US$ 7.5 Million
2)Jusuf Kalla: Rp 314.5 Billion plus US$ 25,668.00
3)Megawati: Rp 256.4 Billion
4)Wiranto: Rp 81.7 Billion plus US$ 378,625.00
5)Boediono: Rp 22 Billion plus US$ 15,000.00
6)Susilo Bambang Yudoyono: Rp 6.8 Billion plus US$ 246,389.00

In compliance with the Presidential Election Law, earlier all candidates have gone through general medical chek-up by a special medical team, and wealth review by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). But considering that all the processes have been completed earlier than schedule KPU has moved the campaign starting day from 12 June to 2 June until 4 July 2009.

With the above announcement, the candidates will now surely sharpen their campaign strategy to win the hearts of the people to vote for them. In this regards, I hope that they would only use fair, peaceful and non violent ways. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

The Situ Gintung Tragedy

“ A mini Tsunami! “ that’s what some news media reported when a water dam broke down at Situ Gintung, an outskirt of Jakarta, last Friday, causing heavy flood to the surrounding area, flattened more than 300 houses and killed many people.

Kompas reported that until this morning, 98 people have died and 115 people missing. The National Search and Rescue Agency is intensifying search by conducting join operation with other government agency, the military and student organization.

The Jakarta Post reported that around 400 people have been evacuated to nearby hospitals. The Governor of Banten i.e.Ratu Atut, whose province covered the flooded area, was quoted as saying that the heads of each affected household would receive at least Rp 5 Million compensation.

This tragedy has seemingly made some politicians suddenly change their campaign agenda by including a visit to Situ Gintung. Inilah.com wrote that Vice President Jusuf Kalla was the first to visit the area on Friday morning, followed by President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono several hours later, as well as others later on.

I hope that the attention of the politicians would expedite the handling of this tragedy, therefore ease the suffering of victims.