Indonesian Election 2009: The rise of pseudo-intellectuals...

So the first round of election is over. Indonesia is now mature enough to have another reasonably peaceful election. This is also the first time, after Suharto's regime, that we manage to keep the elected government in power for full five year term. Now that's one thing to be proud of!

Major political event like this unfortunately attracts the so called political flies analysts and wannabes. If you don't believe it, I've put together this list of 23 of them from detik.com and kompas.com just from the past 3 days (10-12 April 2009)

To be honest, their analysis is quite amusing and a good fun to read. It's more like poli-tainment. There's one who said that one party had been predicted to lose, and he said that AFTER the election(which is as good as saying pig doesn't fly, or does it?). Another said all Election Committee members should resign so that we can have successful second round election (?? sounds oxymoron to me).

I don't know how much Indonesian listen to these people, but it definitely doesn't help in educating people. Media needs to raise their bar and provide more facts than just quoting this rubbish just because it's easier to do. There's one quote from Irish Poet Oscar Wilde which media needs to keep in mind:

The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.

The full list:
Pengamat politik dari LIPI, Lili Romli
Pengamat politik UI, Boni Hargens
Pengamat politik dari Indo Barometer, M Qodari
Pengamat politik Universitas Airlangga (Unair), Daniel Sparingga.
Pengamat Politik Universitas Diponegoro (Undip), Yulianto,
Pengamat politik Universitas Gadjah Mada, Arie Sudjito
Peneliti senior Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI), Burhanuddin Muhtadi
Pengamat politik dari Reform Institute, Yudi Latief
Direktur Eksekutif CETRO, Hadar Gumay
Kepala Divisi Penelitian LP3ES, Fajar Nursahid
Pengamat politik UI, Arbi Sanit
Direktur LP3ES, Suhardi Suryadi
Project Manajer Cirus Surveyor Group, Hasan Nabih
Direktur Pusat Kajian Politik dan Kebijakan Strategis (Puskaptis), Husin Yazid
Pengamat politik, Maswadi Rauf
Pengamat politik, M Qodari
Eksekutif Direktur Cirus Surveyor Grup, Adrinof Chaniago
Pengamat politik Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) Ahmad Taufan Damanik
Rektor Universitas Paramadina, Anis Baswedan
Sekjen Jaringan Nusantara (JN), Andi Arief
Direktur Utama Lingkar Madani (LIMA), Ray Rangkuti.
Pengamat pemilu, Effendi Ghazali yang tampak rapi mengenakan jas hitam
Juru Bicara Dewan Perubahan Nasional, Chalid Muhammad

By the way, what if we put these people in power and see where our country will end up :-)

Keen to Read More?

21 Months of Good Life (Part 3 - Bye Welly and Hello Perth)

This post has been long overdue...

We finally left Wellington in October 2008. We'll never forget Wellington as we were bringing a piece of it with us: Joanna.

Imelda was 3 month pregnant when we moved to NZ and despite what the local news said about the appalling state of public health system in NZ, we still found that it worked wonders for us.

We were blessed having these people who helped us through the process: our midwife Kath Boyle who helped with Imelda's pregnancy and Joanna's early weeks (while she's struggling with her jaundice and weight loss); the team in Wellington hospital who handled the cesarean delivery really well; Plunket nurses who helped us monitoring Joanna's growth (and gave us peace of mind); and all our friends here who shared their experience and lent helping hands.

Here she is now, a 21 month old kiwi :-)



Now it's time to savour new experience. Haere ra, Aotearoa...

Keen to Read More?