Treeatwork

on Indonesian Laws in 2011: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2012-01-20T05:57:00.004+07:00

Since this is already a few weeks old and it's worth sharing with others, find below from stolen (and slightly edited from Hukumonline - Indonesian Weekly Law Digest, Issue 238, 6/1/2012.

Link to the original PDF at the bottom.

INDONESIAN LAWS IN 2011: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Over view 2011 was not the best year for Indonesia. Corruption scandals, banking fraud, religious conflicts, and other problems took center stage, along with Indonesia's struggle to stabilize the economy and political system, improve law enforcement, and increase social welfare.

Economic development was one of the highlights of 2011. Slowly but surely, Indonesia has developed into an emerging market full of promise and opportunities. Many investors-both domestic and foreign- see Indonesia as a hotspot for investment. Analysts predict that the economic crisis in the United States and Europe will lead investors to shift funds to Indonesia. This view was supported by Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board reports, which revealed that investment in Indonesia reached USD 14.3 billion in 2011, and financed around 3,500 projects across Indonesia. This is a remarkable achievement, and Indonesians should be proud.

In comparison, legal and political reforms are lagging behind. Indonesian law enforcers, politicians, and decision- makers set a bad example for the 240 million people of this 66 year old Republic in 2011. The case of Nazaruddin-a Democratic Party politician-and Gayus Halomoan Tambunan, reinforced public officials' bad reputation. However, public officials are inevitably the center point for legal development in Indonesia, since they are responsible for passing laws and regulations as well as enforcement.

As Roscoe Pound said, “law as [is] the tool of social engineering”. Many believe that laws and regulations are the solution to many problems in Indonesia. This is not wrong, but it is not entirely correct. Legislation may solve legal uncertainty and create positive reforms, but it may also cause new problems.

This problem is reflected in the 24 laws (undang-undang) that were issued in 2011. It should be noted that the House of Representatives actually passed more than 24 laws; however, only 24 bills were registered in the Official State Gazette (Lembaran Negara). Some of these laws regulated new issues; some of them are amendments and revisions; and some ratify international agreements.

This Indonesian Law Digest was inspired by Sergio Leone's film, titled “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”. The title represents three categories of Indonesian laws: popular and public-oriented (the good); unpopular and highly-criticized (the bad); and laws that contained technical legal errors during discussions in parliament (the ugly).

This Indonesian Law Digest will review and assess the 24 laws passed in 2011, highlighting the good, the bad, and the ugly.

on English/Javanese

2012-01-19T00:27:00.002+07:00

Copas dari Mbak @widyasrini (yg katanya juga copas)

Beberapa contoh bahwa bahasa Jawa itu lebih efisien dari bahasa Inggris:

walk slowly on the edge (side) of the road.

( mlipir )

fall backward and then hit own head

(nggeblak)

got hit by a truck that is moving

backward

(kunduran trek)

talk too much about unimportant thing

(cangkeman)

smearing one's body with hot ointment or liquid and then massaging it

(mblonyo)

going without notice/permission

(mlethas)

taking the longer way to get to the destination

(ngalang)

riding an old bicycle

(ngonthel)

falling/ tripping forward (and may hit own face)

(kejlungup)

side effect after circumcision

(gendhelen)

hot pyroclastic cloud rolling down a volcano

(wedhus gembel)

a small, sharp thing embedded inside one's skin

(susuben/ ketlusupen)

spending a lot of time doing nothing

(mbathang)

feeling uncomfortable because there is something that smells bad

(kambon)

things getting out from a container accidentally because of gravity

(mbrojol)

get hit by thing collapsing on top of one's head/ body

(kambrukan/ kembrukan)

drinking straight from the bottle without using glass, where whole bottle tip gets into the mouth

(ngokop )

cannot open eyes because something is shining very bright

(blereng)

cannot hold bowel movement

(ngebrok)

something coming out from one's rear end little by little

(keceret/ kecirit)

hanging on tightly to something in order to be inert

(gondhelan )

falling/ tripping accidentally because of a hole

(kejeglong)

doing something without thinking about the consequences

(cenanangan)

being overly active carelessly

(pecicilan)

feeling unwell because of cold

temperature

(katisen)

making too much noise, disturbing other people

(mbribeni)

tripping over accidentally caused by wires, cloths, gowns etc.

(kesrimpet)

being alone (or with a companion) in the corner of a place/ room doing something suspicious

(mojok).

on Gardening

2012-01-16T02:34:00.000+07:00

on Robots, Bad Weather and the End to 2011

2011-12-19T02:10:00.000+07:00

Don’t let us forget that the causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them.
~Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

A casino opened in New York City last month. It's the first one within the city limit. The Resort World Casino New York City is attached to the Aqueduct Raceway and connected to Times Square and shuttle to Kennedy International. According to the NY State Lottery figures the casino's averaging $1,455,190 a day for it's first month of operation.

The Casino was granted license after the September attacks in 2001 when the economy was in shock and it got thru only after years of delays. NY State doesn't allow gambling - only electronic games and no human dealers - and the only casinos in the state are Indian casinos which were exempted via some federal laws, all beyond the city limits.

RW Casino NYC currently operates some 2,500 Video Lottery Terminals, each of them averaged a daily net win of $585 - twice the amount from the nearest casino just beyond the city limit, Empire City Casino, which also saw business dropped 13% during the period. RW Casino NYC is adding another 2,500 more units so it's only the beginning. On the floor above is an invitation only club, Crockfords Casino, after the one in Mayfair, London, the oldest private members only gambling club on both side of the Atlantic dating back all the way to 1828. New York State Laws allow private gambling and stuff (here's a link to various gambling laws in NY).

The RW Casino does all this with some help from robots - they deal the cards instead of human so it doesn't really count as gambling. Yes, really. The baccarat tables feature real cards shuffled and dealt by robotlike mechanical arms.

Meanwhile, Facebook is suing an Israeli dude who legally changed his name to Mark Zuckerberg to dodge the social network's terms conditions. His company sells Facebook likes to marketers. Go figure.

Now that we got that out of the way, there are many other things on the news. There's a US drone captured semi-intact in Iran and they're going thru whole lot of dance about it The Iranians paraded the unmanned remote controlled drone on television and Prez Obama asked for it back. Mostly, they're speculating on how much the Iranians could learn about the technology and the design. This particular drone was not armed but it is a critical piece of the US military toys and it probably was as good show and tell for decades of advantages in US military research. Robots don't put soldiers in dangers and I'm sure we'll be seeing lots more of these type of news on television. What if you have unidentified robot attacking military installation? Would that be a terrorist attack? What if robots attacked Iranian suspected nuclear installation? Would that make another great war?

In Iraq, the war is officially over (again). Ever since daddy Bush, there have been various states of wars between America and Iraq so this is by no means the arrival of peace in the Middle East. I'm one of those who believe that things will only get worse before it gets better. Newt Gingrich, a U.S. Republican presidential candidate, claimed that the Palestinians are "invented people" and "terrorists." The Arabs aren't happy with it.

The Arabs are also getting increasingly unhappy with the Syrian regime who's been killing thousands. For the first time in a very long time (probably ever, I haven't checked), UN Security Council is considering a resolution proposed by the Russian to put pressure on Assad gov't who's been killing thousands so far. The western countries haven't approved it yet but it's a big turn from the previous two vetos Russia did for the Syrians. Meanwhile, oil price is climbing up slowly, Russian oil being the big winner with Iran and Syria in the doghouse.

With the European economy in the tank and the US licking the war wounds, the western world is less keen to rush into open confrontation so there will be a lot of this back and forth for a while. The Chinese are looking for bottom price deals and salvage Euro economies, the Saudis - Arab's oldest (and strongest) stone-age institution - along with OPEC will undoubtedly work to find a solution against both the threat of citizens and cross border conflicts. Obama approved some $60bn foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia so far. In short, that part of the world is a mess. As it always had been. Trust governments to do what's best for their people, right.

Or not: a New York Times poll found that the United States Congress approval rating is presently at an all time low of 9% while a recent Gallup poll found a greater percentage of Americans considered polygamy "morally acceptable" (11%). And porn (30%).

In the Philippines, there was a flash flood that killed some 600+ people. From Jakarta, as always, there's an abundance of curious news - Nunun Nurbaeti arrested in Bangkok, the KPK having new bosses in place, new election laws, an upgrade to investment grade and a particularly brutal and gruesome land conflicts that may or may not be as brutal and gruesome as it appeared to be. I don't know much yet but I'm curious, drop me a note if you have good stories.

I can't do the rest of 2011 now but yes, there have been a lot. I am very tired, Christopher Hitchens is dead and now I am mostly worried about the flood that is supposedly coming in early 2012. I'm just glad 2011 is coming to an end. I've had enough of the bad weather.

Will write more later. May be. Have all a good week!

on Egyptian Ballot

2011-12-05T19:59:00.001+07:00

The ballot on the Egyptian parliamentary election this week.

on Unhate

2011-11-17T10:36:00.001+07:00

Benetton Unhate, from Ad Age.

Air Mata Api

2011-10-04T02:41:00.002+07:00

Aku adalah lelaki tengah malam
Ayahku harimau ibuku ular
Aku dijuluki orang sisa sisa
Sebab kerap merintih kerap menjerit

Temanku gitar temanku lagu
Nyanyikan tangis marah dan cinta
Temanku niat temanku semangat
Yang kian hari kian berkarat semakin berkarat

Aku berjalan orang cibirkan mulut
Aku bicara mereka tutup hidung
Aku tersinggung peduli nilai nilai
Aku datangi dengan segunung api

Mereka lari ke ketiak ibunya
Ku tak peduli marahku menjadi
Mereka lari ke meja ayahnya
Aku tak mampu tenagaku terkuras

Lelaki tengah malam terkulai di tepi malam
Lelaki tengah malam terkulai di tepi malam
Orang sisa sisa menangis
Orang sisa sisa menangis

Air matanya
Air matanya
Air matanya
Api

Aku berjalan orang cibirkan mulut
Aku bicara mereka tutup hidung
Aku tersinggung peduli nilai nilai
Aku datangi dengan segunung api

Mereka lari ke ketiak ibunya
Ku tak peduli marahku menjadi
Mereka lari ke meja ayahnya
Aku tak mampu tenagaku habis terkuras

Lelaki tengah malam terkulai di tepi malam
Lelaki tengah malam terkulai di tepi malam
Orang sisa sisa menangis
Orang sisa sisa menangis

Air matanya
Air matanya
Air matanya
Api

Air matanya
Air matanya
Air matanya
Api...

~Iwan Fals

on Television and Whatnot

2011-09-24T22:35:00.001+07:00

TV business is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.
~Hunter S. Thompson

It’s been an extraordinary few weeks. The peaks and bumps of the New World, I guess.

The Indonesian market tanked. It happened exactly as I have predicted it would: The week right after Ramadan when everyone had spent their bonus pay and maxed out on their credit. The market plunged in the worst drop since 2008 – presently going more like 3500 and lower rather than the 4000 that excited everyone before August.

The IMF issued a minor adjustment, obviously they want to be careful with this thing and Indonesia looked much better today than it looked in 1998 so there were probably less reasons to worry.

Domestically, however, things are unraveling pretty fast. Just as President Yudhoyono called for a limited cabinet briefing on the economy, the whole leadership of the Budget Committee of the DPR were called to the KPK for questioning. The Honorable Members themselves, Indonesian’s finest and proudest, retaliated and immediately suspended process for 2012 budget.

There is no bottom for these people.

As 2011 rolled further into the second half, Indonesia seems thoroughly glutton for punishment just as its leadership trundles on with reckless abandon of consequences. Mind you, most of those in actual leadership positions are mostly concerned about keeping their collective asses from jail.

The arrest of Nazarudin and his cohorts – and their subsequent testimonies and allegations – unleashed a whole different kind of political carnage. By most measure, this is Indonesia’s largest corruption case – the largest that was ever undertaken in the history of any Indonesian law enforcement agencies. The approximate for misappropriated budget reaches is somewhere around 10 Trillion IDR, with 30+ related investigations currently ongoing. Nazarudin himself is going to court next month.

Even further, the trials of company executives managing the fund for Nazarudin revealed that a lot of money was going everywhere – including some funding for other parties within the government coalition. Frankly, it sounds a lot like he was running the money for the party but this is now lost in the noise.

The lawyers are on television almost daily, spewing all sorts of stuff in the defense, their strategy primarily rests on the assumption that the KPK – the anti corruption body – will crack under the political pressure and therefore minimizing the damage towards the present day rulers of the gang of thieves.

Ever too happy to glorify the gore at the Circus, Indonesian television channels went ape and offerred anyone with a mouth to munch to speak for anyone on anything on national television. The noiser, the merrier.

At some point, Nazaruddin’s lawyer convinced television that his client indeed, keeps damaging evidence that he currently refuses to divulge. When pressed on the existence of any such evidence, the dude who was supposedly attending law school said that he was neither familiar nor had ever any first hand encounter with any such evidence. So he vouched for his thieving, fugitive client – on national television, and the journos pretended like they didn’t see nor heard anything.

Of course, in this case, the lawyers actually represent the same channel and thus any such basic checks on ethics and etiquette was deemed unnecessary. Hypocrisy knows no bounds.

You would understand that at some point, you get sick of this kinda shit and you call them for what they are: a lot of bollocks. Indonesia had its shares of scandalous and shameless abuse of the public conscience but lately it’s going further and further towards the edge. Things will only get worse before they get better.

President Yudhoyono’s approval ratings is only going lower everyday and is guaranteed to accelerate the downward spiral just as the economy is feeling the impact of another global disruption. The Government will function less and less effectively – a cabinet reshuffle is announced to take place in the next two weeks. There’s no need to entertain any fantasies of legislative reform as the rest of the political establishment are either gearing up for the coming election or packing to flee the country.

I’m just keeping note of things so I could remember things later. This week, Palestinians made their bid for the UN. Indonesians should be more grateful.

Have a good weekend, all.

Grand Art of Bad Taste

2011-08-26T18:01:00.000+07:00

Diracun Sajalah!

2011-08-19T14:13:00.003+07:00

I was in Jogja a few weeks back and saw some of these posters - from the awesome people at AntiTank Project.

on the Downgrade

2011-08-06T14:08:00.000+07:00

“The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics,”
~S&P on US rating downgrade.

June I Wrap - Treehouse, G+ and 2014

2011-07-09T15:31:00.000+07:00

Traffic Report. It's been a few exciting weeks. So many things happened. I been spending more than the usual amount of time on real time social. Some were good, but mostly I hate being out there in the traffic. People should just commit to do more using technology and stop clogging the roads. I'm gonna be writing about how to tackle Jakarta excruciating traffic jams soon as I got around to it.

Internet and Social Network Dept. Google launched G+ which was interesting enough and so far I'm liking it a lot (tho admittedly, I haven't done much on it). Most annoying is the various disturbing bugs when using it from the iPad (I can't share nor post, so it defeats the purpose of having it). On the brightside, however, I'm discovering serious upgrade on the blogger service as well, so I guess this is Google finally going 2.0 proper?

(Facebook+Skype also announced something. I didn't check).

Blogging Dept. Speaking of blogs, I will be blogging the tech stuff with Dailysocial. Maintaining the blogs and everything is just getting tedious and sometimes, I just feel like writing and not tinkering. Maybe if I get a MacBook Air...

2011 News Dept. In a landmark deal announced last week, Para Group acquired Detik.com - Indonesia's largest online news portal. Where they go from there, nobody knows but Indonesia is definitely coming to a media revolution. Technology adoption and cheap wireless data network are radically changing the landscape, and as Election 2014 nears, it's about to get a lot more interesting.

2014 News Dept. As Partai Demokrat struggles to face a series of tedious and increasingly worrying scandals, it's unclear how - and if - the President's party will survive 2014. The economy looks good on paper - but I personally doubt how long the President could stretch his no-common sense economy to keep his approval rating from dropping off the edge. How long do you think Indonesia could pretend like Oil price is coming down?

Indonesian Reformist government have successfully created a system whereby the Government invents millions of government jobs annually and artificially keep unemployment down. The recruitment system is ripe with bribes and corruption all the while citizens very quickly lose trust in the public system. What was a bureaucratic reform plan is now a bureaucracy of reform, and it's costing the economy dearly. There's a decision to be finalized on a moratorium on new hires and early pensions but as with many other things, they don't look serious enough doing it. Politically, it's almost like the country is going backward.

From Washington DC, Sri Mulyani did an interview with Charlie Rose and appeared to have answered all the questions about 2014.

I've a few other things, but it is Saturday and it is best spent with a big and happy dog. Have a good weekend, all.

2011, So Far

2011-05-24T03:36:00.003+07:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Osama Bin Laden was hunted down by US Special Forces (and a dog, apparently). Pundits rushed to speculate on how this would impact al-Qaeda and global terrorism. Nobody really knows, too many things are changing at the same time.

The raid embarrassed Pakistan and strained the relationship of the supposed allies. America didn't seem much concerned and threw massive weight in the balance with the threats to cut off US funding. The Americans also made it clear that they will continue to operate drones in Pakistan, one attack four days after Bin Laden's killed eight militants. In a Chicago courtroom, one of the Mumbai plotters pointed to relationships between ISI (Pakistani security agency) and terror organizations.

I can't help but think that when the United States bombed the Afghans back to the stone age earlier in the war, they merely pushed the Talibans and Al Qaedas deeper into Pakistan - a nuclear power cornered by China and India (with which they had been maintaining skirmishes in Kashmir for decades).

For those who were wondering what would happen to the post-Obama radicals, I'd recommend watching how the Arab kings are responding to the new world order:

Saudi Arabia literally spend billions of dollars to bribe their citizens and quiet any dissent. While elsewhere in the Middle East citizens were rising up against tyrants and dictators for democracy and civil rights, a Saudi woman was arrested after she posted a video of herself driving on YouTube. Saudi Arabia is the only place in the world where women aren't allowed to drive. I don't keep tally but I read that the King doled out more than US$90 billions already in economic incentives since the beginning of the year.

As it is, Indonesia gets more money and influence from the desert than any other countries - the money collected from Indonesian workers overseas is the country's largest steady income after energy and resources - Saudi Arabia is a big part of this. One needs only to go see the mosques and pesantrens all over the country to see this, there are mosques named after Qaddafi and gods only know who else. Even Bin Laden got his money from Saudi Arabia.

The kings of United Arab Emirates hired the founder of Blackwater - the US private security firm - to build them a mercenary army consisting of Columbian and South African soldiers with American equipments. They're deployed to train in a closed compound in the middle of the desert and equipped with air support.

Again, this remind me of Libya, Qaddafi and his mercenaries and all that, although of course, the Arab kings are doing this with the US blessings and support. Then again they once trained and equipped Bin Laden, too.

President Obama called on Israel to go back to pre 1967 border, one day before meeting Prime Minister Netanyahu. North of Israel, violence in Syria are threatening to spill over the border and Egypt will undoubtedly open the Rafah crossing into Gaza permanently. Bibi dismissed the US President and went biblical in the Oval Office.

It should be obvious that the US foreign policy in the Middle East doesn't make sense. They're waging a war in Libya against a mad leader while arming and training the next generation of mad men. President Obama went to Europe and claimed his Irish root.

Meanwhile the war in Libya raged on. The nuclear crisis in Japan deepened. The Lakers beat the dust. Linked in went public. The World moves on.

The year is coming to an almost half. So far, it's been exhausting.

Semper Fido

2011-05-06T05:18:00.000+07:00

I just have to blog this. The dogs have titanium fangs!

Original article from The Daily.

on Business Models

2011-05-04T14:11:00.003+07:00

I been looking at a number of internet stuff lately and failed to notice anything interesting in the local scene.

I am a big believer in the Indonesian local talent and whereas possible I prefer to work with Indonesia's own bright men and women so I simply refused to believe that there's nothing good in the country and went to investigate.

My totally unscientific survey lead me to one major issue with Indonesia's nascent but exciting internet startup scene: Business Models.

Most clones are simply localization attempts of business models implemented elsewhere with a sole conviction that whatever works elsewhere will work in Indonesia.

I can testify that this is simply not the case. Some models work on global scale and leverage on scale (Google Search) but what makes it actually work is the local approach (context sensitive AdSense).

Indonesia is a sizable market with some rather unique characteristics - early adopters, younger population, proliferation of mobile device and fast growing middle class. The traditional media scene - TV in particular - is thriving and advertising grows faster in 2010 than in past years. Media consumption is different, access and adoption of technology is different (almost no cable infrastructure but widespread wireless) and ultimately, the business model is different.

We don't have an iTunes here so telcos and studios have resolved to Content Providers to build their mobile revenue - the music industry undergo similar disruption as it is in the US, but no Apple. We don't have reliable, mass adopted payment models but large scale distribution/collection is possible (think Nexian). Blackbery is consumer and not corporate sponsored. The burgeoning middle class and regional growth means this is still at the very early stage of market segmentation and Indonesia is nowhere near mature.

I could go in, but in short, Indonesia has unique characteristics and ten thousand good reasons why your internet startup wouldn't work if you simply transplant a business model from elsewhere and turn it into a business plan. If you need anymore convincing, this Harvard Business Review paper has more.

The only reason you should do a clone is if you know you could do it better. Much better. Otherwise it's almost certainly not worth doing.

Transplanting a business model usually leads to other problems:

Development obsession. Because transplanting a biz model usually means copying the application/services and somehow adding features and stuff it means the company is trapped in a development cycle to catch up to its more mature clone.

The truth is, internet companies don't usually succeed by working in fixed, traditional development cycle. Google aren't worried about releasing beta products, building a user base and improving on the fly, Twitter was launched with no features.

What make them successful businesses isn't a good app or a good service but the value preposition as a whole. Facebook for 500M looks much different to Facebook for 5000 students. It simply grows up. If you're locking yourself into a product development cycle, you should build and sell apps instead, like Microsoft.

I was quite puzzled to hear that some of the participants in last week's Echelon doesn't actually have a product in the market yet.

Internet companies need to have a user base (or a networked base) - a stand alone app not yet in the market is not an internet company.

Market ignorance. When copying a proven model from another market, we're tempted to put the same assumptions and as I ranted earlier, they're unlikely to work. Not always because Indonesia is a poor country and people couldn't afford to buy internet stuff, but because maybe Indonesians simply buy different things differently. Different people do different stuff. You should know what makes you different.

Now I'm very hungry and I need to get lunch. Have a good day, all.

May, 2011

2011-05-02T20:37:00.001+07:00

What a week. I missed a few weeks of writing and I still have tons to do, so I will only be brief.

Obama bin Laden died, said Fox and MetroTV. A team of Navy Seals stormed a million dollar compound in a garrison town outside Islamabad and shot him in the head. Four people killed, no causalities on the US side. Flag waving crowd went to the streets and held parties in front of the White House, Ground Zero in NYC, the West Point and everywhere else. I toasted a big grin. Finally. (here's the news from ABC)

His body was disposed of at sea, avoiding the messy details of building a tomb for the leader of Al Qaeda. Expect plenty of documentations to leak out soon to convince the believers and dismiss the lucrative potentials of fresh conspiracy theories.I say good riddance.

The other week was the Royal Wedding in London. Capo had screens outside so we sat outside to watch live BBC broadcast while enjoying a luxurious and gorgeous Jakarta afternoon (it was a good weather day). The wedding was elaborate and positively regal and I envied the festive mood.

May certainly opens up on a happy note.

on Dinosaurs

2011-04-27T04:56:00.000+07:00

I've been busy recently so I don't write as much but some things are worth noting - this is all internet stuff, so anyone expecting more profound pondering should check my archive instead.

First thing first - Dinosaurs are extinct for a reason. The US media companies understand this. They knew about this ages ago and they realized this years ago (and Newsweek was sold almost a year ago), but now they know it. NY Times of today is more an internet company than a newspaper.

Indonesian media companies don't get this. The big media players - MNC/SCTV/TRANSTV and every other TVs - they don't understand the internet and chances are, it will take a while for them to get it.

Unfortunately, by then, the revolution would've happened. Major disruption in the media landscape is coming - because customer is changing. It's happening in the US, it's happening in the Middle East and it will happen in Indonesia. Like Peter Chernin (former President of News Corp.) said, “You can’t protect old business models artificially.”

The cost structure is different, the market map is different, the technology is different, the copyright concerns are different, the ideas are different. You need to get out of your broadcast box and think in digital. Think big, then think bigger.

For dinosaurs, this is pure survivalist.

Long Weekend, April, 2010

2011-04-21T14:14:00.002+07:00

the act or process of falling into an inferior condition orstate; deterioration; decay: Some historians hold thatthe fall of Rome can be attributed to internal decadence.

moral degeneration or decay; turpitude.

unrestrained or excessive self-indulgence.

( often initial capital letter ) the decadent movement inliterature.

~Dictionary.Com

The Indonesian Ambassador in Washington DC keeps eleven maids. A football team? A harem? who knows. Four of them escaped. The babysitter was apparently of particular interests - her passport was revoked and the Embassy said that they would take all necessary measures to reacquire their beloved babysitter. Maybe the baby was particularly attached. Who knows.

The detailed report in Indonesian is available here - courtesy of the diligent eyes of other, sane Indonesian citizens keeping eyes in the United States.

Indonesian DPR is officially the most corrupt body in the country.

Meanwhile, in Libya, war rages on. In Japan, there is now a mandatory nuclear evacuation zone. Like no go zone, ever. According to the The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Skynet went live last night, April 19th, 2011, at 8:11 PM, and Judgement Day will proceed tomorrow (April 21st). April 20th is also the Fuhrer's birthday - Adolf Hitler is currently trending on Twitter.

I'll be happy when I survived the week. Have a long happy weekend, all.

April, 2011

2011-04-13T04:46:00.000+07:00

But I confess, that, after I had been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved country, of our trade and wars by sea and land, of our schisms in religion, and parties in the state; the prejudices of [the Brobdingnagian King's] education prevailed so far, that he could not forbear taking me up in his right hand, and stroking me gently with the other, after a hearty fit of laughing, asked me, "whether I was a Whig or Tory?"
~Gulliver's Travels

President SBY is apparently working on another coalition reshuffling. I know. It doesn't sound like anything because it doesn't really explain anything. After months of speculation on cabinet reshuffling, the President probably thought that redesignation of support titles would fix his rule. Oh dear.

I begin to think that there really is no fix for his rule. President SBY may very well be on the final descent to nowhere. His legacy would be about the one who overpromised on everything and delivered nothing except ten years of confusion and intellectual decay for Indonesia. His was the presidency that rolled back on reform and brought back corruption and filed Indonesia for moral bankruptcy. Where words and promises means nothing and Government stopped making any sense.You could hear the whining of the fattening middle class in the traffic.I give up. We are royally screwed until 2014.

On the other hand, the weather's been nice for almost a week and the dog is getting fat.

Have a good week, all.

on Government Shut Down

2011-04-04T07:46:00.002+07:00

I was reading about the looming US Government shut down.Frankly, the concept just doesn't compute. My natural expectation for a necessary government would be that it is shutdown proof. If my Government is just unreliable as my Bank, then why bother really. This article outlines the debate highlights.

In Indonesia, Citibank keeps a torture chamber, someone died. The same bank also had one of their relationship manager arrested for a scandalous fraud involving direct debting from private, wealthy and expeditiously dodgy unnamed customers. The case is unfolding and the numbers don't really add up. The girl was arrested and they had two ferraris and a hummer and a merc and several apartments confiscated. The bank is not disclosing numbers on how much exposure it has from these fascinating banking practices. In the United States they were part to the same system that brought down the previous world order.

My point is, if they were both just as bad in math, I would at least prefer my Government to be more reliable than my Bank. When Citizens all over the World is trying to shut down a Government, at least one is under a threat of a nuclear meltdown and a war growing in scale in the most explosive part of the World, it would be a bad time for the World's Most Powerful Government to suddenly shut down. It would then be less powerful.

Since I am not a United States citizen, I would only be watching this with fascination. History unfolds.

UPDATE:

Collateral Damage: How the 1995 shutdown changed history (from Daily Beast)

You can’t measure the effect of a shutdown in just dollars, though. During the last showdown between a Democratic White House and Republican-controlled Congress, Speaker Newt Gingrich’s career was derailed by his handling of the budget crisis. (What ever happened to that guy?) While President Bill Clinton emerged a winner, he wasn’t unscathed. During the five-day government shutdown in November 1995, an unpaid intern named Monica Lewinsky worked late at the White House because paid workers were furloughed. It was during that time that the first sexual encounters between the two, which would eventually lead to Clinton’s impeachment, occurred.

on Campaigning, 2014

2011-04-02T19:33:00.001+07:00

The Approval Matrix: Week of April 4, 2011, New Yorker

Campaigning in 2014 will be very interesting. First came the digital disruption, then a media revolution, next is the social distortion and by my crystal ball, 2014 looks near enough.

I was reading @Nukman's article on the recent Rolling Stone ID about how social media features in the revolution in the Middle East. Frankly, I consider the debate of whether social media is required or not is moot. The power of the internet was that it connects the whole world. Tahrir Square happened because the two million Egyptians on the street was seen by the billions via Al Jazeera and talked about by hundreds of millions others via the internet.

Whatever the current social media trend, it's obvious that the network - the internet - was instrumental in making it happened. Forget the facebookers, look at the netizens in their billions. Internet population will be two billion before the end of the year. How citizens connect, cross-national and idea-centric (as opposed to state managed and geographically isolated) is now different. The opinion of the world, matters.

The pictures from Tunisia, Cairo, Tripoli, Tehran, Bahrain, Amman, Sanaa and every other town in the Middle East significantly involve your social participation to the world. Television will make sure that it happens. When Revolution was televised, it affects others. With the internet, it directly involves others. Wikileaks changed how the United States conduct its business. In Libya, the world is closely watching the Obama Doctrine. Australian papers published embarrassing Indonesian scandals. America has a raging narco war on its border. Saudi Arabia sends planes to Libya in order to get away with sending tanks to Bahrain. Japan - one the world's strongest empires - is facing a nuclear meltdown.

Not only that these things happen, but they are happening with the whole world watching and connecting about it. In politics, this will change a great number of things, Indonesian presidential election in 2014 promises to be exciting. For a start, this will be the first election with no incumbent in the running. It will be fun.

Television is everywhere. Indonesia has more than ten national terrestrial channels and there will be hundreds of regional ones in 2014. Indonesian expects the political massaging only to intensify as it nears the election. The US 2012 will be closely watched. Local operators are in a hurry to get acquainted with the brutal nature of politics in Washington DC. Jakarta certainly has the appetite for all the dirty tricks and no qualms about their dishonorabilities.

By 2012, the digital revolution will change television, as radically as it had altered print and music. The media as we know it will be blurred in the vision. Journalism change considerably, as the medium thru which the idea disseminated was disrupted violently. Is Wikileaks journalism? Was Al Jazeera campaigning against Hosni Mobarak? Is the United States campaigning a war in Libya? Indonesian television - also with live report from Tripoli - often maintain their own perception of things and presented an altogether different angle of a major historical event.

Recollection of fact will be an increasingly difficult task, the pictures no longer shocking Pulitzer moment but amateurish flashes on YouTube.

Television is no longer news, it's a story - one recorded version of the event. There are pictures and reports and leaks coming from all over the place, the news will be lost in the messaging. Already, present day television participated beyond journalism and into the murky water of politics and advocacy. During election hour, these state-controlled and corporate-sponsored monsters venture into direct dealing and inducement.

Indonesia’s wireless subscriptions will top 100 percent of the population by 2015, meaning some users will have multiple devices, according to Boston Consulting. Most of these devices will be network ready and the chatter promised to be spectacular. Already, Indonesia ranked second worldwide in terms of their appetite for video consumption - a great chunk of it self-produced and peer messaging - aggregated online.

Everyone will be so opinionated most citizens will be hard pressed to discern facts and opinion. Everyone with sober thumbs flock to the printed words and published their own version byte sized facts.You rely on search engine and people start believe in Google.

Of course, there will always be the thugs who get off on brute force and in desperate moments, shamelessly attempt to disconnect from the world. Leaders so detached from their citizens they had in fact, submitted to their own separation from the nation-state management by the collective will of the connected. Resistance is futile as history will accelerate.

"We are in a transition from a big state to a small state, and from a small society to a big society," said Ma Hong who won China’s national award for government innovation as quoted by the Economist. The Special Report on the Future of the State is an excellent read (and you should) though I was disappointed that it was looking more towards the developed countries and less to third world developing countries like Indonesia, where the disruption promises to be more radical and potentially, more violent. How will India manage with the caste system in a more connected world? How long will the Chinese Great Firewall lasts? Their last Great Wall remains after 2000 years but arguably less useful to defend and contain modern day China.

Anyway, this isn't really a post about Indonesian politics 2014. For that you're going to have to watch the telly. Have a good weekend, all.

World Update, March IV, 2010

2011-03-28T14:32:00.001+07:00

No time to do a proper wrap - I'm playing Shogun 2, building the Japanese Empire was no easy task - but let's keep track of the world events, just in case.

From Japan, seawater radiation is now a real worry. I consulted with a few people who know more on the subject and I was assured that the immediate danger is minimal, or at the very least, much less than radioactive contamination on land, food supply and urban population. In the long run, nobody really knows what could happen. Maybe we'll be seeing more of the giant squid.

From Libya, the rebels took over Sirte, Khadaffi's hometown. Under the air cover by Allied warplanes, the rebels marched a few hundred miles west, heading for Tripoli. From Al Jazeera this morning, Sirte looks calm and Khadaffi's forces are on retreat. I understand that many things could go wrong and some of them certainly would but I'm hoping that this war will be over quick. One of these days, some of his men will turn on him and end the madness.

In Syria and Yemen and Jordan, things are getting worse. The United States and the world whined but do little else about these governments. The US pays Yemeni President hundreds of millions of dollars to fight Al Qaeda and the State Dept. is naturally anxious to harm their own minions. In Syria, there are reports of Hezbollah crossing over from Lebanon to help the government. As with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, citizens of these countries matter less than the overriding global politics and calculated interests of the Rich Countries.

From Google-Target Map mesh, I found this: World Penis Map. Indonesians are approximately the same as the Chinese, the Sudanese leads the world in penis size.

on Libya and Indonesia

2011-03-23T13:08:00.003+07:00

Truth, is the first casualty of war
~Aeschylus

Libyan women wave the Kingdom of Libya flag under a French flag in Benghazi on March 11, 2011.

The conflict in Libya - and the Middle East today - is complicated and comes in many colours and there are many ways to look at it. War, anywhere, is not pretty and I have been very clear in my opposition to all sorts of armed conflicts in all parts of the world.

Sadly, hopes and ideals alone would not end tyrants and monsters and I do believe that there are circumstances in which armed intervention will be forced upon the citizens of the world and we are forced to make hard choices.

However, I find the reports and characterization of the conflict in the Indonesian press deeply misleading and often times, simply inaccurate.

Successive Indonesian governments have friendly relationships with most of the Middle East regimes and shared common bonds of Islam and post-colonial sentiments

For many it seems, the Middle East remains to represent the spiritual home for Islam and Islamic ideals where details escaped scrutiny or even further questioning.

The plight of millions under the oppressive regimes in North Africa and the Middle East fell below the radar and failed to ignite any serious debates of what or how Indonesia should respond, despite going through similar struggle for democracy and the uphill battle against corrupt governments.

Preoccupied with their own affairs – cabinet reshuffle, parcel bombs and succession of corruption scandals – Indonesians care little of what happened in the region and was mostly content with the status quo.

Events in Egypt for example, prompted the Indonesia to evacuate citizens to safety with President Yudhoyono himself greetings and welcoming at the airport, but no complaints or comments against the violence and the oppression perpetrated by the Mubarak regime.

While Indonesians are always quick to respond against what was perceived as ‘Americanization’ and Western injustices, there were little, if any, public support of solidarity with the common people in the Middle East protesting their own tyrants.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a great cause of concerns in many circles and yet, alarming escalation of violence by governments across the region in recent months was met with muted response in Indonesia.

Three days of aerial bombing against Libyan air defense system – necessary and required to impose a UN sanctioned no fly zone – was reported with speculation for motives and unchecked tabloid fanfare while little was said about the thousands of Libyan dead under the mad colonel.

Kompas – Indonesia’s largest daily – characterized UN intervention as ‘occupational force’ and yet, nothing was said about Saudi Arabia, who send tanks and soldiers to quash protests in neighboring Bahrain.

Indonesian media was quick to speculate on motives and prejudices of ‘western powers’ to intervene in Libya while somehow, managed to skirt any meaningful criticism against the violence by Col. Qaddafi.

Tommy Suryopratomo from Metro TV had an entire segment of prime time evening news to illustrate the oil and energy resources in Libya while failing to even mention the killings of thousands by Qaddafi that started the whole thing.

Shamelessly (on the same news segment), Metro TV invited Setiawan Djody - an oil businessman who accumulated his wealth from decades of cozy relationship with Indonesia’s own Soeharto – to speak on Libya, under the guise of his familiarity with the embattled nation.

This is the same man who was only too happy to mention that his familiarity comes from the various business interests he maintains in Libya, directly dealing with the Qaddafi family. And yet, Mr. Suryopratomo - a senior journalist - went on to rant about western interests in oil with ripoffs slides taken from the internet on the same news segment. This isn’t journalism, it’s a corporate sponsored propaganda. (We will discuss Mr. Djody’s co-mingled interests w Surya Paloh at some other venue).

Indonesian diplomats and government officials were quick to ride on the public sentiments and speak up against the military action, while at the same time too happy to continue to conduct business with these tyrants and dictators.

Indonesia maintains millions of dollars with the Saudis for oil and hajj and various other god only knows what dollar interests – and yet this regime has more Indonesians dying every year than ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT on the planet. And no, Indonesia said nothing to these atrocities.

Oh, the hypocrisy knows no bounds.

The local media reports very little of what madness the House of Saud is doing, or what violence Qaddafi had done towards his own people and how the people of Benghazi erupted in gratitude to find that finally, the world is willing to do something for their cause.

For what its worth, whatever the Indonesians are saying about the western intervention in Libya, the citizens of Benghazi are waving French tricolor along with the flag of free Libya.

There are many ways to look at the events in Libya and for sure, things will continue to unfold and who knows what’s going to happen. There’s never an easy way to look at war and bloodshed and no doubt, we are all saddened of what is happening. But the press – respectable members of the card carrying media establishment – in Indonesia, they have a responsibility to report with facts and not to indulge in meaningless rhetoric to simply please their own misguided passion for the status quo and corporate interests.

Indonesia have enough problems of their own already with mad Islamist and Arab sponsored radicalism. The Indonesian press should know better not to play into the hands of their outdated propaganda machine of tyrants and dictators, and at the very least, to keep some semblance of dignity for the privilege of freedom and the free press that they now enjoy, unlike their peers in the Middle East.

PS: Shortly after I posted this, Kompas actually edited the original article - without any notes for change - removing the phrase "menjajah" (occupational force). The cache of the original post can be found thru a google search, here. Really, hypocrisy knows no bounds.

tx @benhan for the notice.

Tikus Istana

2011-03-21T14:34:00.001+07:00

According to my source, this poor little thing was found dead in the water dispenser in the Press Room at the Presidential Palace. Time of death was not specified but most likely, he died this morning. Rest in peace.

Radiation Dose Chart

2011-03-21T14:12:00.000+07:00

Radiation Dose Chart - from xcd.com

via @hanindyo