Wiranto to declare new party

Gen (ret) Wiranto, who lost the 2004 president election, is scheduled to announce the establishment of new political party, tentatively called Partai Hati Nurani Rakyat (Hanura) with former high-ranking military officers, Jawa Pos reported.

Founding members of the new party are, among others: Fuad Bawazier (former finance minister under Soeharto regime), Subagyo HS (former army chief of staff), Fachroel Rozy (former deputy army commander), Suaedi Marasabesi, Elsa Syarief (lawyer for Tommy Soeharto), Bern K. Sondakh (former Navy chief of staff), etc.

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New Kids on the Oil Blocks

In recent years, lots of new companies (some owned by old Soeharto cronies) have been awarded oil and gas blocks. Who are these people?

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Sukanto Journalism School in Spore, why not here?

Investor Daily reported that Indonesia's richest man Sukanto Tanoto donated S$1 million to journalism school at Nan Yang Tech University in Singapore. The money would be used to finance two Indonesian students per year to learn journalism in Singapore. Quite strange, learning journalism in a country without press freedom? Why not in Indonesia?

Donation is an noble act. You could be seen by some as a noble man, while others may keep calling you a 'thief' because you had walked away from liabilities in the past as what Anwar Nasution, chairman of BPK always labelled on Indonesian conglomerates.
As for Sukanto, through his Tanoto Foundation, he is actively involved in what some newspapers called phylantropy. He's not alone. Eka Tjipta, Aburizal Bakrie, Soeharto have similar foundations. Besides, foundation is the perfect way to pay less tax to the state. Well, I should ask MoF Sri Mulyani about tax payments of Indonesia's richests.
With USD2.3 billion wealth (according to Forbes), donating S$1 million is clearly a peanut. But that amount is big enough to build elementary schools in the country, which from my perspective is the weakest of our educational system.

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Flip Flop on Natuna D-Alpha

In less than one month, government officers made flip-flop and conflicting statements on the status of ExxonMobil & Pertamina's contract to develop the massive gas reserves called Natuna D-Alpha project.

Today, both energy minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and BPMigas chairman Kardaya Warnika stated that the Natuna PSC had been automatically terminated in January 2005. Few weeks ago, both officers stated that give time to Exxon & Pertamina until January 2007. In between, both guys also stated that Exxon may still operate the gas block but with brand new contract.
On the other hand, ExxonMobil which controls 76% shares in Natuna D-Alpha (Pertamina 24%) insisted that the contract is valid until 2009. (FYI, Pertamina initially owned 50% shares in Natuna D-Alpha. But somehow Pertamina divested 26% few years ago, and nobody raised the question, why? I could understand if the divestment is considered a big mistake, especially with the sky-high energy price in recent years)
Anyway, back to the Natuna legal battle, it's clear that both parties have different interpretation of the contract itself. Article II.2.2 of Natuna PSC amended in 1995 stated that if contractors (Exxon & Natuna) failed to come up with clear commitment before January 2005, the contract shall automatically terminated. Exxon claimed that it's letter dated December 2004 to BPMigas confirming the commitment to develop Natuna has been enough to secure the first two year extension, which means until January 2007. Article II.2.3 also stated that if one of the parties (BPMigas or contractor) asking for extension after the first two year of extension to further confirm the project, it's deemed obliged to approve additional second two-year extension (until 2009).
Government claimed that the contract has not been terminated unilaterally, but automatically. It means, government should provide proofs that contractor (Exxon & Pertamina) failed to meet the requirements in the contract. So far, no such proofs available that legally convincing. But Kardaya seems to believe that government is in strong position even if Exxon challenge that in international arbitrary. People that familiar to oil & gas business doubt though. "It's gonna be the next Karaha Bodas," he said.
What if government think that Indonesia managed to postpone hundreds of million dollar fine of Karaha Bodas case? Well, let's read brand new flip-flop statements in the newspaper in the coming weeks or so.
But the first statements, maturity of contract in 2007, has completely different legal consequences, i.e. government acknowledging Exxon's commitment made in December 2004 and the 2-year extension accordingly. Meanwhile if government claim the contract had been terminated automatically in Jan 2005, it has to come up with proofs to support that and probably a stupid question: Why government said before that the contract would mature in Jan 07? Or another stupid question: What's happened in the last two years? Where are all these guys?
I try to take positive leasons out of this. Suppose that gas price stays the same like 5 years ago, nobody would care about Natuna D-Alpha, because it's just too costly to develop. Now that government want to renegotiate for better terms, that's good. But we have to do it right. Some people try to blame Soeharto or BJ Habibie for the contract given to Exxon. Partly true because we always forget to protect ourselves from future ups-and-downs in contracts with smarter guys. Meaning, we have to learn to be smart in negotiations, articles by articles, paragraph by paragraph, and word by word.

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Habibie's Decisive Seconds: Book Excerpts

Former president BJ Habibie's memoir, titled Decisive Seconds, tells us some interesting events about the transition of power from Soeharto, how he kick out general Prabowo---that time Kostrad Commander and still Soeharto's son-in-law, and how Soeharto rejected his appeals to meet, Kompas reported.

"This is an abasement. You fired me as Kostrad Commander?" Lt Gen Prabowo asked. "Not fired, replaced," Habibie replied.
"Why? I want to protect the President."
"That's the task of President's Security Forces with direct responsibility to Military Commander, not your job..."
"What kind of President are you? On behalf of my father's and my father-in-law's name, please give me three more months as Kostrad commander."
"No. Before the sun goes down, all Kostrad forces should be under the new commander."
That was the tense dialog between Prabowo & Habibie on May 22, 1998, less than 24 hours after Habibie sworn in as president.
The dialog was stopped when ret lt general Sintong Panjaitan cut the dialog and said...General, The President has no more time, leave the room...
Earlier that day, 06.10, Habibie called Gen Wiranto and asked him to stay in his position as TNI Commander. Wiranto reported to Habibie the movement of Kostrad forces around the State Palace and Habibie's residence at Patra Kuningan, South Jakarta.
At 07.30, commander general of Special Forces (Kopassus) Maj Gen Muchdi met Habibie with the letter from Gen (Ret) AH Nasution asking Habibie to promote Gen Subagyo HS as TNI Commander and Prabowo as Army's Chief of Staff (KSAD).

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Soeharto: I don't need wheelchair!

Former Indonesian president Suharto, who escaped trial for corruption on health grounds, appeared healthy as he attended the wedding of one of his grandsons. The 85-year-old former president arrived at the At-Tien mosque shortly before the wedding of Danny Bimo Hendra Utomo, the son of his eldest daughter Siti "Tutut" Hardiayanti Rukmana, to actress Lulu Tobing, AFP reported on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Detik.com reported that a wheelchair had been prepared for Soeharto, but he chose to walk instead. This is completely in contrast with the photo published by AFP in 2005.
Well, he needs wheelchair for certain circumstances only!
RELATED ARTICLES:
1) Soeharto & friends: Mea Maxima Culpa

2)Soeharto: I'm alive, hold your obits!

3) Soeharto Inc: Eight Years Later (I)

4) Soeharto Inc: Eight Years Later (II)
5) The End of Soeharto's trial

6) Internet poll: Go ahead with Soeharto's trial

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Habibie's Decisive Seconds

Former president BJ Habibie is about to launch his memoir titled Decisive Seconds: Indonesia's Long Journey to Democracy. The 549-page book is based on Habibie's diary especially during the transition from Soeharto regime in what he called decisive moments that changed the course of the nation.

"Policies that I made have been very important and couldn't be influenced by anybody. If I followed the noises that try to influence the decisions, may be we have a different nation now, could be a socialist Indonesia or Islamic country, not the united Indonesia republic," Habibie explained part of the book.
He promised the book contains facts and significant events he wrote in details about the early days of reform movement in the country.
Habibie raised to power as Indonesia's third president following Soeharto's decision to step down after months of mass and violent protests. Habibie failed to keep his power after lost the first democratic election in 1999 after decades of authoritarian rules of Soekarno & Soeharto.
Wish Habibie, a tecno-minded personality, publish his full diary in a blog. His book would be a good reading though.
Full of energy, I remember Habibie always said (when I cover technology beat in my early years as journalist) that he admired both Soekarno & Soeharto even though that time no minister would openly stated admiration on Soekarno (Soeharto hate that!).
It was Soekarno, the first president and father of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who encouraged him to study in Germany (aerospace) and Soeharto brought him home to be one of his 'golden boy'.
He gained stronger influence on Soeharto's economic policies in early 1990s and credited him for Habibienomics to make a contrast to Widjojonomics (school of liberal economic thoughts) brought in by Prof Widjojo Nitisastro (and his Berkeley Mafia) that ruled the country for many decades.
A colorful personality, a small group of journalist (three of us) used to interview him at his office with desk full of aircraft models. It's difficult to stop him explaining things. He could explain hard-to-digest issues to legislators till 3AM and all of us still love to listen.
But his projects failed to take-off as what he dreamed of. The aircraft industry (IPTN) has been crashed since 1997. We used to make our own version of IPTN as the abbreviation of Industri Penerima Tamu Negara (Industry to Host State Guests) because almost all state guests were arranged to visit the aircraft assembling plant in Bandung, West Java. The shipping industry (PT PAL) also sinked.
But, I think these are not part of the book. And would be more interesting to read the decisive seconds in early days of reform, including how he prevented military coup d'etat.

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Proton in Indonesia: 16 years later

Malaysia's manufactured car Proton driven controversies in early 90s when Soeharto administration awarded tax and duty free for imported Proton cars for taxi purpose to her daughter Siti Hardijanti "Mbak Tutut".

Through president decree no. 57/1993, imported sedan-type cars for taxi purpose were eligible for tax and duty free even though the law no. 7/1983 on tax didn't give any exceptions.
Months before the downfall of his father, Tutut imported 15,000 Proton Saga sedans, reportedly to support the SEA Games. But that's a history already.
Proton had established its own subsidiary called PT Proton Edar International Indonesia. Proton, in an effort to gear itself for a fresh export drive, has secured orders for 3,000 units of its Wira model to be used as taxis in Indonesia, it was announced as reported by Bernama on Sunday.
The taxis will be delivered in batches to several major cities in Indonesia, said Dwi Sasetia, director of PT Proton Edar Internasional Indonesia (PEII), Proton's Indonesian subsidiary.

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Jakarta governor candidates (6): Agum Gumelar

Most of my friends don't believe that Agum Gumelar is the potential winner of Jakarta governor election next year. Yet, Sugeng Sarjadi Syndicate's survey shown the vice president candidate (running mate of Hamzah Haz) in 2004 election as the front runner. Who is he?

Agum Gumelar was born in Tasikmalaya, West Java in December 17, 1945. He spent most of his carreer as military officer, served as the commander of Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) in early 1990s, and retired as three-star general before then president Abdurrahman Wahid appointed the man as minister for transportation. He retained the post during Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration until his resignation to compete against the former boss in 2004 as Hamzah's running mate.
He made controversial decisions as telecommunication minister with 3G licenses awarded to Lippo Telecom (a subsidiary of Lippo Group). Oops, in April, shareholders of PT Lippo Karawaci Tbk, the largest listed property company owned by Lippo Group, appointed Agum as the commissioner.
Agum had registered to run the governorship under Megawati's PDI-P banner. He would compete with civilian figures, Faisal Basri and Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, who also had registered to be PDI-P's candidates.
"If Agum could win the candidacy at PDI-P Jakarta Chapter's conference, he has the chance to win the governorship as he is perceived as a decisive military figure and pro-pluralism," a political analyst-friend said.
Agum is a popular figure thanks to his position as chairman of the National Sport Committee (KONI) despite poor performance of Indonesian sports. A big fan of football, he has been a regular TV commentator for major tournaments like World Cup or Champions League.
Father of two (Khaseli & Ami) from his marriage to Linda Amaliasari (daughter of former Soeharto-era tourism and telecommunication minister Achmad Tahir), Agum earned master degree in science (what science?) from American University (anybody knows the exact location of this university?). Agum is classmate of the current Jakarta governor Sutiyoso at military academy.
His daughter Ami married to badminton champion Taufik Hidayat, the most popular athlete in Indonesia. Smash!

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Special Economic Zones: From KAPET to KEKI

We love abbreviations. During the last years of Soeharto regime, we knew KAPET (Kawasan Ekonomi Terpadu) or Integrated Economic Zone. Now, we have another name, Kawasan Ekonomi Khusus Indonesia (KEKI) or Special Economic Zones. Would it make any difference in attracting investment?

Soeharto administration had established 13 KAPETs with beautiful names. They are Bandar Aceh Darussalam (Aceh), Khatulistiwa (West Kalimantan), Sasamba (East Kalimantan), Batulicin (South Kalimantan), DAS Kakab (Central Kalimantan), Manado Bitung (North Sulawesi), Bukari (South East Sulawesi), Parepare (South Sulawesi), Bima (West Nusa Tenggara), Mbay (East Nusa Tenggara), Seram (Maluku), and Biak (Papua).
Government even established a website dedicated to promote KAPETs at www.kapet.org. As far as I remember, many times Soeharto regime and then followed by BJ Habibie administration, promised to give incentives to those who want to invest in KAPETs. I checked the organization's website on the incentive topic, unfortunately I found no information. Then I tried to click 'government support', similar results, big zero.
That's probably the reason why I never read news about major investment in these KAPETs in the last few years.
Early this year, government promised to revitalize KAPETs, and as usual, claimed to review the possibility to give fiscal incentives on top of custom and import duty incentives available at the moment. That's the latest until all of a sudden everybody switches the gear to KEKI with the same-old-promises.
The only difference is that KEKI could be everywhere, open for initiative from local or regional administrations as long as they could meet the 12 requirements (to be drafted, no details yet). That's why Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso entered the KEKI game today saying his administration is ready to have Jakarta as one of the KEKIs, following other areas like Batam, Bintan & Karium in Riau Island Province.
Well, I could only hope that this time government really deliver its promises. I can't stand to have another name a decade later with empty promises again. We really need investment to create more jobs and improve our people's quality of life.

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Former marine commander explore coal in Papua

PT Asoka Abadi is exploring coal mining in Horna, Bintuni Bay Regency, Papua. Who own the company?

ANTARA news agency quoted Markus Sraun, officer at Bintuni Bay Regency, saying ret Lt Gen (Mar) Suharto is the president director of Asoka. No information on who is the owner of Asoka. Suharto was the marine commander during Soeharto regime.

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Biofuel dream could be a nightmare

A cabinet meeting chaired by president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono decided to accelerate the development of biofuel with ambitious target at 10% of national consumption by 2010, five years ahead of the previous plan. Jatropha is apparently at the center of this plan. Without detail plans, the dream could be the nightmare for everybody. Why?

It's just over simplification if you say that our cars could use biodiesel/biofuel derived from jatropha curcas (castor oil) that could be produced by everybody. It's easy to say that all households could grow jatropha in their fences. It's also easy to claim that Indonesia has 50 million hectares of critical/infertile land that fit for jatropha. But when it comes to implementation, it could be a mess if government failed to establish a good logistic and trading system. It's workable like the way cigarette producers collect cloves from farmers through traders. But can we make sure that government will not repeat the 'monopoly' once implemented by Soeharto regime when his son and cooperatives controlled the clove collection?
It's perfectly OK for government to claim that 50 million people could get job out of jatropha curcas to biodiesel. But how many times government launched grandiose programs like the failed one-million-hectare-plantation?
Besides, there are lots of technical issues that deserved serious attention, especially to prevent government officers keep misleading public at large. One minister once claimed that building biodiesel plants is like soybean cake plants (pabrik tahu). Is it?
Well, it's nonsense. Technically, all oils contains what chemist called free fatty acid (FFA), a corrosive substance. Maximum FFA content allowed is 0.05%. Imagine that crude palm oil (CPO) has 5% FFA. So, there is no way that jatropha as B10 could be used as is. The B10 should be converted to methyl esters (B20-B80). The so-called-biodisel at pabrik tahu-scale could only act as crushing plants stationed in some areas. Their products should be processed further at high-technology-high-investment-scale plants to reduce the FFA to the allowed level. The same applies to biofuel derived from CPO.
Now. Even though many people could invest in methyl ester plants, they have to deal with two side products, dangerous ones, crude glycerine and methanol/water mix. Some of us may say...just leave the side products like what India does. But at the scale of 10% of national consumption, production of biodiesel could seriously harm our environment. We're talking about millions of tones of side products.
Let's say that we care about environment so we need to solve the side products. That would add investment cost by up to 20% and will eventually raise the biodiesel price at gas stations level.
And even so, investors are in difficult position to get the right technology. Not many biofuel technology could give the best standard on biofuel and the handling of two dangerous side products (crude glycerine and methanol).
"One of the technology supplier has overload projects in hands. That's why we can't expect many biodiesel projects in Indonesia could be materialized in two or three years time," one industry player said.
Another critical issue is pricing and the freedom to export. Most investors are entering the business because of high margin booked by existing biodiesel producers. The average price of biodiesel in industrialized countries are US$800/MT, equals to USD0.72/L or Rp6,500/L, almost the same with fossil fuel price. But the price is based on CPO price of USD420/ton. What if CPO price goes up to USD600? Can we afford to sell it in domestic market? Can we guarantee that these investors have the freedom to export their biodiesel and will not be banned like on-off-export ban on CPO?
And till all the above questions answered correctly, it's better for government officers to do their homework more seriously than trumpetting misleading statements!
READ MY PREVIOUS POSTS:
1) Biofuel politiconomics
2) Biodiesel projects mushroomed in Indonesia

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ANTV acquires LaTV, TransTV buy TV7

In the latest move of broadcasting moguls, ANTV (partly owned by Ruppert Murdoch, controlled by Bakrie family) is reportedly acquiring majority stakes of debt-ridden LaTV (owned by Abdul Latief, former minister under Soeharto regime).

Meanwhile, Koran Tempo reported last week that TransTV (owned by Chairul Tanjung, Para Group) was in talk with TV7 owner Jacob Oetama (controlling shareholder of Kompas, the largest newspaper in Indonesia) for a possible acquisition.
If all these plans will materialize, Indonesia's TV industry will be more concentrated in several hands. Bimantara Citra (partly owned by Soeharto-linked families and groups) is currently own three TV stations (RCTI, TPI & Global TV).
Other TV stations are owned by Surya Paloh (Metro TV, Media Indonesia group), Mahaka (JakTV), some groups inc Soeharto family (SCTV) and Salim (Indosiar).

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Jakarta Governor Candidates: Sarwono Kusumaatmadja (3)

Senior politician Sarwono Kusumaatmadja might be the oldest candidate to run in next year's Jakarta governor election. But he has immense of energy and lots of affections to be one of the strongest contenders.

Born in Jakarta, July 24, 1943, Sarwono graduated from the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1974. Served as minister for environmental affairs and state apparatus during Soeharto regime and maritime-fishery affairs minister during Abdurrahman Wahid's administration, Sarwono is known as Mr Clean and Mr Simple for his modest lifestyle.
He won one of five seats of Jakarta's representative at Regional Representative Council (DPD) in 2004 with second biggest voters (10%) behind businesswoman Mooryati Soedibyo. I will not do profiling on him or his views on things because you can easily access his personal web at www.sarwono.net.
He had registered as governor candidate under PDI-P banner along with noted economist Faisal Basri and forver VP candidate Agum Gumelar. Sarwono was once the secretary general of Golkar during Soeharto years.
Despite his 'bad habit' as heavy smoker (like me), Sarwono has close relationship with grassroot movements and the poorest in the city. Like Basri, he is a pluralist campaigner and has good relationship with non-Moslem society. Do you think Sarwono could win?

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Telkom management reshuffle

Government as the largest shareholder will likely to reshuffle the management of PT Telkom Tbk, the largest company at Jakarta Stock Exchange by market capitalization, at the meeting scheduled June 30, Antara news agency reported today.

Muhammad Said Didu, secretary of the ministry of state-owned enterprises (MSOEs), said besides the replacement of BOD and BOC, number of directors would also be added three to make it 10.
The reshuffle has also something to do with the prosecution of two members of BOD in a VoIP scandal that led to corruption charges. But others simply on political reasons.
Antara quoted parliament member Syafrin Romas (National Awakening Party/PKB) saying he heard of the plan to oust Arwin Rasyid and Tanri Abeng, both president of BOD and BOC at Telkom. Arwin was appointed Telkom CEO in a shareholders meeting June 2005 along with other BOD members such as Garuda Sugardo (deputy president), Rinaldi Firmansyah (finance), Abdul Haris Matondang (infrastructure & network), Aris Yahya (corporate and wholesale), Guntur Siregar (consumer), and John Welly (human resources and development). Police detained Welly early this year on VoIP scandal. Siregar has been named a suspect in the case as well.
In the last few weeks, some groups have been bussy to launch maneuvers to reshuffle Telkom's management. Some political parties are reportedly not happy with the current officers and working hard to install their guys at the company including to push additional positions at directorship level.
Telkom's Workers Union had warned shareholders not to lift the risk management to director level as that would only add bureaucracy in the company. But political parties love the idea so they could share the directorships between them.
Seminars have been conducted in the last few weeks to pressure government to reshuffle Telkom management, including Arwin, an outsider at the company. (Arwin, a banker, was president director of Bank Danamon and vice president of BNI---the state owned bank).
Appointment of BOD and BOC at SOEs have always been subject to political pressures. During Soeharto years, it's he himself who appoint the BOD/BOC and the appointees only need to loyal to him. But 1998 reform has changed the political landscape in the country with nobody has clear power in hands and as a result they share the positions in SOEs as part of political calculations and games. And to maintain a position in the BOD/BOC, people have to have loyalty to some powerbrokers.
So, who will be the new CEO at Telkom? Some mentioned Garuda Sugardo and Abdul Haris Matondang. "People close to the State Place wanted Garuda to replace Arwin, while Arwin will be appointed Indosat CEO after Hasnul resigned this month," people close to the issue said. Garuda is reportedly close to president SBY's inner circle.
How about BOC?
The current Telkom BOC is consisted of Tanri Abeng (Chairman), Anggito Abimanyu (government economist), Gatot Trihargo, P. Sartono, and Arif Arryman (economist from Econit).
Tanri is a close friend to Vice President Jusuf Kalla and coordinating minister for people's welfare Aburizal Bakrie. Tanri has been named a suspect in a corruption case but managed to maintain his position at the company. No names tipped so far, but we'll know in the next few days.

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Titiek Soeharto off the screen tonight! Sugiharto surrendered!

Good news for those who protested to SCTV for having Titiek Soeharto (daughter of former president Soeharto) as the prime-time presenter for World Cup 2006 games. As reported by Detik.com few minutes ago, SCTV confirmed that Titiek will be off the screen tonight amid protest from spectators.

SCTV didn't confirm on a possible permanent off-the-screen of the former wife of general (ret) Prabowo Subianto. Detik.com did survey on dotcommers and the result is 85% football fans want Titiek completely out of the program. They feel annoyed with Titiek's sub-standard performance.
Meanwhile, this is completely nothing to do with Titiek politics and economics, state-owned enterprises minister Sugiharto finally lift his hands up on Cemex's plan to sell its 25.5% shares at PT Semen Gresik Tbk to Rajawali Corporation.
This is a good news for Rajawali and Cemex. I tried to tell football mania and asking their comments and they said: Who cares? Well, but Lin Che Wei (president director of Danareksa) wrote in Kompas today that with the decision of Cemex, one of the bridges to foreign investors is collapsed. "Really?", an annoyed journalist said. "Anyway, can FIFA move forward the Italy vs Ghana to, let say, 8 PM Indonesia Time?," he asked. "No, because it will make SCTV cancel their decision and Titiek will be on screen if FIFA do that."

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Football: Soeharto scored the goal

I'm a big fan of football ever since I was a kid. I remember when I was at junior high school far away in Flores Island watching the first World Cup final between Germany and Italy back in 1982. Without TV network, we watch the game months after the event, thanks to a priest who got the record from his colleagues in Europe. It was fun and I still remember sweet moments for Italy when they scored three goals against Germany. As a kid, no idea about the other aspects of the game, politic & economy.


Four years later, when I moved to Bogor, I watched almost all the games during 1986 World Cup from TVRI, the state-owned TV network. Along with the establishment of new channels, people have options to watch the games they really want in different TV stations. But those days are over. Now we have to wacth SCTV---owned by listed company PT Surya Citra Media Tbk (last year the company booked net profit of Rp180 billion) no matter how expensive you're paying for cable networks.
For the first time, this year, I thought things getting better with my new cable network. But I'm dead wrong. I have to shut down the cable and back to the traditional network to watch the games as SCTV, the holder of 2006 World Cup broadcasting right, managed to get the monopoly. I believe many cable subscribers upset with the way cable providers tackling the issue. They should have arranged that well before the event, at least try to serve its subscribers well. For a football fan like me, I pay for nothing to a cable provider during the World Cup as I switched the program to my old-time UHF.
Cable subscribers, luckyly, are not alone as viewers fired criticism toward SCTV for its failure to air the opening ceremony. SCTV argued the opening ceremony has been in different package of the contract. Well, money talks. I just can't imagine if the holder of the right is not a traditional network like SCTV, but a cable TV operator. With less than 1 million cable subscribers, their homes could be targetted by angry football fans around the country.
What's interesting is SCTV hired Titiek Soeharto (yeah, Soeharto's daughter) as presenter for the games. As you may noticed, she called herself as Titiek Soeharto, not Titiek Prabowo (he was retired general Prabowo's wife). Why SCTV appointed her and not the other gals? Well, she owns some shares through PT Abhitama Mediatama (a company that controls majority shares in SCTV).
But is it something to do with her political moves recently to rehabilitate his father's name? Whatever, that's a bold move.
Imagine that most football spectators are watching her every night on the screen and she could be perceived as a totally different personality, a big fan like us. A good PR for Soeharto indirectly. It's just like she's telling people that...my father is OK, he's watching the games at home like us, I'm here at your (viewers) disposal and forget about my father's trial, let's rock, and GOAL!!!!!!!

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The Fight for License to Squeeze

In early 1990s, Indonesia's investment coordinating board (BKPM) offered a program called One Stop Service to shorten lengthy bureaucrazy in processing business licenses. The idea was to make everything easy for investor when they want to start business here.

Bold idea actually. Imagine that as an investor you have to deal with hundreds of government institutions right from the cabinet to a village chief (kepala desa) before you could really put in the money. And along the way, most of the time, you have to spend huge amount of money to get these licenses. Land and building construction license, license to employ expatriates, to tap underground water, electricity, telephone line, noise license, etc. The One Stop Service was a mere dream. None of these various institutions want to give away their authority to give licenses because that's the main source of income for the low-paid state officers.
People thougt political reform could change that. In fact, after the downfall of Soeharto, the idea of One Stop Service for investors at BPKM have been repeatedly discussed. But Big Zero!
That's also the case with the management of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Soeharto gave authority to different ministries depend on what business the SOE involved in. So all the state-owned plantation companies were under the ministry of agriculture, telcos under the transportation and telecommunication ministry, and so forth.
But then Habibie established a new ministry of SOE to manage all these SOEs.
To be continued...

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Mafia Barkeley vs Berkeley Mafia

A political scientist from the University of Indonesia named Syamsul Hadi Phd (not PhD) wrote an op-ed published in the front page of Investor Daily today under the title, Setelah Kegagalan 'Mafia Barkeley' which literally means After the Failure of 'Mafia Barkeley'. I'm not going to discuss the content of the article which is just too easy to guess. I'm more inclined to do some words interpretations.

Dr Syamsul Hadi wrote in the article about the definition of Mafia Barkeley as technocrates graduated from the University of California, Barkeley. I'm not sure where is the university's location, as the one I know, simply because I studied there, is the University of California, Berkeley located in Berkeley, just few miles away from the romantic city of San Francisco.
I'm not sure whether it's just a gramatical error on Hadi's side or the editors at Investor Daily. Or Hadi really mean Barkeley, a different university and location of UC Berkeley. But if he want to say UC Berkeley, Hadi should be ashamed of. How come a PhD can't even spell Berkeley? Without that we have two terms, Mafia Barkeley and Berkeley Mafia. The first term is for those economists or political scientists who don't know where and what is UC Berkeley and the Berkeley city. The second is for those UC Berkeley alumni who led the economic team of early years of Soeharto regime.
There are few things that deserved comments though.
In the article Hadi mentioned professor Mohammad Sadli as a member of Mafia Barkeley. As an alumni, it's an honor to have Sadli, graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a member of the Mafia Barkeley, not Berkeley. Even if Berkeley is what Hadi wanted to say, it's sad for MIT guys to have one of their alumni as a member of Berkeley Mafia, right?
Hadi also stated that economists who had been brain-washed at Barkeley (not Berkeley) with neo-liberal school of thoughts are still holding key positions in economic decision making. I'm sure he is right. None of UC Berkeley alumni in the cabinet, except the minister of defense Juwono Sudarsono (he earned master degree from UC Berkeley). Dr Boediono, the captain of the economic team is Wharton School alumni, Dr Mari Elka Pangestu (trade minister, UC Davis), Dr Sri Mulyani Indrawati(finance, Illinois), Purnomo Yusgiantoro (energy, Colorado School of Mining), Sofyan Djalil (Info-comm, Tufts), etc. We have also Dr Sjahrir as the president's economic advisor (Harvard Alumni).
So, Hadi is right, Mafia Barkeley is currently at play, not Berkeley Mafia anymore.
I bet the Mafia Barkeley is a brand new group of technocrats, including Hadi himself, for their misunderstanding of the right word, Berkeley!

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PDI-P: The lonely and powerless opposition

The humiliating defeat of anti-ExxonMobil movement in the House of Representatives have obviously confirmed PDI-P, the second largest party led by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, as the lonely and powerless opposition to government's policies. The party's legislators felt betrayed by other parties, especially the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) and National Mandate Party (PAN).

Commenting on the defeat in Tuesday's voting (83 support the anti-Exxon, 257 against it), Taufik Kiemas, senior PDI-P politician and the husband of Megawati, said nothing the party could do except to face the reality that it lost the battle. "We can't win forever," he said. The problem, PDI-P has never won any battle since Megawati lost the presidential race in 2004 and proclaimed as an opposition party. In fact, the party lost almost all battles, including on fuel price hike late last year and rice import policy early this year.
Worse, the party, over and over, has been 'used' by other parties to leverage public image. The latest move to investigate government's policy awarding ExxonMobil the right to operate the giant Cepu oil and gas field was initially supported by PKS and PAN. Even some Golkar legislators (the largest party in the House) and from other parties such as PKB and PPP were among the supporters of the initiative.
But when it comes to final decision, the voting, it's clear that PDI-P was left alone. The party was the only solid force to endorse the investigation. PKS zero, PPP zero, PDS zero, Golkar zero,and PKB zero. PDI did get additional votes from PAN. But with 9 support and 20 against the initiative, it's a sad reality for PAN itself because Amien Rais (former chairman of PAN and former Assembly Speaker) is the key figure outside the parliament building who campaigned the anti-ExxonMobil movement. Besides PAN legislators such as Drajad Wibowo and Tjatur Sapto Edi were the most quoted spokespersons of the anti-ExxonMobil movement. These guys, including Amien, even failed to convince their colleagues in the party. How could they expect to convince people outside the party?
Compared to the voting on rice import policy where PDI-P got full support from PKS, in the anti-ExxonMovement PDI-P is lonely and powerless.
In such a situation, government should have been decisive enough in implementing policies. The problem, the current administration scored only few important decisions and pending most just because it care too much about the public image. That's the difference. A rubber-stamp legislative, just like during Soeharto years, is not a guarantee that we have a strong and decisive executive. It's depend on who's the man behind the gun!

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