From the 1986-2006 cohort of students who entered first year of primary school in 1986: 27% did not finish primary school; 55.8% did not finish junior high school; 75.5 did not finish senior high school. (ESR, World Bank, 2007) Only 7 % of student who finished school came from the poorest 20% of the population. […]
INDONESIA: The President has dismissed the head of the national police
Why has President Yudhoyono not dismissed the head of the Indonesian national police as a response to the scandal the confrontation, or turf war, between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission? Why has no leader of any parliamentary party a clear and strong call for such a dismissal? Perhaps they all remember what happened […]
INDONESIA: Documentary review: “Tjidurian 19”.
Tjidurian 19, directed by Lasja Susatyo and M. Anduh Aziz, screned Jakarta, November 17, 2009 This film is about some of the people who were leading writers and artists in the Peoples Cultural Institute (LEKRA) in the 1960s. LEKRA was aligned with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and like the PKI was banned after 1965. […]
INDONESIA: Parliament represents less than half the people
“The number of voters represented by the nine political parties that obtained seats in the national House of Representatives (DPR) following the 2009 legislative elections is less that who are not represented.” Kompas, November 13, 2009 James Balowski from the APSN website has translated and circulated the following KOMPAS newspaper article. For more background to […]
Film Review: 2012
Judging from the news coming in from the US box office, this film will make a lot of money for its investors. Such is the irrationality of contemporary society. As a commodity to be marketed, of course, it has everything you need. The main thing though is the promise that you will see the biggest ever […]
Review: Refugees and Rebels: Indonesian Exiles in Wartime Australia, by Jan Lingard
Refugees and Rebels: Indonesian Exiles in Wartime Australia, by Jan Lingard (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008) Jan Lingard’s book, Refugees and Rebels – Indonesian Exiles in Wartime Australia is a humane, interesting, informative and readable book. Every person interested in the history of the Australian and/or Indonesian people should read this book. It should be on the reading lists […]
THE PHILIPPINES: “Seconds lost in Manila, 4 July, 1987”
15 October, 2007 It was a less than ordinary building on an ordinary road, an unattractive street despite the trees that lined it. Yes, it was an unattractive avenue adorned with buildings constructed on the cheap and for function only. Cables and wires of all kinds were strung from pole to pole, and building to building, […]
REVIEW MUSINGS: Analysing “Poor Peoples’ Movements”
Indonesian politics and Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail by Francis Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward.
INDONESIA: Crisis and engagement – a reflection
AUSTRALIA: “Labor stirs anti-refugee hysteria”
Kerry Vernon has written a new article on the current mistreatment of people trying to reach Australiaby boat via Indonesia hoping to apply for residence in Australia as refugees. She starts by saying: “Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, diverted from entering Australia and put on the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking, had been refusing food […]
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