Election witness fees

The political parties (parpol) are drooling at the mouth at the prospect of siphoning off billions of rupiah for their electoral campaigns after a controversial decision by the government to allocate 1.5 trillion rupiah (US$123 million) towards election witness fees (dana saksi) for the April 9 legislative elections.

Kompas - January 29, 2014

Jockeying for Advantage

Text reads: Presidential Candidate (Golkar's Aburizal Bakrie), Politician, Legislative Candidate, Politics (President Yudhoyono)

The political elite, most of whom are absorbed with jockeying for political advantage in the lead up the legislative and presidential elections, appear oblivious to the plight of tens of thousands of people around the country displaced by some of the worst flooding Indonesia has seen in years.

Kompas - January 25, 2014

Lost Lives

According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency a total of 5,650 or an average of 514 people per year lost their lives due to disasters such as flooding and landslides from 2003 to 2013. The agency noted that forest cover had dropped from 49.4% in 2008 to 47.7% in 2012 and 68 watershed areas in the country are in critical condition due to high forest degradation primarily caused by widespread illegal logging and the clearing of forests for housing and industrial use.

Kompas - January 24, 2014

Off to a party meeting

1st Man: He's coming here to inspect the situation yeah?

2nd Man: No fool, he's off to a party meeting

With thousands displaced by flooding in Jakarta and Manado and a volcanic eruption in North Sumatra, President Yudhoyono has come under fire for focusing on Democrat Party business instead of coordinating desperately needed relief efforts. On Sunday Yudhoyono jetted off to Bali and on Friday he will hold a party meeting in Medan, near the area affected by the Mt. Sinabung eruption.

Kompas - January 22, 2014

Image building

Kid: There's an awful smell of image building in the air Dad...

Man: Is Pertamina or the people loosing money... and who's profiting?

The tug-of-war over state oil and gas company Pertamina's controversial decision to increase the price of 12-kg LPG cylinders is believed to be part of a clumsy ploy by the Democrat Party to revive the reputation of President Yudhoyono's preferred presidential candidate and father-in-law retired General Pramono Eddhie Wibowo and portray the party as siding with and sensitive to the people's needs.

Kompas - January 11, 2014

Vying for nominations

With many senior government officials vying with each other to be nominated by the major political parties as presidential candidates (Capres) and more than 90% of lawmakers running as legislative candidates (Caleg) in the April general elections, the political elite have all but abandoned the pretence of trying to run the country.

Kompas - January 8, 2014