True colours

Man: Now we see their true spots (colours)...

The arrest of party chairperson and lawmaker Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq in the beef import bribe scandal has confirmed what many already suspected, that the Islamic-based Justice and Prosperity Party, which has long touted itself as clean and free from graft and claims the arrest is part of a 'Zionist plot', is just as rotten and morally bankrupt as all the other political parties in the country.

Kompas - February 6, 2013

The waters to blame

Kid: Every dry season the floods get forgotten, before there was talk about overcoming the floods, but it was just 'will', only now that Jakarta's flooded, its all 'will-will-will' again. So who's to blame Dad? The government?

Man: No! The water! Stupid!

Almost as predictable as the floods that hit Jakarta every wet season – which are invariably blamed on extreme rainfall – is the discourse that follows about flood mitigation, which just as predictably soon gets forgotten until the city floods again.

Kompas - January 26, 2013

Where to this Jakarta?

Man: Where to this Jakarta?

The massive floods that hit Jakarta last week claiming at least 17 lives and displacing thousands from their homes has rekindled debate about relocating the capital to undeveloped Central Kalimantan. Although dismissed as a 'utopian' pipedream, some commentators have joked that the political elite currently running the country are so utterly incompetent, the further away they are from everyone else the better it would be for the rest of us.

Kompas - January 22, 2013

Rape judge

Sanusi: Rape? They might enjoy it right?

Man: It seems we all enjoy opening pornographic websites right Mr...

Supreme Court candidate judge Muhammad Daming Sanusi has sparked public outrage after suggesting women may enjoy being raped. He made the remark before a parliamentary selection panel when asked if the death penalty was a suitable punishment for rape. Panel members laughed at his comments, which drew immediate condemnation from rights groups and on social media.

Kompas - January 19, 2013

Moral shortcuts

Educators say that the government's insistence on emphasising religious studies and citizenship education at the expense of science, social studies and English in the new elementary school curriculum – supposedly to create honest and moral students – shows how little value is placed on critical thinking and is just another example of the tendency to look for moral shortcuts to solve the country's social problems.

Kompas - January 18, 2013