G-20 Is a Step in the Right Direction, But It’s Not the Final Destination 16-Dec-09 09:39 The global economic crisis, which followed the deregulation and liberalization fest of the 1980s and ’90s, led to repeated calls for the reaffirmation of leadership and authority in global economic policy making. During a downturn, there is widespread expectation that governments or international institutions will act decisively. To appear to do nothing in such circumstances is potentially damaging politically and economically for authorities engaged in managing such crises. ...more ›

	Civic Responsibility Is Often Trampled In the Rush to Secure Our Rights 19-Nov-09 12:08 Fervent democracy-wallahs in Indonesia are falling over themselves in their rush to trumpet the primacy of human rights. And who can blame them given how recently Indonesians discovered that human rights were theirs for the taking....more ›

	In the Battle Against Corruption, It’s Time to Address the Bigger Picture 04-Nov-09 15:47 First there was the economic Tsunami of the recent global economic crisis. Indonesia seems to have skirted around its worst excesses. There were the impressively peaceful legislative and presidential elections. Indonesia produced a major shift in party alliances. It also gave a landslide victory to its incumbent president. This was all good news. For a while it even seemed that the president’s high-profile antigraft campaign had a serious chance of success. But the humiliating decapitation of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), a major invention of the last government, has left the public reeling in disbelief. ...more ›

	Making Sense of the New Cabinet: It’s Not Just Politicians vs. Professionals 30-Oct-09 16:02 Pundits and savants love to classify things. This is one way to bring order out of chaos. But they do often get it wrong. Something of the kind is beginning to happen in the endless commentary about President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s second cabinet. The fact that the naming of the cabinet follows a selection procedure more reminiscent of a football team than of a group whose decisions will affect every man, woman and child in this archipelago only adds to the theater of presidential appointments. ...more ›

	Is Indonesia prone to violent conflict? (Part 2 of 2) 26-Oct-09 09:08 Monday, October 26, 2009 9:04 AM Be a member & get the benefits! Register or login Is Indonesia prone to violent conflict? (Part 2 of 2) Satish Mishra , Jakarta | Sat, 10/24/2009 11:38 AM | Opinion Indonesia both immediately before independence and for much of the period afterwards has been a violent place. The incidence, scale, duration and the repetition of conflict in this enormous archipelago of over 13,500 islands would suggest that country is driven to social violence. Escalation of bloody conflict in May 1998 seemed to bear out this impression. Such a conclusion is tempting but false. It is time to put the Indonesian record in perspective. ...more ›

	In Charting Future, Indonesia and India Have Reason to Dig Up Past 26-Oct-09 09:00 The idea that Indonesia could stand to learn a few things from India inevitably brings out the skeptics. Is there really that much us to learn from yet another Third World, poverty-stricken, overpopulated, argumentative, other-worldly, federal, chaotic democracy? What happened to our lofty ambitions of building airplanes and cars, of constructing multilevel highways and gleaming skyscrapers, of moving to the front row of the Flying Geese borne aloft by the latest in the world’s best technology? Has it really come to this? Do we really have to learn from India?...more ›

	A nation in transition: Are we prone to violent conflict? (Part 1 of 2) 26-Oct-09 08:56 Peaceful elections, a recovering economy, membership of the G20 have made us all rather cheerful about the Indonesian future. Of course the happenings at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaves a bad taste in some mouths but seen in the overall scheme of things there is much to be self congratulatory about. Central to this renewed sense of self confidence is the way in which peace seems to have broken out in almost every part of the archipelago. Indonesia seems to be undergoing a period of remarkable calm with respect to the incidence and brutality of violent social conflict. ...more ›

	Ignored Questions of Inequality Lurk In the Shadows of a Growing Economy 16-Oct-09 08:27 One would imagine that for a country with more than 13,500 islands and spanning an area the size of the United States, in which a single island contains nearly two-thirds of the population and a single megacity dwarfs every other urban center, the distribution of income would be somewhere at the top of the public policy agenda. But one good look at our case in Indonesia and you would be forced to think again....more ›

	Indonesia's First Hundred Day Syndrome (Part 2 of 2) 12-Oct-09 14:49 Looking beyond the myopia of the first 100 days is a marvelous experience. It reveals a world that media tycoons and political adventurers never really see. This is a world in which most of the citizens of Indonesia live and work. It is a world inhabited by a constant struggle for survival. It is a world in which, as if by some cruel sleight of hand, an autocracy is being transformed into a plutocracy by democratic means. ...more ›

	Indonesia's First Hundred Day Syndrome (Part 1 of 2) 09-Oct-09 10:54 In case you did not realize there is less than a month to go for the inauguration of a new President. It will also be the end of the busy season for those asked to prepare the first hundred days program following the President’s inauguration. Such programs are all in the vogue these days. They typically contain a roster of policies, laws and targets for those exciting first hundred days, when a popular President can promise and dazzle, cajole, push and flatter to deliver critical landmark steps promised during the election campaign. ...more ›

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