Comments

  1. Ian WIlson says:

    Thanks Kunderemp, glad you enjoyed it.

  2. Alinda says:

    Nice report, mas Alex Arifianto. But I found different cases when my husband and I engage in IMM members at Muhammadiyah Univ. of Surabaya, Malang, and Yogyakarta. They did not support/engage in Probowo-Hatta campaign and even criticize Prabowo’s track records. Also, there are some discussion communities within IMM, especially in Yogyakarta, that tend to follow Buya Ahmad Syafi’i Maarif: support Jokowi-JK. Sometimes, taking data from others–without self engagement–leads us to simplify complex reality.

  3. David Blake says:

    “Is the widespread believe in that ancient Buddhist prophesy – i.e. that a highly esteemed and revered dynasty would be nine times lucky, and the last a great one – mere “fantasy” ?”

    Pray tell me more about this “ancient Buddhist prophesy” – am intrigued, as it seems to have slipped me by during my years in the kingdom.

  4. qbl says:

    Muhammdiyah itself as an organization remains neutral. It’s funny that you spend so many paragraphs trying to make sense why Muhammadiyah’s youth turn to Prabowo. It’s actually dead simple: Wimar’s post calling Muhammadiyah “rouge” that went viral in social media. At least for me personally, as one of young Muhammadiyah member, it gave a clear message that it is the likes of Wimar that actually represents “Jokowi’s side”. Thus, I picked the other candidate’s side.

  5. Angrymagpie says:

    Silly university students confusing Prabowo with very devout Muslims.

    “I choose Prabowo as President because he is decisive and a very devout Muslim.”

  6. Hang Tuah says:

    I think you mean:

    “Malaysia, Truly Aphasia”

  7. neptunian says:

    If you think there is no intellectual discourse now, just wait. The Govt is slowly moving towards the Taliban model, then we will truly be bankrupt intellectually – The “Malaysia, Truly Asia” tagline will be changed to “Malaysia Truly Intellectually Bankrupt”

  8. Hang Tuah says:

    Let me hazard a guess. Repressed anger at not being very good at hijacking airplanes, firing missiles, beheading men, stoning women and
    forcibly converting non-Buddhists. Just a guess.

  9. Inaya Rakhmani says:

    That is exactly the point I wanted to make. Public participation can and should be able to support KPU, Bawaslu, and even others beyond the elections.

    What the movement basically did was push for transparency. And this is really needed considering former head of the Supreme Audit Institution (BPK) has been charged for corruption, the former head of the Supreme Court convicted, and even the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

    Inaya

  10. Hang Tuah says:

    Malaysia is a dialogue-absent nation and an intellectually-impoverished society. When Kassim Ahmad dies, it will become an intellectually-bankrupt country.

  11. nakal says:

    Indonesians always complain about Malaysia (and vice-versa). It makes for great electoral scapegoating. In the same breath, the Islamists will say, “We are all MALAYS”, but when it comes to regional competition, suddenly Javanese aren’t so Malay, after all. Islamic Caliphates look “great” on paper, like Marxism, but actual implementation, well that’s a whole other ball game. PM Erdogan, in Turkey not only proved that Islam can be politicized, he proved in Turkey that it must be. It has been in Malaysia, for 30 years, and as Indonesia has had Islamic Parties, as long as I have hated durian, there should hardly be any surprise that Islam, and the Ulama, are as corrupt in Indonesia, as they are in Malaysia, Turkey, and in fact, in every Islamic nation, none of which can quite claim to be true democracies yet (no, Indonesia is not one, yet).

  12. zayyar says:

    The muslim folks have indeed been taken hostage by the hidden hands with hidden agenda. Periodicals in Burma allude to these hidden hands metaphorically lest their reporters are put behind bars. The common consensus is that the military stooges with their newly-acquired IT capabilities and old cloak-and-dagger methods are the culprits behind most disturbances.

    To have a clear-eyed view of the present intractable issue, first of all we need to peel our eyes and have a closer look. The disturbances have mostly been charaterised as being racial and religious. That is the way the instigators want to make them appear. If one sees only angry mobs venting their fury for religious and racial reasons, you see very superficially. Politicians waiting to engage in mudslinging are around every corner to exploit the disturbances. Unfortunately, in present Burma, the past Kyant Phoots (political organisation of the ruling party) with their wily and cunning ways have morphed into something even more insidious albeit with attires and portfolio giving them an air of respectability wearing grand and sparkling garbs used for attending endless ceremonial occasions which in fact are devoid of essence because benefits have yet to trickle down to the common people.
    People have been waiting patiently for positive changes. Rather than being rewarded with a millionth of the wealth accumulated by the regimes past and present, they are once more inflicted with sufferings.

    We are looking forward to the day when ruthless, unscrupulous, power hungry people stop using race and religion cards to stay in power. Unless observers take this factor into account, there will always be gaping holes in their arguments.

  13. Kunderemp says:

    “Kawal Pemilu is an organic online social movement, and is indeed effectively pushing for more transparency in the vote recapitulation process. However, the very nature of organic movements is that they are not always well-organised enough to leave a lasting and deep political impact.”

    Because it doesn’t need to have political impact. It need to be objective as it should be and help Indonesians understand the data which have actually already opened by KPU itself.

    Kawal Pemilu volunteers however, have found a lot of irregularities based on C1 scans 1 and the result of recapitulation and they had reported most of them to both Bawaslu and KPU.

    And we had some responses from KPU for those reports, for example, Siak – NTT case where some votes were included into the other side and made those calculation invalid.

  14. Ken Ward says:

    One thing SBY cannot be blamed for is not standing up to Malaysia over Ligitan and Sipadan. Indonesia and Malaysia submitted the dispute to the ICJ in 1998 when Habibie was president, and the ICJ awarded the islands to Malaysia in 2002, when Megawati ruled the roost. There are other Indonesia-Malaysia issues that SBY could have been more ‘tegas’ or ‘pemberani’ about, had that been his style, but not those islands.

  15. pearshaped says:

    Ok Emo fair enough I’ll cop to that. I still like the idea of Hercules rigging cockroach races though. Gusmao and his trustees thought he could change into a mouse and escape by night to mate with the most beautiful Jakartan artistes,to increase his magical powers, and slip back before morn. Maybe Hercules has some special Ilmu Coro to help him scuttle out and rig the election for Prabowo. Who knows eh. Could be a good research project for Murdoch, you’d have to slip in some Marxism though.

  16. Maria says:

    Educated people know to point out a certain part when they disagree and support it with an argument, instead of summarising the whole thing into “you lie in your wrote”, which is not even english.
    So yes, we might not know everything, so pray tell, what do we need to know?

  17. Greed Protagonist says:

    Rob is just full of greed – no moral principles. Anything to get rich, power, fame- to the highest bidder to achieve these personal selfish interests in exchange for his soul.

  18. Hardjanto says:

    RRI bukan di bawah menteri BUMN ya, tp menkoinfo..

  19. Peter Montalbano says:

    Good thoughts, as usual, Marc. I do want to call your attention to your misuse of an English language expression. I think you’re native-born German or Austrian, no? In any case, your English is almost perfect, but I occasionally see mistakes you should know about. This is the second time I’ve seen you use “all but” incorrectly. “. . . the underlying conflict is all but solved” means that the conflict is almost solved. What you mean, I am sure, is ” . . . the conflict is anything but solved.” That means it is in no way solved. But thanks for your thoughts!

  20. Max Havelaar says:

    The latter. Regardless of how it got to this stage or who did what, what you have here is a massive social & political super-volcano waiting to explode. Unless you’re visually impaired, there’s no way not to notice. Even then, you can’t escape the air of discontent. I have yet to see any nation/civilization sit idle in such circumstance. Have you?