Dec 4, 2007

Welcome CCCP (Climate Change Conference Participants)



THE global effort to save the planet is reaching momentum as support grows for reaching a new consensus on climate change mitigation, the negotiations for which officially began here at Nusantara. From 3 until 14 December 2007 held in Bali, Indonesia, more than 10,000 people, including ministers and senior officials from more than 180 countries, are gathered in “Nusa Dua” to address climate change. They are seeking a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which expires in 2012. The Conference, hosted by the Government of Indonesia, brings together representatives of over 180 countries together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and the media. The two week period includes the sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, its subsidiary bodies as well as the Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. A ministerial segment in the second week will conclude the Conference.
Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change say that this year, 2007, could well be termed an incredible year for climate change. It started with the EU adopting a 20% or 30% reduction target for 2020, depending on action by others; It continued with major developing countries like China adopting national climate change strategies; In 2007 all major summits adopted policy positions on climate change, starting with the G-8 and including APEC, ASEAN, and the Commonwealth; In 2007 the United States launched meetings of the major economies aimed at contributing, by the end of 2008, to the UNFCCC process; Above all, 2007 was the year of the IPCC, whose Fourth Assessment Report was applauded at every stage of finalization and crowned by the Nobel Peace Price; 2007 culminated in a call from more than 80 heads of state or government at the high-level event of the Secretary-General, for a breakthrough in Bali.
The 1997 Kyoto accord required industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- which are generally thought to be responsible for global warming -- by specific amounts by the year 2012. Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar says he expects that the Bali meeting will achieve more comprehensive results than Kyoto.
Brother of Rachmat –Indonesian journalist Wimar Witoelar- wrote that The Bali meeting should address poverty issues”.
He is hoping for serendipity to direct the Bali results to a more immediate human problem in Indonesia, which is poverty. In a talk show held on Nov. 27 by the UNDP to launch the 2007/2008 Human Development Report, the main speaker, Haakan Bjorkman, the UNDP's Indonesia country director, highlighted the poverty implications of this year's annual report, Fighting Climate Change: Human solidarity in a divided world
His point was that Indonesia's poor will be most affected by climate change, the United Nations Development Programme said in an auxiliary report titled The Other Half of Climate Change. This report looks at the impact of climate change on the poor in Indonesia as well as efforts to adapt to the global weather phenomenon.
In the report, it says that Indonesia will face changes in seasons and rainfall, more extreme weather events, rises in sea levels of between 9 and 100 centimeters, warmer oceans and higher temperatures due to global warming. Bjorkman said the impact of climate change was discriminatory. "Poor people are more vulnerable. They have fewer resources or capacities to adapt to climate change," Bjorkman said.
"Farmers, fishermen and urban slum dwellers are living on the most marginal land that is vulnerable to droughts, floods or landslides. When disaster strikes, poor communities have very few resources to fall back on," Bjorkman said. "The impact of climate change will be felt the strongest among poor people. Climate change sabotages Indonesia's fight against poverty."
On The Jakarta Post (December 4th 2007) Indonesia's state minister for the environment, Rachmat Witoelar, took over the leadership of the UN forum debating future strategies from Kenyan Environment and Natural Resources Minister David Mwiraria, giving the host country an opportunity to play a role in the crucial talks.
The optimistic mood was further buoyed by the announcement from the Australian delegation that it would soon ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Australia's change of heart followed the Labor Party's win in recent elections, and newly installed Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to join the 12-day talks next week.
aan iesp 96

Nov 26, 2007

Human Pathos and Suffering





AFTER teaching (asistancy) to the undergraduate student at Fakultas Ekonomika dan Bisnis Ugm, I decide to read a moment in Periplus at Bandara Adisutjipto in Yogyakarta. NOTE: Adi Sucipto we can write by Adi Sutjipto, or Adi Sutjipto International Airport. Fakultas Ekonomika dan Bisnis it was: Faculty of Economic, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta). I have found an interesting fiction book and I call it ‘priceless’. In Periplus bandara a lot of book labelled by that mark “just Rp 5000”. Its very cheap than the volatility of dollar versus Rupiahs nowdays. One US dolar could be Rp 9.100, in Bahasa we use to write Rp 9.100,00.
I choose the novel written by Yashusi Inoue “The Counterfeither an Other Stories” copywright 1965. The three stories assembled in that bookreveal another face of Yashusi Inoue –his great compassion for his fellow human being. The tragic Hosen harra in “The Counterfeiter” and pathetic Kagebayashi of “The Full Moon” are not particularly pleasant people by any standards, Oriental and Western, but the symphatethetic compassion with which Inoue handles them provides a real insight into the nature of the author.
It therefore seems rather surprising to find “Obasute” that Inoue harbors a fear that :misanthropic blood” possibly flows through his veins.
--
“What do you mean by ‘extraordinary’?”
“I guess it’s a funny thing to say but any how, even now I cant forget the way the old man looked that night”, said Tassan (“The Counterfeither”, page 63)

“The fall colors seem better than the moon, don’t you think?,” said my driver. Right then, I had had exactly the same thought. A corner of the plain was quickly becoming obscured, and just as I was thingking thaht I heard the sounds of an approaching shower, raindrops began to fall right where we were. We left the place. (page 96, Obasute).

There’s not time like the present to make this switch (page 104, The Full Moon).
You see, anything at all can happen (page 107)
--
Leon Picon who made the intorduction analyses about Inoue’s book say that “Human pathos and suffering, lonelines and isolation, fatalism, and Budhistic concepts of oredestination form doninant strands in the fabric of virtually all of the writing of Yasushi Inoues. His own separation from his parents when he was a child set the pattern for the basic framework of there moods, particularly that of lonelines.”
The Japanese character for “lonelines” means “orphan alone”. And Yasushi Inoue as a child was an orphan alone in almost every sense but the legal one. I agree with the Mainichi Daily News that this book is “Japanese in setting, but universal in symbol and appeal”
(Yashusi Inoue was born in 1907, and died 1991)
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kang_aan@y----.c-- andono ahmad or yuniando@y----.c--

Nov 19, 2007

One Asean One Market –Too Fast and Furious




NOVEMBER 19th of 2007. Early this month, Southeast Asian civil society leaders met at the third ASEAN and Civil Society Conference in Singapore. On that event, the 10 leaders of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will sign a historical charter and declaration of the Economic Community Blueprint when they meet at the 13th ASEAN Summit here (Jakarta Post on Tuesday). What is ASEAN Charter? From wikipedia, stated that The ASEAN Charter is a proposed constitution for the Association of South East Asian Nation or ASEAN. The intention to draft the constitution was formally tabled at the 11th Asean Summit held in December 2005 in KL, Malaysia. Ten ASEAN leaders, one each from each member state, called the Asean Eminent Persosns Groups has been assigned to produce a draft of the charter. In the 12th ASEAN Summit held in January 2007 in Cebu the Philippines, several basic proposals were made public. One of the proposals includes the removal of non-interference policy that is central to the regional group since its formation in the 1960. "The high point of the summit will be the signing of the ASEAN Charter," host Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said. "It will take us an important step forward in regional integration, to a higher level." The long-overdue ASEAN Charter is aimed at formally turning the 40-year-old organization - often derided as a powerless talk shop - into a rules-based legal entity. That means ASEAN can sue and be sued, and will be held accountable for all the treaties andagreements it signs. The charter still needs to be ratified by parliaments of member countries, a process that will take a year.
It is hoped the charter would help transform the grouping into a more cohesive and rules-based organization, while the economic blueprint will pave the way for a single market and production base in the region by 2015.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Saturday the charter would make ASEAN a more cohesive and dynamic organization and help promote a culture that supports the effective implementation of agreements. He added it would also put a rules-based framework in place, which would include measures for monitoring compliance and provisions for the settlement of disputes. The ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint is a master plan that identifies the priority measures and actions to be undertaken to transform ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services, investments, skilled labor and flow of capital by 2015. The ASEAN secretariat said in a statement the blueprint was aimed at ensuring the full and effective functions of the ASEAN economic community in order to generate more growth and create more jobs.

1st Experience: European Integrity
Learning form European Market, Paul R Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld say that by now most of 1992’s market integration measures have been implemented (‘page 611). National economic barriers within EU Europe generally are lower than in the mid-1980s, but 1992 has been more effective in some areas than in others. Financial capital, for example, can move quite freely, not only within the European Union, but between the European Union and outside jurisdictions.
Krugman wrote on “International Economic” thaht the tprogress has been slower, however, in lowering barriers to the free movement of people within the European Union. EU workers are legally free to seek jobs or reside anywhere in the Union, but labor mobility remains limited. Several EU members feared illegal immigration from outside the European Union, however, and as a result the original goal to abolish passport checks at EU members’ common borders by January 1, 1993, was not fully met.
What we talked about “Integrity Market” is exactly the results of development of the global economy with all its fluctuations, cycles of boom and recession creates a wide range of efforts for identifying the outputs and the factors affecting it. While this development to the eighties was focused to the economic competition between West and East, the historical changes in the late of eighties rapidly changed this situation. World economy is transfering to the stage of its globalisation and by this new "game" are accepting quite new rules. The expansion of three centres of economic power (USA, Japan and European Community) are preparing new tools and measures for the wining of definite total economic supremacy. Obviously all three centres are trying to use their existing domestic advantages, but it vill be probably just new strategic elements which can decide who is definitely "number one" and who will win more on detriment of the others.
European has been implemented the one market as symbol of integrity mass of “need and give”, consumption and production from about 400 million people (two times up with Indonesia people). Adapted European phenomenon to Asean case is too fast, but it’s a tremendous trial if we want to implemented. Europe needs more/ less 40 years from 1957 to make an market unification. The ‘original’ EU members formed their custom union in 1957 was still incomplete 30 years later. The efforts culminated in the birth of the Euro on January 1, 1999. Two main motives inspired this integrity is: 1) To enhance Europe’s role in the world monetary system, 2) To turn the European Union into truly unified market. Europe needs 40 years, while Asean follow the idea just 10 years (from KL Meeting in 2005 until 2015 desire to implemented). Its too fast isnt it....

yuni andono- budi utami- nadiya andini pasha

my email at yuniando@yahoo.com

Nov 1, 2007

We have to be patient with our democracy


USING the “National Library’s” building at Salemba Raya (near to my office) a group of influential political figures attended the launch of the Indonesian Awakening Committee –Wednesday October 2007. They try to express their concern over the pace of development in the country and what they called the government’s short-term political interests.
Rizal Ramli, the committee’s founder, said the idea behind the group was to open a new path for the country (on Jakarta Post) said that “Our leader’s point of view is still influenced by the old regime and foreign countries. This is part of the reason why Indonesia’s economic sector has been left behind by other countries”
Among those attending Wednesday’s event were former People’s
Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais; Hanura People’s Conscience Party chairman Gen. (ret) Wiranto; former Golkar Party leader Akbar Tandjung; former vice president Try Sutrisno; chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s advisory council, Taufik Kiemas; former minister for women’s empowerment Khofifah Indar Parawansa; political analysts Yudi Latif and Sukardi Rinakit; economist Dradjad Wibowo; and
the secretary-general of the National Awakening Party, Zannuba
“Yenny” Arifah Chafsoh Rahman Wahid.
During the event, Amien Rais said this kind of movement was common in a democracy, and could instill a new idealism as long as its activities were appropriate and remained within the law.
“This shows that the younger generation can no longer cope with this country’s situation, which still stands under foreign shadows,” he said.
Amien also warned Rizal that if he wanted to be the country’s next president, he must allow the current leaders to finish their terms first.
They also enjoyed Franky Sahilatua’s song the title similar like “we want a new president”. I am agree with Amien Rais that we have to be patient with this democracy. Don’t cut the president’s period. However it’s a result of general selection. People refers to choose SBY-MJK and we have to respect with that. Give the couples time to finish their period until 2009. If we didn’t agree with their policy, don’t choose SBY or MJK on the next Pemilihan Umum. Vox populi vox dei

Oct 31, 2007

Understanding Poverty and the Poor Itself


IT'S an interesting report that on 2005 United Nations make a review on “The Contribution of Tourism to Poverty Alleviation” published by ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and The Pacific) number 25. They mentions some best practice from countries like Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Srilanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. The countries above have any experiences for tourism development and poverty alleviation. On Indonesia since 1990s tourism has shown significant growth as indicated by increased number of both domestic and international tourists. Tourism has had an impact on goods and services, employment, wages, and salaries, the total national wages and GDP. However due to the impact of 9, 11th 2001 and the Bali tragedy (12th October 2002)the number of international arrivals dropped to 5,033 million and the average length of stay began to decrease. As a result, foreign exchange earnings dropped to only $US 4.5 billion. Several initiative for poverty alleviation through tourism development are possible under government of Indonesia initiatives.
From the UN-ESCAP Report, a charming view is on “understanding poverty”, it is an eye catching for people who study economic-development. Here I put some chapter:
(a) Understanding poverty
Since the 1950s, there have been attempts to understand poverty at different levels. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) defined poverty as the deprivation of essential assets and opportunities to which every human is entitled. The ADB argued that everyone should have access to basic education and primary health services. Poor households have the right to sustain themselves by their labour, be reasonably rewarded and have some protection from external shocks. Beyond income and basic services, individuals and societies are poor and tend to remain so, if they are not empowered to participate in making the decisions that shape their lives.
The World Bank described poverty in a similar holistic manner while specifying its various dimensions: levels of income and consumption, social factors, vulnerability to risks and access to sound socio-political conditions. However, poverty has been most commonly understood in terms of income levels and has usually been measured against a poverty line, such as the one set by the World Bank at US$ 1 per day. There is a general consensus among people and organizations in the development community that to effectively carry out the mission against poverty it should be understood in all of its forms and dimensions.
ESCAP has focused on the various dimensions of poverty and has stated:
Poverty essentially has three closely interrelated aspects: poverty of money, poverty of access and poverty of power. These make the working, living and social environments of the poor extremely insecure and severely limit the options available to them to improve their lives. Without choices and security, breaking the cycle of poverty becomes virtually impossible and leads to the marginalization and alienation of the poor from society


(b) Dimensions and causes of poverty
According to the World Bank, the broad causes of poverty cover three general dimensions. First, there is the lack of income and assets to obtain basic necessities (such as, food, shelter, clothing and acceptable levels of health and education). Assets can be described as good health, the skills necessary for achieving employment, access to basic infrastructure, money in savings or access to credit. In addition, there are social assets, such as a network of contacts and reciprocal obligations which can be called on in a time of need. Social assets can be essential in moving from poverty to a state of well-being.
Second, poverty involves a sense of being powerless and unheard in various social institutions. This includes unfair sociological conditions where the poor are faced with inhumane treatment, lack of protection against violence, intimidation and lack of civility and unpredictability in their interactions with public officials.
Third, poverty includes a vulnerability to adverse shocks linked to an inability to cope with them. The poor are susceptible to various risks of health, natural or human-made hazards and often are incapable of economically, socially, physically and emotionally recovering from these shocks.
While these are the broad and immediate causes of poverty, there are also global causes of poverty, encompassing issues such as national and regional economic growth, the impact of globalization, inequality of income distribution and instability in governance. At the local level, poverty is manifested in the form of poor health and lack of access to good medical facilities, illiteracy, irregular income, informal employment, lack of land tenure for housing, lack of basic infrastructure, and so forth. At the national level, it is usually measured in relation to the GDP of the country.
(c) Understanding the difference between urban and rural poverty
The usual estimate of a poverty line set at US$ 1 per person per day is often too low when considering that the urban poor have other non food-related costs, such as transportation, education, housing, water, sanitation, health care and medicines. The complexities of urban systems, the higher cost of living in urban areas and a variety of factors such as tenure insecurity, unfavourable urban governance and policies, means that urban poverty measures and strategies for poverty reduction have to be different from those in rural areas.
In rural areas, most livelihoods depend on access to land and/or water for raising crops and livestock or access to forests and fisheries. In urban areas, poor people depend more on income to satisfy their basic needs. Poor people in rural areas have access to various assets to satisfy their basic needs such as production of food and exchange of goods for other necessary goods.
(d) Role of tourism in poverty reduction
As a tool for poverty reduction, the challenge for tourism is how and where to intervene in order to provide better opportunities, empowerment and security to poor people at the local level, in addition to stimulating economic growth at national and regional levels. Pro-poor tourism can be introduced simultaneously in rural and urban areas and thus open various opportunities and increase access not only for tourists but for local residents. Tourism can increase opportunities for the rural poor in their own communities. It has the potential to help reduce rural out-migration to urban areas, increase employment opportunities for the urban poor due to tourism, and give people additional income to provide for their families in rural areas.
Tourism is thus an appropriate mechanism for poverty reduction. It contributes to economic growth and can also have social, environmental and cultural benefits and costs. Tourism provides employment opportunities by diversifying and increasing income, which reduces the vulnerability of poor people. As a result of increased national income (foreign exchange earnings and taxation), additional funds can be diverted to poverty reduction programmes.
Tourism directly responds to poverty reduction objectives, because the WTO has argued that it:
• Unlocks opportunities for pro-poor economic growth by providing formal and informal employment
• Creates profit and collective income from locally-owned enterprises
• Facilitates social development by increasing access to infrastructure, providing local people with the opportunity to access tourism infrastructure.
• Helps increase participation of the local communities in decision-making as tourism products are often assets owned by the poor
• Reduces vulnerability by helping to diversify income opportunities
• Promotes environmental protection as the natural and human environment are the life lines of tourism development.

Masih menyelesaikan tesis di Magister Perencanaan, Fakultas Ekonomi, Universitas Indonesia. Doakan saya. Jakarta 31 Oktober 2007

Oct 30, 2007

October 28th: The Youth Pledge Day



HOW TO MAINTAIN THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH PLEDGE DAY? On 28th October 2007 we coinciding with the 79th Youth Pledge Day. Relevant to that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on the people, especially the youth, to develop the culture of maintaining health and the habit of doing physical exercises in order to be able to win the global competition. The president in the company of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono made the call at a function launching the Movement of Indonesian Healthy Youth here Sunday 28th.

"The youth and teenagers should keep doing physical exercises, maintaining health, being creative, maintaining harmony among them, avoiding narcotics and violent acts as well as averting free intercourse to safe the future, make them leading young generation and develop the nation, the president said on The Jakarta Post.

The president said the government would continue to carry out programs to make the Indonesian people remain healthy by providing funds needed for the purpose.

On the commemoration of the Youth Pledge Day, the head of state called on the younger generation to maintain the spirit of the Youth Pledge in order that they and the Indonesian people in general would be leading in the globalization era towards the prosperous future.

Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Adhyaksa Dault said the launching of the movement was a strategic momentum to improve the condition of the Indonesian young people.

He said the effort to invite young people to have the pattern of living healthily still faced some problems including the fact that many plots of land which should be made as public facilities and sports activities were converted into shopping centres among other things.
For the youth Oath of 1928, we are grateful for the consciousness of those young students in Batavia who put all their sectarian interests behind them for a bigger dream, the dream of Indonesia. Bramantyo Prijosusilo, from Ngawi, East Java wrote on the JP, that from that date Indonesians began to exist and posses a dream of a new culture, a culture that encompasses everything good from all the cultures among the many ethnic groups that live in the archipelago, but also recognizes the modern world as an equal, and Bahasa Indonesia began to earnestly develop Indonesia's nationalism.
Anthropologist Ben Anderson once wrote of being puzzled by the fact that so many Javanese writers write in Indonesian even though they speak Javanese in intimate situations, and a current analysis of spoken Javanese would show that the indigenous language now borrows heavily from not only the archipelago's lingua franca but also from English and IT-speak.
Much of what was Javanese is now being forgotten by the general population and has become a specialist field that interests academics. If there is a perceived danger of globalization wiping out local cultures, the spread and usage of Bahasa Indonesia here has proved to affect local languages in much the same way.
Our founding fathers often emphasized that our nationalism is part of internationalism and is based on humanity. From the beginning nationalism here set out not to be the foremost among nations. We wished only to exist among other nations as brothers and sisters and not as slaves, coolies or poor cousins.
The youths of 1928 knew of the dangers that nationalism could breed. They must have been relieved when in hindsight they reflected on their actions of 1928 and found that the seeds they planted had grown without running wild like nationalism under Hitler.
Every so often, the danger of over-boiling nationalism used as a political wild card to create social conflict looms up and shows its ugly face in the form of racial or ethnic conflict in this country. Fortunately, a Javanese would say, we have been lucky: All the times Indonesia's society seemed to be ripping apart at the seams, we pulled through.
Reflecting on our often violent history it is amazing that we are still here at all. We have had many political killings, more than enough religious conflict, racial violence, cruel military operations against residents and several economic near-collapses, but we are still here today, with one country, one nation and one language, and nationalism here still has a good name.
We are fortunate to have many activists who consciously strive to produce Indonesian literature, Indonesian music, Indonesian art, just as we have people who are studying and developing our traditional arts. As globalization is diluting our identity and merging it into one worldwide image we have our Indonesian-ness and our ethnicities to give us an essential system of values that allows us to not only imagine ourselves as unique, but also essentially full of virtue.
When we feel confident, we are a big-hearted nation capable of offering real support to others less fortunate than us. When we are bewildered by the changes enveloping every aspect of our lives, we feel small and act petty. The way we went over the top when we ranted against Malaysia for the brutality of a couple of policeman against an Indonesian sports official there recently shows how things easily get out of proportion when nationalism as an emotion is given fuel.
Surely we know that there are brutal elements in every police force in the world, and that the actions of some individuals is not the responsibility of the state or the government. But when Malaysia is involved we get all emotional and blur the boundaries in our minds. Perhaps recently we have been feeling small.
As a concept of identity that encompasses local disciplines and knowledge, nationalism has served us well. As an emotion nationalism often misleads to disastrous consequences. It is one thing for nationalism to, for instance, spur on a scientist to solve the problems of Jakarta's pollution, floods and congestion, but another story completely when nationalism calls for blood to pay for a perceived insult or injury against us.
In the first case nationalism becomes a positive force that calls an individual's dedication to some noble cause, but in the latter, nationalism is no more than a negative feeling, akin to jealousy, fear or hatred, and can only breed suffering.
When we talk about one country, one nation and one language, we should be saying that with the Indonesian dream in mind. At all costs we should avoid the Indonesian nightmare. If we dream of Indonesia as a country that is just and prosperous, the Indonesian nightmare is a fascist country where everything is centralized and there is only one voice ever heard, be it the voice of a strong military man, neo-conservative global powers or the voice of literalist religion, or an unholy alliance of the three.
We want an Indonesia that is united by its lively diversity and not by fear or force.

Sep 5, 2007

Population trend for ASEAN's case


WITHOUT his permission, I attached this paper, coz its a good research for catch the condition of South-east Asia's population. Ladies and Gentlemen, who is he? He is Mr Shigesato Takahashi --the Deputy Director-General at National Institute of Population and Social Security Research Japan. He ever presented “The Ageing of the Population and its Implications for Health and Social Policies” to the delegations of Indonesia who visit Japan in the first week of September 2007. He told about Population trend and demographic transition of ASEAN countries.
The population growth rate in countries of ASEAN has shown the tendency to decrease for the past 30 years. The annual average population growth rate was from 2 per cent to 3 per cent in most countries of this region during the 1950's and 1970's.
On the other hand, a high birth rate and a high mortality rate that continued for a.long time have started to decline to the level of a low birth rate and a low mortality rate in the ASEAN region in the 1950's.
Such demographic transition, that is, a transition from a high fertility and mortality regime to a low fertility and mortality regime, which has brought about a population explosion since World War II, appears to have finally reached the last stage in East Asia and will approach it by the end of the 1st quarter of this century in the ASEAN region in general.
The key factor associated with demographic transition is fertility transition of course, that is, the change from the total fertility rate (TFR: the average number of children per woman would have in their life time) with 5 or more children per woman to the level of around 2 children per woman.
The decline of the total fertility rate had already started from the 1960's in some ASEAN countries such as Singapore and Thailand as a result of the rapid spread of family planning. Their total fertility rate has declined from more than 5 children per woman to the level of less than two children per woman in the 2000-2005 period (Gubhaju, 2007). In other ASEAN countries, fertility has already declined considerably, except Cambodia and Lao PDR in which fertility had just started to decline from more than 6 children per woman from the middle of the 1980s.
In countries such as Vietnam and Lao PDR, Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, fertility remained at a high level of fertility (5 or more children per woman) during the period 1970-1975. It is interesting to note that these countries experienced remarkable declines in fertility from a high level to a transitional level (3.0 to 4.9 children per woman) during the periods 1970-1975 and 1985-1990. In the 2000-2005 period, the total fertility rate among these countries except the Philippines showed a range of 2.2 to 2.9 children per woman, near that of the population replacement level.
It is interesting to note that these countries experienced remarkable declines in fertility from a high level to a transitional level (3.0 to 4.9 children per woman) during the 1970-1975 and. 1985-1990 periods. In countries such as Cambodia, the Lao PDR, and the Philippines, their total fertility rate declined to the level of a transitional stage during the 1985-1990 period and the 2000-2005 period.
The level of fertility in ASEAN countries will eventually reach the replacement level, about 2 children per woman, in the first quarter of this century. In other ASEAN countries, the annual population growth rate, after having declined from its peak of 2 to 3 per cent, will remain more than 1 per cent for the time being and decline to below 1 per cent by the middle of this century, except for Cambodia and Lao PDR.

To be continued with:
“Demographic Transition and Population Bonus”

Aug 30, 2007

Rural NOT Urban: Rural Community Development – Rural Community Council



THE founding fathers of Indonesia has declared any countries goals to serve for its citizens. Any goals to become a truly government is written at the Preamble of Indonesian constitutional (UNDANG-UNDANG DASAR 1945) –by realizing common prosperity, educating national life, protecting the whole nation and fatherland of Indonesia, and following world order- fluctuates up and down in its implementation. Economic crisis, which began in mid 1997 has increased the number of poor people in Indonesia. Another part of the constitution exactly on Chapter 34, explains that “poor people and the abandoned children are nurtures by the state” (article 1), and “the state is responsible for treating the poor through empowerment and social security” (article 3). Based on that, the government of Indonesia (GoI) have a mandate to be implemented.
Since 2005 Indonesia’s economy performed quite well despite various obstacle to economic performance and the threat to global conditions posed by high oil prices. Our economic growth in 2005 reach 5.6%, the highest since the crisis in 1998. Meanwhile, inflation in recent yeara has been decreasing steadily, while Rupiah is also gradually stabilizing. Up and down of the Rupiah and also Indonesia Composite Index, and we do hope it will reach a proper value both for the currency and Jakarta Composite Index.

1. The Poverty in Indonesia
BASED on poverty indicator US 2$ a day, more than half of Indonesia’s 250 million are poor. Most Indonesian people struggle to survive on less than US$ 1 a day and are at risk of even more severe poverty. Approximately 60 percent of the population live on rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood.
The poorest areas of Indonesia are the remote eastern islands, where 95 per cent of people in rural communities are poor. In the most densely populated islands of Java and Bali, poverty exists but there are opportunities to make it more transient. Here, unsustainable livelihood systems and isolation make people vulnerable to external shocks and are the principal causes of poverty, mainly in the upland areas. On average, poverty rates in Bali and Java range between 14 and 31 per cent.
In many provinces in Eastern Indonesia farmers make their living by harvesting a single crop on dry land. They live in a subsistence economy and are not able to achieve food self-sufficiency through their farming activities. Many live in coastal areas that are environmentally degraded. Upland villages are the most disadvantaged and require development programmes adapted to the many constraints they face. Many of these remote areas are accessible only by boat, on foot or by small plane. The road network is in poor condition and requires major investment. These provinces are also home to many adat, or indigenous communities, which have often been on the margins of development processes and programmes. A significant part of the rural labour force has migrated to urban areas in search of employment. Many migrants would be willing to resettle in rural areas, but they no longer have land. In some provinces, migration to foreign countries is a way to overcome unemployment and poverty caused by lack of access to land and other productive resources.
In the year of 2007 population of Indonesia’s poverty is 37.17 million people, the proportion is 16.58% of total population (data March 2007). About 19.2 million families received Cash Transfer program. Unemployment is about 10.24% of 103 million labor force. The quantity pf slum area is 56,000 hectare in 110 city (urban poor). The number of rural poverty is 42,000 village (‘desa’) is catagorized as rural poor area -from totally 66,000 village.

2. The Alleviation Poverty Program
ACCESS to get work is the surest way out of poverty. It is precisely understood that employment creation is the key success for poverty alleviation. It holds solid, progressive and long lasting attempt to reduction of poverty. By a get job, then wealth is created, distributed, and accumulated. It is through work so peopele can find a dignified way out of poverty.
In Indonesia it is widely acknoledged that the vast majority of women and men derive their livelihood and incomes from Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. In Indonesia, agriculture sector dominates the national employment scene with 41 million workers, of whom 80 percent are attached to the informal economy. Furthermore, poverty is very much a rural pehenomena, as about 75 percent of the total poor household reside in the rural areas and depend on agricultural for their main livelihood.
In Indonesia about 60 percent of working poor youth earn their living in the informal economy.
The rural poor are often confronted with disadvantages stemming from remoteness, lack of education and healthcare, insecure and unproductive jobs, high fertility and discrimation for women or etnic minorities. Thus, povertyreduction policies and programmes must give strategic focus on rural development and must create more opportunites for women and men to find work in the rural areas. Such policies not only promote economic grow but also help alleviate urban poverty through reducing out migration from rual areas to densely populated urban centers.
However, we want to move to even higher growth in the medium term, especially to create jobs and reduce poverty. Our challenge is, at the end, to reduce poverty and to create job. This will require changing investment sentiments and improve international confidence toward the economy. To address this, the GoI have issued reform packages in investment and infrastructure, so that people could witness our seriousness in undertaking structural reform in all sectors of the economy.
The attempt is by implementing what we would call the triple track strategy. The government of Indonesia (GoI) has declared Triple-track strategy for 2004-2009. That’s growth, employment, and poor. Growth means pro-growth, to achieve sustainable higher economic growth through a combination of strong exports and increased investments –both domestic and foreign. From 5.5% in 2005 become 7.6% in 2009 economic growth.
About 70% of our poor people are living in the country side, are working in the agriculture sector, around 40 millions. And another 20 millions of the near poor, they are mostly living in the country side and in the agriculture sector. So if we could improve, if we could revitalize the agriculture sector, and rural economic development, we believe very strongly in the years to come we can reduce significantly the number of the poor people by stimulating our agriculture and rural economic development.
If we remain on track with the the triple track strategy, we will be able to meet the economic target set by my government immediately upon assuming office. Economic growth can only be accelerated if we increase productivity in every sector of the economy. And such an increase in productivity will only take place if macro-economy reforms are continued and synchronized with various reforms at the micro level. We can be assured that GoI is actively persuing various reforms to improve investment climate, to ensure flexibility of the labor market and to combat corruption in order to reduce high cost economy.
On 2007, the Government of Indonesia launched “National Program on Community Empowerment” or PNPM (Program Nasioanl Pemberdayaan Masyarakat). Specially in Social Department, we launched BLPS or Bantuan Langsung Pemberdayaan Social (Conditional Cash Transfer for Social Empowerment).
On September 7, 2006, the President of the Republic Indonesia has declared a new government policy to accelerate poverty reduction and jobs creation in the framework to achieve the target in the mid term national development plan to halve the number of poor people by the year of 2009. The GOI has launched the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM= Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat) as a main vehicle or program instrument to accelerate poverty reduction and jobs creation –start in fiscal year 2007.
PNPM (Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat or National Program for Community Empowerment) is adopted from the success of Kecamatan Development Program (PPK= Program Pengembangan Kecamatan) and Urban Alleviation Poverty Program (P2KP= Program Penanggulangan Kemiskinan Perkotaan).

3. The History of Program
POVERTY oriented development programs started systematically in Indonesia in 1975-1976, when the success of Repelita 1st (Repelita= Rencana Pembangunan Lima Tahun, Development Planning for 5 years) in speeding up economic growth also revealed serious income distribution inequalities. The proportion of Indonesians below the poverty line dropped from 40 percent (54.2 million) in 1976 to 11 percent (22.5 million) by 1996, the fastest decline having occurred in 1993-1996. The onset of the crisis arrested this rapid drop.
The GoI revived Padat Karya programmes that commonly used in Indonesia since 1970’s to create employment and generate income through infrastructure development, it were phase out in the early 1990’s. Padat karya programmes faced many problems however as a short-term social safety net programme it was effective.
The IDT (Inpres Desa Tertinggal, or Presidential Instruction on Program for Assistance to Backward Villages), launched at the end of 1993 under Repelita VI, has three goals: to speed up the national movement for poverty eradication and ensure that it becomes a people’s movement; to reduce inequalities of income and wealth; and to develop the people’s economy. Poor groups are identified according to categories reflective of local village standards. By 1996, the program had covered 28,000 of the least-developed villages, or 43 percent of all villages in the country. Beneficiaries were 136,000 self-help groups, or pokmas, comprising 3.4 million poor households. Each pokmas has about 30 poor families, and there can be several such groups in a village. Organizing these groups facilitates the channeling of services and funds to poor families as well as promotes interaction among group members. This continuing contact reinforces people’s selfesteem.
Often the poor are so isolated—psychologically, socially, culturally, economically, and politically—that they tend to have a sense of powerlessness: a belief that there is no way out of their present situation and that it is their destiny to be poor.
Facilitators who are community workers act as catalysts to improve the human resource base of pokmas members, improve the capabilities of their committees, and promote savings and the economic and entrepreneurial skills of members. Women’s participation is significant and in many places pokmas members are predominantly or all women. Most of them draw on IDT funds for income-generating activities such as small trading activities, raising goats, and operating a newly purchased fishing boat with their husband.
It is important to recognize that the vast majority of the populace survives through the people’s economy. All too often, however, both the government and private sector undermine this economy by supporting large business enterprises that actually compete with the myriad small-scale activities sustaining the majority.
All in all, the most effective strategy for enhancing participation of low-income people in development in the broadest sense is to improve their access to economic activities and let them make their own decisions. The economy is the most realistic entry point of all empowerment efforts because achievements there will cultivate the sense among the poor of “having power.”
The contribution of Department of Social Affairs in implementing poor people empowerment program among the other department is KUBE. Kelompok Usaha Bersama (KUBE) or “co partnering groups” is a group of poor families created based on their choice, co interacting to each other, living in a certain areas with the purpose of improving the productivity of their members, building harmonious social relation, fulfilling the needs of their member, solving social problems existing around them and becoming the mean of co-partnering business activities.

4. Rural Community Development: Access and Employment
RURAL development has long been recognized as crucial in promoting economic growth. There are both indirect and direct benefits from infrastructure development both having a significant impact on employment creation and an effective strategy for poverty alleviation.
Investing in local resource based rural infrastructure has both economic and social benefits on rural society. Economic indicators such as increased income, employment, productivity gains and better income distribution are obvious. Social benefits include time savings, easier access to schools and health facilities and improved information.
Rural infrastructure development contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is essential for employment creation and income generation (reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day), improving access to primary education and health care (ensuring universal primary education, reduce child mortality and improve maternal health) and improved living conditions (ensuring environmental sustainability by, amongst others, reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water).
Rural development is an important strategy in achieving development objectives. This may cover agricultural and rural infrastructure in rural areas including rural roads, water supplies, irrigation. systems, electricity, health and education facilities and markets.
AN OVERVIEW OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT: AGRICULTURE. The strategic value of agriculture in the overall economic development of developing countries like Indonesia is very significant such as the source of food, its share in GDP formation, its linkages with other sectors, and, most importantly, the agricultural sector is a source of employment. Though the contribution of the agricultural sector to total GDP which declined from 24 percent in 1980 to 16.5 percent in 2000, agriculture was the third largest contributor to GDP in 1999, which then upgraded to be the second largest contributor after the crisis. However the agricultural growth rate had been relatively slow, 3.8 percent annually during the 1980s and it slowed down to 2.9 percent during 1990 to 1995. Within agriculture, half of the value added comes from food crops, followed by tree crops and horticulture; fisheries, forestry, and livestock products each contribute 17-19 percent and 9-12 percent respectively. Per capita GDP in agriculture in 2000 was just one fifth of that of non-agricultural sectors. Such low agricultural growth resulted in low productivity. Which is among the lowest when compared to other sectors.
The share of agricultural employment in Indonesia has always been substantial. Although the percentage of people working in agriculture had been declining overtime the absolute number has remained on the increase. The percentage of employed people in agriculture had been on the increase after the economic crisis; it was 40.73 percent in 1997 and rose up to 46.54 percent in 2001, more than half were women (CBS, 2002).
During off-peak season, many rural workers look for work in the urban informal economy. Seasonal nature of work is also accompanied with low wages in the agricultural sector. Data by CBS shows that the Indonesian average monthly wages of workers in the agricultural sector were the lowest in comparison to those of the other economic sectors. The 2001 CBS data showed that 65 percent of women working in agriculture were employed as unpaid workers. Furthermore for those women who are classified as wage earners, they earn about half of what male agricultural workers do. It was 53 percent of that of males’ wages in 1997 and improved to 56 percent in 2000. It is thus no surprise that agricultural workers'are among the groups with the highest incidence of poverty in Indonesia.
Like in many other developing countries in Indonesia agricultural workers are excluded from any employment injury benefit scheme, because none exists for them or because agricultural workers are specifically excluded from general schemes. A large extent agricultural workers are considered as informal workers.
The picture of the agricultural workers depicts that decent work deficits are pervasive in the agricultural sector. Recognizing the importance of the agricultural sector, the Indonesian government has stipulated in its policies directives and programs to give priority upon the development of the agricultural sector. The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has determined that agribusiness is to be the grand strategy for the agriculture development in Indonesia.

AN OVERVIEW OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT: INFRASTRUCTURE.
Infrastructure has an important position in Indonesian national development especially in the government and private sector budget allocation acting as promoting and facilitating sector for local economic development, despite its low allocation of financial resources from public expenditure by international standard.
During the period of 1990/ 91-2000, government budget allocated for infrastructure is around 3,8% with the highest figure reaching 5% in 1993/94. During that period local development and isolated areas, energy and road sectors received higher allocation than other sectors. With such allocation, one problem to be tackled is the disparity among regions especially with regards to the eastern part of Indonesia. During the 1997 crisis in Indonesia, there was a large shift toward self-employment in both urban and rural areas, and a smaller shift towards unpaid family-based employment in both rural areas. Real wages have declined and open unemployment has appeared.
The increase in female and child employment acted as a coping mechanism to compensate for falling household incomes. Child employment has been observed to increase and, although the impact on female employment is ambiguous, some 40% of those recorded as newly unemployed are female (the latter particularly due to the impact of textile sub sector production). With low personal savings and no effective social welfare system, people cannot afford to be unemployed for a very long.
The establishment of CTRID (Coordinating Team on Rural Infrastructure Development) is a milestone in the Indonesian rural infrastructure development since it demonstrates concerted efforts of various ministries and agencies to curb problems and to tackle issues in rural infrastructures development. The result has been an increase in under employment (with falling real wages and purchasing power) and substansial increase in lower-paid agricultural employment. Unskilled men have suffered most from the consctruction industry decline. Since construction sector particularly road sector adopts labour intensive techniques, it is capable of absorbing a large proportion of workers this sector is thus a significant target for poverty reduction efforts. Conditions in rural areas show that most of the workers (97,2%) are low-level labourers indicating the ability for this sector to dominantly absorb unskilled or semi-skilled workers-those affected most by the poverty. The GoI ever revived Padat Karya programmes since 1970’s to create employment and generate income through infrastructure development. The programme were phase out in the early 1990’s, faced many problems however as a short-term social safety net programme it was effective.
The result has been an increase in under employment (with falling real wages and purchasing power) and substansial increase in lower-paid agricultural employment. Unskilled men have suffered most from the consctruction industry decline. Since construction sector particularly road sector adopts labour intensive techniques, it is capable of absorbing a large proportion of workers this sector is thus a significant target for poverty reduction efforts. Conditions in rural areas show that most of the workers (97,2%) are low-level labourers indicating the ability for this sector to dominantly absorb unskilled or semi-skilled workers-those affected most by the poverty.
With the public purse strings still tight and most government spending being used to cover day-to-day costs and servicing the country's sovereign debt, Indonesia will have to rely on the private sector to help reduce poverty and unemployment. Vice President of Indonesia, Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, ever said that Indonesia would need at least Rp 1,000 trillion (about US$111 billion) in new investment in order to achieve higher economic growth, which was essential to significantly reducing the country's currently high poverty and unemployment rates. The money should come from three sources, the government, the private sector and foreign investment. Indonesia’s the current growth rate was not sufficient to alleviate poverty and unemployment. In order to create significant numbers of new jobs, growth would need to be at least 7 percent. According to government estimates, every one percent growth in GDP creates 250,000 new job.

5. Finally
POVERTY is nearest the way to a crime (in Islamic word: fakir near to kafir. Kafir means ‘being covered’). The time to combat poverty has arrived, sure that hard work lies a head. We have to commit to ending poverty. The first step is commitment to the task: focus to halving poverty by 2015 and struggle to ending poverty by 2025. It is still a problem to make e close connection between real sector and monetary. There is a disconnection between the improvements in the macroeconomic fundamentals and poverty alleviation. The GoI still on going make a great policy to connect the regulations with creating a conducive environment for microfinance (MF) in Indonesia and the SME. In the past, we had more government failures than market failures. Now, it may be the other way around and we have to carefully analyze whether we are dealing with a market failure or a government failure before taking any action.
Sustainable rural development is expected to provide more employment opportunities and increasing income, which in turn will encourage rural workers to stay and work in their villages. This in the long run will be better for both the urban and rural economies. Sustainable agricultural development would support rural development. Strong and labor-intensive agricultural growth can be sustained with adequate levels of investment in infrastructure. As rural poor are getting more dependent on non-farm activities for their income sources, therefore measures to stimulate off-farm rural income will be critical to poverty alleviation. In line with the Ministry of Agriculture's strategy that agribusiness is to be the path of agricultural development, thus small/micro agribusiness development may be used as the vehicle for improving farmer incomes.
Rural infrastructure development is instrumental in facilitating and responding to development challenges. Through Sustainable rural infrastructure development, the needs and opportunities for social and economic development can and will be expressed in their highest potentials. Labour based approach in rural infrastructure development would be important strategy to help the poor.
Community based approach is very useful in addressing the needs of women in poverty. It can help promote equity and equality towards work. The involvement of women in the technical and supervisory functions of projects managed by communities can help overcome biases against the recruitment of women workers.

Aug 20, 2007

PRC Still Dominates, But Will Be Separates


PEOPLE Republic of China (PRC) still dominates for Badminton but step-by step it will be reduced. China dominated the Proton World Badminton Championships 2007 in Kuala Lumpur. They win three gold medals here on the final day, and Indonesia was the second most successful team with two gold - in the men's doubles and mixed doubles. Indonesia gained two titles at the World Badminton Championships, while China cleaned up the remaining three, as the annual event went to a final curtain in Malaysia on 19th August. Indonesia claimed victories in the men’s doubles and mixed doubles while.

China won in the men’s singles, women’s singles and women’s doubles. Men’s doubles Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan tasted their first title win after crushing Jung Jae-sung and Lee Young-dae of South Korea 21- 19, 21-19. The world No. 3 pair forced a fastand-furious pace in their encounter against Korea’s world No. 12. Coach Sigit Pamungkas said he ordered his shuttlers to keep up the fast and aggressive play during the match. “They both have the same style. I told Markis and Hendra to play faster if they want to beat the Koreans. And it worked. That was our strategy,”he said. The victory ended the pair’s title drought since their win at the 2006 China Open. The win was also Indonesia’s first men’s doubles world championship title since Tony Gunawan and Halim Heryanto’s 2001 victory. In mixed doubles, Indonesia’s Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir, who won the title in 2005, reclaimed their crown by defeating top seeds Zheng Bo and Gao Ling of China 21-16, 21-14. Men’s player Sony Dwi Kuncoro, hoping to win his first major here, were forced to face a more crushing reality, with defending champion Lin Dan of China much too powerful for the 23-year-old, who lost 21-11, 22-20. Aside from Lin, China’s Zhu Lin won the women’s singles crown after defeating Wang Chen of Hong Kong 21-8, 21-12. Women’s doubles Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen outstaged Gao Ling and Huang Sui in an all-Chinese final 21-16, 21-19

The Coach of Hongkong Chan Chi Coi on BOLA (Indonesian Sport Weekly Paper) say that the Chinesse’s domination must be stop, because it wouldn’t good result for badminton’s dynamic. On another perspective, the 43 years old Arasu (Thirunaavuckarsu –Arasu for short), formerly a reporter with the national daily Star, claimed that 'Badminton hasn't had good publicity for 30-40 years. Arasu thinks badminton has a lot more potential than has been so far exploited. 'Globally badminton is nowhere near tennis’.

Maybe its too beginning to claimed that China has ‘lost of power’ in Badminton, but who can guess that Lilyana Natsir/ Vita Marissa become the winner at China Master’s in China 2 months ago. And based on World Cup Badminton, who guess that they lost in double –mixed and men double. Who knows that Xie Xingfang lost to Wong Mew Choo (Malaysia), and Cai Yu/ Fu Haifeng have a tregic in quarter final: lost to the old couples Lee Wan Wah/ Chong Tan Fok (Malaysia).
PRC ‘failed’ to copy his successful in 1987 to became winner in 5 numbers. Anyway PRS still dominates, but slowly will be separates: Not all (5) for China, maybe 2 for Indonesia, next 1 for Korea, for Hong Kong, maybe Japan, and Malaysia

Aug 14, 2007

Yunus told Yunus go, We understood but not to go

keywords: poverty in Indonesia, alleviation poverty, empowerment, reduction the number of poor people, BPS or “Badan Pusat Statistik” (Central Statistics Agency), GOI or “Government Of Indonesia”, Rp or "Rupiah" (Indonesian currency)

Aug 1, 2007

Inflation is Up: Usual or Useless


THE Jakarta Post made a headline on Thursday 2nd August that “Inflation up for first time in '07”. Based on report by The Central Statistics Agency (BPS or Badan Pusat Statistik) Wednesday that Indonesia’s inflation is up, marking the first definite uptick in inflation this year, with food prices still remaining stubbornly high as compared to July last year, also rose slightly to 6.06 percent. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices and administered fuel prices, paced up to 0.71 percent month-on-month and 5.75 percent year-on-year.
BPS chief Rusman Heriawan in Jakarta Post said that inflation was part of the "usual cycle for this time of the year" although acknowledging July's inflation uptick. He added that "Rising inflation may also indicate more activity in the economy". Headline inflation during the same period in 2005 saw similar increases in both monthly and on-year inflation, but 2003 and 2006 saw disinflation during the same period.
Nevertheless, the inflation uptick in July received a cool response from the financial markets, which saw the Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index dropping to 2,256.31 points, and the rupiah weakening to Rp 9,285 against the dollar.
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INFLATION is an increase in the price of a basket of goods and services that is representative of the economy as a whole. In mainstream economics the word “inflation” refers to a persistent rise in the general price level, as measured against a standard level of purchasing power. A similar definition of inflation can be found in Economics by Parkin and Bade: Inflation is an upward movement in the average level of prices. Its opposite is deflation, a downward movement in the average level of prices. The boundary between inflation and deflation is price stability. A simple commonly used definition of the word inflation is simply "an increase in the price you pay or a decline in the purchasing power of money". In other words, Price Inflation is when prices get higher or it takes more money to buy the same item. Inflation is measured by the BPS and Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States using the Consumer Price Index. Gregory Bresiger –maybe he’s a economist- wrote that “Inflation is Legalized Robbery”.

Jul 30, 2007

It’s Amazing: Win While War

Iraq clinched their first Asian Cup victory with a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in Jakarta. The final had been billed as a contest between the tournament's best attack in Saudi Arabia, against the tightest defence, but the Saudis much-vaunted strikeforce was kept well in check. In contrast, Iraq always looked dangerous on the break, with man-of-the-match Younes Mahmoud's pace a particular threat. Iraq's Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira worked under difficult conditions, including being forced to prepare the team outside of Iraq. He said: "We all know the problems in Iraq but I have learned they are a fantastic people. We did not have much time so we had to work quickly. We sometimes fought, we sometimes argued but we got the work done. It was very difficult but I am very proud of these boys." Vieira announced he was standing down after the victory (quote fromhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/)

(the photo above captured from The Jakarta Post)

Skipper Younis Mahmoud's thumping headed goal crowned Iraq as the Asian Cup champions for the first time in the final of the Asian Cup at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Senayan, Jakarta - Indonesia, on Sunday, 29 July 2007. The Assood Al Rafidain or Lion from Mesopotamia –the title for Iraq's team- gave war-weary fellow citizens a reason to celebrate after upsetting three-time winner The Son of the Desert Saudi Arabia.

Jul 11, 2007

There's Always a Good @ the Beginning


Always Good At Beginning: INA defeated Bahrain 2-1.
In the year 1996, Indonesia got success in the first match at Asian Cup by make a draw score Kuwait 2-2 (Ina leading first 2-0). At 2000, draw again 0-0 to (again) Kuwait. 2004,
The first victory to Qatar, make Qatar’s head coach Philippe Troussier loose his job. Ina win 2-1. And finally on July 10th, Tuesday evening, on Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia –by the goal from Budi Sudarsono and Bambang Pamungkas- got their dream start to their Asian Cup campaign here as they shocked Bahrain –another Gulf country- by score 2-1 in group D.

Ranked 143rd in the world by FIFA, Indonesia bombarded Bahrain from the kick off with several well-coordinated attacks. Firman Utina become the man of the match. Indonesia will take on three-time Asian Cup champion Saudi Arabia on Saturday and later play two-time champion South Korea in its last group match next Wednesday.
That gave the minnows an unlikely victory over Bahrain, who finished fourth in the competition three years ago in China. The skillful Indonesians settled first, making light of their physical inferiority, and gave notice of their counter-attacking threat with a series of lightning forays deep into Bahraini territory that ended only with poor decision-making. Bahrain didn't heed the warning signs and the hosts deservedly opened the scoring on 14 minutes with a move of exquisite simplicity. The throbbing Gelora Bung Karno stadium, of one the biggest in Asia, erupted with unbridled joy. Bahrain were looking rattled but Indonesia's suspect defence always seemed likely to offer them a way back into the match - and so it proved on 27 minutes.
Ivan Kolev -Indonesian's coach from Bulgary- said on http://www.afcasiancup.com that “Thanks to all the players because they played like soldiers and played towards the target,” said Kolev. “They proved they could win. “Thanks, too, to the fans who came to the stadium. The people came to the stadium, just like we asked them to. And thirdly, thanks also to the people who supported the national team before the event started. Firman Utina was man of the match, but all of the players played well.”
The victory over Qatar three years ago was followed by losses against Bahrain and hosts China as the Indonesians struggled to continue their start and was part of a pattern that has seen the nation impress in the early stages of previous competitions before exiting at the end of the group stage.
Kolev, though, refused to dwell on past tournaments and chose, instead, to celebrate the win. “I don’t want to talk about the past, let’s look at the result today and be happy and then start thinking about tomorrow,” he said. However, Kolev’s celebrations could be tempered by injuries to captain Ponaryo Astaman and Mahyadi Panggabean, who were both taken off in the first half and the team will assess their condition ahead of the game against Saudi Arabia, and last game in the group versus Korea Republic. “Both players had old injuries, they weren’t new injuries and we will have our medical team look at them and do their best to make sure both players are ready for the next game,” Kolev said. OK Pak Kolev, good luck for the 1st play. But remember PSSI always got a good performance @ the beginning, but next... and the end... Lets go to Senayan
Source from: ttp://www.afcasiancup.com/, the Jakarta Post, http://www.brisbanetimes.com, another from goal.com

Jul 2, 2007

Maluku incident and another disintegration accident


The peak event of the National Family Day program which was attended by President Yudhoyono last Friday (June 29) morning was disturbed by a group of irresponsible persons who performed an unscheduled "Cakalele" dance. They claimed they’re from RMS (abbreviations from “Republik Maluku Selatan” the banned South Maluku Republic). Some people said they just had more courages and did not hesitate to create chaos. An incident in Maluku occurring when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Ambon (Maluku`s provincia capital) last week showed that a separatist group still posed a serious threat on the unitary state of Indonesia, a legislator in The Jakarta Post (July 1) has said. Many hope the incident could be made an evaluation on our security system and the intelligence body`s performance. Such an incident should not recur and thus relevant authorities must conduct tighter security control in every state activity. Questions still to be continued why such an incident could happen. A researcher said that the security system for every state activity must be evaluated. Effendy Choirie from the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (National Awakening Party) called for the improvement of the intelligence body`s performance as such a separatist act had been committed bluntly. He said that the intelligence body might have detected it but measures on the disturbers must be taken by relevant authorities like the police and military. Many legislators said that Maluku incident proves separatists still pose threat, is it true?


Di tulisan ini aku ingin menghubungkan antara pembangunan, nasionalisme, dan Insiden Maluku (kemarin sewaktu acara Hari Keluarga Nasional). Beberapa hari sebelumnya, ada rapat Pemberdayaan Komunitas Adat Terpencil –selanjutnya disebut KAT- di 9 Provinsi yang berlangsung di Hotel Sri Varita, Senen, Jakarta. Ada kisah-kisah menarik bahwa yang diceritakan para wakil daerah tersebut. Misalnya yang terjadi di Kalbar –dan juga Kaltim- adalah masyarakat setempat malah memilih untuk jadi warganegara Malaysia dengan memindah batas-batas wilayah sendiri. Hal itu dipermudah dengan adanya jalan masuk ke Serawak sepanjang 904 Km yang mudah ditempuh dengan darat selama 3 jam saja. Kesenjangan yang terjadi di perbatasan kedua negara terutama adalah di bidang pendidikan dan kesehatan. Apalagi diperparah dengan antar masyarakat yang mudah untuk saling berinteraksi. Mereka merasa bahwa, ”Kami tidak tersentuh pembangunan sama sekali”. Masih ada 9000 lebih KAT di Kalbar yang belum tersentuh.
Kejadian yang lain berlangsung di Kabupaten Belau, NTT, yang sekarang ini terdapat puluhan ribu pengungsi terlantar. Mereka menghadapi kenyataan bahwa di Timor Leste susah mencari pekerjaan, tetapi di Indonesia fasilitas publik –terutama listrik- sangat buruk. Di Indonesia mereka bisa kenyang, tetapi di Timor Leste kalau malam mereka bisa merasakan listrik terang. Analoginya ”siang di Indonesia, malam enak di Timor Leste”. Kemudian wakil Sulawesi Utara menyatakan bahwa Bupati Talaud pernah bercerita tentang orang-orang di Pulau Mianggas orang lebih senang ke Filipina (Philippines). Pernah kejadian ketika ada warga digebuki Polisi maka masyarakat mengibarkan bendera Filipina. Apalagi kalau mereka menjual produk (pertanian) ke Filipina bisa dihargai 5x lebih tinggi. Bayangpun coba. Sedangkan Kepulauan Riau bisa dikatakan sebagai wilayah yang paling banyak berbatasan dengan negara lain. Kepulauan ini 98% adalah laut berbatasan dengan 4 negara yaitu Vietnam, Kamboja (Cambodia), Malaysia, dan Singapura (Singapore). Di Kepri ada 6 kabupaten kota dengan 2408 pulau, separuh penduduk tinggal di pulau Batam.

So pendekatan ala nasionalisme mungkin tidak relevan lagi sekarang, masyarakat di perbatasan negara akan bersikap pragmatis, mana sekiranya wilayah yang menguntungkan dirinya. So kejadian di Maluku, lalu kalau dihubungkan dengan Miangas dan Belau, merupakan cerminan bagaimana kesenjangan pembangunan masih drastis terjadi. Kalau di Pulau Jawa membicarakan disintegrasi akan sangat naif, karena di Jawa adalah pusat pertumbuhan Indonesia, so orang sangat menikmati hasil-hasil pembangunan di sini. Tapi bagaimana misalnya kita ambil Aceh yang jaraknya 3000 kilometer dari Jakarta tetapi hanya 700 kilometer ke Langkawi.
Ternyata pembangunan selama ini tidak menyentuh mereka yang beradius ribuan kilometer dari Jakarta. Dan apesnya mereka hanya berpuluh kilometer saja dari negara tetangga. Butuh uang yang besar untuk membangun seluruh Indonesia.

Kalau DR Damardjati Supadjar tahun 1994 dulu pernah mengatakan bahwa ibukota RI perlu dipindah ke Yogyakarta dengan alasan moral dan budaya –mungkin kita memang patut untuk mempertimbangkannya. Jakarta sudah sumpek. Tapi sepertinya ...Jawa juga. So mungkin kita perlu pindah ke Lampung sebagai ibukota baru. Dengan demikian Sumatera menjadi pusat pertumbuhan.
Money can do everything in this country thus our development. Aku kutip berita hari Rabu 27 June 2007 bahwa: Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Wednesday that Indonesia would need at least Rp 1,000 trillion (about US$111 billion) in new investment in order to achieve higher economic growth, which was essential to significantly reducing the country's currently high poverty and unemployment rates. Kalla told that the money, of course, should come from three sources, the government, the private sector and foreign investment. Kalla said that the current growth rate was not sufficient to alleviate poverty and unemployment. In order to create significant numbers of new jobs, growth would need to be at least 7 percent. "For this, we will need Rp 1,000 trillion in investment," he said. According to government estimates, every one percent growth in GDP creates 250,000 new jobs
Kita butuh modal besar untuk membangun negeri ini. Banyak uang yang kita perlukan. Fenomena Maluku kemarin menginspirasi untuk mimpiku: kapan Ibukota RI pindah dari Jakarta?
Glossary: Komunitas Adat Terpencil (KAT) is similar with " community of indigenous people". Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia.

Ada 9 (sembilan) provinsi di Indonesia yang memiliki KAT atau Komunitas Adat Terpencil yaitu di Kalbar, Kaltim, Riau, Kepulauan Riau, Maluku, Maluku Utara,Sulawesi Utara, Nusa Tenggara Timur, dan Papua .
-Kang Aan-

Jun 20, 2007

Korea-Indonesia-Thailand: ten years after crisis


THE Jakarta Post on June 21, 2007 make a report “10 years after crisis, recovery is uneven; SKorea cruises, RI falls behind”. Actually the real date is generally considered to have started on July 2, 1997, with the devaluation of the Thai baht (see Paul Krugman “International Economics”). In 1997 to 1998, several Asian nations –including Korea Indonesia and Thailand (KIT) Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore- experienced a sudden reversal of international capital flows. During the preceding few years, these nations, as the favorites of international investors, had attracted large inflows of money, allowing them to import considerably more than they exported. But confidence in these economies collapsed in 1997; foreign banks that had been lending heavily to Asian companies now demanded that the loans be repaid, stock market investors began selling off their holdings, and many domestic residents also began shifting funds overseas.
Ten years ago, a plunge in the Thai baht sparked a wave of recessions across Asia's high-flying economies, bankrupting entire nations, putting millions out of work and shaking markets around the world. Some feared that a decade of growth would be lost. Today, the region as a whole has bounced back from the 1997-98 crisis and is better equipped to deal with financial emergencies. Banking is more transparent, corporations are better managed, poverty rates have dropped and the region's collective economic growth has doubled. Still, the recovery has been uneven. The three countries hit hardest by the crisis that began July 2, 1997 –we focus on KIT- have charted sharply divergent paths over the last 10 years, reflecting their differing responses to the crisis and policies since then. South Korea, which received a humiliating US$58 billion bailout arranged by the International Monetary Fund, quickly cleaned up its banking system and started reforming its heavily indebted family-owned conglomerates. The economy shrank and the jobless rate soared, but by 1999 it was robustly growing again. The crisis, while painful, forced South Korea to make changes that paved the way for more stable long-term growth. Today, it is one of Asia's powerhouses, led by Samsung Electronics Co. - the world's biggest memory chip maker - and Hyundai Motor Co. Indonesia, however, continues to struggle. The crisis helped bring about the downfall of former president Soeharto and greater political freedom, but the economy remains beset by rampant corruption, a weak legal system and lackluster foreign investment. Economic growth has been ticking along at about 5.5 percent the last two years, but unemployment is rising. Thailand hovers somewhere in between. Bangkok, where hundreds of skyscrapers froze in mid-construction when the crisis erupted, now has an elevated Skytrain, a subway, a brand new airport anddozens of glitzy malls. Japanese investment has made Thailand a major auto and electronics exporting hub. But a rise in the baht and political uncertainty caused by a tainted election in 2006 and military coup last September has been a drag on growth.



WE simply note that whatever the reasons investors first blew hot, then cold, on Asian economies, in effect these economies went quickly from receiving large inward trans­fers to making large outward transfers. If John Maynard Keynes's presumption about the effects of transfers were right, this reversal of fortune should have produced a noticeable deterioration of Asian terms of trade, exacerbating what was already a severe economic blow.
In fact, some observers worried that with so many countries in crisis at the same time and all trying to export more simultaneously, their terms of trade would drastically deteriorate, making the crisis that much worse.
As it turned out, however, the terms of trade of developing countries in Asia did not worsen nearly as much as feared. Export prices fell sharply: in 1998 developing countries in Asia exported the same volume of goods as they had in 1997, but the dollar value of their exports dropped 8 percent. However, import prices also fell.
What seems to have saved Asia from a severe transfer problem was that other things were happening at the same time. Oil prices fell sharply, benefiting all the crisis countries except Indonesia. Japan, the leading exporter to the region, also saw its export prices fall as the yen plunged against the U.S. dollar. So there probably was a transfer problem for Asia, but its effects were masked by other forces. Paul Krugman the economist who wrote about the "The Myth of East Asian Miracle" stressed on the ‘bad’-debt that making worse off the economy.
In particular, different observers place very different interpretations on the role of government policies, including trade policy, in fostering economic growth. To some observers the success of Asian economies demonstrates the virtues of relatively free trade and a hands-off government policy; to others it demonstrates the effectiveness of sophis­ticated government intervention; and there are some economists who believe that trade and industrial policy made little difference either way.
During the crisis, between KIT and all crisis country, worst of all was the case of Indonesia, where economic crisis and political instability reinforced each other in a deadly spiral, all made much worse by a collapse of confidence by domestic residents in the nation's banks. By the summer of 1998 the Indonesian rupiah had lost 85 percent of its original value, and few if any major companies were solvent. The Indonesian population was faced with mass unemployment, and in some cases with inabil­ity to afford even basic foodstuffs. Ethnic violence broke out.
Now ten years after crisis: How with Indonesia?
As the world's fourth most populous state, the most populous nation of Muslims with a secular constitution and now the second largest democracy outside the West, Indonesia should naturally loom large in the global imagination. This country controlled by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the first directly elected President of Indonesia.
The recent story of Indonesia is remarkable. Clearly, Indonesia went through seven lean years between 1997 and 2004. The prospects looked so grim that many respected academic analysts predicted gloom and doom. Two Australian scholars, Paul Dibb and Peter Prince, warned in 2001 that "The regional base for ethnic and economic jealousies in Indonesia lends substance to fears of a national breakdown along the lines of Yugoslavia or the former Soviet Union." An American-based scholar, Rajan Menon, issued a similar warning: "Indonesia is staggering like a heavyweight boxer who has absorbed too many blows in too many places. A faltering economy, a fractious and feeble central government, communal war and secessionism could culminate in the state's collapse and the country's fragmentation."
But Indonesia did not collapse. Instead, it showed remarkable resilience and strength by bouncing back to hold remarkably peaceful elections in 2004, defying all predictions. This success was obvious. Less noted was the resolve of the Indonesian people in the seven lean years. Traditionally, economic collapse is followed by social unrest and mass migration overseas. And Indonesia did experience a serious economic downturn. As the World Bank noted: "No country in recent history, let alone one the size of Indonesia, has ever suffered such a dramatic reversal of fortune."
Yet, Indonesians did not leave their country, not even the ethnic minorities. This is remarkable. Philippines' per capita income is higher than Indonesia's but in per capita terms, its emigration is far higher. All this demonstrate that the Indonesians' sense of nationhood is strong.
Yuni Andono Achmad is alumniae from SMA Negeri 1 Karanganyar, Surakarta. SMA 1 Karanganyar. Smansakra.

Jun 18, 2007

We must look forward to Sudirman Cup 2009




Sudirman Cup is the world mixed team badminton championship which takes place every two years. There are five matches in every round: men and women's singles, men and women's doubles and mixed doubles. The Cup is named after Dick Sudirman, a former Indonesian badminton player and the founder of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI). The first Sudirman Cup tournament took place in Jakarta on May 1989. Indonesia is the first country that get Sudirman Cup after beating South Korea 3-2. the other countries who ever get Sudirman Cup is Korea (3 times) and China (6 times). On June 2007 defending champion China got their seventh Sudirman Cup at Glasgow, Scotland. It is a sad end of a dream to bring the trophy back home to Indonesia. As predicted, women's single Ardianti Firdasari bowed to Chinese top player Zhang Ning 16-21, 9-21, which forced Indonesia to lose 0-3 to China. Indonesia was earlier down 0-2 after men’s doubles Candra Wijaya and Markis Kido bowed down to world champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng 21-11, 21-13. “They played extra ordinary… it’s crazy,” said old hand Candra, who was called back to the national squad to boost the team’s morale. “We are new partner and we are lack of preparation. “Although I’m very sad with the result but getting into the final is already an achievement for Indonesia,” said Candra, who had hoped Glasgow bring him luck as he won the world champion title with old parter Sigit Budiarto a decade ago at the city. Coach Sigit Pamungkas said his players could not recover their stamina after were forced to play the decisive match against England in the Earlier, Indonesia’s mixed doubles pair Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa fell short in overcoming Chinese Zheng Bo and Gao Ling in the opening match of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship final in Glasgow on Sunday. Flandy and Vita led the first game 21-19 but lost the second and third 17-21, 19-21 in one hour and 9 minutes. “It was a matter of luck. Today is not our day,” coach Richard Mainaky said. “They played very well. It was a close match.” Richard said that the pair had been plotted to face the Chinese since they were in Jakarta. Meanwhile, Gao Ling said that it was the first time ever she played with Zheng Bo in facing the Indonesians. “We have an equal chance. It was alright to lose the first game because we still had the chance to win the second and third games,” she said. The Jakarta Post wrote “Indonesia bows out to China in Sudirman Cup final” the Top Skor daily said “Indonesia Runner Up Again”.
BERITA di atas kutipan dari Xinhua dan The Jakarta Post, serta Wikipedia. Indonesia lagi-lagi kalah di final beregu campuran dunia. Tujuh kali ke final Sudirman dan enam kali menjadi runner up. Pertanyaannya: tragiskah nasib Indonesia kali ini? Menurut aku kita mustinya malah bersyukur. Di Glasgow ini Indonesia menduduki unggulan kelima –di bawah RRC, Denmark, Malaysia, dan Korea. So merekalah yang diprediksikan melaju ke semifinal. Indonesia pertama main dan kalah 2-3 waktu lawan Korea orang sudah mulai memperkirakan Ina bakal ‘habis’. Tetapi besoknya dengan heroik mengandaskan Denmark dan kemudian Hong Kong dengan 4-1. Di semifinal tertinggal 0-2 dari Inggris sebelum menang 3-2 melalui Taufik Hidayat, Greysia Polii/ Vita Marisa, dan Markis Kido/ Candra. Kekalahan terhadap China terutama diakibatkan lemahnya sektor putri (terutama tunggal) dan ganda putra. Keperkasaan putri China diibaratkan oleh manajernya –mantan pemain ganda putra Li Yongbo yang bersama Tian Bingyi tahun 1986 memupuskan harapan Liem Swie King/ Bobby Ertanto dan impian Indonesia untuk mempertahankan Thomas- mengatakan bahwa Tiongkok bahkan mampu membuat 2 tim Uber made in China dan saling bertemu di final. Busyet dah. So kekalahan Indonesia di Final sudirman tidaklah perlu diratapi, mestinya disyukur karena maju semifinal aja udah di luar dugaan. Mending kita menatap 2009 pertandingan Piala Sudirman di Guangzhou, daratan Tiongkok. Mungkin lebih indah kita menatap tahun 2009, karena dari segi tahun 2009 adalah tepat 20 tahun Indonesia merebut piala Sudirman pertama kali tahun 1989. kemudian kota Guangzhaou menorehkan sejarah manis ketika tahun 2002 tim Thomas Indonesia mempertahankan piala Thomas dengan mengalahkan Malaysia 3-2. Tatap ke depan, look and move forward!

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